Pollinator Garden Kit - 72 plants
Can be shipped.
This Garden Kit includes 72 plants, a garden design, and instructions for planting and maintenance. The design and instructions are available here. We recommend reading the instructions page before purchasing.
First, all of our Garden Kits are pollinator gardens, so just choose the one that’s right for you in terms of height, sun or shade, and if they have any specific plants you really want!
This Pollinator Garden Kit is a good combination of sun-loving plants that attract bees, butterflies, or provide important food for pollinator larvae or caterpillars. It’s taller than our Short-and-Tidy Sun Garden Kit and shorter than our Big-and-Tall Sun Garden Kit. We’d call it our Medium-Height Sun Garden Kit but it probably wouldn’t be as popular!
We designed this garden with a nice combination of host plants for pollinator larvae and nectar sources for adult pollinators (see list below). The Pussytoes are a host plant for Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars, the Milkweeds are hosts to Monarchs, and the grasses and sedges are hosts for skipper butterfly caterpillars. In August, the Meadow Blazing Stars will bloom and attract dozens of monarchs every day to drink the nectar (we call it the Monarch Magnet!). It’s truly an amazing sight.
The grasses form clumps and provide annual mulch when they mat down in the winter. They also provide food for pollinator larvae and the seeds are eaten by birds.
Details
Perennials
Sun: Full Sun, Part Shade
Moisture: Medium, Dry
Height: 10 inches - 5 feet
Blooms: May - October
Spacing: Plant each plant about 12″ apart
Zones: 3-8
Benefits: Butterflies, Pollinators, Birds
Great native garden choice for the Minnesota Lawns to Legumes grant program!
Size: One tray of 72 plants
Plants are 1.6” wide x 3.2” deep “plugs”. These 72 plugs come in a single tray that’s 11” x 21” long.
They are small but grow surprisingly big the 1st year and are mostly large, flowering plants the 2nd year.
We use these plugs for our own projects because they are budget friendly and very easy to plant.
Plants included:
Flowers:
3 Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) or Prairie Onion (Allium stellatum)
3 Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)
6 Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
1 Aromatic Aster (Aster oblongifolius)
2 Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis)
3 Lance Leaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
6 Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
12 Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis)
3 Bradbury's Monarda (Monarda bradburiana)
6 Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa)
3 Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida)
3 Grey Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis)
3 Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
Grasses and Sedges:
12 Blue Grama Grass (Bouteloua gracilis)
6 Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)
Note on Species: Depending on germination and greenhouse success we may have to substitute a species or two, but usually this list is spot on.
Installation Tips:
This Garden Kit will plant an area from 10ft x 10ft up to 10ft x 15ft, depending on how you like to space the plants.
It’s important to remove any grass or weed roots before planting. If you remove grass with a shovel, it can take a few hours. If you want to smother it with paper or cardboard, it can take 2-3 months. Plan ahead of time.
We recommend adding 3” of wood mulch (not included). Wood mulch reduces weeds, reduces watering to just 3-5 times the first year, and nearly doubles plant growth—well worth the extra work and cost (about $50 for a 10ft x 10ft area).
We recommend adding edging to prevent grass or weeds from creeping into the garden (not included).
