Here's an abbreviated list of what I grew: various sunflowers (bloomed perfectly on time, unexpectedly), calla lilies (epic failure), peonies (fail, duh), zinneas (fail for the wedding but now blooming beautifully), marigolds (mostly starts, great in the wedding), double-click cosmos (only a few blooms for the wedding, now great), bells of Ireland (meh), some kind of poppy that is about to bloom, dusty miller (from starts, good for wedding filler), ranunculus (too early), alliums (almost all too early), columbine (fail), German chamomile (fail, though finally growing), hydrangeas (now have tiny, unexpectedly pink-ish blooms), yarrow (big win, unintentional addition), and a huge, insane, amazing smelling mountain of sweetpeas ('April in Paris' and 'Royal Wedding' from Renee's Garden). There are a few photos on flickr of the bouquets, etc, with hopefully more to come. In addition to the wedding flowers I've had some good luck with echinacea, violas, and nasturtiums, so it's a pretty colorful place.
What this all means is that the garden this year has been a much more lively place for birds and bees. One big surprise was that the birds' favorite snack seemed to be sunflower leaves. This left the leaves looking lacy, but the flowers intact, but that was fine by me. The bees have been everywhere, of course, but the most exciting was when I got buzzed by a GIANT bee headed to a dime-sized hole in a rotten log I was using to hold down some black plastic (attempting to grow watermelons on the California coast...). It's probably silly for me to be so excited about a relatively common native insect, but I just feel so honored that this guy (I think) has deemed my often scruffy yard to be good habitat for not just foraging but living.
Here's a photo:
I claim no entomological expertise, but I am fairly certain that this is a carpenter bee (Xylocopa spp.) of some species. Go nature!
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