Southwest Florida has had a pretty extreme drought this year, so when it actually rains, I get really excited. I am happy that my garden is mostly native, with well established plants, as it still thrives with the lack of rain we have been experiencing.

I just finished working on the garden – 3 weeks of hard, yet relaxing and gratifying work.

It seems as though every spring I get pulled into the garden for a reimagined look. Although, a good portion was left the same, I added new walkways around my well established plants, redesigned other walkways, curbed the garden to separate it from the yard, and layed 40 plus bags of mulch down.

The rain came in handy because I of course added new plants to fill new spaces. These are still becoming established.

I try to add a new butterfly host plant to the garden every year to see what more I can attract.

The nectar plants seem to remain the same for the most part, as it has been trial and error of what grows well in my sandy soil.

The Black Eyed Susan was one of the first flowers I planted six years ago. Unfortunately, both times I tried adding it in the garden it did not do well. Now that my garden offers both shade and sunny areas I decided to give it another try. The rain definitely helped with this plant tonight.

The zinnia and lantana are new, yet old plants, that I replenish every year, as they are butterfly favorites.

Some of other plants pictured below are in multiple spots in the garden, while the butterfly bush was just too beautiful not to add to the space.