My name is Mark Couture from Chatham, Ontario, Canada, and gardening is something I’ve become passionate about over the years. I can say I inherited my green thumb from my grandmother. Watching her at a young age taking care of her flowers and plants seeded interest in me to garden. Since then what an amazing joy it has been to take part in creating beautiful portraits in the landscape. Gardening is a blessing in my life!
Red Asiatic lilies (Lilium hybrid, Asiatic group, Zones 4–9) glowing against a backdrop of green.
Containers don’t just have to be for little annuals. Here a big purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, Zones 3–9) adds height, contrast, and a big attraction for visiting pollinators.
Speaking of pollinators, here is one taking a sip from a coneflower bloom.
More container plantings, with dark- and light-leaved sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas, annual) providing foliage color to complement the flowers.
Tall phlox (Phlox paniculata, Zones 4–8) is another perennial native to North America that is much loved by butterflies.
An unusual water feature, in the form of a rock with water bubbling over it, is the center of this planting.
The shallow stream of water attracts birds, like this colorful little male goldfinch.
A shot from Mark’s pollinator garden, where purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia fulgida, Zones 3–9) in full bloom attract pollinators like this black swallowtail butterfly.
Male (top left) and female (bottom right) goldfinches feast on the seeds in fading coneflower blooms. This is a good reminder that if you don’t deadhead, your coneflowers will turn into natural bird feeders.
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Comments
Hello Mark. Fellow Canadian here from Toronto. Your garden is quite a special one. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour through it. Quite spectacular. Thanks for sharing, you have done an excellent job.
charming and diverse. Especially love the pollinator friendly aspect and the flat rock - giving me ideas
Re: what an amazing joy it has been to take part in creating beautiful portraits in the landscape
I agree! I like the process of planning, observing, and even digging. Then viewing my plants from a variety of angles and noticing what kinds of birds and insects visit.
Mark - I liked looking at your photos and seeing the variety of vibrant colors, birds and butterflies, and the tall vs prostrate plants.
Love your colors and particularly the pics with the birds and butterflies. That combination of the echinacea and rudbeckia with the butterfly was simply perfection. Thank you for taking the time to share with us all.
What a great pic of the goldfinch feasting on seeds.
Oh yes, great photos of the goldfinches feeding on the natural seeds!
And love those tall Phlox too!
Mark, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful pictures of a pollinator friendly garden. And thanks to your grandmother for instilling a love of gardening along with that green thumb!
Hello Mark. Fellow Canadian here from Port Credit (Mississauga). I absolutely love your garden. I love the colours and how natural and unpretentious it is. The photos your took are excellent, especially that top one. Thanks for posting :)
Hi Mark!
Thank you for your photos and the article. I hope my granddaughter feels this way in the next 20-30 years, and after I'm gone. My grandbaby is just one-year-old, and next year, the excitation, happiness, listening, teaching, prayers in the garden, and gentle education of my sweet Laney Jo begins!
I'll be planting that seed!
Beautiful!
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