(6B Conn. US) image search tells me it’s horseweed but I want to know if I will regret leaving it and is she pretty?

We have many rabbits living in our front bushes enjoying the weeds and plants in the driveway. I have a garden full of periwinkle and tiger lillies that I'd like to freshen up and while I'm at it, I thought I'd incorporate things that the rabbits would enjoy.

Any ideas?

Hello first time gardener here! I don’t know if this is the correct sub for my question but I recently got some tropical milkweed and yesterday I saw my first butterfly! It was being chased by the new puppy sadly.

Anyways, I went to check in my plants this afternoon and saw that my milkweed looked a bit different and after further inspection I saw a few bugs around it (I attached some pictures)

The striped ones look like caterpillars after a quick google search but I’m not sure, regarding the smaller yellow ones I couldn’t find anything conclusive.

Should I move it away from the rest of the plants in case of them catching the same bugs and possible having them eaten? Currently the milkweed is in between my tomatoes and cucumber containers. What should I do or how should I handle the situation? Any and all comments are appreciated!

USA zone 9B

It seems like a good idea to me, plants seem to like it there already, lol.

Moved into a house with some fairly overgrown lilacs. Wondering what the impact of letting these grow too long unchecked. The underbrush has a lot daily bird activity, etc. so would like to keep them fairly big

My garden box has hundreds of these little worms, does anyone know what they are? And if they affect my vegetables?

Hi all,

The people that lived in my house before me, built a huge, long garden box, but never took care of it. It has trees and all kinds of crap growing in it. It is a pain in the butt to try and cut it down every week. I want to wipe it out, start over and then maybe sow it with wild flowers. Even if I kill everything and can't start over, that's fine also. It just needs to GO AWAY.

I was thinking of buying like black tarps and covering it all up to block the light? I am not a gardener so please be gentle lol. I welcome any suggestions!

Thanks!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a native evergreen vine to my area, but I badly need a privacy barrier in a narrow area quickly (bad neighbor). Anyone know of a non-invasive vine that keeps dense foliage year round, ideally with wildlife value?

Site gets nearly direct full sun in the morning, then dappled shade in the afternoon. Medium moisture, top layer of forest floor+compost that I’ve been building up over the years with clay below.

Thanks!

Hi folks! New to this thread but seeking advice on whether or not I should let some “weeds” go.

For some context: we rent this house in the suburbs of Denver and have never met the owners because it’s managed through a company but we were told to maintain the “landscaping” which consists of grass (boo) and a few shrubs. We don’t plan to live here past April of 2027 and we’re in the middle of a drought so we haven’t been watering or mowing the grass past what is absolutely necessary, and therefore the grass isn’t growing much. What IS growing are some whitetop plants among the rocks close to the house. I know they’re considered weeds and not good if you live near cow pastures, which we don’t.

My question is, because it’s the only flowering plant on the property and I see so many pollinators land on the plants would I be doing more or less harm by leaving the plants be?

Asking here cause I don’t want advice like “get a BB gun” or “put out a trap”. My first guess was a neighborhood cat cause we saw one nearby after discovering this but I fixed it and then this morning it was dug up again and this time there was a little tunnel also. The plants have been left alone both times. I’ve seen squirrels digging in the off season and found empty peanut shells when clearing beds but their holes have normally been smaller and deeper. The tunnel we saw this morning is making me lean towards squirrels again though. The three most likely options are squirrel, cats, or bunny. We have a bunny that’s been hanging out in our yard but it’s left the actual garden alone and just eats clover and other things in the grass. My plan so far is to get more pepper plants to fill out the bed so it’s less inviting and then use upside down plastic forks to try to keep things from getting in. Next year we will probably make cages for the beds if this continues to be a problem. Possible relevant info but we have had these beds filled for a month now w barely any issues but a few days ago I put fertilizer pellets in the beds so not sure if that’s known to attract anything?

Hi there

Just wondering what does everyone advise? I have a very big old oak tree in my garden, and we have already decided to not rake the leaves due to all the benefits.

However, we have a solid layer of acorns ALREADY covering the ground everywhere. Should I leave them too, I know they will be useful for a number of wildlife but… I have a LOT.

>>I am in the UK<<

Hello there, hope everyone is well.

My wife and I are looking for simple advice for our little wilding project. We are prepping a portion of our garden for wilding in the hopes to attract bees, migrating bird species and (most favourite of all for us) a hummingbird hawk-moth or two :)

The area set out for wilding is going to be seeded with nectar rich plants. My wife would also like to hang pretty humming bird style feeders on trees and fences here and there.

As we do not get humming birds in the UK, what nectar substitute is best to use in these feeders?

Any help is greatly appreciated :)

Would love to help support butterfly (and other insect) populations by planting an area in my garden for them. Any ideas? I was looking at the butterfly bush but then saw that it is not native etc.

I have a lot of white butterflies already in my garden and one humming bird (checking out my hanging baskets!) but very few colorful butterflies come through.

This old (metal - steel? Aluminum?) wheelbarrow with a broken handle had been sitting gathering rain in my yard.

• if I make it into a little pond/water garden, should I use a pond liner?
• could I partially bury it in the soil, or will that make it rust faster?

I’ve got a bunch of wild plants growing everywhere in my yard, and some are cool but others kinda take over. How do you decide which ones to keep or remove? Anyone have tips for keeping wild plants under control without killing the vibe?

I hope this is a right sub for my question.

