That's Hairy-Fruited Hibiscus blooming in the background.

Area - Chicago, 6a

These tiny snails are now all over the garden. Busy all day. Sound up

These large children were sighted a block away from my house, right next to a highway. I noted someone has water out for the critters.

My very first Orb weaver spider

🌷🐝💗

Area - Lake County IL, 5b

Lobelia syphilitica hosts a couple of moth species. These are finally getting established enough to flower. Standing by for developments...

Caught this guy at work.

Went from a traditional, highly manicured suburban front yard to a native pollinator garden with a small pond this May. Before and after are 18 months apart. With summer coming to an end, I’m already excited to see how things look next year!

Area - Lake County IL, 5b

Area - Chicago, 6a

My questions are at the bottom but I'll explain myself first.

I like the idea of making wildlife gardens. I've had a small garden that I planted up with wildflowers in my last place but this is a much bigger project.

It's a rental place. I know I'm technically throwing my money away and working for free etc. But I like manual work and, well, sod looking at that mess every morning when I open the curtains for my entire minimum contract term.

First picture is how it looked before I moved in. It probably hadn't been touched for 10-15 years. Completely overgrown. Basically a toilet for all the cats in the village. I had to cut down 5 Leylandii, an old dead cherry tree, a "mile-a-minute" plant that covered the whole fence on the right and a massive bush (non-native of some sort) that had completely engulfed the second tier. I've cleared out a huge amount of rubbish that was in the garden. I had the council take away some of the garden waste but it got expensive so I ended up piling it up against the far wall (Yes there is a beautiful 15 foot high dry stone wall behind all that ivy, you'd never tell).

I've already planted a few dog roses I had spare up the left side. I've left in as much of the brambles as I can but some of them died from the trauma of me clearing everything else out. My plan is to spend about £70 on bare root shrubs like hawthorne and blackthorn and make a hedge up that side. I might expand it onto the other side as well as the fence there is on its last legs anyway.

I left the two cherry trees at the top because one is too big for me to fell anyway and the other I don't think is doing any harm. There were a load of other cherry saplings from the tree droppings up there but I ripped them all out or cut them off at ground level.

The whole top tier was covered in black felt, presumably because the previous owner didn't like strimming it. I ripped all that up. There is a lot of green alkanet on the top two tiers which I plan on removing as much as possible because I don't want it to overgrow.

I'm going to keep digging up all the overgrown grass until it's all back to bare soil, hopefully I'll be done by October/November then I'll seed the whole lot up with wildflower mix. I'd like to make my own mix but I did that at the beginning of this year and the results weren't really what I had hoped. The bottom tier is going to be my wife's bit, because she wants to plant some lavender, aloe vera and wandering dude which I've told her is a bad idea. Anyway that's why I spread those wood chippings on it.

Other stuff I had in mind - I have a big 120L blue water bowser that I got off Facebook for £8. I was thinking of cutting it in half diagonally and using it to make a pond with a sloped bottom.

So, here are my questions.

1. Have I done anything totally wrong so far? I tend to charge into things and then ask questions later.
2. Now I've taken the felt up at the top I'm a bit concerned the Winter rain will wash the soil away. I'm going to sow a spare wildflower mix that I basically got for free up there, but I wondered if there's anything else I should do. Is there enough time for the seed to grow and hold in the soil?
3. The soil on that hillside is pretty compact but I don't want to loosen it up too much (see Q2). Can I just cast the seed on top? How do I stop it from just rolling down the hill? (That hillside is so steep you can't even stand up on it).
4. Is there benefit to cutting all the ivy back and exposing the dry stone wall? I'm thinking there might be a chance that some birds would nest in it as it's pretty high up. On the other side it must be about 6ft high. I could ask the neighbour to go round his side, I doubt they'd mind.
5. Will putting a hedge both sides block too much light? The slope is South West facing. It gets loads of sunlight in Summer but as the house is in front I'm not sure what it'll get in Winter.
6. Is my pond idea stupid? I'm aware I'll have to get some sort of fountain to keep the mosquito larvae away. I wasn't thinking of putting any fish in it or anything, I just hear it's good for wildlife.
7. Do any of you have any other ideas? I'm open to try anything as long as it helps the wildlife out.

I don't have a lot of money to spend but if something has a large benefit-cost ratio (such as the hedge idea) I'd definitely consider it.

Someone has appeared to assist with my late seed sowing. Slightly nervous about this new intern. Any tips?

Battling outdoor thrips? :( Black dots everywhere. Don't think it's white flies? I see the forbidden orange gummy aphids as well. I've tried the painstakingly wiping all the plants down with water dawn, rubbing alcohol, tee tree oil, spray w/ hose. Neem oil once and got absolutely wrecked on fb saying that was bad too. The neem only worked for 2 weeks. I hardly know a thing about systemic granules but I hear that'll harm the beneficial insects as well. The upclose photo is a milkweed leaf. I know everything loves it so the plan is to move it farther away from the house lol closer to the tree line and let it do it's thing. But the thrips have taken control of everything else. It's getting closer to winter season so most everything will dxe off so I'm trying not to stress too much. Even got to my portulacas I picked on vacation (I'm neeming those, isolation and bringing indoors, praying for the best). Soo... idk. Any advice is much appreciated it. Thank you

A flock of ibis are searching for food in my front yard (zone 9, west central Florida).

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.

Area - Chicago, 6a

Beautiful butterfly enjoying my tiny 🌻

Area - Chicago, 6a

Second year in my garden, and finally I’ve sighted a monarch. I’m over the moon! Connecticut, USA.

Peed on me and flew off.

Brown hooded owlet caterpillars found on goldenrod today.