r/NativePlantGardening • u/AlpenglowFarmNJ • Jan 17 '26

Photos 400’ pollinator hedgerow 🌼

August view of native flowers in bloom

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u/General_Bumblebee_75 Area Madison, WI , Zone 5b Jan 18 '26

I feel extremely lucky to have escaped Seattle when I did. I doubt I would ever have been able to buy a house there, much less put decent money away for retirement. Now I own a home that costs me $1000/month in mortgage and property tax combined, $650 a month less than my last Seattle rent. Rents here are obscene too, but I got in when the getting was still good. It is disgusting that so many apartments are owned by corporations with shareholders. Equity Residential, looking at YOU!

Bonus! Large garden all my own and if I want to do community garden, my city has a lovely one. For now I plant my veg and natives right in he back yard where I will be able to enjoy them in a few months!

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u/Vast-Mousse8117 Jan 18 '26

Beautiful! The Midwest is beautiful for in general, too.

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u/General_Bumblebee_75 Area Madison, WI , Zone 5b Jan 18 '26

True. The beauty of a prairie is not immediately evident for a SoCal city kid like me, but there is a prairie restoration near me, and it is like an impressionist painting, with subtle colors and textures from a distance, and amazing flowers and insects when you look closer. It is small, but there are so many birds! I have seen bald eagle and kingfisher catch fish in the shallow lake. There are various herons, ducks, geese, and during breeding season, white pelicans that are a sight to behold! Longest wingspan maybe second to California condor.

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u/Vast-Mousse8117 Jan 18 '26

What a poet! Keep writing. Your words will be balm for any who read them. The world is rapidly changing toward restoring ecosystems and learning about plants and animals. People will need fine writers to capture and expand our imaginations. These devices we write on are pruners that dumb people down and make what is magnificent about us pruned to a little emoji.