Reply to Help me understand the importance of native plants

Forum Index » Lawn and Garden

Reply to "Help me understand the importance of native plants "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I gotta say, I went out at lunch -- my front yard is all flowers, mostly natives/pollinator-friendly species -- and there were hardly any bees or butterflies out there compared to previous years. So far we have only seen those little white butterflies (which I hope aren't cabbage butterflies, since I have planted eggplant) -- no monarchs, no black, yellow, or blue swallowtails, and none of the little orange, yellow, or brown types we usually see. We currently have coneflowers, liatris, milkweed, sunflowers, coreopsis, monarda/wild bergamot, agastache/hyssop, and lavender in bloom, and usually they are covered with flying things. Last year we could literally have a hundred bees of at least a half dozen different species on the hyssop alone, today I could count them on one hand and zero bumblebees or honeybees. It's worrisome. [/quote]
It’s legitimately frightening. I don’t have much native (yet), but the absence of birdsong is noticeable. I have some plants that are basically weeds (I haven’t gotten close, but I think one is aster and I know one is a native silene) that I would have pulled in years past. They’re staying now. [/quote]

They must be all in my yard. We've noticed the orange swallowtails, the little flittering brown/orange onces, moths, bees of many species, hummingbirds. Monarchs we have seen later in the season. My milkweed is just now blooming.  We've had loads of bird nests this year: robins, blue birds, wrens, chickadees, finches. We've even idenfied a new bird species we have never seen before. So be patient. It could take a couple of years. Longer if your neighbors use lots of pest/herbicides. Some bees -mason bees for example- will not nest in areas with that stuff.

Good luck and thanks for doing what you're doing. [/quote]

Yes, my yard is covered as well (though no monarchs despite all the milkweed  :cry: ).  And our yard is a far cry from all-native--plenty of nandina, hydrangea, roses--much of which were well established before we bought here (mea culpa).  But more because of small kids & pets, I have never sprayed (now 8+ years), and one of my immediate neighbors is even more militant. We are bordered behind by an abandoned (wooded) lot, and even the other neighbor who used to get on me about our weedy clover-covered lawn has cut it back a lot.  So I wonder if more than anything, the lack of pesticides + a lot of benign neglect is the real boon for pollinators.[/quote]

100%. Some bees will not nest in areas with lots of chemicals. (And of course, it can kill them and that is happening too).[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics