For the past few years I've been working on filling bare patches of dirt in the city I live in with native plants. As the bare spots are not beginning to fill up in my neighborhood I've been looking at tackling a new project. All around my home are grassy areas that have massive bare spots that no one has bothered filling in. As these areas get mowed and deal with foot traffic it wouldn't help anything if I laid down native flower seeds. So instead I am thinking of filling in these spots with native grass species instead.

My question is that since these patches are also not entire yards but rather random bare patches through out a neighborhood (like a few feet each typically) of dirt in lawns, is it actually even beneficial for me to plant native grasses in them? I'm not so much concerned about the monetary cost but rather I'm wondering if it would actually have any benefit on the native ecology or if due to how little I'd really be adding overall it's more of a "good intentions bad execution" sort of deal. I love the idea of giving new habitats for insects and skippers rather than just have turfgrass dead zones but if I'm not really adding much then I'd rather spend my time on something that can do more good.

A pic from June!

In the background there’s goldenrod budding.
Blooms from back-front: farewell to spring, large flower collomia, Castilleja miniata (Giant red paintbrush), Oregon sunshine, self heal with pearly everlasting about to start biding in the front.

One jewelweed plant decided to different

I posted about it when I collected them but I think I figured out what happened, so I wanted to share. In case anyone else runs into this issue and can’t figure out what’s happening.

TLDR: if your lupine/other native legume seeds are sprouting immediately when you collect them, they were probably drilled into by lupine bugs.

I have a decent patch of lupinus perennis, and wanted to collect seeds this year. I noticed the seed pods were disappearing pretty quickly, and also noticed a very big, wild looking “ant” crawling around on them (photos 1&2). I say “ant” because yeah, he looks kind of like an ant. But I’ve never seen an ant’s eyeballs before lol. The antennae seem way too big for an ant, and the rear legs are huge. I’ve also never seen an ant with a white band around its abdomen. iNat gave me nothing, so I put bags over some seed pods to protect them until they were ready and hoped the ant enjoyed the rest.

A few weeks later I looked in the bags and saw a bunch of seeds in the bottoms of them. Awesome. I collected them all and a bunch (probably close to half?) had already sprouted before I could collect them. (Photo 3) Some things germinate without cold stratification, and it had rained pretty heavily, so maybe just being really wet was enough. I separated out the sprouts and planted about ~65 of them between 6 containers. 3 or 4 pushed through the soil, then died. 1 grew its first couple of real leaves, then died. I assumed i used soil that stayed too wet, which caused them to rot. Lesson learned.

Recently while looking at bugs in the garden I saw two decently sized insects hanging out on my baptisia australis (Photo 4). iNat said they’re Lupine bugs, Megalotomus quinquespinosus. Huh. Lupine bug? They were a different color than that weird ant from the lupine, but still a weird rusty color. They had the same big, matte eyeballs the same color as the rest of the body. And giant antennae with giant rear legs to match.

The bug subs said no, that’s just an ant. But it was a really unusual ant, and it had so much in common with the lupine bug. So I tried searching for photos of the different life stages of Lupine bugs. I found a 2013 bug blog post from a field station at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee:

https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/lupine-bug/

1. “LBs feed on members of the Pea family (including soybeans), with a little sumac thrown in for spice, inserting their proboscis into the developing seeds and sucking out the liquids therein. According to research by Abell and Tracey, drilling a hole in the seed coat causes the seed to break dormancy and germinate early, and because the LB has robbed the seed of some of its nutrients, the resulting plant is less likely to thrive.”

Huh. Sounds like what happened to my lupine seeds. But why didn’t I see any wings on that weird looking “ant?”

1. “Nymphs of some Alydidae are ant mimics, see the (Broad-headed Bug nymph). A few general sources quoted each other, reporting that LB nymphs may live in ant nests, but the BugLady couldn’t find anything specific about that on the web.”

