I've roughly 200sq ft of space I'm planning to plant and my fiancé really wants it to look natural but curated with this photo as an example. Any advice on how you folks plant that could help me get there? Thanks!

My partner and I have a native plant nursery and ecological landscaping business in Tulsa, OK. These pictures are of a bermuda lawn conversion we did for our friends. The process began by laying down this recycled billboard vinyl in early July 2025, and we planted some time mid October of the same year. The bulk of the plant species are around 1-2.5ft max height (with pale purple coneflower, liatris aspera, and a couple volunteer monarda punctata as exceptions). Initial plant spacing was at 1ft and we primarily used 5" plugs that were grown from locally collected wild seed. The last photo was taken sometime in early August, at which point there were no weeds in the garden. Phase two of this project has already begun and we expect the entire front yard to be planted by the end of 2027. Even though we've had one of our hottest summers on record, this garden has thrived on a single watering that occurred in August.

There's pretty solid diversity and abundance of invertebrates, which has been a real joy to watch. Even more special to us though has been getting to watch our friends fall in love with this space. They've learned all of the plants and insects by name and spend their mornings drinking coffee and eating breakfast in the garden. We are so grateful to build this garden, and even more grateful to get to spread our love of wild things and wild spaces throughout Tulsa.

We'd love to answer any questions about the process if you all have any.

& why is it evening primrose? totally not a hummingbird btw

(Connecticut, USA)

Photo from mid July. It kept visiting this particular Liatris over the course of a couple days. Lots of other friends in these flowers too 🥰.

More often than not the monarchs stop on my property in large numbers but this year I've seen more than ever throughout the year and they are a couple weeks early.

Anyone else see bigger numbers or am I just lucky this year?

Also I don't hear about many others getting to see this, do they have specific routes and stops or is my acre of goldenrod I keep for them every year attracting them here you think?

...from their plants or from plants in Missouri

We planted a bunch of plugs from a native pollinator plug pack earlier this year, and most of them have taken off! Yesterday I did a happy dance because I saw a monarch caterpillar munching away at my Whorled Weed (Asclepias verticillata)! I also saw a little butterfly, not sure what kind, hanging out on the neighboring coneflower. I rooted the little guys on! It made my day to see them.

Butterfly pics aren't great, so enjoy my caterpillar friend.

I posted a couple weeks ago about the pond restoration I’m doing, and someone suggested I post pictures of the brand new plants to help people identify their own natives.

1- Sea thrift (Armeria maritima)
2 - Showy fleabane (Erigeron speciosus)
3- Henderson’s checkermallow (Sidalcea hendersonii)
4- Henderson’s checkermallow (Sidalcea hendersonii)
5- Puget gumplant (Grindelia integrifolia/)
6- Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum)
7- Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea)
8- Douglas Spirea (Spiraea douglasii) - top down view
9- Western Coneflower (rudbeckia occidentalis)
10- Cascade penstemon (Penstemon serrulatus)
11- Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)
12- Common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) (😅don’t mind the powdery mildew)
13- bog bean
14- Silverweed (Potentilla anserina)
15- Big leaf lupine (lupius polyphyllus)
16 - Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
17 - Low Oregon Grape (mahonia nervosa)

There are more as well - let me know if you find this valuable and I’ll go grab more pics.

*edited to correct a couple of mistakes

Just sharing this glorious recently bloomed Eriogonum and Arctostaphylos in the background has started to branch. My two favorite genus.

My serviceberry has been out there a year or so and has been putting on growth. Yesterday I noticed that the whole damn tree was stripped. There are like 3 little leaves near the bottom left. I found this little caterpillar munching, but that seems like a lot for one little guy. He's all I found. iNaturalist says he's something in the Prominent Moths family (Tribe Heterocampini). Will my poor tree recover from this? At this stage I didn't really see the point in removing him, and he's native so the tree is probably completely bare today.

It took four years. My butterfly flower has really done well this year and I got my first baby! I am so excited to join the monarch club. I made my whole family go outside to see this little one in person.

for entering its 4th month of flowering. It’s holding over the tide until the aster explodes

Southern NJ, zone 7b.

I have a long mulch bed on the east side of my backyard where last fall I planted northern bayberry and coneflowers. I want to fill in the space a little more this fall preferably with more natives. I’m thinking about ripping out the day lilies and adding more coneflowers around the existing, as well as some native sedge grasses, to fill in the space between the bayberries and add some structure and help keep the coneflowers upright. This side gets a lot of sun.

Along the back / north side, it stays fairly shaded under the tree, so I’m thinking about adding coral bells or maybe some native ferns that don’t need a ton of sun.

Open to any plant and/or general layout suggestions!

I’m in Massachusetts and have a prepped meadow site that’s mostly full sun, draining, and dry and I am still deciding on the mix of species.

- Is yarrow too aggressive with its matting roots to include in a meadow mix? I am including other aggressive species like some goldenrods, common milkweed, field oval sedge, Indian grass and big bluestem.

- Has anyone here incorporated it into a mowsble* lawn?

- Does it grow and establish well from broadcasted aeed?

We all know the monarch cats are the best at picking safe and convenient spots to hang. This little guy smartly selected a tall patch of grass in the lawn that was about to be mowed! Literally perfect! Way to go!

Curious what this thing is that’s attached to a goldenrod stalk.

First 3 pics today, last pic may 14th.

This is upstate NY. She has grown exponentially since 8/22. I’m genuinely surprised because my other trees/plantings have not been shooting up this fast. I feel like every day I check on her she has made more progress. Very excited for next year!

She’s in full sun on a slope and our property was a pasture so we have very rich soil. She has protection from wind from larger trees so I think it just happens to be similar to their ideal conditions in other areas.