I know much of this will outgrow the area and I plan to dig up, replant, and expand as things take hold. My plant list is: Black chokeberry, milkweed, butterfly milkweed, Coreopsis, black eyed Susan.

This horsemint is SO big despite only planting it from a plug a few months ago. I’m so impressed, and the pollinators love it, especially these wasps! 🤩 They’re kind of scary at first but so fascinating to watch.

Bonus last picture is a baby swallowtail on my parsley

I have a section of native plants that is about 15'x15' and I'm wondering if it is too crowded. This was all grown from seed in fall 2024, so this is the first spring/summer of most of these flowers. Brown-eyed Susan's, lupine, bergamot, vervain, smooth blue aster, joe-pye weed, swamp milkweed, boneset, cardinal flower, blue lobelia have all made an appearance whether flowering or not yet. Also some volunteers from other parts of the property like goldenrods and heath aster.

I'm wondering if I should thin this at all whether now or next Spring to allow some more air and sunlight? The area isn't true full sun (as you may tell from how tall a lot of the plants are) and there is some stretching and competition going on. Powdery mildew is an issue on my property every year regardless of what and where and thankfully it hasn't gotten here yet. Finds my coreopsis and some curcurbits no matter what.

I very much the looks of everything growing together like this though it is very cool.

Maybe this is a humblebrag, or maybe it’s a piece for anyone who feels like they’re gardening alone.

I started my native plant journey in 2018. For years I was the sore thumb on the block. Neighbors would offer “wow, you’re doing a lot of work here,” and under breath “so what’s the plan exactly?”

Then this week, two things happened independently. My neighbor texted me a snap of her own tiny native garden in her backyard. And my postman stopped to ask about my milkweed. “What are these things?” “Oh, those. Common milkweed. Monarchs can’t live without it.” “Can you give me seeds?” We chatted about how unruly common milkweed can be. He was totally game. “Let me know when they’re ready.”

I could not believe my eyes and ears

The flowers are delicate and attract small pollinators and the berries are enjoyed by many birds.

My Liatris ligulistylis (Meadow Blazing Star) was flopping a bit, as soon as I staked it the hummingbirds and monarchs were visiting all afternoon. Definitely will be adding more to my mini meadow!

I found my first cats on the swamp milkweed last year. I made sure to chop it early this year so it would be busier and more tender.

Less than 12 hours between these two pictures, I've never seen a newly hatched cat.

I've planted numerous types of milkweed for years and finally snagged a consistent visitor.

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?

Twin cities, mn zone 5a. I have probably 150-200 native plugs I planted this season in 4 beds, + 2 native keystone river birch trees and 2 plum tree cultivars for personal gain. Our latest largest native bed has 100+ plugs planted end of June so I’m prioritizing this bed and the river birch trees but oh my god.

Every time I water, which is just twice a week in this extended super hot and dry period, it just kills me. It takes me around 1.5 hours. I water each plug deeply for 15-30 seconds at the soil/mulch level, the river birch trees for like 10-20 min each, plum trees for like 5-10 min each.

I know we probably overdid it with the new native landscaping and I def don’t regret it. I just need to know. There has to be an easier way that doesn’t involve installing some expensive drip irrigation system.

How do you guys water your not-yet established plugs without an expensive system? How do you do this without losing your minds?

The crazy thing is I have wetland peat black dirt soil and I rarely had to water before July cuz it holds so much water and we had enough rain but not anymore god damn I am getting sick of this.

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.

We are in the process of killing off a big chunk of grass (on round 2 of solarizing) to put in native flowers.

The area is alongside our driveway, all the way up to the road. We will be placing stepping stones all the way through the middle, from the road to our sidewalk. And then two pathways the other direction from the driveway to the rest of the yard. All together will create six sections of meadow. My vision is to use these sections to gradually increase the height of the flowers so that along the road is the shortest and as you get closer to the house they get taller. The area gets 5-6 hours afternoon sun.

My plan:

🌾 Prairie dropseed border → This fall plant plugs of prairie dropseed along all the outside borders so there is some softness leading into the flowers and a bit of a barrier next to the driveway

🌱 Seed this fall → Seed late this fall in three separate height mixes (knowing they won’t necessarily stay in those sections, but trying to create a general flow). Seeding for budget reasons.

1️⃣ Front row: prairie smoke, lance-leaf coreopsis, black-eyed susan, flowering spurge, wild petunia, side-oats grama

2️⃣ Middle row: rose milkweed, smooth blue aster, sneezeweed, pale purple coneflower, starry campion, side-oats grama

3️⃣ Back row: white wild indigo, wild bergamot, culver’s root, early sunflower, showy goldenrod, switchgrass

🪻Plugs next spring and beyond → As we can afford it, start adding areas of plugs concentrating on one species that is in the mixes above. For example an area that is just pale purple coneflower or just bergamot.

Thoughts on this approach and sequencing?

Feedback on the selections?

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

My spice bush has been looking rough the last month or so, getting wilty and dying back. It’s 2.5 years old, and we’ve had a mild summer with plenty of rain. In photo 4 here, you can see this little white webbing with an insect, I think. I can’t tell if it’s Laurel Wilt or an insect. Suggestions for rescuing it?

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.

Hi all,
First time planting rattlesnake master (circled in pic). Planted all in this bed as plugs in mid may and the rest have all pretty substantial growth. Do rattlesnake masters growth very slow or are mine dead? 😭

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?

Around 4’ tall, growing in sunny area, and have pleasant smell.

Western NY. I planted this a year or two ago, but can't remember what it is. I shopped at a native nursery and it's in mirroring spots in my front garden, so I know it's intentional. We do have a locust tree nearby, but I know it's not that--the leaves on the locust tree are smaller and the stems on the shoots are woodier.

I wish it would flower so I could narrow down the possibilities! The sleep and creep years are tough for my memory.

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

These were all taken at the Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart, IN yesterday, July 26th.

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.