#native gardening

[julianplum]

🪻🌿 🐝 🌱 ✨ // campanula & green metallic sweat bees // gouache on hot press paper // part of my native pollinators series

Tiny sweat bees are underlooked native pollinators. These solitary little guys nest in the ground and pollinate an incredibly wide array of native wildflowers and food crops, including squashes, melons, blueberries, and cranberries. They also love the bright purple bells of wild campanula!

#my art #gouache #illustration #cottagecore #artists on tumblr #art #botanical #wildflowers #native pollinators #native gardening #native plants #campanula #harebell #green metallic sweat bee #gardencore #naturecore #botanical illustration #jordan beck #jordan beck illustration #jordanillustrates

[sarahmackattack]

Saw ur post on insta about milkweed. Are you telling me that I’ve been manually separating my seeds from the fluff for years and am only just now learning this trick?!?!!!!???

Mind = blown, thank you so much for sharing

Happy to assist.

For those who haven't seen it:

#Burn it #or should i say #Blaze it #Milkweed #Native Gardening #Pollinator Garden #Seed Saving

[snekdood]

hey if ur in the midwest or more specifically missouri here’s some websites i’ve found helpful for finding native seeds and live plants (they’re not all in missouri or the midwest specifically but have some seeds from around here too bc truly human made borders are fake and plants go wherever they want so):

wildseedproject.net

mowildflowers (this websites cool bc they’ll deliver live plants to you if you live nearby enough and they also go to different places around missouri all year to sell plants at festivals or events or whatnot)

nativewildflowers.net

swallowtailgardenseeds.com

strictlymedicinalseeds.com

toadshade.com

treeseeds.com

ouriquesfarm.com

putnamhillnursury.com

sugarcreekgardens.com

prairiemoon.com

seedvilleusa.com (also on etsy)

mybutterflylady on etsy

everwilde.com

and if u ever need help or info or whatever about plants or even find a place to exchange plants and buy some on a forum check out dave’s garden

if anyone knows any other websites and wants to add them on i’d totally appreciate that c: !

(i will update this with more websites too if i come across any)

#seeds #native seeds #native plants #native plant gardening #native gardening #pollinator garden #native garden #wildflowers #native wildflowers #wildflower garden #gardening #wildflower gardening #missouri native plants #missouri #midwest native plants #midwest plants #not all of them are native seed focused but they do have places you can find them #and if you're looking for specific seeds id check out some of these maybe #ourique's farm is more based south east but i got some trumpet vine seeds from there so :0 yaknow #its what im saying... borders are fake and plants arent about to start respecting them

[miri-tiazan]

Behold the seven smol white oak seedlings I rescued from my yard! They were unfortunately in a spot that’s gonna get mowed, so now they will live in pots until they get big enough for me to plant them back out as part of my backyard reforestation project. 😍

There’s way more oak seedlings that I haven’t even gotten to yet, so I am going to continue to dig them up until I run out of available nursery pots or the lawn guys come. Also there’s a few other seedlings I ID’d as black gum seedlings, so I’ll be rescuing those too, since they’re native here and also apparently make nice berries that birds like.

Shoutout to @headspace-hotel for the inspiration and the educational posts about their own seedling rescue and acorn sprouting endeavors, without which I wouldn’t even have realized these were tree seedlings growing in my grass and not just random weeds!

Also today I realized these random weedy flowers popping up in my yard are actually Common Fleabane, which is a native wildflower to here, so I am going to mark that area off with twine so they don’t get mowed and try to collect seed from them this fall to sow in the native prairie zones I’m trying to establish.

My yard, like lots of places, does have a lot of invasives, but it’s encouraging that all these native babies are still finding places to pop up and do their thing!

#native gardening #white oak #trees #garden adventures

[cryptidcrew]

So I needed a metric fuckload of organic material to heap onto the areas of lawn I will be killing off to plant with natives in my new yard. And also I feel SO EXTREMELY STRONGLY about people removing vital vital so important leaves from their yard why would you deprive your soil of that free compost and why would you deprive all the bugs+other wildlife of cozy overwintering habitat!!! Assholes!!!

So. I went trick or treating at midnight the night before yard waste collection day. Got a couple. leaves.

#if your HOA or other bullshit requires you to remove leaves I’m not calling you an asshole #leave the leaves #no lawns #fuck lawns #native gardening #permaculture

[pallanophblargh]

I have so many things I need to catch up on and respond to (I have severely neglected my email which is NOT good) so I apologize. I will get around to it this week I hope! 

