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Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

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Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#31

Post by is_true »

jlglover wrote: post #30
bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

I completely agree with most of your points. I have a spot in my garden where I want to plant a large native tree, probably an oak. I would love to plant all natives, except that they quickly get eaten by deer in my neighborhood. Even many "deer resistant" varieties like coneflower and beebalm. Of course, this make no sense, since deer and native plants should have evolved to survive beside one another. I think this…

You could buy a bow and do some management. It's really interesting. There's a YouTube channel, seek one.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#32

Post by dylan604 »

pascalxus wrote: post #28

Personally, I like to plant as many different types of fruit trees, fruit vines and berries as I can and as much diversity as I can. But, I find sticking just to natives is kinda limiting. It's nice to prefer natives but I wouldn't be too religious about it.

Just ensure that what non-native you do get is not an invasive species. There are websites you can check if the type of plant you are looking to plant is considered invasive or not. After learning about this, I was surprised by the number of invasive plants being sold at nurseries. I've learned which local nurseries are more trustworthy of being able to trust any plant they are offering.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#33

Post by angst_ridden »

When I bought a place in the LA area, the house had neatly trimmed lawns and flowers planted with perfect spacing around the borders in both the front and back yards.

Over the past twenty years, it's been converted into a wild, exuberant mix of flowers, fruit trees, and native plants. We do irrigate with drip-lines. We have a lot of butterfly host plants, and it is now a veritable Disney-film-happy-place filled with birds and bees and butterflies (and aphids and spiders and salamanders).

There are a few chairs and benches scattered around, and I sit outside and read or code on pleasant days. I spend a lot of time taking macro photos of bugs and flowers.

Several of our neighbors loathe us, saying that our yard is a mess and lowers property values. Their pesticide-ridden lawns are perfectly green, even in the Summer, and they are only ever outside to instruct their gardeners where to direct the leaf blowers.

Most people walking by are enchanted by the wildness and the animal life. Kids, particularly, are thrilled when they see the butterflies, or get to pick cherry-tomatoes or berries off the vines.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#35

Post by bmitc »

jlglover wrote: post #30
bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

I completely agree with most of your points. I have a spot in my garden where I want to plant a large native tree, probably an oak. I would love to plant all natives, except that they quickly get eaten by deer in my neighborhood. Even many "deer resistant" varieties like coneflower and beebalm. Of course, this make no sense, since deer and native plants should have evolved to survive beside one another. I think this…

We have deer as well that keep eating certain plants. I am drawing a blank on which ones, but they kept growing back rather quickly. We are going to take into consideration this year and perhaps plant them in less convenient spots, more quantity, or something else when it comes to mind, like some sort of deer sprinkler project that targets them. Haha. Although it is quite annoying as they were eating two of my favorite plants I got last year, I'm not too bothered by it. I'm going to buy more and try what I mentioned above and see if it helps at all. They leave the milkweeds alone, probably for obvious reasons, and the milkweeds are the happening place for basically all the insects. It is crazy how popular they are. There are other plants they also leave alone. I think it's going to just be trial and error since they don't seem to like all the native plants, just some of them.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#36

Post by lasermatts »

I wrote a book about my experience taking my concrete filled back yard to one full of life over the pandemic! Gardening in an urban setting presents unique challenges but it's super rewarding!

Link to my book (for anyone interested): https://a.co/d/crd2HcD

Super excited to see articles on big sites talking about the importance of biodiversity!

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#37

Post by fillskills »

I am cofounder of a startup called HealingGardens.co. We are trying to help biodiverse urban gardens make revenue with an airbnb like model.

If anyone here has an urban garden and would like to list it on our marketplace, we would be glad to review or help.

If you have questions or want to work on something with us please feel free to reach out at abhi at healinggardens.co

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#38

Post by circlefavshape »

jlglover wrote: post #30
bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

I completely agree with most of your points. I have a spot in my garden where I want to plant a large native tree, probably an oak. I would love to plant all natives, except that they quickly get eaten by deer in my neighborhood. Even many "deer resistant" varieties like coneflower and beebalm. Of course, this make no sense, since deer and native plants should have evolved to survive beside one another. I think this…

Couldn't you put a fence around the tree until it's big enough to survive a bit of deer-nibbling?

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#39

Post by lasermatts »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #4

I suggest to add a bee home (bee house, bee hotel) to your garden. It is simple, last several years, it can be as small as a bird house, and can be a fun weekend project with the kids. (It can also be purchased.) Please, do not get honey bees, unless willing to take care of them - just like with any animal husbandry. I love them, I am a beek, but I find too many abandoned or swarms from people who bought into the ide…

+1 for adding in bee hotels to promote those solitary bees!

equally easy (but a little uglier) is to always remember not to cut back your native plants over winter! Native solitary bees love to lay their eggs in hollowed out plant stems!

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#40

Post by bmitc »

ilyt wrote: post #19
bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

Yeah, I also don't understand appeal of "just a square of land filled with immaculate lawn and not much else. It's essentially space wasted for nothing.

Agreed. I've heard manicured lawns described as deserts but that that is actually not fair to deserts, the implication being that deserts are a healthier ecosystem than manicured lawns.

I still have a lawn in the front and back covering parts of the property. I did plant non-native grass last fall. I'm not sure I'm happy about that from an ideal standpoint, but I chose grass that is very drought resistant and needs basically no maintenance and looks fine when allowed to grow taller. I mixed in some mini-clover, which is also non-native, but it's a new species that is supposed to make the grass even more drought tolerant, provides natural fertilization, and supports pollinators. We'll see how it goes. I also plan to not mow as much, although last year with the drought, I barely mowed at all. I don't use chemical fertilizers and used only natural fertilizers. I have heard this approach described as feeding the soil and not feeding the grass. One of the fertilizers I used showed some fungus growing on the grass, which I was happy about.

I hope to keep evolving things and reclaiming parts of the lawn that we never use or want. It's nice as you reclaim it with plants and trees, because it's decreasing maintenance burden.

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