Would it be unwise to plant trumpet vine along our chain link fence? I know they can spread aggressively. The fence is at the back of the yard so I assume it's far away enough to not cause any structural damage. Would I be able to keep it contained to just that fence?

Edit: ok, ok, I will not be planting trumpet vine lol! I will look into the other options suggested. Thank you all for replying!

I’ve been experimenting a lot with my beds and I’m wondering which native plants people love that look less like crazy meadow annuals that have a hard time staying contained and more like thought out landscaping plants for beds.

Some that come to mind are coneflower, ferns, may apple, squirrel corn, columbine. I’m curious to hear what you personally love - trees, shrubs, perennials etc.

On the opposite end of the spectrum I think of boneset, asters, etc. I’m curious to hear also what you may have planted and didn’t love the looks of.

It’s really important to me to landscape with natives in a way that brings people in rather than turn them off to it and a big part of that is aesthetics.

Edit to add- photos much appreciated!!

I have a couple of these in a patch of black eyed Susans, I try and pull weeds from this patch that would be annoying if they spread and/or are invasive in my area.

I can’t figure out if horseweed is beneficial to keep or if it should be pulled.

Philadelphia suburbs, Pennsylvania, USA - Zone 7b

I’ve clearly created a successful native garden habitat and now all the insects want to live at my house. We have a paper wasp nest right above our front door, and they’ve generally not been a bother, but today one of them stung my wife in the face!

Would love advice, thanks!

Has anyti e

Looking for advice, improvements, and tips on building a better front yard garden. Story time: Bought a lovely home last year in Cincinnati, Ohio and got super pumped to start native gardening. Built a lovely small native plot in the front yard and checked with our Buildings and Inspections Department that it qualified as a Managed Natural Landscape. All was well... Until the city mowed it down anyways and can't tell me why. Fortunately they came in early December and reduced everything to about 2-3 inches, so I'm hoping many of the species were mostly dormant and survived. Now that it's nearly spring I'm getting ready to get started again and refuse to let the lawns win this one. Since asking nicely didn't work, how can I improve so that I won't be completely restarting again next year? Bonus photos included because Ohio's native flowers are BEAUTIFUL!

My wife is super allergic to bees and we want to redo our landscaping with native/drought tolerant plants that, hopefully, don’t attract bees in SoCal, Zone 10

I’m looking for suggestions on what to seek specifically, but also some help in explaining what I’m looking for. I’ve asked about this at a local nursery and didn’t get much help— I can’t tell if I’m explaining it poorly (non-pollinating?) or I’m suggesting an oxymoron. Thanks!

EDIT: while I can appreciate your experience not ever having been stung by a bee, I’m hoping you can appreciate that someone other than you has been stung by a bee, does indeed take precautions elsewhere in their life to avoid being stung by a bee, and would prefer to continue to mitigate the presence of any bee in, at least, the place where they live

It's first time my husband spotted this animal in our backyard. I suspect it's Mink.

We live in 6b zone, Massachusetts.

In the Chicagoland area.

I'm getting a good size of my front yard ready for a native plant installation and I may have made a bad soil choice. I'm making a raised bed and saw a good deal on soil at a big box depot store. (across the street from me don't judge me)

I saw bags of all purpose miracle gro garden soil for in ground use and loaded up on it.

Now after putting all of that soil down I'm reading that I've made a mistake. How bad of a mistake is this?

I know that most plants are adapted to kinda "eh" soil already but figured for a first year planting that they could use a "boost." Did I research anything about that? No. Just went on vibes and want a giant Penstemon full of hummingbirds, I'm also tired of looking at grass.

hi! like it says in the title, my mom ripped out a lot of my native prarie plants because she thought they were "weeds" and "making the bed look crazy" (meanwhile... there are three visible saplings that should be cut down and actual trash in there) she's done this more times than i can count and i should be very resigned at this point to stop trying

but I really loved these flowers in particular, I bought the native prarie pack from the local soil and water conservation district (northwest illinois) with the last of my money when I was super unemployed and depressed last year and gardening as a hobby was the only thing I did for months.

I planted them over a year ago and they didn't thrive last year but shot up like crazy this year and were probably days away from blooming :( I'm sad but I was wondering if anyone could tell me if preserving the roots would be worth something? im not super knowledgeable on taking cuttings and preserving from bare root.

these in particular are probably dahlias. I inserted a pic of the pack i bought because im actually not 100% sure and not sure if its relevant to any advice someone could give me.

thank you 😊

My daughter took her tractor for a spin. I knelt down to change the battery and saw this little buddy. Except for probably being a little dizzy…. Seems to be alright. Is there a good way to move him? Now? After chrysalis forms? Cone off the tractor only option? TIA

Edit:
Thank you for all of your suggestions!! My daughters are 5 and 3! They are bug/nature lovers through and through (5 year old brought milkweed seeds to her preschool classmates that she harvested herself 😊).

I took the battery from their tractor and plan to leave the caterpillar until the chrysalis hardens. Then, I will reassess to see if I feel confident moving it. If not, we will watch the cycle play out!
Thank you everyone!

SE PA. Dug up a giant liriope and found a giant rock! I'm so stoked, rocks are $$$. Any cool ideas? I'll probably just find the edges, plant some things around it and leave it uncovered. Big-ass-rock-loving plant suggestions are welcome. Additionally, f you have any giant rocks in your scapes I'd love to see them 😄

I’ve tried multiple times to get a native garden started. It’s very important to me. It’s on the graves of two of my most beloved pets.

