To learn even more about prairie ecosystems, check out Native Habitat Project! @NativeHabitatProject th-cam.com/channels/ISRiNeM7BACmSGq_dg-UJA.html nativehabitatproject.com/ Some prairie conservation resources: * Prairie conservation and restoration recommendations for farms and private land: www.nrem.iastate.edu/research/STRIPS/files/publication/landowners_guide_to_prairie_conservation_strips.pdf www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/landowners_guide/habitat_mgmt/grassland/Prairie_Restorations.htm * American Prairie restoration: americanprairie.org/ * Coastal Prairie Conservancy (Texas): www.coastalprairieconservancy.org/ * Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/tallgrass-prairie-national-preserve/
I have a dry strip just like that beside my driveway too. I sowed anise hyssop and monarda seeds and some are growing well. They got a late start though. You’ve inspired me to fill the rest of the strip with native wildflowers.
I had some monarda in too much shade and it was basically dormant for 3 years until I transplanted it and now I’m in love with the stuff! I think it even attracts hummingbirds but haven’t seen that on mine yet, maybe next season!
This was such a fun and informative video. I have a variety of native prairie plants in my garden in the Chicago area. Not only did they do very well during the drought months of May and June, but they handled the excessive rainfall of early July quite well. Right now the garden is full of pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Thank you so much! That means a lot!! 💓 That’s a great point, mine were very happy in the rainy spring as well! It’s so much fun to watch all the critters enjoy these plants, it’s almost like a little extended family out there for us! 😅
Our community here in Lancaster, PA voted and removed our crumbling sidewalk and hellstrips. Most extended lawn to the street. I chose to do a rain garden, but because there is great drainage and it faces the hot afternoon sun, prairie plants you listed here do very well. Because it looks great and attracts birds, butterflies and bees at least 4 neighbors have done their version of native or mixed street-side garden strips. Sometimes we just need to see it demonstrated like you did in this video. Thx. Great job!
That’s awesome, it’s amazing how even a small strip can be so full of life! Doug Tallamy had some good suggestions on how to keep the neighbors happy - he suggested shorter plants with uniform height. I think some mass plantings of grasses like prairie dropseed and little bluestem alongside the perennials can also add a look of organization that holds through the seasons well! Even a few well behaved shrubs like New Jersey Tea might help give shape and structure - I haven’t planted this one yet but it’s supposed to keep a good shape! Thank you for all you’re doing!
I feel you, that is me breathing into the bag too every time I look at the news. Almost 3 years ago in Oregon we had a HORRIBLE 10-day span of the worst air quality on the planet from forest fires, and then pollution built up under the smoke. The sky was yellow for days... There's nothing more depressing than not even being able to be in your garden because the air outside could harm you 😢.
This was my first personal experience with it. 😞 I naively assumed fires wouldn’t impact us here in Maryland, but everything seems to be getting more extreme. I’ve tried to focus on what I can do in my tiny corner of the world, no matter how small, and am trying to trust that I’m just one of many - and that’s what gives us power to make a real impact 💓
Thanks for this video! I just stumbled across it and really enjoyed it! I live in Illinois and luckily I do see a lot of native prairie plants growing wild around here. We have a lot of preserved forests and prairies- well "a lot" in comparison to everywhere else. It's still depressingly dominated by strip malls and parkinglots where chemicals are sprayed to prevent anything growing 😭😭😭 But I am saving to buy a house and I want to have a native prairie garden like you have! I really think there is a growing interest in killing your lawn and planting native plants. I hope so, anyway. Looking forward to watching more of your videos!
I agree, I think a movement is imminent! It’s truly a “gardening culture” shift that’s required, and that takes time, but I think so many people are wanting more from their gardens than just “show plants”, and just need to see new examples and ways of thought. Thank you so much for watching - good luck with house saving!