Old followers will know that this is the norm for me this time of year as I once again rally the strength to try and make the most of my severely neglected little urban hellscape of a yard. I mean, how do you recover from the knowledge that ALL of the native milkweed species you planted over the last 4 years has died, never to return? (I can’t stop being sad about this you have no clue, I had 5+ species native to the state!) All that remains is the common milkweed volunteers that have come up wherever they feel like it, and I’m obligated to let them do as they wish. Feels bad, man. I would have killed to see that purple milkweed flower.

Have spent the last 2+ weeks getting my veggie garden and containers up and running (still need to sow beans and more kale) and I’ve got more natives/ornamentals to go into my nearly cleared side yard. I’m really really REALLY hoping my new virginia bluebells don’t die with this heat/likely drought, but I’m pretty confident everyone else will come through okay. I mean, if the cardinal flower can come back for the 3rd year like a champ, what’s their excuse? (Dear self: be thankful, the cardinal flower likes you and you know it shouldn’t and that’s rad. Also the prairie smoke plant is starting to spread and that’s really cool. So is the hepatica. And your ferns are getting big and beautiful! So remember what’s working out, ok?)

I just want my little plot to be the hopping hot spot for all the local wildlife. It’s nice to see so many critters anywhere I look but I know I can do better and that requires A LOT of work. I’ll never be anything akin to a master gardener, but I like to think I’m learning a lot every day and working WITH nature instead of against it. Battling invasives is one hell of task. (Rot in hell, creeping bellflower!)

Now if only it would rain, and I can find a way to get a rain barrel setup! (No gutters in my back yard to access for rain is a major L...)

#April rambles #gardening season!!!! #urban gardening #native gardening #attempting a kinda sorta woodland planting on the shaded half of the side yard #got my lady ferns and my maidenhair ferns ready #doing my best to keep my native plants as the majority for the yard but I do splurge on some ornamentals #who can resist peonies am i right? #can't wait for the lupines to take off I need to start expanding the native ones! #when in doubt there are always asters #my columbine got defoliated by sawflies and I'm SAD #it's still alive though but I'm babying it #having a WEED fail to return for you is a major blow to the would-be ego #i hope to fuck my new liatris comes in strong because YES!!!!! #so many tall plants that fall over it's pure chaos #looking at you 5+ feet tall joe pye weed and 6+ foot tall goldenrod #absolute beasts!

[bigoldeels]

lil bug zine from me

#zines #insects #bugs #insect conservation #plants #ecology #native gardening #i'm not an expert but I hope some find this helpful #please talk about bugs with me #bigeelsart

[solarpunkani]

Hey do you happen to know of any resources for someone in Iowa looking to get into native plant gardening? Thanks in advance! (Love your blog btw)

*cracks knuckles* sorry for keeping you hanging since November 3rd, homie, but I'm back home and down to get started!

Before I do, a special reminder that I'm not based in Iowa! I don't think I've ever even set foot in Iowa. I'm a Florida girlie lol. However, I will do my best to give you my advice and find some resources for you!

In my experience, many native plants grow slowly from seed. This could be because I mostly prefer perennials (I am way too lazy to replace an annual every year), but they can take awhile to germinate and an even longer while to size up. I've gotten seeds that say to wait upwards of 3 weeks to see any germination, and that's often after waiting a month or more for proper cold stratification! All of this is just to say--you gotta have a bit of patience when it comes to all gardening, but especially with native plants!

If you can get your hands on some seeds now, they'll likely need cold stratification. Fortunately, cold stratification is happening right now--put the seeds where you want them to grow, and let chilly winters do the work for you! Needing cold stratification basically means the plant has evolved to know it needs to wait until after winter to start germinating, so as things warm back up in spring, your seeds'll start growing!

Once they start growing and get established, they'll really start going--if they're in their perfect conditions, they'll be more than ready to take over a bit and manage on their own! Keep an eye out for watering needs, but generally I find native plants don't need much when it comes to fertilizer and pesticides. If you don't want things to spread a lot, you can always choose to grow certain plants in pots instead--or if you're really determined to grow a plant your soil isn't quite right for, a pot does wonders. My soil isn't very moist, so I grow a good chunk of my swamp milkweeds in pots to keep a better eye on their care.

Iowa's got a handful of growing zones going on, so knowing what the zone for your region is will help you pick the best plants! You can also pick plants known to have grown historically well in your region--I've seen plant range maps break things down by counties for my state, which helps give a good idea of whether it's a good idea for me to grow something touted as a native to my state. It's entirely possible for something to be native to your state, but not your half of the state, for example!

Browsing through a couple of sites, I hope these'll be helpful to you!

This is a link to Iowa Native Plants, which has a nice primer on the importance of native gardening as well as a few guides to native plants in their Finder tab! They also seem to sell a hanfdul of books on native gardening that may be an interesting read for you!