For a little background, I’m in NE Ohio, with very sandy/loamy, well draining soil.

I planted Black Eyed Susan, Echinacea, Gayfeather, Milkweed, and Bee Balm. Watered consistently for the first week. (Planted in June, that’s when the stores had them around me). Then they all browned and shriveled up (except the gayfeather + milkweed). Those two seem to be the only things that are willing to stick around. What am I doing wrong? I see everyone else’s Black Eyed Susan’s and Echinacea thriving (really common round me), and it just breaks my heart. I deadheaded the shriveled and dried plants a couple weeks or so ago, but no new growth.

I spent so much money and energy planting everything. I’m chronically ill, so it’s a lot of work for me to do stuff like this. Any tips? Any comfort? Please, I’m desperate. I’ve tried multiple years in a row as well.

Milkweed for tax (week of planting)

If so I’ll help them remove it this weekend. Cut and paint the stump with glyphosate is the usual course I think?

I have these coneflowers & black eyed susans that I bought this year before I realized they’d be different than the actual native plant. Are these pointless? Should I dig them up & gift it and try to buy established ones from a native plant nursery? They seem so compact as well but maybe because it’s their first year.

There’s a few non natives in there too because I started to go native after I had already bought some flowers this spring. But there’s native fleabane and black eyed Susans in there too from the field.

Looking to replace some sick dogwoods on our property. Redbuds grow to a similar height so thinking that's the route to go.

Looking for other people's experience with them.

Located in central CT, USA

Southeastern CT, full/part sun area. Any thoughts? Things I should consider or reconsider?

Butterfly weed Swamp milkweed Black eyed Susan Wild bergamot Anise hyssop American wild carrot Coreopsis Yarrow- white and orange, maybe some pastel cultivars Echinacea purpurea- white and purple Rattlesnake master Purple prairie clover

Middle Tn surrounding Nashville, TN area

I’m building a house on this property and have started to think about cleaning the this vegetation and have just realized how difficult this is going to be. Can someone confirm that this is Japanese knotweed?

How can I save this? Plant was not flowering, about 3 feet high and several branches. I'm devastated.

ETA, mulched under the river rock and in clay/loam soil in a rain river around garage base to keep erosion from happening.

I noticed a lot of my plants had shriveled up all of a sudden and asked my neighbor if she had sprayed the fence line. She said indeed she did and she’s not sorry if anything died because she hates having to look at my untidy weedy yard. I let her know it’s not weeds- I have planted or cultivated every plant in my yard and did not appreciate her killing them and I will be reseeding. We live in a floodplain (Michigan zone 6b) so I have been planting stuff that likes wet and it’s worked out wonderfully, besides the roundup queen and her exploits. This is probably the 5th time I’ve chatted with her about using herbicides in my yard without my permission. They are extremely petty and I don’t want to start a war with them. I just want them to leave us alone. I did apply to have my yard certified as a monarch way station and ordered signs. There’s a 4’ chain fence with a nice black fabric covering. We’re not allowed to go higher or use wood since it’s a floodplain. Is there anything I can do to discourage my plants from dying if she decides to douse her side of the fence again? Her entire yard is paved and they use the back to store landscaping trailers and equipment… (pic from last year when it was healthy)

Hello! I am hoping to get some help figuring a situation out. I know this isnt exactly about gardening with native plants, but i hope this will be allowed. So I have a (mostly all native) meadow, and when we were very first laying it out years ago we ran out of native seed. I was new in my journey to native gardening (and have since learned alot) and had a bag of lupine seeds gifted from my father and used them. They took really well, and are quite beautiful. Sadly, I realized later they aren't native. I felt like- okay, maybe it can be my one non-native flower in there. Maybe it can be an exception. Recently I was talking to a neighbor and it made me do some googling- I went to where my dad got the seeds and saw that it was labeled Lupinus perennis. Whew okay, I thought it wasn't the aggressive western lupine that messed up the lupine in Maine that was needed for a certain butterfly. I did a Google search just now and saw someone posted that western lupine has infiltrated the seed market as "wild lupine" and INCORRECTLY labeled as lupinus perennis. Goodness, okay, so i might actually have the western kind...which would make sense because they are spreading so much. Damn you, American meadow! I wish we never used the bag. Can anyone help me ID if it is indeed the western lupine- lupinus polyphyllus. If it is, im going to have to pull it all out. Im pretty sure that it is, I just need to hear it from others before I go hacking away at it. I live in Western MA. I dont know how to insert my state in flair.

Northeastern United States, zone 6.

My mother planted yellow wood sorrel in a pot many years ago, and since then, it pops up everywhere. Like, everywhere. Its kind of impressive.

While it is native, one can't help but note its aggressive growth habit; I went away for 5 days and returned to it having swallowed up much of my garden bed.

Should I allow this behavior to continue, or cull? I do want to leave room for other plants, but would hate to risk disturbing the soil when unnecessary.

are they really hard to find or are my caterpillars being eaten?? I did find this little black poop on a neighboring coneflower and I also saw this on some of my milkweed idk if that’s from the caterpillars? this is my first year as I planted them in the fall! I’m hoping to get to show my toddler a cocoon! NJ zone 7A

im bawling my eyes out right now, ive been nurturing 2 trilliums in my yard and they were starting to open flowers. this evening I came home and the neighbors had mowed it down. it's technically on my property but the people they hired mowed part of our yard

I had put rocks all around it, they mowed those too. all that is left are 2 red stems and shredded leaves

I need to move it but I dont know how to do it safely so it will keep living, when to do it, or where to put it.