Love your videos! I’m just starting my eco gardening journey and it is addictive! Getting some things in the ground this fall so we can hit the ground running this spring! Thanks for all the helpful information and love the humor you throw in!❤️
Me too! I'm just a few years in, and you're right - it's wildly addictive! 😅 Fall is such an awesome time to plant, I didn't appreciate this until recently - all my fall plantings from last year have been thriving even through the record heat and dry conditions! My spring plantings have been struggling along, so I've learned it's fall planting for the win! Thank you for the kind words and thanks so much for watching! 💓
Atticus Finch? Thanks for sharing. Nicely produced and good-humored. I'm in Chicago and a surprising number of neighbors have let their lawns and parkway (lawn between the sidewalk and street) go wild. Only recently discovered the prairie restoration efforts (Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc.) - some organizations have been working at it for decades! I want to beautify the alleyways (I have a couple little patches each about 1 sq ft) with native flowers and prairie species.
That’s exciting to hear! My area is very traditional - sprawling lawn, about 90% nonnative landscapes, and lots of invasive species taking over the wild areas . It’s exciting to hear some areas are evolving! Alleys everywhere could do with some beautification - that’s a great idea! Alleys are also most often used by kids, in my experience, and anything we can do to bring nature to them is a win in my book! Thank you for watching!!
Awesome! And with the price of everything these days, making what you can from home helps ease the wallet too! We’ve been shredding about half our fallen leaves the past few falls and that’s been awesome to have on hand for free organic material!
Another informative, creative, and inspiring video. Your channel is going to grow and grow and grow....just like your gardens. Really, you create the best videos!
it makes me so sad to see all these videos about prairies with only a couple hundred views. we desperately need to spread awareness about this. people think about deforestation more. that’s an important issue too, but we need more people who care about prairies.
Couldn’t agree more, I’ve only started learning about how much we’ve devastated our prairies in the past few years, but it’s heartbreaking. I’m hoping we can shift our culture back toward nature, we’ve become so disconnected. It gives me hope that we can at least start designing our home gardens to restore some much needed habitat! 💓
@@gardenforbirds i live in southern minnesota and it makes me so sad seeing these endless field of corn and soybeans knowing there used to be a beautiful, diverse ecosystem in its place. i understand the importance of agriculture but we really need to save this ecosystem. i’m currently working on a pocket prairie in my front yard. it’s been hard work removing weeds and all but it will hopefully pay off.
Once your plants establish hopefully the weed seeds will be shaded out and won’t be able to compete anymore! The only “weeds” I get in this garden so far are other natives, boneset, goldenrod and “golden top” which is an aster. I’m going to collect seeds from those in the fall and move them to another location!
Great informative, interesting, funny, tragic (so little Prairie plants left) and wonderful diverse (indigenous?) planting content. Your little one’s wonder and commentary was so sweet. Well done. A bird bath for the birds and bees to live their best life too (if you don’t have one).
Thank you so much! My sweet kiddos are the reason I started the channel - I think they deserve (and need) a world with nature, and after decades watching governments spin their wheels, it seems like real change may have to come from grassroots efforts rather than top-down. And it's been amazing and inspiring to connect with other people who want their gardens to be providing habitat! (I have one bird bath but have been wanting to expand to more - hopefully as the kids get older and I can be more reliable with keeping it clean! 😃)
@@gardenforbirds Wonderful you have a bird bath too. Water for birds and water play for for tiny tots is so much fun and relaxing. The crazy high temperatures here mid winter and now are so warm I am putting a big yogurt container of ice in our birdbath every day….(it is just off the kitchen) to keep the water from overheating. Watching the visiting wildlife enjoying the fresh water brings me such a lot of pleasure….with day and night visitors (I see when the moon is large). I am sure you and your little ones are getting a lot of pleasure from these things too.
