Welcome to my pollinator propaganda page, comrade! I'm a couple years into the transformation of my yard from mainly lawn, to a pollinator paradise! I try to garden exclusively with plants native to my region to benefit insects and birds. Just about everything you see in these videos is from my own yard, all shot and edited by me. Feel free to say hi in the comments!
I’ve had lots of memorable moments with Hummingbirds. Last month, I was looking at a grasshopper on the canna lilies, and I heard a buzzing sound behind me. I turned around and it was a Hummingbird hovering and looking at me. 😃😁 There have also been times where Hummingbirds have fed at the feeders or flowers when I was a few feet away from them, too, and they allowed me to watch them. 🥰
Hopefully, you feel the summer vibes I tried to infuse into this video, no matter what time of year you're watching it. Personally, I'm gonna be re-watching it a bit in winter 😁
It's less than an acre, about 0.17 of an acre. That's probably what a lot of yards around me are. I could throw a frisbee into my neighbor's yard pretty easily. A good amount of the yard is converted to habitat though.
This one is a pasture/field thistle (cirsium discolor). Native thistles are great, but some cities technically have regulations against growing them. Non-native thistles are bad, but native ones can be great, they just aren't the prettiest to look at and can be pokey 😀
Hi, at 34 seconds mark, are those Sedum plants? If so, what variety? And are those bumblebees all over them or are they more regular bees like honeybees? I can't watch this video enough! So cool!
It is a sedum, I'm not sure on the exact variety though, as it was in the garden already when I took over. I think it might be sedum autumn joy? Those are bumblebees on it (it's a timelapse over maybe a few hours)
It's no bother 😀There are some sunflowers, red beebalm (monarda didyma) that the hummingbird is on, big bluestem grass that a sparrow is eating seeds from, cupplant and purple coneflower that the goldfinches are in, and the yellow flowers at the end are partridge pea.
Is that aster plant just regular plain native aster or is it a cultivar, like smooth blue aster or new england? The one with all the bumblebees on it. Thanks!!!
That one is just New England aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae. I've got a lot of it in my yard. It can spread a bit by seed, but is an awesome plant.
@@mrisaiahnieto Yup, that's stiff goldenrod. The ones in my yard get packed with pollinators, and then the seeds are also eaten by hungry birds. Definitely one I recommend 👍
@@mrisaiahnieto It's not really that aggressive in my yard, at all. Other goldenrods like showy or Canadian spread much more. Stiff goldenrod only occasionally pops up new seedlings in my yard, but it probably also depends on the growing conditions and if there's open space to seed into. Not really an aggressive one though
Thank you! It definitely depends on what's native to your region. For the midwest U.S., I'd say purple coneflower (echinacea purpurea), beebalm (monarda fistulosa), golden alexander (zizia aurea), new england aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), jacobs ladder ( polemonium reptans), beardtongue (penstemon) and maybe some partridge pea (chaemacrista fasciculata) and wild strawberry (fragaria virginiana). There are others, like pasture thistle (cirsium discolor) that is also amazing, but many cities technically don't let people grow thistles. Cupplant (silphium perfoliatum) is also good, but it's big and can spread quite a bit by seed once established. These all would be a really good start for a pollinator garden, providing lots of blooms throughout most of the season, accessible to lots of different pollinators. If some of these aren't native to your area, there may be simple substitutions you can make (there are lots of different species of asters and goldenrods)
That sky blue colored aster flower plant with all the bumblebees swarming it...what's that one called? What variety? Which cultivar? Thanks!! Love your videos!
Thank you! I think the one you're talking about is New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae around the 2:50 mark of the video) The ones in my yard are just the regular native plant species, not a cultivar or variety of it. I really like it. It blooms toward the end of the growing season here and explodes with blooms after not looking like much all season. If that one isn't native to your region, definitely check to see what other asters might be native to your region.
I was just watching my feeder. A cardinal was pecking away, and then both I and the bird heard the scream of a hawk. The cardinal flew off, and a blue jay jumped down to take its place at the feast. Tricky little guy!
This is wonderful, I'm so glad to see how much wildlife this hyssop supports! I planted two in my yard this month, crossing my fingers for similar wildlife experiences.
Thank you! That was definitely my intention, to show a bunch of the wildlife that visits mine. Great plant, definitely recommended. The old stems also seem to be decent for stem nesting bees (if you snap the stems in half the season after they bloom and leave them upright in the ground)
I was so excited today, my back field has wild black and red raspberries. I was going to dig up some more plants to transplant today and when walking to them found a massive patch of wild strawberry. So now I have 22 wild strawberry in some pots next to my wild raspberry that I moved
That's awesome 😀I always love discovering new plants coming up in the garden. I just got done moving a bunch of wild strawberry plants to my front yard
Other plants that are established seem to do okay, in my experience. But they may shade out some seedlings that try to pop up. Anything taller than a foot should do pretty good. If they need to be thinned out, it's pretty easy to pull some of the runners out to let some light in and let other things pop up and establish. I pretty much let mine ramble where they want.
Do you happen to know if these can be grown in a large container? or must they be planted in the ground? Thanks for posting the video, so peaceful and beautiful :)
Good question 😀 I'm not 100% sure. If you had a big enough pot it might work. I'd say give it a try if you have a pot for it. They do get a bit tall, mine flop over a bit also sometimes. I'm just not super sure whether they'd do well potted, but it would have to be a decent sized pot to give them a chance.
Thank you! I love this plant. Sometimes it might get powdery mildew, but holy cow does it pull in the pollinators, goldfinches eat the seeds, and the stems are great nesting spots for tiny bees 😀
Hey there, just got some seeds in the mail today for this plant. Any advice on how to grow them? I might winter sow them this week but not sure if they need light to germinate or how deep I should push them into the soil.
I'd probably recommend winter sowing them outside in the yard where you want them. I've always just let mine set seed and plant themselves, occasionally scattering some seed myself. I wouldn't worry too much about pushing them into the soil, if you get snow or rain over the winter they'll probably work themselves in somewhere. I usually take a hands off approach to this plant and there always seem to be new ones coming up fairly reliably from prior seeds. Hope you have some luck with it, it's a great wildlife plant in my opinion.
Thank you! I appreciate that 😀 Sometimes I worry that they might be boring. Hopefully not boring to anyone who enjoys nature. Yeah, that goldfinch didn't want to wait 😁
You videos are so delightful to watch! Thank you for taking your time on them. Hope you’ll make more. I just subscribed. May I ask the model of your camera? Beautiful high quality output.
Thank you very much, I appreciate that! I definitely plan to make more sometime hopefully. The camera that this is all shot with is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000. For some of my other videos with bugs in them, I add a macro lens on the front so I can focus the camera closer. This video though is just the camera (without any sort of added macro lens)