My Home Park appears to have a lot of information on native plants, and sells native plants that can be shipped to your state! I can't say I've ever had a plant shipped to me before, let alone from them (they don't service my state) but it could be worth a shot! If anything else, could be a good source of information! They also have a blog, and a feature that lets you mock up a garden to see what it'd look like (I didn't try it though). They also seem to service North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine.

The Tallgrass Prairie Center links to a ton of resources on learning about native plants, planting them, landowner incentive programs, and organizations you can join that are full of others who are passionate about native plants! The Tallgrass Prairie Center itself aims to establish and protect native plants, restore ecosystems, and increase awareness and appreciation of the Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystem. I think their site's definitely worth a look-through, or you can use it as a bouncing off point to find other sites full of info!

The Iowa Native Plant Society is a nonprofit organization full of people who are enthusiastic about native plants! They host field trips, workshops, have a newsletter, and more! It could be a fun way to learn more about native ecosystems on their trips, and if they're anything like the native plant society for my state, the calendar on their site will probably start lighting up with different chapters' native plant sales as we get closer to spring, so keep an eye out! They've also got books and lots of resource links on their site!

Oftentimes when I look up information on how to grow a particular plant in my state, the university extensions office is one of the best resources. As such, I think the Iowa State University's Extension and Outreach website is likely to have some good info for you about gardening! I've also in the past emailed some staff from various offices questions about native gardening and gotten good answers, so they're definitely a resource to be utilized!

I almost forgot to link the Xerces Society! The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a primary focus of protecting insects in the US, but that often goes hand in hand with native plants, so they're a great resource for learning about plants and the insects that rely on them! Especially helpful is their Pollinator Conservation Resource Center, which has lists of plants and suppliers by region! You can also find just their plant lists here!

Speaking of plant lists, The National Wildlife Federation has a list of keystone plants by ecoregion! Keystone plants are highly important, as they're vital to the lifecycle of many species of insect, which then help feed birds and other creatures--you get the picture. I used the National Wildife Federation a good bit when I was writing my Biodiversity Saga on increasing biodiversity in your yard/on your balcony/in your area on a budget.

iNaturalist is a fantastic website for cataloguing the cool insects you find in your new native garden, as well as learning about the variety of plants, animals, insects, etc. that are in your area! Make an account and just vibe around!

Books can be a great resource! Unfortunately, my attention span is frequently lacking when it comes to books, and I definitely haven't read any that focus on Iowa's native flora. However! I've got a few general books that are nice reads, so you can definitely see if you can find these in a library or online (I'm including Thriftbooks links because fuck Amazon).

Hellstrip Gardening by Evelyn J. Hadden is a book I read last month that honestly inspired so many new projects out of me that next year is gonna be busy. Might as well get a healthy dose of inspiration now so you can do some planning and be roaring and ready to go come spring! I liveblogged it on my gardening blog, and shared some of my favorite notes as well!

Attracting Native Pollinators by the Xerces Society is a book that offers a generalized view on why its important, ways you can utilize native plants at any scale from swaths of farmland to a school garden or a small yard, and provides lists of plants that can be good for your region near the end! They also have Gardening for Butterflies, which I honestly haven't read yet, but I checked it out from the library so Mayhaps Soon. PS: you can buy Attracting Native Pollinators and Gardening for Butterflies from the Xerces site directly, and support their work! However. Hoo buddy, the pricing.

(Psst, here's the plant list from Attracting Native Pollinators, don't tell Xerces)

My final message to you, young padawan, is to grow milkweed. If there's a milkweed native to your state, grow it. If there's several native to your region, grow a ton of it. Milkweed is the host plant for Monarchs, but it's also such a high-value nectar source for so many other insects you've just gotta try and grow some in my book. Also a lot of the sites I saw for your state had pictures of blazing star and black eyed susans and let me tell you. Plant those. You'll have so many happy pollinators.

I can't think of anything else. If any Iowa gardeners wanna chime in with their favorite resources and such, feel free to!

#gardening #iowa #native plants #native gardening #outdoor gardening #resources #out of queue #ani rambles #answered asks #anonymous #ok time to eat something today peace out byeeeee

[ivyandbone]

My bluebonnets are on their way to flowering! I'm so excited. I've been out in the yard checking their progress every day.

I've lived in Texas my whole life and this is the first year I'll have lived somewhere with bluebonnets in the yard. I'm so proud of these little souls, I was so nervous when I started them indoors last fall. Almost every single one made it! I forgot how many I germinated, but I planted 10 in this bed and only 1 died because it got eaten by garden snails and couldn't recover.

The rest that I had leftover I gave away to other members of my NPSOT chapter, I hope they're doing just as well if not better.

I'd love to find the names these and other native plants were given before white people came along. As much as I love and hate my state it's a part of me and while I love that these are Texas bluebonnets and our state flower, I wish I knew more about how they were thought of and used by the indigenous native peoples.