That sounds lovely - your birds are lucky to have you! I’m hoping to add more water play for kiddos, it’s like nirvana for them! And all of us, really! 😅🥰
This is great stuff, i enjoyed your sense of humor. See if you can partner with Planet Wild. They have subscribers supporting highly localized conservation efforts, but there haven't been any projects in the US. It would be great for them to come stateside and gain support by getting us involved/subscibing and showing us whats possible. Its win/win
Thank you! Love Planet Wild - they’re doing some awesome restoration and advocacy work! I don’t think I realized subscribers were supporting - very interesting!
I think their roots could absolutely help break up soil, which will help water absorption and retention! If your soil has standing water at any point, you might need to search for specific plants that can handle those conditions. But if it’s just sort of rainy spring weather, I have that to and all of these plants have done well with that!
It’s missing _New England asters_ for the late September-early October blooms, last chance in the year to see flower colors and feed pollinators before the lame frost comes in!
Yes! I featured them in another video where I collected some local wild seeds and propagated them for my own garden - planning an update on that this fall! Gorgeous and so important for wildlife! I had some goldenrod pop up in this garden, and it’s covered in happy bees!
I've been wanting to convert a chunk of my sad yard to a pollinator happy place, and here you are with your freakin' great videos. Yay! All praise the all-knowing algorithm! Your vids are really helpful and fun to watch, too. Thank you so much! ((waving from northern Delaware))
Thank you so much for all the kind words! I still can’t believe all the joy that little pollinator strip brings us, I hope your garden adventure gets off to a great start!
😊 I'm in NE Arizona at 6,000 ft elevation and I have a lot of hot, dry patches. I've been trying to get wildflowers to grow for several years now. I finally got a few things to survive this summer. It's very sad that so much of native areas are being destroyed.
I’ve never had much luck directly sowing seeds into the ground, but have had really decent luck sowing in containers outside, and planting small plugs. I found this list of native AZ plants, some tough beauties on the list! aznps.com/the-plant-list/
@@gardenforbirds Thanks! I finally went to a native plant sell and got a Yarrow (it's growing like a weed 😉). Golden Rod and Cosmos did well and produced a lot of seeds. Something that looks like Jerusalem Artichokes popped up several places and bloomed like crazy, but this was a tough year for my regular garden. 🌻🌸
Thank you so much!! 💓 This one was PlantNet - free to use and pretty accurate if you can get a decent picture! I used to use PictureThis and think that one might have been a bit more accurate but I’m not positive, planning to download that one again and do more comparisons!
Maybe the best intro to eco-gardening I’ve seen! 🎉 Thank you for this wonderful video. I’m in yr 3 converting lawn to habitat in Tx panhandle. A roller coaster of climate change here including the worst wildfires in Tx history this spring. Hopeful we can all join in restoring our ecosystems wherever we live. ❤
Wow, thank you for the very kind words!! Congrats on year 3! I know a lawn conversation is a real labor of love! I hope you’re starting to see the fruits of your labor! I am still in planning mode for my own, but dream of the day when I can convert most of front lawn to habitat! Thank you for what you’re doing where you are 💓
Thank you!! Yeah, the apps can give some pretty wonky answers sometimes 😅 but I think they were right on the teasel - it went into bloom a few weeks later and had all the signs of being teasel unfortunately 😕
I'm also in Maryland and also have my south facing garden densely filled with natives if the deer and rabbits don't eat it ... I've lost many many plants that way.
Awesome! Yes, that can be one of the hardest parts of gardening in my experience! Inside my fenced area we only deal with smaller mammals, which so far haven’t been enough to kill any plants. Deer are a whole other story! 😣
Hello! I ordered these plants (and seeds) from Prairie Moon Nursery, and have a video here on this and two other useful sites!: th-cam.com/video/Yi7jpoFWfNc/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared A second video that shows how I like to use the Prairie Moon site is here: th-cam.com/video/gBoxgau1Xf0/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
Minnesota is a great place for a prairie! You all get such weather extremes, I think prairie plants will tough it out well alongside you all!! Prairie Moon Nursery is right in your neck of the woods! (Prairie Nursery is pretty close too!)
