The native plant garden is in a quiet phase right now–no flowers or fruits and the growth has slowed or stopped altogether above ground. I have given the garden supplemental water by using the hose and hand watering each plant or group of plants. It has been such a dry spring/summer that I didn’t consider it wise to leave the native plants to their own devices this year. Next year, however, I imagine they’ll do just fine without supplemental water.
When I’m working from home on the weekends, I take breaks and transplant native seedlings. First, I transplanted all the red elder seedlings that sprouted in the seed pots I set out last fall. There were about 35 seedlings, so that was exciting–I can keep one or two and give the rest away.
The other seedlings I potted on are from more recent seed pots of Phacelia capitata. My belief is that these plants will do better from an autumn sowing. I may have been a bit premature planting them in August, but everything has grown very slowly for me this year so I think the timing might be alright. These are annuals. The goal in starting them now is to get big transplants to set out once the rains start in the next month or so. Assuming they overwinter strongly, they should produce robust plants that bloom early and often next spring/summer. I potted 60 of these seedlings on so far into pots and have dozens of others that I may stick directly in the ground.
I continue to enjoy the native pollinators on the Douglas asters–dozens of native bees, flies, and others, some too tiny to identify. This is also a great time for moths. Here are some more that have come around in the last week.
