Carrots are biennial. If you planted seeds this year and are seeing something put on flower buds, it’s likely a weed rather than a tall carrot.

But the fruit is delicious! Just be sure to be careful of the sharp little hairs (glochids), they’re no fun to get out of your skin.

And I’m over here having to hand water my newer natives because of a 100+ F (almost 40 C) heat wave.

I recommend against pruning at this stage. I also recommend against rocks. Instead, just do a big perennial bed, or even just make your whole lawn perennials. This is more or less realistic depending on the size, of course. The two main issues with rocks are that they accumulate heat which is then hard on plants and uncomfortable for us, and that they are big and heavy and next to impossible to get rid of if you ever decide you don’t like them.

A native ground cover is another good option. Depending on your area that could mean a native grass mix, native sedges, or something like frogfruit. In most cases your first step will be to solarize the area to kill the existing grass and weed seeds.

I’m happy to see the article has such a strong focus on using native seeds.

Butterflies and bees are great, but I love seeing all the other pollenators that I rarely recognize. Native bees, beetles, and even some tiny (non stinging) wasps. I especially love that no matter what part of nature you’re most interested in attracting/observing, native plants are almost always a good place to start.

I’ll second this. The easiest way to get it to grow is to just set the pad on top of the soil. It will naturally root from the portion touching the ground and eventually sprout some new growth.

That’s why I only buy native perennials. Not as cheap as seeds, but they’ll last pretty much forever. They also need much less attention than annuals.

I do wish I had the time for a vegetable garden, though. I hope to build a sub irrigated planter some day soon to grow annual vegetables in.

The light green serrated leaves in the middle are a hackberry tree that was planted by a bird. They have a bad reputation, but they’re fast growing, native, and provide decent shade. If this is at least twenty feet from your house, you could let it grow and have a tree there instead of a mystery shrub.

You can confirm it’s hackberry by looking at the veins at the underside of a leaf. You should see three main veins starting at the base of the leaf, similar to if you held up your three middle fingers.

If it’s dying back to the ground every year, training it into a tree might not be the best idea.

I haven’t bought it in years, those may very well be pre covid prices I’m remembering.

Your comment helped me remember that I had a dream hummingbirds were visiting my coral honeysuckle!

I just realized I had a similar misunderstanding about trumpet creeper and crossvine. Turns out both are native, but trumpet creeper just grows way too aggressively. This is a good thing for professional landscapers that can keep up with training and pruning it, but most people would probably do better with a well behaved crossvine.

I wouldn’t grow corn personally. The grocery store corn is like four for a dollar when it’s in season. Give that space to some different tomato or pepper varieties!

A two part reminder to be mindful of which type of honeysuckle you plant: Japanese honeysuckle is very popular, but also considered invasive in some areas and grows very aggressively. But also, not all honeysuckle is Japanese, you may have native varieties available that will work even better.

My local native honeysuckle unfortunately isn’t fragrant, but the hummingbirds love it.

Sub irrigated planters are another option. They’re equally effective, but they take the human error factor of setting and adjusting watering rates out of the equation.

This is the site I used to make mine and it turned out well:

https://albopepper.com/sips.php

Note that he says not to put perennial plants in it. This may be true for areas that get a very deep freeze, but my perennials did great in zone 8.

My chili pequin planted in the ground comes back each year in 8a, but it’s native here.

I see people selling seeds on places like etsy all the time. Problem is you’ll have to let them mature to sell them, which would inevitably be more getting in the yard and germinating.

Would native riparian plants planted directly into the pond be an option?

I just assume it’s people browsing all.

Look into a sub irrigated planter. It’s just a planter with a water reservoir inside it that let’s the plants have consistent moisture. They only have to be refilled about once a week in the peak of summer (weeks at a time of 100+ F with no rain) and as little as once a month in more mild weather.

This site has a ton of good information about them: https://albopepper.com/sips.php

Here’s how I built mine: Build the planter to be about 24 inches tall and line it with a pond liner. Put a few pieces of corrugated drain pipe in the bottom. You are better off with these having a little bit of space between them than being packed too tightly. You then need to add an over flow drain at the top level of the pipes, and at the opposite corner add a pvc fill tube. The site I linked above explains this better, including some videos if that’s your preferred format. Cover the pipe with peat moss and pack the moss down under and between the pipes. Fill the rest of the planter with potting mix mixed with more peat moss and vermiculite/perlite. Do not add organics like compost or top soil. The mix should drain extremely well and feel light.

The guy mentions that the planter is not good for perennials due to the risk of freezing, but I have had very good success with native perennials in my planter. I have a native hibiscus as the centerpiece and it is going great.

The whole landscape process is a learning experience. Don’t expect to have your dream yard in one season, just aim to improve it a bit each year. Good luck!