Interesting Insects & Wildlife
Pollinators, butterflies, caterpillars, and other garden visitors.
2025 Reference Photos
Year-over-year comparison — garden overview, bed compositions, and reference shots from last year.
Individual Plants
Click any plant to see its full season timeline
Garden Scenes
Multi-plant views & bed compositions
Hosta shade border
The shaded hosta layer is fully filled in now, with clean green leaves, cream margins, and enough chartreuse to brighten the lower border.
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Cucumber vine on trellis
The cucumber has broad healthy leaves and fresh top growth starting to grab the cage, right on schedule for the June climb.
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Small blue butterfly on catmint
A tiny blue/azure-type butterfly showed up on the catmint, small enough to disappear into the flower spike until the pale wings caught the light.
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Lemony Lace summer form
The elderberry is settling into a small airy patio-tree shape, with clean chartreuse cutleaf foliage and the brightest new growth at the tips.
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Grape arbor threshold
The entry has crossed into full summer-room mode, with grapevine growth overhead and the redbud glowing beside the gate.
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View through the arbor
From under the arch, the garden opens into a layered June view: grape leaves overhead, redbud to the side, and the raised beds beyond.
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Back garden raised beds
The back beds are fully packed now, with orange milkweed, purple bloom, tomatoes on the fence, and the Lemony Lace elderberry holding the patio edge.
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Redbud summer canopy
The Rising Sun redbud is still holding a bright yellow-green ceiling over the back garden, even with the lower planting now fully filled in.
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Orange milkweed full bloom
The raised bed has gone hot orange, with milkweed flower clusters open across the front and more buds still waiting in the wings.
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Carpenter bee on milkweed
A large carpenter bee-type pollinator is buried in the orange milkweed, dusted with pollen and catching the light on clear wings.
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Speedwell full purple flush
The speedwell is in its strongest purple flush yet, with upright flower spikes open across the plant and fresh pale buds still waiting at the tips.
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Orange milkweed opens
The orange milkweed has shifted from late-May bud to full early-June color, with bright clusters open and plenty of buds still queued up.
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Redbud still glowing
The Rising Sun redbud is still holding the garden's brightest overhead color, with yellow-green leaves and amber tips shining above the filled-in path bed.
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Front planter in full color
The front planter is doing strong foliage contrast now: Pugster butterfly bush dense and green in front, Orange Rocket barberry red and upright behind it.
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Side-house color blocks
The side-house foundation bed has settled into a clear late-May rhythm: chartreuse, burgundy, red maple, striped liriope, and open mulch between the young pieces.
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Speedwell with visitors
The speedwell is still blooming hard below the aucuba, with fresh purple spikes and small pollinator activity in the flowers.
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Redbud over the path
This path view shows the redbud turning into a bright canopy over purple salvia, hostas, and the shaded layers leading toward the grape arbor.
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Side-house bed layered up
The foundation bed is reading as a real layered shade-edge composition now, with rhododendron structure above and hostas, heuchera, sweetspire, and bright shrubs filling below.
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Little Henry in bloom
Little Henry has opened its white racemes, shifting from quiet green mound to a clear bloom moment along the bed edge.
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Sunshine and liriope
Sunshine ligustrum is carrying the bright middle layer, while the variegated liriope starts to make the front edge feel deliberate.
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Gate swallowed by growth
The arbor and gate have turned into a green threshold, with Rising Sun redbud glowing on the left and grapevine leaves pushing hard across the right lattice.
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Front box filling in
The front raised box has tightened into a strong little composition, with Bobo hydrangea bulking up behind heuchera and purple salvia still blooming at the edge.
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Pugster and milkweed layered up
The raised mixed bed has moved from spring recovery into real late-May mass, with Pugster foliage, milkweed buds, speedwell, and sedum each holding a distinct layer.
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Speedwell under the aucuba
Purple speedwell spikes are carrying the lower layer while the Gold Dust aucuba throws bright variegated growth above them.
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Whole garden fully knitted
The garden is reading as one dense late-May room now: redbud glowing, grapevine softening the lattice, and the lower layers filling every edge.
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Raised beds after rain
Vegetables settling into the raised boxes, white rose blooming on the fence, and coreopsis lighting the front edge after rain.
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Hosta and heuchera edge
The shade-edge planting is filling in under the larger structure, with variegated hostas, dark heuchera, and bright new shrub growth making a layered front corner.
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Side-house bed in full sun
The whole foundation line is reading brighter and more connected, with Shaina upright against the brick and the chartreuse ligustrum lighting the front corner.
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Sunshine & burgundy contrast
The Sunshine ligustrum is at peak chartreuse against the brick, with the loropetalum holding the dark counterweight beside it.
