Hummingbird_0001 by striderp64
There is no patience like that of a gardener, unless it’s the patience of a parent.
Both kids and gardens take a long time to truly bloom; there is really no substitute for the time and energy you need to invest to do the job properly.
You’ll Be Rewarded
While your garden, just like your kids, may never end up being precisely the way you first dream of as a new gardener, there will be plenty of rewards along the way.
Story of a Rain Garden
I first heard about rain gardens several years ago. And for the last 11 years I’ve dreamed of seeing a hummingbird in my garden. So, last fall I was out in the garden hauling on ropes and pulling down cedar trees to make space for a rain garden and to let in the sun to plant something for the hummingbirds.
Then today I was out in the garden admiring the red blooms on the Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower), just thinking how neat it would be if a hummingbird flew in, but not expecting to see one, when zoom, in flew the cutest, little, skinny, ruby-throated hummingbird. He looked very like the one pictured above.
Rain Garden - August 2010
Just Right Imperfect
Now, my rain garden doesn’t exactly look picture perfect. It’s not something you’d see on the cover of a gardening magazine.
But my garden was just perfect for that skinny little hummingbird who needed a few nectar-rich, trumpet-shaped, red blooms to feed on.
Do Just One Thing
My friend Carole Brown is a great believer in doing just one thing for wildlife in your garden. These few blooms in my rain garden may not look like much, but to that little hummingbird they may have made all the difference in the world.
Don’t worry about building a massive, beautiful, picture-perfect native flower garden. Do new parents put off feeding their kids until they are perfect parents? I hope not! Don’t be put off by the covers of gardening magazines. It doesn’t matter that you don’t really know what you are doing yet. The butterflies and hummingbirds won’t know the difference, or care. Just be open to adding one or two native plants to your garden. After that you will surely want more!
The most important thing is to be patient with yourself. Start somewhere and little by little you will start to reap the rewards.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tara, Wild Birds Unlimited and Alison Kerr, Alison Kerr. Alison Kerr said: New Post – Gardening Patience Brings Rewards (a hummingbird visits my rain garden) http://ow.ly/2qGRI #gardening #nature #birds [...]
Orange hyssop, man, there’s an agastache cultivar out there now called “Apricot Spires”…it’s North American, if not precisely native to my neck of the woods (It’s from the Southwest…what I call “native-ish”) but I cannot speak highly enough of it as a hummingbird plant. It takes abuse, heat, humidity, dryness, deer–tough as nails, and the hummingbirds go after it like nothing else in my yard.
UrsulaV´s last blog ..Henry Mitchell
I’ll have to look up that Agastache Ursula, though I’m thinking that since it’s from the southwest it won’t cope with the cold of a Kansas winter. Still, I want to see what the hummingbirds find attractive about it – I really want to plant more for them now
It’s such a magical moment when you see a Humming bird. Incredibly fast, these tiny little birds are fascinating to watch. I was lucky enough to capture a couple of Humming birds on video just last weeks – will share soon.
Wishing you more wildlife visitors to your water garden Alison.
Marghnaita Hughes´s last blog ..Butterfly Girl Fairy Petal Crowns
It’s such a thrilling moment once you observe a Humming bird. Extremely quick, these small little birds are charming to gaze at.