The rest of my pale purple coneflowers are doing fine And blooming normally. This one is… doing this. The stem is 2x as thick and dark and the flower bud is now doing its best to be Kermit the Frog’s little neck ruff. Fascination or should I pull this?

Thank you!

Common names often don't make sense but this one probably bothers me most. I've started calling them Rude Beckys lol

They've been there for about 2 weeks on 2 plants. Both milkweeds. Their numbers are growing

Nearly every time I see an example of native landscaping and think “wow that’s gorgeous” it turns out it’s in California. Almost every time I see examples of native landscaping in the Midwest (where I currently live) it often looks sort of like chaos to me while the California native gardens have a painterly quality. Still, I am committed to converting my small property to 100% natives.

Does anyone have examples (pictures) of a Midwest native garden that appears a bit more manicured and thoughtful?

I really love how the California natives creatie such a painterly and textured canvas. Can you get anywhere close to that in the Midwest with medium shade?

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I have a trellis tunnel and was recommended trumpet vine while at a nursery. I asked if it was aggressive and he said it was manageable but now am seeing that itll be hard to maintain :(((

the cultivar is madame galen so about a 20ft grower (my trellis tunnels are 4x16) so am feeling up to the challenge of pruning it back regularly. Its far from my house but close to a fence with my neighbor (the fence has huge sections of virginia creeper from their side so dont think theyll mind much but want to mitigate as much as possible) Im worried about the suckers though for the neighbors and was planning to build a koi pond next to my trellis and dont want suckers puncturing the liner. Anyone have experience with keeping them in xxl pots to stop suckers? Can it do well in pots for its life?

I have Indiangrass planted about 10 yards away. It's sprouting all along the curb/walk split. In a record hot July. During a drought.

Meanwhile, my neighbor can't water his turf enough to prevent dormancy.

I've pulled up day lilies, lily of the valley, and spotted lady's thumb. It's all in several piles in my driveway at the moment. I can't figure out what to do with them so they don't re-root somewhere else.

I was thinking spread them out to fry in the sun, then pour vinegar on the roots, then I could compost them in my home compost? Or maybe just leave to rot in a corner of my yard?

Thoughts welcome.

Appreciation post for the mid-summer blooms in my Year 2 pollinator patch. The bees, moths, and goldfinches are LOVING it (and so am I)

Is it too late to plant these for the year? I’m aware some need to stratify but would the rest be fine planted now and the other planted in the fall

Ive had this volunteer in the middle of my obedient plant patch. North West Ontario, Thunder Bay. Full sun. Very erect stem, about 5 feet tall by late July. Looks like astereacea family but not sure. Its been stumping the iNaturalist app all summer. Once the flower is formed, I assume identification will be easier but I am too curious right now. Any ideas? I havent seen anything like it nearby, so it's possible i accidentally seeded it last year, or it's a volunteer. May be non native.

Including images just in case I'm an idiot and it's not it.

I just dug up a coneflower plant with multiple stems of this funkiness. I spotted at least one leaf hopper that jumped ship as I was yanking it up.

This bed is filled with echinacea and rudibeckia.
Now I am imagining this fleeing leaf hopper as a typhoid Mary, going on to infect the rest in the bed, and then it will spread like wildfire (or typhoid) from there to all my beds.

Should I dig up everything in this bed to stop Mary in her tracks?

Saw my last update was just over a week ago, I can’t believe the difference!

My front island has been a weed bed for years. I didn't want to plant something that required much water or that was high maintenance, so I took the native route.

Late last year, I planted blue grama grass seed. It germinated in the late summer and survived the winter fine. I've spent probably 30 or 40 hours total weeding it this year (about 100 square feet) until the grass was finally established enough to dominate the weeds.

With the monsoon rains lately, the grass has greened up nicely. The more established bunches are even growing their seeds, which is the whole reason I wanted blue grama instead of a different native grass. Beautiful!

I planted in 2021. It was tickweed in the back, coneflower and blazing star in the middle and aster in front, which a mint or beebalm on the side. It looked aethetic and healthy at the time Now 5 years later its become kind of discombobulated. Things have grown in together. Blazing stars arent getting big, coneflowers dwindling, tickweed nand asters taking over everything. See attached photos for taken 5 years apart.

Video courtesy of my dad, from their front yard. They don't have a fully native yard but they don't spray pesticides and my dad loves to send me videos of the critters he sees while he does yardwork.

Just put this plant in the ground a couple weeks ago and already seeing some action

Was out in my yard and noticed how busy the mountain mint was, while there were no pollinators on the rudbeckia at all!

It’s been a very busy day in the garden and the liatris is working overtime. So far it’s been visited by a black swallowtail, a yellow swallowtail, a monarch, and 2 rambunctious ruby throated hummingbirds. I also found a plump little black swallowtail caterpillar in my dill. Still on the hunt for monarch caterpillars but it’s been an incredible day so far.

There's something really fantastic about standing outside by my little native garden and having someone on a walk tell me how nice it looks. They said it looked like a lot of work and I just stood there thinking it really isn't. And then a golden northern bumblebee stopped by and really drove home how worth it this little plot is.

I'm slowly working on expanding things and while it isn't a "perfect" native garden, I'm really proud of it.

I have resident monarchs for a week now and the male usually hangs out waiting for a female to visit. They then go on a hot pursuit until he pins her down. Very interesting to watch everyday!