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Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

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Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#131

Post by colechristensen »

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…

There are invasive plants and there are non-native plants and these things aren't necessarily the same. You do you with your yard but not everybody has to be so strict. There are plenty of non-native plants that have very low risk of becoming invasive which do a lot for biodiversity and are nice to look at.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#132

Post by bmitc »

wcarron wrote: post #122
bmitc wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was distinguishing plants from crops. I think it's perfectly fine to be growing non-native vegetables and fruits that you'd like to eat or sell.

Ah, gotcha. Makes sense.

Your points were good though! I haven't yet started gardening for fruits and vegetables but would like to at some point.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#133

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

onos wrote: post #42
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 don’t really understand the logic behind native only, beyond the desire not to introduce a plant or creature that would monopolize their environment.

Modern vegetables are essentially "non-native".

Is it discouraged to have a vegetable garden these days?

Are we still allowed to grow carrots outside of Iran and Afghanistan without being frowned on?

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#134

Post by CatWChainsaw »

ernestipark wrote: post #34

Semi related, but I firmly believe everyone with a yard should have chickens. 4 chickens can feed a family with more eggs than they'll ever need, you'll almost never throw food scraps out again, and you'll keep harmful methane producing waste out of landfills.

Keeping commensals under control should be a top priority. Salmonella and Campylobacter are not welcome additions to my meals.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#135

Post by gibspaulding »

burnished wrote: post #109
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, in general. (Appreciate the honest question.) Bee homes [0] are basically a bird house with a bunch of small reeds or pipes where several native species can nest. It provides home for several American native bees. It is primarily for solitary bees It does not work for all, but it does help. After all, there are about 20,000 bee species and nearly 4,000 are in North America! Bee homes do require some cleaning as…

There are solitary bees?? Fact sheet I stumbled on for others curious: https://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/inf21.html

Yes definitely; many (most?) of the bees native to North America are solitary.

Honey bees were originally imported from Europe. The only reason they're not considered invasive is that they're so bad at surviving here.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#136

Post by bmitc »

gibspaulding wrote: post #130
Decabytes wrote: post #10

I've always had a dream to buy a plot of land and homestead. But I have family that is getting older and needs my help more often. The though of being far away from essential services like Hospitals is not ideal. Also I'm still too early in my career to make that move. So, more recently I've been thinking of an idea I call "urban homesteading", which is just based off the idea of not waiting until the perfect circums…

My wife and I did something like this for a while (before moving out of town to a more traditional farmstead last year). You won't be able to grow all of your own meat or grain, but you can fit a ton of tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc. in a city lot. We're on track for our canned tomatoes to make it through to next harvest from a poorly managed ~200 square foot plot for example. We ran out of frozen peppers and onions…

> We were also allowed to keep up to 6 hens which were enough to keep two people in eggs and provided excellent compost.

About how many eggs per week or month was that producing? We're allowed a certain amount of chickens, and I have considered it. What was the maintenance like?

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#137

Post by bmitc »

morgango wrote: post #14

So, not unrelated was a post from reddit where someone built a little better environment for a frog in their yard: https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/11czhbt/g... and they ended up with a zoo. While whimsical, it shows very how adjusting your environment just a little bit can really attract wildlife.

That's hilarious. Like what you said, that's really amazing about how small changes propagate. It's crazy how wildlife finds stuff. They know what they're doing.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#138

Post by Kon-Peki »

anthomtb wrote: post #125
LegitShady wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont want coyotes and bobcats around my house. neither does anyone who has pets or livestock. There's a reason they were pushed out. We still have owls and other birds of prey. We have raccoons and they are annoying and can damage property.

>I dont want coyotes and bobcats around my house. neither does anyone who has pets or livestock Only people who do a poor job of looking after their pets and livestock fear natural predators the way you do.

I’m adjacent to a large natural area. We’ve got plenty of coyote and fox, hawk, owl and other predators.

The coyotes are pairing up for mating season, so they start to do crazy things like chase deer through my yard. During the rest of the year, when they tend to be solitary, they stay far far away from people and even mid-size dogs.

Get a fire pit and use it occasionally, and they’ll generally be pretty shy near your yard; its a smell nature has taught them to keep away from.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#139

Post by criddell »

11235813213455 wrote: post #11
Wonnk13 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the idea with the bee home is the bees come to me? As opposed to me buying honeybees and a hive? I'm asking out of genuine ignorance not trolling, as I'd love to have bees by my planter box, but I don't have the time to be a bee keeper and and don't want to kill the little guys.

probably better to get honey from a local beekeeper (and/or local fruits, which are even better for us, with their fiber)

Definitely. In North America, honey bees are non-native, invasive species. If you want to help the bee population, pick a species native for your area.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#140

Post by bluGill »

jlglover wrote: post #69
is_true wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I live on a medium-sized lot within the limits of a city, so bow hunting is not allowed in my yard.

Are you sure? In some cities it is allowed. The city might say it is not allowed, but the state has different rules that overrule whatever the city says.

Of course you do still need to be safe in your hunting, and that can be tricky.

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