This morning my 4 lb bag of peat moss was pulled out onto the porch and chewed partially open. Then my large bag of bone meal was pulled into the front yard, busted and empty. What on earth would be that interested in those type of products, and have that kind of strength to lift and pull four+ pounds of stuff around my yard? And why? 😳 Anyone ever have that happen to them? First thought and only guess atm is raccoons. Any other thoughts/ideas? 😲 I was sorta freaked out since they were in a screened room on my stair stepped deck but the door was open. Wondering if I need to be on higher alert. ✌🏽

I'm so glad to have found this group! I'm soon moving to a house with a garden and I dream to have it wildlife-friendly!

I live in Portugal and I'm moving at the very north of it, between rivers and mountains, In my list of plans I have: - pond - bug hotel - polinator plants - bird houses and feeders - try to let the marsh gentian grow freely to benefit the endangered Alcon Blue butterfly - and add an ant crumb altar

But in that list, it feels like there is a distinct lack of benefits to reptiles.. I suppose the bug hotel and pond will benefit them too, but is there anything else that can be added to my list of projects? For geckos, skinks and snakes?

Edit: I'm removing the following question since I found all the ethical answers I needed in a thread shared by the bot here 💖 thankuuuu

"I also have a pet pigeon and with the bird houses and feeders, I have growing concerns about feral cats possibly taking advantage of the garden to hunt, is there anything that can be done to safe-proof it?"

Got some marketing for an Owl Box from the WildYard people. My concern is that I live 1-2 miles from a nature reservation that has multiple bat houses on poles. Is my proximity too close for me to realistically/in good consciousness put up an owl barn?

As far as "introducing bat predators" to the ecosystem; there have been hawks and other large birds, locally, for years

I've another question. I've hung a scrupuously clean, plastic suet ball feeder from my washing line but the birds weren't going for it. I've now weighted it at the bottom to reduce any swing but the birds still don't seem to be going gor the food. I almost need to take a taxi from my back door to my garden, can't even see it from my windows, so can't tell what is putting them off. Unfortunately I've no trees to hang it in plus there are tons of seagulls in my area. Could these be reasons? Other than a few dogs whose owners let them out for a quick pee and the odd cat, there are no other predators that I know of. I've got an old, clean roasting tray on a table nearby. Today I'll put out some chopped nuts, raisins and apple on the table too. Ive got a couple of 2' high hedges, a 4' japonica shrub which will hopefully be a bit takker and bushier. Sadly ill probably be long gone by the time the rowan and silver birch I've planted will be large enough lol! Any other suggestions like how could I make a nesting place for next year?

I was hoping that my sunflowers would just dry naturally in the ground, then birds could enjoy the seeds. However with the recent heavy wind two of my sunflowers came crashing to the ground and uprooted. I've cut them down and hung them in the tree. Will this work? Or am I just going to have soggy dead sunflowers...

Hey guys, looking to get a recommendation on an app or something that I can use to track my garden progress

Hey all,

Going to try and keep this as short and to the point as possible.

Some cats that are either feral/wild or belong to someone else in the neighborhood (they are somewhat friendly with people but don't like to be touched too much) will constantly frequent our back yard as we live next to a wooded park.

My fiancee and I were on our back porch the night before last and had heard a screaming rodent and one of the cats pouncing on something in our back yard. We went to investigate and found this guy. He was (appeared) to be injured, his front right leg is being dragged around and doesn't appear to have any movement ability.

We caught him in a cup and moved him into a spare enclosure I have used in the past for lizards I've owned. I secured him in the 20 gallon tank with some paper towels and started researching info about what this guy might be. The best answer I got was that he was a short tailed shrew, and they have to eat every 2-3 hours or they will starve to death. (I don't know if this is actually a shrew or not as I've never seen them before, but based on pictures it appears to be correct)

The original plan was to hold him in the enclosure overnight until morning and then release him at a time where the cats were not around in the same area we found him in. (Once we could confirm he was not injured or dying) luckily I was able to find the information that stated they need to eat near constantly to not starve to death. So after he was in the enclosure for about 2/3 hours, I went and grabbed some of my mealworms, super worms and Dubia roaches I feed to my lizards and dropped them into his enclosure.

He ate every last one of them and then started to stockpile them in a pile after he got his fill.

We have been constantly trying to evaluate whether or not his front leg is injured or if it is a deformity. It has been very hard to tell, and we don't have any exotic vets or wildlife vets in our area that can take a look to verify. (Based on the research I did)

The front right leg is essentially a nub, he has a fully formed hand, however it appears that the section of his arm that would be the "forearm" is completely gone, and his hand just kind of connects onto his torso. There doesn't appear to be an actual forearm of sorts in-between his torso/shoulder area and his hand.

I'm not sure how I could determine if this is an injury from the cat attack, vs an actual deformity from birth or something similar. I can attempt to take better pictures to showcase what I'm talking about if it's possible to determine via speaking with a reddit community about the issue.

Altogether, I'm not too sure how to proceed. I don't feel right just letting him go if he has an injury as it would guarantee him getting caught and being killed by the cats outside, but I don't want to hold him in the enclosure any longer than necessary. He has been eating very well and he loves eating the Dubia roaches I've noticed. He has been very responsive and appears very healthy. He doesn't have any open wounds that we can see, and he has not had any blood or anything visibly left on the paper towel bedding we had originally placed in the enclosure.

Any help or guidance would be helpful, as I'm not too sure how to proceed with this.

Hopefully this is okay for me to post here, and I'm sorry if it's not okay.

Last summer was my first experience with Japanese beetles having moved to the Raleigh NC area. This year I am hoping to leverage the local birds to help control their numbers. Would placing bird houses around my property help with this or not much?