Watertown
Community Gardens

Happy summer!

The Boylston Street bump out gardens are thriving with the regular rain and are full of pollinators. On a rainy day, some of the only pollinators to brave the weather are bumblebees - the fuzzy teddy bear bees. When it’s warm and sunny, you’ll see much more variety, including honeybees, metallic green sweat bees, clouded sulfur butterflies, and more.

There are many types of flowers blooming right now:

• Orange butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) - host plant for Monarch butterflies; look for black, white, and yellow striped caterpillars eating the leaves.  August is a great time to look for caterpillars, especially in the morning and evenings.
• Purple coneflower (Echinacea) - in the winter, the dried seed heads will become bird food

• Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) - attracts a variety of pollinators, including specialist bees, bumble bees, hummingbirds, and moths.
• Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) - butterflies are especially attracted to black-eyed Susans and other coneflowers because the flowers provide a platform where the butterflies can land.
• Anise hyssop (Agastache) - rub the leaves, they smell like licorice, and the towers of light purple flowers are a favorite of a variet of bees

• Blue vervain (Verbena hastata) - these tiny purple flowers are nectar-rich and attract a myriad of pollinators, including butterflies, skippers, long and short-tongued bees and others.
• Oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) - as the name suggests, this is hydrangea shrub has leaves which resemble those of oak trees, complementing cone-shaped flower clusters

• Daylilies - there are several varieties blooming right now - red, orange, yellow! Do you think they look like fireworks?

The gray goldenrod will begin to bloom in a few weeks. Its flowers are yellow like most goldenrods; the name refers to the gray-colored stems. Goldenrods are important food sources for pollinators out in late summer and fall.

Volunteers will be at the bump outs on September 28 from 5 until 6:30pm doing fall maintenance after flowers have bloomed, before winter sets in. If you’re interested in joining us, please sign up for the calendar event, and join the volunteering Google Group!