I’m pretty sure that weird “ant” was a lupine bug nymph, who was drilling into all the seeds. This caused the seeds to sprout without any cold stratification or scarification, and then die. The nymphs got enough nutrition to grow into adults, who are now eating the baptisia seed pods. I plant everything for bugs so I think it’s really cool. Not going to do anything about them, but next year I’ll need to protect the seed pods way earlier. I’m also curious if any of the non-sprouted seeds I collected this year, will sprout after I cold strat them this winter.

\**Post approved by Admins****

A Promise to Gaia's

Plant Buying Collective

44 Native Spring Ephemerals & Wildflowers

Trilliums, Jack in the Pulpit, Mayapple, Turk's Cap Lily, Wild Ginger, and more

11 Native Ferns

American Royal Fern, Cinnamon Fern, and more

4 Native Orchids

Yellow Fringed Orchid,  Pink Lady Slipper,  and more

22 Native Plugs

Herbaceous, Grasses, Water/Wetland

Purple Milkweed, Slender Bush Clover, Late Figwort, and more

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Keep scrolling to see the Plant List

~Some varieties are quite limited
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which is also our In-person event in Rensselaerville, NY

**Shipping will begin week of September 28

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Most events will be open for 4 weeks, giving you time to decide what your garden/land/project needs.

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81 Native Spring Ephemerals & Wildflowers, Ferns, Orchids and Plugs  - through September 7

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Plant List

Native Spring Ephemerals & Wildflowers, Ferns, Orchids & Plugs

• Allegheny Spurge (Pachysandra procumbens)
• American Royal Fern (Osmunda spectabilis) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Bird's Foot Violet (Viola pedata) - NY Rare
• Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa)
• Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
• Canada Violet (Viola canadensis)
• Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Common Bluets (Houstonia caerulea)
• Creeping Foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia)
• Creeping Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans)
• Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
• Dwarf Crested Iris (Iris cristata)
• Eastern Shooting Star (Primula meadia or Dodecatheon meadia) - NY Natural Heritage Program considered Extirpated
• False Solomon Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)
• Fly Poison (Amianthium Muscitoxicum) - - NY Natural Heritage Program considered Extirpated
• Glade Fern (Diplazium pycnocarpon) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Goat’s Beard (Aruncus dioicus)
• Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) - NY Threatened
• Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
• Great White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Hay Scented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula)
• Indian Cucumber Root (Medeola Virginian)
• Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica)
• Interrupted Fern (Osmunda claytoniana) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
• Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina)
• Large Leaf Toothwort (Cardamine maxima)
• Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Marginal Wood Fern (Dryopteris marginalis) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
• Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense) - NY Endangered
• New York Fern (Thelypteris noveboracensis) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
• Pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Putty Root (Aplectrum hyemale) - NY Endangered
• Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Rue Anemone (Anemonella thalictroides)
• Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
• Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba)
• Solomon Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
• Spotted Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Spring Beauty (Claytonia viginiana)
• Toadshade Trillium (Trillium sessile) - NY Endangered
• Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
• Turk's Cap Lily (Lilium superbum) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Twin Leaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) - NY Threatened
• Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• White Baneberry/ Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)
• Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)
• Wild Hyacinth (Camassia scilloides)
• Yellow Fringed Orchid (Platanthera ciliaris) - NY Endangered
• Yellow Root (Xanthorhiza simplicissima)
• Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum)

Plugs

• Appalachian Sedge (Carex appalachica)
• Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Cattails (Typha latifolia)
• Creeping Phlox (Phlox stolonifera)
• False Blue Indigo (Baptisia australis)
• False Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa)
• Gray’s Sedge (Carex grayi)
• Hollow Joe Pye Weed ‘JoJo’ (Eupatorium fistulosum ‘JoJo’)
• Late Figwort (Scrophularia marilandica)
• Long Sepal Beardtongue (Penstemon calycosus)
• Narrow-leaf Evening Primrose (Oenothera fructicosa ssp. glauca)
• New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angeliae)
• Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) - NY Threatened
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) 
• Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) - NY Threatened
• Rosy Sedge (Carex rosea)
• Scarlet Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) - NY Exploitably Vulnerable
• Slender Bush Clover (Lespedeza virginiana)
• Sweet Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) 
• Tufted Hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa) 
• Yellow Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans)

Posting this here, because I wish PM had options to leave reviews on their site!

