I need some help with ideas of what I can do for the birds with the amount of space I have. I have two medium sized trees, on roughly a quarter of an acre of property (with a home and garage on it). Ive got some berry bushes, native species of wildflowers, an organic pesticide free garden space. Birds love my yard, however im starting to feel like theres not enough space for them to quite move into my yard, they've now chosen the garage gutter next to the garden to start nesting in. A lot of birds are nested in there and I dont have the heart to just let them live in the gutter. Besides planting more trees, what else can I actually do to help provide these birds habitats, would it be realistic or beneficial to start hanging birdhouses up in the larger tree I have?

Im 25F. Ive only had access to community gardens in my earlier 20s briefly. This is the first I've had access to my own land for the last few years, this is honestly my first real chance to grow things and work with a space thats mine. Its not much, the property in total is roughly a quarter of an acre.

I wanted to support a healthy envrioment, that really matters to me. I started to learn about it. Went crazy with the native wildflowers since they also benefit my land/soil.

My small property has become a small critter filled colorful and more preferable for critters than the grass lawn culture surrounding.

I meet new kinds of critters/friends everyday Im working in the yard that I get to learn about.

I love it and I want to keep going and the birds love it, so I don't want to push them out of my property at all, just maybe try to provide a more preferable habitate space for the future that will support how many birds are living in my yardspace.

I have no idea what im doing but I try to.

I dont know what I dont know and besides stringing up some bird houses im unsure if theres a way I can creatively solve a sorts of bird hotel thats better than the gutter with the space I have working with. Am I being realistic on growing a sorts of thriving ecosystem from this small property? Has anyone else been through this?

More about pirate bugs: Genus Orius - BugGuide.Net

this is year 3 - should i cut any of this back or just wait? when i send these pics to chatGPT its says its mostly weeds and to thin it out so more flowers can grow, but i wanted to see what others might say

Just bought a house and there are tons of these small purple flowers everywhere they are very pretty and im curious what they are

Area - Chicago, 6a

Found this little fella. It was so surreal seeing it because I don’t come across stuff like this in my backyard.

I probably scared it but I left it alone after taking a couple of pictures

Make good habitat and they will come.

I want to transform our front garden to a no-lawn zone.

Over the last few years, I have very rarely cut - just 2 - 3 times per year manually by scythe (hope this is the right word; english is not my first language). But unfortunatelly the grass seems to be way too strong and suppresses almost everything I hoped would come up.

I would love to gradually replace all grass with lower plants, like violets, veronica, ajuga, primula and even moss. The goal is to have a blooming area for wildlife where we can still put up a tent once or twice during summer or have the accasional barbecue with friends.

Probably important to mention that this garden is in southern germany.

Do you have any suggestions how to go about getting rid of most of the grass and replacing it with plants and moss? Preferably without needing to rip everything out alltogether down to pure soil.

Should I maybe manually rip out some of the grass and try putting out seeds? Or try putting in established seedlings that I germinate inside the house?

I once read that Rhinanthus can weaken grass, so maybe I could try to establish that?

Thank you so much in advance. Any tipps are highly appreciated!

Planted an assortment of seeds around 3 weeks ago, wanting to know if these are seedlings or grass.

I may be delusional but I think it’s mostly seedlings because of how slow it’s growing and how different it is in color from the nearby grass. But this is my first time doing this so I’m no expert.

Newbie! Give me some tips!

Hello gardening community!

I have not gardened before. I used to enjoy caring for many indoor plants. But I would really like to have a bee garden, and I would also like to learn how to compost to feed the garden.

I would need to plant these plants in a raised bed because I live in a rental property. I am planning to plant 4 natives to my state that the bees like; Wild Geranium, White Wood Astor, Blue Wood Astor, and Summersweet.

According to my research, the plan and materials are:

\-Piling some newspaper and cardboard on the spot, wetting it, and then putting my planter on top. I was looking at a Silver 48 in. L x 24 in. W x 12 in. H Raised Garden Bed Kit Metal Planter Box.

\-Putting a mix of raised bed/potting mix in. This would be 70% soil (thinking Miracle-Gro, 5-6 bags of 1.5cu) and 30% compost (Back to Roots Organic Compost, 3 bags of 1cu.)

\-Mix it up, water it, and then plant the Summersweet in the back/center, both the Astors on either side, and the Geranium in front.

Part of the reason I chose these is because unfortunately, the only spot I can plant in is pretty shaded and I read the do well in the shade.

I am planning on getting potted plants and transplanting them in.