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View through the arbor
The garden is starting to feel enclosed and lush now, with grape leaves framing the path and the Rising Sun redbud glowing on the right.
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Pugster bed filling in
The Pugster butterfly bushes are back to dense green mounds, while the middle of the raised bed is starting to layer up around them.
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Grapevine arbor filling in
By mid-May the vine is spilling over the gate, turning the arbor from bare structure into a living threshold.
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Garden overview
The full yard in mid-spring push, everything leafing out and filling in at once.
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Peach, salvia & butterfly bush
The dwarf peach holding court in the brick-edged bed, Pugster and salvia building the lower layer.
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Aster, peach & Pugster
Another angle on the layered peach bed with purple aster in the foreground.
Hydrangea & Gold Dust Aucuba
Limelight hydrangea pushing up behind the variegated aucuba — two different greens in easy conversation.
Gold Dust Aucuba bed
The aucuba filling in with hostas underneath, speckled variegation handling the shade beautifully.
Limelight, Astilbe & Alliums
Hydrangea backdrop with astilbe and alliums pushing through the front of the bed.
Mixed perennial bed — early April
Early spring structure still visible before the perennials fill in — the bones of the garden showing clearly.
White salvia opening up
White flower spikes rising clean above the foliage, still pushing new buds at the top.
Mixed perennial bed — salvia
Salvia taking over as the main color in May, the whole bed shifting into bloom mode.
Side house — Barberry, Salvia & Heuchera
Orange Rocket starting to ember up against the green backdrop of the side foundation bed.
Side house — Ligustrum & Loropetalum
Sunshine ligustrum lighting up the corner, purple loropetalum providing contrast behind.
Side house — Shaina angle
The Shaina maple from the side bed perspective — dark red against warm brick.
Side house foundation overview
The full side foundation bed in late April, everything finding its place in the layering.
Side house — Rhododendron bed
Fat buds forming, the rhododendron holding the shady side anchor.
Ligustrum, Loropetalum & Liriope
A gold-purple-green three-layer composition that reads as a completely designed vignette.
Side house — May bloom
Foundation bed in full May push, rhododendron blooming and everything else catching up.
Rhododendron — full bloom cluster
Vibrant pink-purple trusses lit up against the dark evergreen leaves, speckled throats and long stamens on full display.
Rhododendron — bloom detail
Tight on the flowers — speckled petals, curved stamens, translucent pink catching the light.
Rhododendron in bloom
Big trusses of pale pink finally opening against the dark evergreen foliage.
Rhododendron — full shrub in bloom
The whole shrub lit up pink, hosta and heuchera filling the understory beneath it.
Side house — gold and purple
Sunshine ligustrum blazing chartreuse, purple loropetalum holding the contrast, liriope filling the front edge.
Side house — rhododendron in full bloom
The rhododendron owning the corner, heuchera and hostas filling the understory beneath it.
Salvia, Jenny & hostas
Purple salvia spikes, golden creeping Jenny spilling over the edge, hostas holding the backdrop — this bed has it all.
Euonymus — fighting back
New variegated leaves pushing from bare stems after a hard prune — this shrub doesn’t quit.
White rose — first blooms
White roses starting to open against the fence, buds stacked up behind them.
Raised beds — planted
Tomatoes and cucumbers in the ground, vine already climbing the cage, a new season underway in the veggie beds.
Rhododendron — yard view
Another angle on the full shrub in bloom, the pink mass reading loud from across the yard.
Baptisia — yellow spires
Bright yellow flower spikes rising against the lattice, compound blue-green foliage holding strong underneath.
Raised beds — the full mix
Tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers in the beds, daylilies and sedum along the edges, sunshine ligustrum lighting up the corner.
Coreopsis going off
Bright yellow daisies packed tight, still budding out — this plant is just getting started.
Grapevine arbor & gate
The vine just beginning to cover the arch over the white gate — structure becoming threshold.
Grape clusters forming
Tiny clusters already visible on trained canes — the promise of a real harvest taking shape.
Orange Rocket & side house — May
Barberry embering up in May, the full side bed composition gelling.
Heuchera, Salvia & Bobo
A compact three-layer perennial composition coming into spring focus.
Side house bed — early April
Still sparse, but the bones of the layering are already there, waiting to fill in.
Gold Dust Aucuba — berries
Bright red berries still visible on the aucuba in spring before the new growth covers them.
Rhododendron — buds swelling
Buds fattening up, the rhododendron building toward its late-spring bloom.
Rhododendron — late April
Getting close — the bud clusters tight and ready, the foliage looking strong.