Summer: the Exuberant Season for Insects and the Gardener's Season of Rest

It's officially summer here and you can feel it in the garden. The level of insect activity has really amped up. Bees, butterflies, fireflies, wasps, and flies are zipping this way and that. Spiders wait on flowers for prey to come to them or actively hunt from plant to plant. Ladybugs and their larvae feast on aphids. With thousands of flowers in bloom, it's a garden party, insect-style.

The heat's increasing, marking the transition to a slower season in other respects. It's a time where we make light edits, removing a leaf here and there to give a plant access to more sunlight, but it's also a time of rest for the gardener and a great one to pause and observe all of the activity, but also to examine the progress of your plants. Of all of the things that a gardener does, observation is one of the most important. Early in a garden's life, you ask questions like, what are the soil conditions in each section of the garden? How much sunlight do they receive and what is the quality of it, full or part sun, dappled light or full shade? How do those conditions change throughout the year? Are there seasonal dry or wet patches? And, most importantly, which plants work well in each of those micro-environments. The summer is when you see their progress.

What's fascinating and unbelievably complex is that by planting, you are changing the soil itself, as well as the relative shade (especially if you plant taller plants that do well). Each change you make affects multiple aspects of the garden. If you find certain plants are struggling, make note of them and consider if there is a better place for them elsewhere. Once they have gone dormant in the fall, it's a good time to transplant them. October is usually a good month for that, but you definitely want to get them in the ground with enough time before first frost generally occurs in your area.

Alongside plant health, you can also assess which types and how many pollinators each plant species attracts. We have found that certain species (e.g. Wild Bergamot, Purple Coneflower, Milkweeds, and Late Boneset) bring a massive number of bees, butterflies, moths, and beneficial wasps to the garden. But you might also want to attract specific species, like Black Swallowtails or Monarch butterflies, say, if you notice that they're absent by adding their larval host plants and their favored nectar plants to a list for future planting. Because so many insect species are active in summer, it's a great season to make these kinds of observations, inventories and lists.

There are always going to be future tasks in the garden. And paying attention to what works and what doesn't is great. Just don't forget to enjoy what your gardening has already accomplished. In this exuberant season, watch the bees and butterflies and a host of other insects go about their busy lives with the knowledge that your labor has helped them enormously. Small worlds, big impact. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to watching Bumble bees bumble.

Happy observing!

-Andrew