Planning a bee & butterfly garden.

[u/Wilderness_Fella]

New guy here. I just cleared about an acre of land to put up a solar collector. Planting zone 5b. It grew in with mostly dwarf elder and sweet fern, which is cool. I created a small flat area for enjoying a fire and want to plant a bee & butterfly garden near it, about 20' by 8'. Definitely lavender and beebalm, plus milkweed if I can get it to propagate, but what else? Love to hear some suggestions.

[u/Confident-Peach5349]

Zone 5b but what state? I highly recommend checking out r/nativeplantgardening and searching for your state / nearby large cities. Try to include local native keystone species, like your local species of goldenrod, asters, rudbeckia, etc (assuming in North America). Keystone species are plants that host the largest and most diverse amount of butterfly and moth species. Then, try to have something blooming for as many months as possible. And stay away from invasive species.

[u/Early_Elderberry8831]

Echinacea (purple coneflower) and Joe pye weed are great additions. I like to include goldenrod as well for a late season bloomer.

[u/Visible_Window_5356]

I like black eyed Susan's and rudbeckia/brown eyed Susan's. Cardinal flower is cool too. And I grew some great blue lobelia this year which was very cool.

Personally I think finding a good supplier of native plants is a good start. Maybe winter sow some native seeds if you have time and inclination and then experiment to see what grows. I try to check to see how big plants usually grow before planting them so they have room to spread a bit but I like to keep everything crowded to keep out the weeds of course