I enjoyed your video. Subscribed! I've replaced ~3/4 of my front lawn with [mostly] natives. I try to keep it somewhat presentable so passersby don't see it as weedy/neglected. Cheers
Excited to have you! Wow, that’s amazing! I’ve been dreaming up a big lawn replacement for our front but still working my way up to it! Doug Tallamy gives some tips on planting design to keep a tidy look - namely using plants of roughly uniform height and keeping them ~2-3’ tall. Using large swaths of the same plant can be good to give the eye a rest too! (Those are some of the things I’ve been thinking about in planning my lawn replacement!)
@@gardenforbirds I did mine in chunks over the last five years...starting with two modest triangular beds. Renting a sod cutter would be wise if you wanna do it all in one season. I dug mine out by hand, and pounded out the chunks to retain as much of the soil as possible. It took a lot of beers...and good canine company :) Or if you have the patience, tarp or cardboard the desired areas. After de-sodding, I laid lots of wood chips on top of cardboard...then parted the chips, cut a hole, and planted. This kept weeds at bay and moderated moisture. This proved to be a very good move what with these last few years being ridiculously dry for the first several weeks of the growing season here in WI. I relied heavily upon Prairie Moon Nursery's site to learn what plants work together/complement each other. I'm only on a city lot, so I didn't have the room to do "large swaths" of anything. Check with your city's regulations on plant height, especially if you're on a corner. Mine has limitations on the terrace (strip between the sidewalk and street)...otherwise anything goes. Hopefully you're not in a HOA. They are the devil. Haha
Wow, that’s awesome! I’m thinking of a similar process and doing it in stages - probably about 1/5 of an acre or so in front of our house. Without smothering it seems like you have to do a few years of tilling before you can grow anything, which isn’t really conducive for a front yard. No HOA here - if there was I think I’d get myself on the board, cause there’s no stopping me! 😅
I moved from Missouri to the deep South a while back. I brought purple cone flowers with me. They all died from the heat except for one plant. That one plant had the genetic makeup to thrive in the deep South,. I gave heaps of it away over the years before moving elsewhere. I hope the descendants of the plant are happy there still. In my new digs I discovered Bidens alba. There were no bees to be found on this property. Then, at the end of the summer I found a single Bidens alba growing in a crack in the driveway. It was covered in bees. I took seeds from it later in the season and put them down the side of the drive. Now, they grow everywhere and continue to be covered by pollinators of every description. Gardening is hope. Keep at it.
Amazing - and fun to hear your gardening science observations! I believe bidens is also a specialist host plant for some pollinators, so doing important work both with quantity and quality of food source! Your pollinators are lucky to have you noticing and observing your plants, I consider it an art form (and so rewarding)!
I really like how you do videos. Informative and amusing and... with a touch of depression thrown in. It's warranted. Today was a day for me to deal with a nasty invasive that has made serious inroads along our wood line, Lesser Celandine. Even though I am a registered pesticide applicator in 2 states I really don't like using chemicals. But the best way to deal with it to use Roundup. It's bad enough that I think it's going to take a few years. Anyway, I enjoyed this.
Thank you for the kind words! Yikes, that is stressful. Our property is badly invaded in some spaces too, but I wasn’t familiar with Lesser Celadine so looked it up and found this article about a native look alike to keep an eye out for! torontobotanicalgarden.ca/virtual-gardening/whats-in-bloom/whats-in-bloom-in-may-marsh-marigolds/
@@gardenforbirdsThank you for sharing that link. It's definitely the celadine that I have on the property. But I like that you are looking out for our natives!
EXCELLENT video! You’ve got a great selection of hardy performers. 👍🏻 Time to add Rattlesnake Master to the mix. I took an awkward section of my front lawn, by a ditch, and turned it into native plant habitat. Soon followed by some water retention in that ditch….which became a breeding ephemeral pond for 3 species of frogs and toads. I love it!
