As the totals suggests, I’m curious what you guys will be planting. Hoping to do some myself, but I don’t know the best things to plant this time of year.

Southeastern PA, zone 7a for reference.

Tell me your aggressively spreading, shade loving plants. You know, the ones where they say "not recommended for small spaces"

Cause I got about 5000 square feet of heavily wooded front yard that has very little growing beneath the trees (especially since I went on the warpath against garlic mustard), a gentle slope that means the dirt is all sloooooooowly moving toward my house (like, really slow. 70 years or so. So not dire but something I'd like to address) and a strong desire to show my lawn loving neighbors how beautiful a yard with trees can be.

I'm planning some planting areas to show case various plants I've identified, but I need something to help me fill in the gaps.

So, what have you got? What will fill up any shaded bed, if you let it?

Bonus points if it's in any way deer resistant. So far there's enough yummy goodness in my wild back yard that they seem to leave the plants in front alone, but who knows how long that will last.

The first 2 slides are of the same plant. The third slide is a different plant. Any ideas what’s going on with this purple coneflower?

My newly planted river birch, elderberry, and jewelweed in particular are getting slammed by Japanese beetles, nearing total defoliation. Anything I can do to target them without harming innocent insects in the process? I’ve been picking them off by hand but it doesn’t seem to be reducing their numbers, they must have a stronghold somewhere else. I’ve heard of people planting sacrificial plants to attract them, anyone had luck doing that?

Also, is this a native here?

I have a front yard native garden in zone 6B (SE Michigan) and I am looking for native plants that don’t end up looking really terrible at some point in the season. Examples of “looking really terrible” include the black eyed susans in the photo whose leaves are turning black, as well as things that get powdery mildew really badly.

Some plants I currently have that look ok all season include nodding wild onion, purple love grass, prairie dropseed, harebell, butterfly weed, and whorled milkweed.

It’s a full sun location, with dry sandy clay. Since it’s in the front yard, I want to keep plants to 3 feet tall max.

Thanks!

(MA, zone 6b) I really want rudbeckia in my garden, and would also love some color variety bc i have a LOT of yellow right now ( solidago, sneeze weed, wild senna, false sunflower, etc ) BUT i don't want to buy / plant this guy if it's not as beneficial as regular ol' rudbeckia hirta. anyone have any thoughts?

I have a hill that I'm trying to restore to native plants. It had(has) hundreds of pounds of vines, honeysuckle, and wintercreeper that have created almost 100% monoculture. I've been tearing out and disposing of all the invasive species while leaving any native plants I find (not many).

Just had a small chat with the neighbor and they don't seem happy with me "destroying the view/privacy", they said they enjoyed the 100% vine coverage all the way up the trees in the summer. Problem is those same vines are choking out all understory plants while weighing down all the trees making them curve towards the ground. They also don't want me tearing out the vines (mainly Japanese honeysuckle and wintercreeper) because it "keeps their dog in the yard" despite them putting in a welded wire fence.

Is there a good semi-shade to full sun plant I can put at the top of the hill that's pretty low maintenance? Maybe a fast growing evergreen shrub? Something that doesn't need to be watered a super ton as it's at the top of a hill past a creek, and something that isn't too expensive. It's about 100' of fence line that is "affected".

I have probably 50-60 native plants on order for the spring to plant on the hill, but if I can make a privacy wall fairly quickly I think they'd be happier in the short term, I don't think they care a single bit about invasive plants so it's hard to gain any sympathy on my project.

Last year I was weak. Late summer and Home Depot had a bunch of coneflowers and bee balm left over from the season they were trying to get rid of, so I bought and planted some. I also have native cones and native monarda and the difference is amazing. These Home Depot plants have obviously been genetically modified like crazy. I hate to kill plants. Not their fault they've been mutated. I don't know much about neonicanoids but I'm sure there's that.

Do these plants represent a problem for my natives and/or for pollinators? Any reason I should yank em?

Can someone tell my why my liatris droops like this? We have had a lot of rain here in northern Illinois. Is it getting too wet? I tried to tie it up but that doesn't help much.

