redcrew, 11 months ago

@qkslvrwolf Nice!

What new native plants did you add? I was excited to see my first-of-year tiger swallowtail butterfly in my yard, on the swamp milkweed.

qkslvrwolf, 11 months ago

@redcrew We saw our first monarch on the milkweed yesterday! (And a bunch of milkweed beetles, too!)

Lessee...we added
More big bluestem
brown eyed susan
joe pye weed
obedient plant
bearberry
(native) strawberries (the virginica one I think?)
threadleaf tickseed
a purple leafed native that is apparently popular with non-native landscapers in our "cue to care" section
wineleaf something? as a potential weed-edge plant-fight groundcover.

And some other moderately aggresive groundcover

qkslvrwolf, 11 months ago

@redcrew Can someone in like..official #Horticulture circles please start renaming common names for north american plants so they don't include words like "weed"? Like "Joe Pye Weed" should just be "Joe Pye Flower", milkweed should be like "Monarch Flower", etc.

#NativePlants #NativeGardens

redcrew, 11 months ago

@qkslvrwolf Whoa, that's a lot of new plants. Have you grown obedient plant before?

I've been looking, but haven't found any milkweed beetles. Yet.

Picked up some brown-eyed susan last month at the native plant swap. First time I've had it.

qkslvrwolf, 11 months ago

@redcrew Also we're very near an excellent native plant nursery (nasami farms), so it's easy to...go wild. {ba dum bum TSH}

redcrew, 11 months ago

@qkslvrwolf Oooh, that does make it easy to go wild! I've relied mostly on local plant swaps as well as annual metropark native plant sales.

I only started 4 years ago planting native plants, converting existing beds and digging up parts of the lawn.

Small planting in front yard doubled in size this year.

qkslvrwolf, 11 months ago

@redcrew We do mulch-over-cardboard to kill the grass so we don't have to do all the digging. MUCCCHHHH easier for me.

We also have enough trees we can use leaves for the mulch! :-)