Amazing! There's a little pond near our house and the spring peepers are so loud even from a distance - would love to get a little pool or pond on our property, but haven't worked out where yet!
@@gardenforbirds yes! It doesn’t take much. I inadvertently left a plastic bin on my deck….that attracted a tree frog…that attracted another tree frog….that begat a tub full of tadpoles.this was my 3rd year of tree frogs on my deck. They do have a big ol vine upon which to hide and hunt. Charming!
Now you mention it, one of the containers I forgot outside caught some rainwater and suddenly had a little frog in it! It’s truly amazing how fast they come when we make a space 💓
Love your video and the important facts you shared. So important to plant natives. I just planted 3 more goldenrods today (caterpillar king in my zip code), Rosinweed, and Carolina Phlox. All natives to my area. Thanks again Amanda, new subscriber :)
Your videos f****** rock! I'm super into native stuff right now but there's only so many boring old ladies I can listen to... your content is a breath of fresh air and quite humorous. 🤘😎
I’ve been thinking about doing this but felt unsure of where to source plants. You just solved that for me, thank you! I have a small bit of land in Illinois. I’m not farming it, but a pollinator field there sounds lovely. One small field of just flowers would be amazing. It may take some time though.
That sounds lovely! I’ve been dreaming of doing something similar, but as you say it does take some time and planning. Prairie Moon Nursery has some different seed mixes you could think about while you’re in planning mode! www.prairiemoon.com/seed-mixes/
Oh no! Finding the balance between awareness and overwhelm is hard - but I find hope in seeing how much life I can support in my own back yard, and knowing others out there are starting to do the same. The “homegrown national park” initiative is one way to get a sense of community from other habitat gardeners, too. 💓
was going to plant mountain mint in my yard in early spring but I didnt have enough room, after my father accidentally decaptated half of our irises with a power washer I have plenty of room for them now! :]
@@gardenforbirds ive seen it planted in my local parks and its amazing how much life they can bring to an area hopefully it cannot grow in a partially shaded area
In Washington State I started with bachelor's buttons and blue flax, both grow easily from seed without any prep work. What I wasn't expecting is how tall native flowers get!
Yes, many of them can get quite tall! Probably gives some competitive advantage in seeking out the sun! But many natives do stay under 2’ tall as well, if you have spaces where you need shorter! I’d be curious about the Latin name for the bachelors button - the only species I was aware of are native to Europe
@@gardenforbirds My mistake, they grow everywhere here and are often spoken of as native. In truth the European bachelor's button is considered naturalized rather than invasive.
Ah, gotcha! I’ve heard other channels refer to them as native, so think this one can be confusing since it’s naturalized as you say. I see them frequently on roadsides, but it’s never wandered onto my property so far so haven’t had much opportunity to observe them up close!
Both Prairie Moon Nursery (based out of Minnesota) and Prairie Nursery (based out of Wisconsin) offer it. I've ordered live plants from both and received beautiful and healthy plants each time. You could also order seeds, which would be very affordable - I think they should be easy to germinate, and do not require any pre-treatment like cold stratification to get them going! Both nurseries I listed above should offer seeds as well. There are other online nurseries that offer live plants as well, so you could check for something closer to you if those are not! If you buy online, be sure to double check the Latin name before ordering to make sure you get the right species - Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans). Indian grass will get about 6' tall, so might hide your mailbox a bit. Some shorter but equally beautiful species you could consider are Little Bluestem (about 3' tall max) and Prairie Dropseed (about 2' tall max). I am thinking about planting Prairie Dropseed around our mailbox. All of these will do fine in your tough soil, and should actually help to break it up some and improve its quality!
