timing (flowers, growing, butterflies, containers)

[sweenes]

Hello, I live in Ontario, Canada (at the top of where Lake Superior meets Lake Huron) (zone 4 or 5). I just moved in and am wondering if it is too late in the season to seed for a pollinator garden. I want to eventually have a garden with mainly native species in which to entice butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Can I sow these seeds now
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Sharon Sweeney

[Zoisite]

Where you live it's probably too late now to plant many kinds of seeds and have enough time for them to grow and produce any flowers before autumn. And after autumn begins there will be fewer pollinators around anyway, they will be all preparing for winter dormancy or migration. Plants need increasing light to grow but daylight is not increasing now, it's decreasing now and the daily hours of light are getting shorter with each passing day.

The best time to sow seeds outdoors is in early to mid spring when daily hours of light and temperatures are noticeably increasing on a daily basis. There are some kinds of plant seeds can be planted as late as fall which will germinate and start growing in very late winter / early spring when the earth begins to warm up and longer daylight hours become evident.

However, there are some plants that do germinate swiftly and might produce something for you this year if you can sow the seeds as quickly as possible within this week. And I do seriously mean you MUST get them into the ground within this week because you will need to have them in the ground and well watered before July 20th. They will begin to germinate on July 20th (new moon) and during the next two weeks of waxing moon following July 20th until full moon on August 3rd. (All seeds germinate best during the two week period when the moon is waxing from new moon to full moon). Any time after August 3rd and I think you will be SOL for producing anything for the rest of this year. Check online to find out a list of what are the very fastest germinating and growing flower seeds.

Your other alternative is to get a small assortment of available flowering plants from a nursery, ones that are already flowering, plant them in the yard now and allow them to seed out naturally. That way you can have some flowers now for the pollinators, and in the spring there will be some all new plants from the seeds that this year's plants produced.

.

[hotzcatz]

Perhaps you could get some limited seeds planted if they were planted in containers and able to be brought inside for the winter?