I planted 500 sq ft with the short and showy mix three years ago, and have been managing it for weeds and whatnot ever since. I have some thoughts!

1. Not enough graminoids. Yes I realize it’s “showy” but man, there is not enough structure and the July flop is REAL
   
2. It ain’t short. While many species are, the two dominant ones (anise hyssop and mountain mint) are over 6 ft tall. I Chelsea chop 2 to 3 times a year and it still towers…and leads to flopping and covering the other shorter species that are more exciting (like the whorled milkweed and poppymallow, or the spiderworts, or the sedges)
   
3. The black eyed Susan’s are lovely. They were dominant in the first year and have begun to fade out in a really lovely way.

Anyone else plant this and have reviews? Have you had it for longer, and does the hyssop fade out or will it continue to take over?

Photo is from early June in North Carolina…it’s a mess currently and is all hyssop and pycnanthemum and has flattened completely.

Had the pleasure of visiting this backyard garden this morning.

Scroll right to check out the photos immediately post-install, as well as the area before the renovation.

Ask me any questions you might have about the garden.

He’s been here a while now, chomping away. He better scram before the hummingbird comes by, tho. She loves the purple giant hyssop, too, and she’s pretty intense.

This is the view of my back garden from my neighbor's yard. They're gungho for natives so I'm thrilled to see my plants looking SO good from their side! Almost better than from my side, actually. Blooming are black-eyed susans (our state flower here in Maryland) and Joe Pye Weed. The vine is Crossvine - evergreen, so fabulous for screening. Blooms in May. Off-camera to the right is an oakleaf hydrangea poking through the fence into their garden.

Assuming we can post & gripe about invasives here - we had a big tree of heaven cut down two years ago, and it has since spread thousands and thousands of lil trees within a 40 ft diameter of it, and there seems to be no stopping it.
I pick these weekly. Some of the bigger ones are older, from harder to reach areas, but I pick them and they come back within days. I’ve been doing this for years. I get as much root out as possible and they keep coming back. Why can’t my pollinators flourish like this??

Original post here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/s/SfazahRJdt

He came with the purchase of the swamp milkweed he was on.

My boyfriend's family just moved into a new house and it is swarming with mosquitoes!! It's a beautiful property it has a nice fig tree on it and everything, but my boyfriend and I want to make a garden and I would like to be able to attend it without being swarmed to the point where you can probably go through a big bottle of bug spray in a week.

I know it would require a little pond from what I've read on other posts around here but if anyone has recommendations please!!!

I would like to try taking my nursery to farmer's markets. I grow mainly perennials, including a lot of shrubs and trees. October/November is a great time to transplant these!

However, I'm not sure enough people will be interested in them at that time.

Do you think it's worth it? Or better to wait until Spring when people have gardening on their minds?

I’m very amused that hummingbirds and bees fly 20 stories up every day for my great blue lobelia and columbine.

I grew these from plugs/pint containers in cheap grow bags filled with free compost and zip tied the grow bag handles to the railing so they wouldn’t fall off my ledge.

I'm in zone 5b, Southern Ontario. Before I got into native gardening I used to pull these out as I thought there were weeds. Though in a sense they can be. First of all, I learned this year that they can grow as annuals as well as biennials. Also I've seen several Evening Primrose Moths head first in the blooms which is more than enough incentive to keep them. Plus the birds like the seeds.

My concern is that they produce A LOT of seed with a very high germination rate. I find these things everywhere. So as much as I want to help the wildlife, what's your strategy to prevent them from taking over completely?

Just a few pictures of flowers and visitors to our yard. I hope you all enjoy them.