My backyard his been allowed to grow over with natives. A single sq yard typically has more pollinators on it than I can easily count. I am 60. If young people knew how common pollinators were when I was little and how many are now missing, they would cry. Get rid of the lawn.
Yes, I’ve noticed the decline too in my own lifetime and you’re right - young people may not have the ability to notice the decline since they’re inheriting such a degraded state 😕 I’m so happy to hear you’re slice of heaven is thriving - gives me hope! 💓
It’s something they call “automatic concepts” - I think it’s meant to be more informational rather than as a warning, but I had turned it off and it seemed to turn itself back on, so thank you for pointing it out!
@@gardenforbirds there might be some words that the algorithm thinks are not ok. Perhaps YT can offer a list or something of words to avoid so as not to scare people away. Can't imagine anything in your message was controversial.
I thought I could turn it off (there’s a button to disable “automatic concepts” for your videos) but it’s still showing up under the video 🤷♀️. I referenced carbon storage when talking about the extensive root systems of prairie plants - that’s my best guess!
What's the source of the map at the beginning? th-cam.com/video/ORg8Wdiaj1I/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5oPLZjoKCyFHcGfi&t=22 I live a bit east of the section you showed and want to see if my area has a classificaition
The map from the video is here www.grasslandgroupies.org/grasslands/american-prairie/ but doesn’t quite show the full US. You might find the ecoregion maps here useful: www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america The level 2 map is a nice balance of detail without overwhelm, but if you aren’t intimidated by the level 3 map detail then you can really see more resolution in the ecological landscape! I just published a video that touches on how to get a list of important plants by ecoregion with some links to those resources in the description: m.th-cam.com/video/6wAocfmgH_0/w-d-xo.html
Also, I had tried to look on my own, I had been looking specifically for grassland/prairie and so my results were not relevant for my area. learning "ecoregion" is great in getting the right results
Thanks for your videos. They are very informative and entertaining. Please keep them coming. I hope you get a whole lot more views to keep you motivated to continue.
Thank you for the kind words! Being a new channel I'm keeping my eye on the long game - it can take a while for youtube to consistently pick up videos from new channels and share them, so I'm expecting a slow start! I've been very happily surprised at all the kind comments I've been receiving (like this one!) - I've found them the best source of motivation! 💓
To learn even more about prairie ecosystems, check out Native Habitat Project!
@NativeHabitatProject
th-cam.com/channels/ISRiNeM7BACmSGq_dg-UJA.html
nativehabitatproject.com/
Some prairie conservation resources:
* Prairie conservation and restoration recommendations for farms and private land:
www.nrem.iastate.edu/research/STRIPS/files/publication/landowners_guide_to_prairie_conservation_strips.pdf
www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/huntingwildlifehabitat/landowners_guide/habitat_mgmt/grassland/Prairie_Restorations.htm
* American Prairie restoration:
americanprairie.org/
* Coastal Prairie Conservancy (Texas):
www.coastalprairieconservancy.org/
* Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve:
www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/tallgrass-prairie-national-preserve/
I have a dry strip just like that beside my driveway too. I sowed anise hyssop and monarda seeds and some are growing well. They got a late start though. You’ve inspired me to fill the rest of the strip with native wildflowers.
I had some monarda in too much shade and it was basically dormant for 3 years until I transplanted it and now I’m in love with the stuff! I think it even attracts hummingbirds but haven’t seen that on mine yet, maybe next season!
This was such a fun and informative video. I have a variety of native prairie plants in my garden in the Chicago area. Not only did they do very well during the drought months of May and June, but they handled the excessive rainfall of early July quite well. Right now the garden is full of pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Thank you so much! That means a lot!! 💓 That’s a great point, mine were very happy in the rainy spring as well! It’s so much fun to watch all the critters enjoy these plants, it’s almost like a little extended family out there for us! 😅
Our community here in Lancaster, PA voted and removed our crumbling sidewalk and hellstrips. Most extended lawn to the street. I chose to do a rain garden, but because there is great drainage and it faces the hot afternoon sun, prairie plants you listed here do very well. Because it looks great and attracts birds, butterflies and bees at least 4 neighbors have done their version of native or mixed street-side garden strips. Sometimes we just need to see it demonstrated like you did in this video. Thx. Great job!
