More Stokes Garden

As we said yesterday, here are additional photos of our garden, which is featured in the current issue of Birder's World Magazine. Some of you asked for more photos than was shown in the magazine, so here they are. If you get the magazine, you can see the map of the garden in the article. Above is the entry from the driveway. You pass up granite steps through the filigree wall of Amalenchier (Shadbush), "Autumn Brilliance" trees.

They look lovely in the spring when they are in full bloom, shown here. Right now, they are producing fruits which are being gobbled by Cedar Waxwings, Robins and thrushes.

You enter the garden by the barn and come to a central courtyard which features a cistern fountain.

We plant red Bee Balm in many areas of the garden and hummers love it!

Loking across from the entry garden courtyard, you can see the gazebo behind the barn.

The barn has a trellis and we grow Trumpet Honeysuckle vine (Lonicera brownii) up the trellis to attract hummers.

The gazebo was built by Don, I do all the design of the garden plantings, we both do the gardening. Here is the long border by the gazebo, in which we plant many perennials and annuals that attract birds.

Salvia, "Lady in Red", shown here, is candy for hummers.

And we leave up the seed heads to let the American Goldfinches feast on them.

Another plant we favor is Butterfly Bush, (Buddleia davidii). True to its name, it's a magnet for butterflies such as this Great Spangled Fritillary.

Sunflowers grow in the long border and bloom in late summer. We leave the seed heads for chickadees and other birds.

Next to the gazebo and the long border is a space under the pines, which has a large garden urn from lunaform in ME. Lots of birds nest in the pines, such as Pine Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Exiting the entry garden, you come to some adirondack chairs where serious bird watching takes place. We sit with coffee in the morning and a glass of wine at the end of the day and watch, listen and record the birds. We keep a daily journal with our sightings. So far we have attracted 174 species to our property.

This is the view we see from the garden and adirondacks. These 45 acres, including the gardens, we have named Bobolink Farm after the nesting Bobolinks in the meadows you see. A farmer hays the fields at the end of August, after the Bobolinks, American Bitterns, Savannah Sparrows and, sometimes Meadowlarks, have finished nesting. We have found our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It is Bobolink Farm and its gardens, and it is our great joy to manage it to attract the maximum number of birds. We hope the birds enjoy it as much as we do.

Photos © Lillian Stokes