If anyone knows where I can look to for those kind of resources please let me know!

#native gardening #native planting

[theriversdaughter]

Looking at the gaping expanse of bare ground left behind by the absence of the invasive vines in the side yard and seriously considering planting wild mint until I can get other native plants situated on that side of the house.

#adventures in home ownership #native gardening #rewilding #wildlife habitat #the only mint I will consider planting in the ground

[anipgarden]

I've been thinking about doing another one of my 'Ani googles things to write about them later' projects, so I'm asking the squad.

What are some of the biggest pushbacks you've heard discussed against native-type landscaping (using native plants, wildflower lawns, etc). And if you know of any solutions to said issues, what are they?

So far I'm going to look into

Snakes

Deer

Ticks

Other creatures (coyotes and shit, some people get bears too???)

Other insects (caterpillars devouring their host plant and it looking 'bad'/unaesthetically pleasing, fleas, etc)

Maintenance needs (weeding, mowing, etc)

Children and pet safety (where are the kids gonna romp around, low growing romping-tolerant natives, plants tolerate of being used as the dog's personal toilet, etc)

#out of queue #native gardening #native landscape #ani rambles #this started with me wanting to make anti lawn memes and now look where I'm at #ive been talking about this in the gardening discord for almost 2 hours instead of focusing on homework

[dandelionsandderivatives]

Trying to research native plants for my mum's garden for next year, and getting somewhat frustrated with the number of species that are "native to the US!!!" but only native to California or the east coast.

#we have found some things that are actually native to our area! #but wildflower mixes are deceitful #and so many things are labelled “good for bees” but aren't necessarily good for OUR bees #native gardening #native plants

[blistermonster]

Hey check it out! I made a free sign for WIP pollinator gardens! Grab yours today!

#garden #native gardening #nature's best #pollinators #bee #bug #insect #caterpillar #construction #kidcore #free #earth day

[ifawnleaf]

my garden looks like a total mess conventionally speaking. but letting all kinds of plants that normally would have been weeded out grow freely means all kinds of cool natives have popped up. goldenrod, slender vetch, ticktrefoil, and plenty of others that my app can't identify for me yet lol. plus the natives i DID plant intentionally last year seem to mostly have all survived and most are doing really well (my instinct is to thin out/transplant some of the ones that are crowding each other but i'm trying to hold off)

and my hibiscus are all doing well now that i'm fertilizing again. (resisting the temptation to buy some more fancy varieties) (i have more plants than i can care for i don't need more) (i desperately want black or blue or brown hibiscus tho) (maybe a reward for the end of semester) my roses are not the best, i can never seem to get rid of the black spot but they still look pretty and smell nice. i'm trying my best to treat them but there's only so much effort i'm willing to put into for purely ornamental flowers (that aren't my beloved hibiscus) and i'm terrible at pruning so they're kind of monstrous to look at lmao

paying attention to my little slice of nature is so rewarding. i'm seeing so many bugs i've never seen before. i'm excited to add all the plants i got at the native plant society sale (i finally got a leatherflower as well as a crossvine!! sadly no passionflower). i can't wait for more of the flowering plants to start blooming and the grasses especially to fill out :3

#fawn talks #long post #native gardening #sorry this is so rambling just felt like documenting my personal progress lol

[jadevine]

What’s up folks, here’s some gardening updates that I forgot to talk about on this hellsite because I tend to get wrapped up in 1) writer burnout, or 2) spiritual issues.

I dumped some wildflower seeds in my tiny little dirt patch in the apartment patio in the first week of June, and they are now doing great!

Unfortunately the seed mix I used (cornucopia’s “Carefree California Wildflower mix”) isn’t STRICTLY local to my area because it seems to have taken “the most popular plants from ALL OF CALIFORNIA,” and that’s a huge stretch of land, so I’m preparing for the possibility of various plants dying off because it’s either too hot or too cold for them. :/

But so far we’ve got lots of plants!

And here’s some earlier shots from a few weeks ago of the poppies and lupine that bloomed earlier. There were some new poppies a couple days ago, as the orange petals foreshadowed, but I didn’t photograph them in time. I’ll need to wait until more of those guys pop up again.

#wildflowers #california #native gardening

[cryptidcrew]

Can’t stop won’t stop (removing turf grass)

Just planted that native climbing rose (rosa setigra) back there, idk what else will go in there yet but I started shovel chopping the grass out around where the bush was going and was overtaken by the spirit of the wild and kept going.

This looks nicer anyway and I don’t have to awkwardly try to wedge my lawnmower in there to appease the city code enforcement pigs who waste taxpayer money to have people literally go out with a little tape measure and fine you if it’s longer than they like.

#fuck lawns #no lawns #rewilding #native plant gardening #native gardening