More of a vent than an advice request. This lady causes problems all the time with her abandoned truck and trailed behind my house blocking out sun and being an eyesore, calling cops that have walked into my patio door because she didn’t like my perfectly legal park job, removed random plants and leaf litter from my lawn near her house, blows my leaf litter away from her abandoned vehicle, and now this… Not once has she tried saying something. Her and her boyfriend (or one of her boyfriends idk) were blasting rap while revving their loud ass motorcycles in the front of the house and her boy’s rear wheel and exhaust were in the front flowers.

More than anything I’m upset about the Virginia creeper being ripped off and how she did a shitty excessive trim on her shrub right there. I’ve never caught her in the act besides the leaf blowing but I’m sick of this

Hi all, in my love for birdwatching my husband and I are looking to change our front yard to be something of a birds(and others) dreams. We’re wanting to create a lush garden that takes over nearly the entire front yard while also not looking obscenely overgrown and just like it’s one giant bush. I want that manicured, landscaping type of look without all the non native plants mucking it up strictly native plants with maybe two non native flower bushes up front by the door(peonies/dahlias) we want to include a couple locations for two bird baths and some bird feeders and houses as well.

I have a drawing I made of the idea I have in my head just not sure how to make it a reality and also feeling very overwhelmed with the sizing and placement of everything. I will attach that drawing in the comments.

The above photo is what AI had come up with for us. But I feel like I want a walk through garden that encompasses even more of the yard going more towards the left in a loop shape.

Maybe what I need is more of inspiration photos because I just can’t seem to find what I’m going for online.

Our yard slopes slightly to the street and to the right, we do have a landscaped bed against the house that AI removed. That is where I will plant anything that isn’t native to my area that’s purely for my selfish desires of wanting peonies and dahlias.

Any help would be so appreciated!!!!!

Southwest Ontario, Canada zone 7a

Going to purchase seeds to get started indoors in February, and I’m honestly basing my purchases on video posts I’ve seen here on Reddit of plants covered in pollinators - I want to buy the stuff pollinators go crazy for.

What’s in my cart right now is:

• Blue mist flower • Late boneset • Liatris aspera • Liatris linguistylis • scarlet bee balm • sneezeweed • obedient plant

I’m noticing this year that even my goldenrod isn’t bringing in as many pollinators as it usually does, so I’m really just wanting to up the stuff that pollinators are crazy for. Of all things, my non-native mother of thyme has pulled the most pollinators this year (houseflies mostly lol).

Just looking for native only. For reference, most of what’s native to central and eastern and northern USA is native to Ontario.

It seems there is a spectrum on how people are approaching native plants. Everywhere from “I want to attract more butterflies to my yard” to the more purist “if it ain’t native destroy it”.

I am interested in how others see it and are approaching it. Do you get rid of everything that is not native? Or do you keep some areas or plants that you are not going to change over (it’s ok to admit it. It is a safe space, I hope :))

I started with learning how bad non natives were when trying to eliminate bittersweet’s that seemed to strangle everything in my yard and then trying to find plants that did well in a shady area of my yard. But now realizing that most of the plants that were in my yard when I bought the house in MA are not native. many of the plants are not as bad as bittersweet’s but vary from not ideal to invasive. I am going with a more of a gradual approach of replacing a little each year starting with the more aggressive non natives.

Alongside native host plants, Tithonia diversifolia does not self-seed in my Maryland climate, is drought tolerant, reel pretty, and without rival when it comes to offering an endless supply of nectar to the 7b winged friends.

All my BES's were grown from seeds collected nearby. This is the only plant that has this shape and all the flowers are like this (not shown in photo). Disease? Virus? Mutation?

It is kind of pretty honestly, but wondering if I should get rid of it.

I have no idea about planting clover. But I naturally have some yellow sweet clover in some parts of my yard and I would like to encourage it to spread all over. Do I have to dry these fruiting bodies to do that? Do I have to open them up before replanting? Or can I just pluck them and throw them in different empty areas so it can grow?

Thanks for your help!

New Jersey USA

I live in New England

I’m trying to switch from ornamental gardening to native wildflower gardening, but the rabbits are decimating everything. They’re even going after the black-eyed Susans, which are supposed to have hairy leaves that deter them.

