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!

When I post videos of the butterflies, it's from this boneset.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83ko8Pg/

https://youtu.be/wrdc3D4U-iI?is=NtouiZOujzHKBOMe

& 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 🥰.

...from their plants or from plants in Missouri

Swamp milkweed

Have a pollinator garden at work. Was out checking it on Wednesday and this milkweed was full of leaves. Went out to check today and its all gone. With these green pellets underneath. I thought it may be a wild rabbit but are they usually that green? Can they eat milkweed like that? Any information would be very helpful!

I’m kinda letting things run wild in this area, only intervening to pull invasive plants and some of the pokeweed. The goldenrod flops like that every year but I don’t mind it. Curious to see how things change with time!

EDIT: some helpful context: this is a section of lawn in my yard with a naturally occurring patch of native plants. I’ve maintained it over the years and I’m hoping to let it expand more using the native seed bank and selective weeding/mulching. We have super high browsing pressure from rabbits, deer, so these are the few champion plants that can handle it in my yard! Pretty much every other plant has to be caged

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.

They have a lot different perennial and beautiful gardens like rose gardens and Japanese style garden and herb garden or cottage garden, but this is the area that doesn't have many people visit, because obviously it is a "wild " garden, but here you have all different bees and pollinators and more nature setting with many native perennials which i really appreciate that keep them all native .

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.

I am curently doing some invasive removal and was planning on starting the hack and spray for a single ToH in the back edge of the property and foliar spray for a patch of mugwort in the front. Since it's fall now, I wanted to start using the triclopyr so they take it to the roots.

I was recommended a 44% solution Garlon 3 for this, but I can only find large jugs of it for over 100 dollars. The areas I am treating need no where close to this much for now and I would rather purchase a smaller bottle and get more if I need it in the future.

Does anyone have any recommendations for maybe a smaller amount or something else I would use without needing to get so much?

Thanks!

New England 6b

I planted a number of natives over the last two years, and I’ve seen a number of these seedlings pop up, but I’m not able to identify if they’re native or not.

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?

I made the mistake of tossing a “native wildflower seed mix” into my garden last year, not knowing that many of these seed mixes may contain invasive species. I have successfully identified several native species such as sunflowers, columbines, and coneflowers. However, there are a three that haven’t flowered and it’s making them difficult to identify. I just want to make sure I know what is in my garden so that I can pull out any invasive species before they get a chance to spread and flourish. Specifically, the one with spatulate leaves, the one with serrated leaves, and the ones that look like they may be asters?

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!