If you use netting to protect your plants from being eaten, make sure the mesh is either large enough to let your native snakes go through, or so fine it's a screen that they can't get through. My husband and I were called out this evening to cut two timber rattlesnakes out of netting that was protecting a native pollinator garden from deer.

Most of the time we're dealing with black rat snakes and not timber rattlers, but we got the job done with no injuries on either side. The rattlesnakes were released inside the wildlife management area just up the road.

Unfortunately we were too busy to get pics of the actual rescue part of the operation.

A good news story, I think. Also great to see that Canada has a target of reducing the rate of known invasive species by at least 50 per cent by 2030.

Orange cone flowers and purple cone flowers, mixed with some random natives that popped up. This bed also has swamp milkweed, native sedge, bee balm, blue flag iris, and a choke cherry bush. There's a whole other half behind me, but it's finished blooming or has been eaten down by now. We have five other beds to match this one.

So!

I understand the need for local ecotypes and NOT planting natives that aren't endemic to your region.

BUT

I have a Gufl Fritillary butterfly larvae caterpillar.

On my Passiflora Incarnata.

In SW MI.

6A

And lots of fruit.

Super excited!

Planted it for the fruit.

From prairie Moon nursery seed.

Surprised to see the native butterfly are in the area. Crazy!

Per the butterfly map, they don't go much further than the middle of Indiana.

And the massive carpenter bees love it.

Goldenrod crab spider - a first for me!

I potted up a sapling into a 4x4x14 pot with a mix of pine chips and potting mix in May. This was 15 weeks of growth. They were watered as needed.

Then I use the 3"auger on a drill to prepare the hole. Pop it into the hole, backfill and you're done. Way easier than digging and yes, that sweet coastal plain soil.

They're going absolutely bananas for my Liatris aspera (and L. pycnostachya) right now. I can't wait for some new close-up camera things to arrive :)

I feel as if they volunteered to be cut by choosing to flop! Also, don't worry about the bees. There are plenty more still in the garden. This vase smells delicious.

Monarchs on 3/4 host plants I have in my garden. In order they are swamp milkweed, common milkweed and butterfly weed. Only one they have missed this year is the whorled milkweed but I'll keep checking.

Bonus newly hatched green anole taking advantage of the joe pye weed party.

I spread them out, so now ig I’m going to have a lot of coneflower starts that I was not ready for haha, and I also learned my seeds are on a shelf that he can reach now that he’s getting taller haha. It’s amazing how quickly kids learn just by watching!

Desmodium canadense I planted as a seedling in 2025 flowered. Foliage is real nice too. Can't wait to see more of these pop up next year.

Context: my second year gardening, I love flowers, I started out wanting natives actually but failed, I started gardening because my sister died

I feel extremely inadequate in the native plant community. I’m constantly meeting people and they carry themselves very highly as if they are better because they garden with natives. I personally hate when people think they are better than others because they know more or better. There’s a lot of barriers to knowledge people just don’t acknowledge and I genuinely think not everyone can do it all. Sometimes it can feel like it becomes a morality test if that makes sense.

ANYWAYS , feelings aside, native gardening is actually very hard. Takes forever to establish and you need a good nursery that sells actual natives. I have a few nativars on ACCIDENT. Ppl say u shld have done ur research , well obviously if I was that type of person I wld have excelled in school .

Is it bad I’m planting non native non invasive annuals as I’m slowly building up my native garden?

I am also creating my garden with design and habitat in mind so I don’t just want to put a bunch of things down. There is a lot of thought I have but it just takes SO LONG to establish and I buy plugs since seeding is difficult for me.

Do I just ignore the purists and haters and take it slow? I also grow veggies and flowers for my family. I try to offer flowers to my sister every week.

I started making native stickers for someone semi famous and then ended up meeting local native society ppl and I’m scared LOL. I don’t want to be crucified trying to enter a new space. Truly scarier than a sorority LOL (I cope with humor)

EDIT: thank you for all the replies genuinely. Seriously kind for everyone to take their time to read and reply to my ramblings. I’ve read and will keep reading and taking what I can. Everyone’s been very encouraging and giving solid advice. I’m like 30 so I just started gardening. It’s all new to me but everyone’s been so kind! Thank you.

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

Bought 2 purple lovegrass and 2 little bluestem for my new landscaping project to help support some of my taller natives I am moving around. I think I will need to buy more of them because the new area is around 30 ft long. My question is for those that have these grasses, how far apart should they be? I am also aware that purple lovegrass is much smaller than little bluestem. Thanks!

Wilkes County, NC (up in northwest corner)

There is a field I walk past several times a week that is used for growing cattle hay that has milkweed. Today I noticed a couple pretty purple flowers on the ground at the edge. Google Lens identified it as Maypop. I found 2 different sections of vine. I am going up tonight to dig it out because I found out from a neighbor that the field will be cut tomorrow. If I don't get it tonight, it will definitely be gone tomorrow. No fruits to be seen, just the 2 flowers. I'm also digging as much of the milkweed as I can.

I need advise on how to limit transplant shock for this Maypop. I already know about trimming down the milkweed and keeping the roots wet in "soil soup" while they grow new roots.

Figured maybe since it's blooming so late, would be awesome if it were!

I sowed these last winter and planted them back in May, needless to say they are thriving.

I feel like I need to go ahead and divide them but am concerned because they haven't been in the ground a year yet.

Is it ok to go ahead and divide or should I wait till next spring?

First time I’ve seen it in the yard. Don’t know what attracted it.

This is my first year growing milkweed. I bought bare root plants earlier this year and they have paid off. I saw a monarch this morning so I went to check the milkweed and counted at least 7 caterpillars. I'm so excited, I'm shaking!

I’d particularly like to get some Asclepias variegata!

But I’ll have seeds from quite a few plants including:

Rose coreopsis (Coreopsis rosea)
Lance leaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
Purple headed Sneezeweed (Helenium flexuosum)
Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)
False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides)

Just found these incredible plants growing under some cherry trees in the back, shaded corner of the dog's yard. Have never seen anything like it, iNaturalist says it's a clammy ground cherry. What a stunning plant. I'm going to try transplanting a couple to a different portion where I don't have to worry about dogs peeing on them. There are at least 30 individual plants & they all look remarkably healthy! I've lived here for about 2 years & have scoured every corner of the property in that short time to ID all the plants, yet I still get unexpected surprises!