Our Gardens - The Monarda Garden

This is one of our older gardens; it has spent most of the time in transition. It is five feet wide at one end and narrows down to 2 feet at the far end. It has a sharp slope emptying down into the driveway. It gets late morning and early afternoon sun; and then is plunged into solid shade.

This started off as a narcissus display area with annuals for the remainder of the year. Marigolds were the early choice for summer color and then we rediscovered Four O'Clocks, the best self seeding annual ever!!!

Soil runoff made us switch to perennials. The basis of selection was simply: what had the best roots and colonized the fastest. Monarda was the first in; Daisies across the top were second; Coneflowers were third; Heliopsis was fourth, and Physostegia (Obedient Plants) was fifth. The Coneflowers and Heliopsis could not compete and had to be moved. Mountain Mint was a late addition to the mix ... and an immediate removal to an area where it could be contained!

Without a specific plan to do so, this became our first pollinator garden. It attracts lots of bees; and, again without an effort to do so, it is deer resistant.