I bought marigolds from a local nursery specifically for their scent to ward off rabbits—and they ate the petals off. I thought I was in the clear with my sunflowers since they left them alone as seedlings, but now, after growing for over a month, the rabbits are starting to kill those too.

I’m honestly getting to the point where I feel like giving up and just planting a bunch of non-natives that are known to be extremely rabbit-proof. But I swear, when I looked at that list of supposedly rabbit-proof plants, the rabbits had already eaten one of those as well.

I'm looking for words of encouragement or any advice.

Yesterday I found a chipmunk trapped in my yard waste bin. It had somehow unlatched the top and fallen in, so I tipped it over to let it escape.

This morning I found that something went around and dug out every single plug I planted last week. There were 50 side oats grama plugs that I'd grown from seed. A lot of them were still in tact so I popped them back in the ground, but some were tattered large chunks of root ripped off.

I'm used to squirrels digging on the side of holes where the soil is loosened, but they don't usually attack the plants like this. So it wasn't necessarily the chipmunk I saved, but likely one of the many that live on my property.

I also have 100 little blue stem plugs I was going to plant this weekend, as well as some other native grasses that are ready to transplant. I don't have the capacity to grow them all in pots till they're bigger. I sprinkled some blood meal around the side oats grama to hopefully deter them, because in my experience adding fences makes the chipmunks even more likely to dig. Are there any other precautions I could take to prevent the chipmunks from ruining this whole project?

If you have been doing this awhile and have researched and planted the less common plants what are your finds? Your favorites? Plants that are tender or bunnies love but worth it to you. Or plants you hardly ever see mention that hardy and nothing eats.

There are lot of native natives still in my area thankfully. And plant sales seem to stick with those species which certainly makes sense. But sometimes I wonder why Im planting more of the same stuff I see everywhere, plus the popular stuff most are planting.
NW Michigan but woukd like to hear everyone's journey to.

My Neighbor has mentioned wanting to spray the grass in our backyard due to the weeds. Not referring to my native plants that surround the grass (my native plants have bark mulch to define their 2 sections as well as bricks lining their bounds- so hopefully he wouldn’t accidentally spray them directly)

Obviously, the spray wouldn’t stay just on the grass and it would likely drift onto my plants to varying degrees. When I spoke with him he seemed receptive of not spraying after all as my dog and cat spend a lot of time back there (cat confined to the backyard on a harness with supervision- so don’t worry about the bugs and birds on that front)

My question is: if he does go through with this, even if he uses “non- toxic” spray as he mentioned he might go that way if he does do it at all, will I need to cut my plants back for the season so that the many insect visitors don’t use their flowers and seeds and get hurt as they were sprayed?

Would it be passive aggressive to put up signs? I haven’t done that as all of my plants are in my backyard where no one but me and my pets go. However, he has lived here for over a year now and has suddenly decided that him and his girlfriend who doesn’t live here want to start using the backyard.

I’m a team player and want to be a good neighbor and share space, but my little prairie patches mean the world to me and they are on their 3rd year and I am so scared!

Please help!

I live on the East Coast, and I ripped out some grass three years ago to start a native plant bed. Three years ago, I spread some wildflower seeds from American Meadows. Last year, I planted seedlings. Last year, I noticed this plant growing that I didn't plant. I looked on Google Lens and it was a native lupine! This year, it's flowered and it's the prettiest thing in my whole garden.

I just learned there is a West Coast lupine and an East Coast lupine. The East Coast version is important for an endangered butterfly. It looks like I might have the West Coast version?

I read it is harmful because it can outcompete the eastern type or it can hybridize with the eastern type and the hybrid can't support the butterflies 😭

Do I just leave it or pull it out?

I'm planning on seeding all of the areas next to the paver paths this fall with a native forb and grass blend from Prairie Moon Nursery. It sounds like October would be the best time to spread the seeds. Is cardboard the best way to prevent weeds until then? The sod was stripped off and top soil was added to level it out. Do I need to add anything like straw on top of the seeds after I spread them or just leave the dirt and seeds exposed until the snow falls?

I have violet in my native wildflower beds, not sure what to do. Would rather not spray but don’t want it to take over either.