Gardening for Wildlife â

Dry-bed Garden
The dry-bed garden demonstrates native and wildlife-friendly plants that can be grown in a dry part of a garden or where water conservation is an issue.  Plants are chosen for their tolerance to drought and should not require watering once established.  Plant species include asters, native honeysuckle, vervain, and ornamental grasses.

Bog Bed
The bog bed was created to demonstrate plants that can be grown in the wet area of a garden.  It showcases the use of native wetland plants and highlights a current trend in gardening towards the creation of water gardens.  Species include bog rosemary, turtlehead, bottle gentian, monkey flower, Culver’s root, fringed loosestrife, sweet gale, tamarack, and swamp rose.

Front Sign Garden
The front sign bed is filled with attractive native perennials, bulbs, and annuals.  These plants are chosen for their showy blooms and their attraction to pollinators.  Species include yellow coneflowers, blue indigo, bergamot, and yucca.  Annuals are used to fill up the beds at the front and side where winter snow load makes it difficult to propagate perennials.

Shade Beds
The shade beds demonstrate the ornamental value of native shade perennials and ferns in a garden setting.  Species chosen include Virginia bluebells, foam flower, maidenhair fern, barren strawberry, phlox, Jacob’s ladder, meadow rue, ostrich fern, wild ginger, and blue cohosh.  Two cherry trees were added for additional shade.  The spaces between the beds were filled with ninebark and flowering raspberry. Part of the bed was used to demonstrate plants useful for a shade bed with acid soil.  Species include hemlock, partridgeberry, twinflower, wintergreen, ostrich fern, and bunch berry.

Woodland Flowers
Native woodland perennials were added to the woods along either side of the footpath to demonstrate the beautiful spring wildflowers of our area.  Species include trilliums, hepatica, bellwort, violets, Jack in the pulpit, Solomon’s seal, and Dutchman’s breeches.