Keep up the great work!❤️ I love your channel! I’ve been gardening over 40yrs and just heard about natives last summer and then soon found your channel! We had no bees or butterflies in our yard but when we planted our first native…wow! They came! We are hooked and telling everyone that will listen! Our backyard has no lawn now and is full of tiny native plants! We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring! Thank you so much for what you are doing! One plant makes a difference! And so are you!❤️
Thank you so much for your support! I am surprised how long I lived and gardened and never heard a word about native plants or ecosystems. It’s kind of astounding actually! I’ve been so grateful to have stumbled across this new little universe - it’s completely changed me! 💓
When my Mom moved from her house i took or cloned almost 150 different plant varieties.. She passed about 15yrs ago, but i live outside in the country, & the birds & butterflies coming here now reminds me she'll never really be gone... Thankyou for this!
Oh wow, what an amazing story! 😭 What an incredible diversity she had in her garden! I’m sure that took a lot of work to take them with you - a labor of love. That’s really beautiful, thank you for sharing 💓
You ARE a beacon of hope! I found you, and am now looking forward to planting a native plant garden in the spring here in MN. I LOVE birds and want to attract them, but not by putting out bird feeders which would attract the squirrels too. Native plants are the way to go! THANK YOU a million times for sharing your knowledge and encouragement.
As a native gardener in MN (and a lover of squirrels), I can tell you that planting the native plants is great because you don't have to worry about cleaning feeders and watching seed get moldy from rain or make a mess. However, it seems unfair to want the birds but not the native mammals. I encourage you to learn more about squirrels and other native mammals in MN; they are truly amazing and will astound you, if you give them a chance. 😊
I remember a quote “squirrels are the great forest planters.” My family loves watching them - they have such personalities! They are pretty well fed in my area, lots of oaks and hickories. I can understand wanting the bird seed to go to the birds though - it can be pretty pricey! But I think habitat gardening is a great way to support both birds and mammals, and as you say - all are so important to the ecosystem! Thank you for your comment! 💓
I've learned especially where I live, that feeding wild animals doesn't work out.. I love feeders, but so do the falcons, hawks, etc... so for me, having wild & native plants on my property works better (& less guilt!)
Squirrels built a nest in one of our cars and gave us repair bills in both our cars. Not fond of squirrels! I love a good red-tailed hawk coming through cleaning house.
US Media often reports a factor in declining health in some populations is due to,”food deserts”, lack of access to healthy foods. Take a look in most suburbs, you’ll see the same issue, lots of ornamental plants and trees but few natives that support local/regional food webs. I appreciate your channel, it gives me hope that there are many of us trying to be the change! “Nearly every creature on this planet owes its existence to plants, the only organisms capable of capturing the sun’s energy and, through photosynthesis, turning that energy into food for the rest of us.” ~Douglas Tallamy
Yes! I’ve come to be very frustrated with the idea of “ornamental” plants. It’s time for our notion of beauty and value to become a bit deeper than ornaments! Thank you for your support! 💓
How beautiful. I’m happy to have found this channel. I do everything I can to attract birds, butterflies and bees to my garden. I feel there is much more to learn and your channel will help me so much. ❤
Love all of this! We all need to start with our own property, even if that is a few planters on a patio...I am a committee member of the first Bee City in Connecticut, and have shared your RU-vid channel to be added as a resource on our web page. Love your mission!💚
Love the video! I’m loving how easy it is to propagate native plants and share with neighbors and plant in a local park that’s overrun with invasive plants. Keep up the good work of inspiring others. Thx!
Thank you! Yes, I’ve spent the spring shifting some self-sown volunteers into some empty beds I’ve been working to fill! Next year I think I’ll have enough to share with others! Love the idea of sharing with local parks - ours here are also totally overrun with invasives. I’ve been trying to think how to help get them fixed up a bit - it’s quite a job!
What a cool video. Thanks for sharing images of your garden. It looks amazing! A suggestion to help others follow your lead...pot up those volunteer native plants and give them to your neighbors. Gardening can actually be pretty expensive and many people are comfortable with their hostas and other non-natives that behave as expected. Taking a chance on new, unfamiliar plants is a lot easier when they were free AND you have an expert in the neighborhood. 🌻💚
Absolutely! Gardening shouldn’t be so expensive, the prices of plants can make gardening inaccessible for some, which is heart breaking. Garden give-aways are a great idea for so many reasons! 💓
I share your passion and enthusiasm for our eco system, the activity in my garden amazes me every day... even in winter. Thanks for sharing your journey and vision for your place in our world.
Thank you for your wonderful, inspirational channel! I just discovered it and am binge watching all your videos. I can't wait to start planting wildlife friendly plants in my new garden.♥🌻
Thank you so much! Excited to hear you’ll be working some wildlife plants into your gardens - is the best watching how birds and bugs come right away when we make space for them! 💓
2:38 Great shot of the bright orange and green of the Asclepias against the grey gravel. With a bonus of four huge swallowtails (i think, those are swallowtails?) added to that.
Thank you! I thought it was kind of interesting also to see the juxtaposition of the problem and the solution in the same shot. That spot used to be a dead zone against the asphalt, and now it’s constantly active - beautiful how we can change things!
Thank so much for this video. Climate change, habitat destruction, and human conflict make me wonder sometimes why I'm doing it at all. But the truth is I can't just sit and watch. At least I can lead be example and restore some habitat a bit at a time. Cheers. :)
You are so right! I just started last year to improve our land for insects and birds and it is so fun and rewarding! Need to plant more native plants😊 Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas, gardening friend. And Happy New Year too. I dreamed of my hostas, growing in the spring sunshine the other night. In reality, it's chilly & rainy here, not as cold as a typical Zone 6A winter - not yet, at least. Please continue producing your warming videos.
I started with lightning bugs! Think one of your videos actually and I realized I was already doing quite a bit right. Now I'm in a massive research hyperfocus phase and prep stage.
Sometimes, I just feel like crying because it seems that so few people care about our environment. I read somewhere that humans are the worst parasites on the planet. A co-worker who mocks my habitat gardening asked why I bother, since "You dont waste morphine on a dying soldier". The Earth is the one soldier who can not be allowed to die. People are so apathetic because they'll either be dead before it becomes a problem, or it's too much bother because they aren't personally affected by it. My next-door neighbor sent their bug killing service to ask if they could spray my yard, too, since they think I'm attracting all the bugs to the neighborhood. Sigh.... I hope people change their mindset before it's too late.
I’m right there with you. I think the vast majority of people don’t realize how bad the damage is. And for some, I think “not caring” is a coping mechanism for things that feel too big to think about. But for some of us, action is our way of coping and I find the most hope thinking of the other people (like you!) out there trying to fix things. There aren’t enough of us, but we’ll just keep recruiting!! As you said, it’s a problem we can’t afford to ignore. Trying to do what we can, and trying hold faith that we can keep getting more helpers on board is what keeps the overwhelm from becoming consuming. 💓 Hang in there, and know that the little birds and bugs in your garden think you’re doing a world of good!!
I believe it’s a horned passalus (Odontotaenius disjunctus Illiger) - they are helpful for wood decomposition. I spent about 5 minutes watching this one wander about, kind of mesmerizing!
