Those nectaries are so cool! I always see ants and many species of wasps using them.
To the point about aesthetics— eliminating lawn and encouraging other plants to grow there or actively growing a garden to me is not only about providing habitat for insects, birds and other wildlife but also providing an interesting and welcoming space for the people that live there. I would bet most people not only find this not aesthetically pleasing but not very welcome or interesting. On a large property I think this would be fine if it was part of the yard but it looks like this encompasses the whole yard. “No lawn” doesn’t and shouldn’t have to mean “I don’t give a crap what this looks like as long as it’s not lawn”.
American and the older I get, the less I like super sweet desserts. When I bake I almost never use the full amount of sugar and everything is still very good just not cloyingly sweet.
Yeah I’m in New England and I used to like purple coneflower but I’m kinda over it now. It just doesn’t do well in my garden either so I’ve let bee balm and milkweeds push it out.
I loved them too! I always thought they were so cool. I started buying old VC Andrews paperbacks a few years ago because I have such nostalgia for them. I remember being really little and taking Flowers in the Attic off my mom’s bookshelf and just thinking the picture of the girl in the attic was so creepy. I had no idea lol
Is that Timmy Rodrigues as the OG cover for Flowers in the Attic 😭
Well she might very well not be or wasn’t totally OK with them marrying as cousins (if that’s true) but they are 2 consenting adults…it may have been grudgingly accepted.
The one on the top left looks like a baby barred owl!
Strawberries too. A few years ago I kept wondering where my nearly ripe strawberries were going. Finally saw a catbird shamelessly taking them off the vine 🥲
Mine confuse Merlin daily. I always have house sparrow and mockingbird come up for them, even when it’s the loudest bird and going on and on. Every so often Merlin will throw up catbird for them but most of the time they confuse the hell out of it!
I was never a huge traveler due to a host of anxiety disorders that makes it difficult for me, but I always liked driving and taking trips locally. Now if something is more than a 2-3 hour drive away I’m like ehhhhh is it even gonna be worth it? There are places I still regularly go to a few times a year because I love them but they’re all only about 2 hours away. I kinda like being in my routine at home more now.
Wetlands by Charlotte Roche.
Currently reading The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England, interspersed with The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (this is a reread for me, read it in high school in like 2002 and loved it then) and The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan. I haven’t really read a lot dealing with English monarchs but I’m really enjoying The Plantagenets! I’ll probably go further back in time after this with The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris. The older the history, the better for me.
Oh I absolutely love A Prayer for Owen Meany! I still have the copy I read in high school over 20 years ago. I like to reread it every few years, usually in late fall or winter. Definitely one of my favorites!
I only did an at home test and it was worthless because it told me what I already knew, that the soil sucks and is very poor. Knew it already because it’s very sandy and drains quickly. I have mostly natives adapted to poor soil anyway and veggies are all in raised beds now.
It looks absolutely lovely! I have zoysia as well and hate it. I’ve dug a lot of garden areas in my yard but it’s tough keeping the zoysia out. It’s just too big for me to dig out all the zoysia so I have some deep edging that stops it in some places. I get so many insects and birds now with all the natives I have. It’s amazing what happens and who shows up when you provide habitat like this!
The Princess Bride. God that book was so annoying, not funny…I cannot for the life of me understand how people claim to love it!
My initial Canada anemone plant came as a stowaway in a plug of another species from a native plant nursery when I planted my front garden in 2019. Finally this year I have a few more!
My fiancé doesn’t know much about this show but he does know Garrick will cry at some point, likely multiple points actually, during any given episode.
This is my favorite thing to do. I have a comfy chair next to one of my apple trees, and every evening after work I go and sit for a couple hours. I try to read a book usually but I also get distracted watching and listening to birds, the sky, bees, dragonflies, whoever decides to visit…it’s my little oasis and honestly one of my absolute favorite places to be.
I got 16% which was surprising. But maybe not because my maternal grandfather was adopted, he had just thought his parents were of Polish descent. I found out his biological mother is where the Scottish likely came from and I’m pretty fascinated by it!
I didn’t even notice, I was too busy being surprised she’d never tried baklava and had never met a Muslim.
Every year I have paper wasps attack caterpillars. Even later instar caterpillars aren’t safe from them. I have a small butterfly tent I use outside and rear black swallowtail and monarch caterpillars in it to keep them safe from praying mantises and wasps.
How to better shelter native caterpillars that grow in my pollinator patch?
NativePlantGardening