A dear friend is letting me live and garden on a part of her land, and she's been preparing it for this for years by just not mowing it and letting it go wild. There's a wide variety of plants and bushes and flowers, and thick grass full of bugs and burrowing spots from animals.

It could have just been another patch of grass, but her intentional "neglect" has made it into something beautiful, before I've even started gardening.

Hey there everyone, I’ve got a stereotypically boomer neighbor who has the classic pristinely-manicured lawn, some ornamental plants for decoration, etc. I see him more often lately looking at our yard disapprovingly.. maybe it’s in my head but he’s made comments before and admittedly sometimes it gets to me. I’ve been sheet mulching and planting natives, and our yard does look a bit messier (but you know.. gotta leave the leaves for the insects and such). I’ve been making an effort to clean up what I can while still keeping ecological benefit in mind. My partner and I also work full time and get home late, so it can be tough to keep up with everything anyway.

Just looking for a few kind words if anyone has them to offer, sometimes it’s draining.

Edited to clarify my neighbor fits the boomer stereotype and I know this isn’t everyone in that generation. Thank you to those of you who are better than that!

I want to plant native plants with deep roots in my Minnesota yard. About half my backyard is just bare soil with patches of invasive creeping Charley. I plan to till this fall to try to “root up” the invasive stuff and prep the soil to start more plantings in the spring. There are lots of leaves on basically bare soil/patches of creeping Charley…should I till the leaves “into” the soil or rake them up before tilling? Thank you!!

As a new part of my species spotlight series, I'll be discussing a fascinating native North American wetland shrub that thrives in moist environments and supports a wide variety of wildlife. In this video, I’ll give you a bit of background the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), show you where it grows, and explain how to identify it. If you're interested in learning more about buttonbush and its importance to wetland ecosystems, here’s the link: https://youtu.be/BXkcnlc3Wjo?si=rzB09FNouv1OKO0G

I’m trying to plant a new garden this fall. I have some grant money to make a pollinator garden with native plants, wildflowers and grass. It has to be done this fall. We could have our first frost as early as next week. I’m near Minneapolis, MN, hardiness zone 5a. I don’t think I have a lot of time to kill the grass. Please tell me if you think this will work:

1. Lay down cardboard or a roll of paper dropcloth.

2. Put topsoil on top of paper. (since I’m planting native grass and wildflowers, I won’t need compost or special soil)

3. Plant seeds.

Will this be enough to kill my lawn? Will the paper break down enough so that roots can penetrate it? How thick should the topsoil be? Do you see any problems with this plan?

I’m basically sheet mulching without the mulch since I’m planting from seed. All of the guides I can find are for planting plugs, not seeds.

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

I know this has been asked before but I was wondering what a patch of ferns spanning 2m could do for wildlife in my garden. I have a spot in full shade and I don't know what to put there.

We'd like to remove our laurel hedge and replace with natives eventually. It's been in the garden for years and is big and overgrown.

The current plan is to cut down with a chain saw. Ideally, we'd remove the stumps and roots too, but I fear that would be extremely difficult. So, how do we stop the stumps from re-growing and encourage decomposition?

I'd love to avoid herbicide if possible, but I fear it'll be necessary, and if so what to use? Preferably something we can paint on the stump, I'd guess.

Would just excluding light from the stump be enough to prevent re-growth??

I'd like to use some resulting wood as edging in the garden; would I need to pile it off the ground for a while first to prevent it from touching the ground and trying to grow??

Are there any other potential uses for all the cuttings and logs and branches we'll have? I'm aware it produces some compounds that aren't desirable, and it doesn't compost well.

Cheers

Edit: Just seen a video that suggests building a fire on top of the stumps, but mine will be near a wooden fence.

I have a bed which is full shade but I don't know what to put in there. I was thinking lily of the valley could work there but A. I don't know if it would flower in full shade and B. I can't find much evidence of pollinators using it. Would native ferns work in full shade?

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

I finally got my two Bradford pears cut down and ground out 🎉. I'd love to replace them with American plums but I don't want giant trees in the front of my house. Is there a dwarf variety or would I just need to vigorously prune them?

visible blooms in the photo are cosmos wild sensation, cosmos bright lights, marigolds, plains coreopsis, candytuft, and cornflower :) all planted to attract more pollinators!

to the left there is also my optunia humifusa, which will hopefully bloom next year!

https://preview.redd.it/g12fh4omknqd1.jpg?width=908&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71d7820d8e57f9a851070a47998a3d6d80fdb73e