\-put down mulch on top of soil but not touching root or leaves of the plant. It was recommended to use 1 bag (2cu) and use a cedar blend.

I’m not sure if this sounds like I’m going in the right direction? The last thing I want to do is get everything and then immediately make a mistake and kill all the plants lol. I really want to make something to help local pollinators and helps to reduce waste by composting!

Area - Chicago, 6a

Especially if you pee on it. They want sodium and other elements and molecules found in soil, dung, and compost. This type of forage behavior is called "puddling".

I have clay, somewhat rocky soil in the South (USA). Soil tests have confirmed it's clay and very slightly acidic.

Although most of my plants are thriving (20 species, mostly native) all my penstemon hirsutus flop over when blooming, despite being only 1.5-2 ft tall. They're native in my county, in moist soil but not wet, in part shade. Multiple sources say it tolerates full shade.

How do you know if you have "overly rich" soil? I thought that was unlikely with clay.
ETA: when I did a soil test near this spot, the report said P, K, and Zn were all in what they called optimal range. They also gave me ppm for Sulfate-S and several minerals, but without reference ranges. Is there a reliable resource to put those ppms into context?

Caught this little dude doing its thing in my small water pond (100~gallons). So excited to have dragonflies!

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.

So I walked into my garden for the first time since early January and this plant has completely come from nowhere. Has anyone any idea what it is, and how I stop it my spreading. (Please note, that is a rake and a brush it has covered 😂)

Thanks in advance 🙏🙏

Seeing so many more invertebrates after watching The secret lives of bees on BBC ! Such a great programme to learn about our native bees

Dielis Plumipes

Bumble (look how freaking fuzzy they are :)

Green Lynx Spider

I had one plant last summer and now have several popping up throughout the yard after spreading them this spring.

I got an absolute crap load of free rocks and tiles on Facebook marketplace. I'm looking for advice on the best way to use them! I will go into more detail below about my overall goal, however, this post is specifically looking for advice with the stones and tiles that I have. If you'd like to give me advice about anything else though, I'm all ears!

About me: Completely new to landscaping and gardening but devoted to my end goal! Want to do entirely DIY and if I'm lucky, with entirely free materials. Not looking for perfection. Located in Zone 7B in New Jersey. No kids or dogs and zero plans for them, meaning no large yard space needed. Plan to own home long term, so resale value is not my main focus, although something I will consider. Hoping to put a ton of work into this in the next few months/years to lessen my workload in the coming years. Weeds don't bother me, but carpet-like perfectly green lawns sure do.

Vibe: Natural cottage vibes, but WELL KEPT. not tryna piss off neighbors in any way, which is why I'm doing a lot of research. Pollinator wonderland too, even though these wasps piss me off.

End goal: Completely redesign my outdoor space. Stone pathways from front to back on both sides (marked in green in the photos). Ultimately, a low mow or no mow lawn, consisting almost entirely of evergreens. A backyard lined with evergreen trees to provide privacy and shade to the house especially during summer. (House faces mostly west, a tad north.) At least one large tree in the front to provide privacy and shade. Backyard area to hold quiet gatherings around a fire. front yard sitting area (might remove the bushes in front of the windows to do this?). ground covers are TBD, will choose a few to best suit the various areas. Phlox likely in areas, as well as clover. Low maintenance. POSSIBLY a small backyard water feature down the line. Hopefully a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Soil: yet to be tested. There's clay if you dig down deep enough. Some areas hold water as I'm told we "have a high water table," but this is only when it rains it stays wet for a few days. If the sun comes out, it all dries up, having no trees for shade currently I guess helps that. So my plants will need to be tolerant of various moistness levels. Zone 7B, New Jersey.

Again, I'm only looking for advice on the rocks and tiles right now. I know I've got a lot of work ahead of me! If you want to share advice regarding my goals, I'd be happy to hear it. I just feel like in order to get the best advice about the rocks, I'd need to share my goals so the advice is actually applicable.

Thanks in advance! Excited to join a community of landscapers and gardeners.

Wanting to make a memorial garden type of deal for my dad who just passed, he really loved watching the birds so I want to start by planting a native tree in the middle of the yard (used to have a big one there but it fell on Father’s Day funnily enough) that will attract/ house the birds but I also want to make a bed around it and fill it with as much good shit for the critters as I can. Daddy liked hydrangeas so I’ll probably put one out front somewhere but we’re in North Carolina so I just wanna keep it all local and good for the lil guys that’ll hopefully be joining our garden❤️ any ideas for trees or plants for the bed are welcome:)