The Window Box Saga
Our house’s large front porch was bare and unwelcoming when we moved in. The neighbors teased jokingly (with some good reason) that the house looked like a hotel, and the porch’s bareness certainly didn’t help. So we set out to undo that somewhat harsh assessment with porch furniture, window boxes and hanging baskets. We planted the boxes with bright, showy annuals for the last few years. The neighbors seemed pleased with our efforts. We certainly loved them!
Then it dawned on me that these flowers could be harming the pollinators. This bummed me out. Now what?
Solution A
First I came up with the idea of planting the boxes with plants with brightly colored leaves like Coleus, Caladium and Sweet Potato Vine, easily found at any garden center. There’s no need for them to be pesticide free since they have no flowers and therefore no pollinators. A very attractive, easy solution.
My partner, who generally defers to me in garden matters, had surprisingly strong feelings about this idea. She would miss seeing the butterflies, hummingbirds, and even the bees around the front porch. Aren’t we “gardening for wildlife”?
Hmmmm… I think she will mostly miss the showy flowers, but maybe she actually has a point. In looking for an easy solution, I may have lost my way a bit.
Solution B
Since native, organic, pesticide-free nurseries concentrate on perennials, we decided to look at them as an alternative to annuals. A drawback is that the flowers of native plants tend to be smaller and less showy than petunias, begonias and the like. They also won’t flower all season long. However, they will attract butterflies and bees who can safely pollinate other plants. Maybe some of their seed will spread around the front garden, and the plants themselves may survive in the boxes until next season. As my partner says, at least there will be flowers.
Mail Order
Now that we had a new plan, I had to find a source for the plants. This, unsurprisingly, turns out to be challenging here in the Mount Washington Valley. I turned to mail order without high expectations. Most mail order companies are outside the region, and I really wanted something local and suited to this ecoregion. Also, who knows what the shipping will do to them.
We found what we hope to be a great solution – Bagley Pond Perennials in Warner, New Hampshire. They are just southwest of the Lakes Region, and will ship them to you or you can reserve plants online and pick them up when they are ready in mid-May. They are about 2 hours from us, which seems distant, but there is a lot of great birding in the Lakes Region along the way. It’s not the easy solution I hoped for, but it seems worth the effort.
Plant Choices
The Anemone, Jacob’s Ladder and Foxglove will bloom through June, the Flowering Spurge through August and the Monkey Flower through September. As the summer progresses and the plants stop blooming, we can replace them with native grasses or the showy-leaved plants I was thinking of in the first place. Hopefully, this solution will keep everyone happy and healthy – the pollinators, the neighbors and us.