That’s awesome, it’s amazing how even a small strip can be so full of life! Doug Tallamy had some good suggestions on how to keep the neighbors happy - he suggested shorter plants with uniform height. I think some mass plantings of grasses like prairie dropseed and little bluestem alongside the perennials can also add a look of organization that holds through the seasons well! Even a few well behaved shrubs like New Jersey Tea might help give shape and structure - I haven’t planted this one yet but it’s supposed to keep a good shape! Thank you for all you’re doing!
I feel you, that is me breathing into the bag too every time I look at the news. Almost 3 years ago in Oregon we had a HORRIBLE 10-day span of the worst air quality on the planet from forest fires, and then pollution built up under the smoke. The sky was yellow for days... There's nothing more depressing than not even being able to be in your garden because the air outside could harm you 😢.
This was my first personal experience with it. 😞 I naively assumed fires wouldn’t impact us here in Maryland, but everything seems to be getting more extreme. I’ve tried to focus on what I can do in my tiny corner of the world, no matter how small, and am trying to trust that I’m just one of many - and that’s what gives us power to make a real impact 💓
968 (now 969) subscribers and this quality?! What is wrong with this world?! You should have 3x that!
Excited to have you, welcome aboard! And many thanks for the generous compliment, truly means a lot!!
Thanks for this video! I just stumbled across it and really enjoyed it! I live in Illinois and luckily I do see a lot of native prairie plants growing wild around here. We have a lot of preserved forests and prairies- well "a lot" in comparison to everywhere else. It's still depressingly dominated by strip malls and parkinglots where chemicals are sprayed to prevent anything growing 😭😭😭 But I am saving to buy a house and I want to have a native prairie garden like you have! I really think there is a growing interest in killing your lawn and planting native plants. I hope so, anyway. Looking forward to watching more of your videos!
I agree, I think a movement is imminent! It’s truly a “gardening culture” shift that’s required, and that takes time, but I think so many people are wanting more from their gardens than just “show plants”, and just need to see new examples and ways of thought. Thank you so much for watching - good luck with house saving!
Love your videos! I’m just starting my eco gardening journey and it is addictive! Getting some things in the ground this fall so we can hit the ground running this spring! Thanks for all the helpful information and love the humor you throw in!❤️
Me too! I'm just a few years in, and you're right - it's wildly addictive! 😅 Fall is such an awesome time to plant, I didn't appreciate this until recently - all my fall plantings from last year have been thriving even through the record heat and dry conditions! My spring plantings have been struggling along, so I've learned it's fall planting for the win! Thank you for the kind words and thanks so much for watching! 💓
Atticus Finch? Thanks for sharing. Nicely produced and good-humored. I'm in Chicago and a surprising number of neighbors have let their lawns and parkway (lawn between the sidewalk and street) go wild. Only recently discovered the prairie restoration efforts (Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc.) - some organizations have been working at it for decades! I want to beautify the alleyways (I have a couple little patches each about 1 sq ft) with native flowers and prairie species.
That’s exciting to hear! My area is very traditional - sprawling lawn, about 90% nonnative landscapes, and lots of invasive species taking over the wild areas . It’s exciting to hear some areas are evolving! Alleys everywhere could do with some beautification - that’s a great idea! Alleys are also most often used by kids, in my experience, and anything we can do to bring nature to them is a win in my book! Thank you for watching!!
We've also gone "organic" (as much as we can) no fertilizer etc. just homemade compost@@gardenforbirds
Awesome! And with the price of everything these days, making what you can from home helps ease the wallet too! We’ve been shredding about half our fallen leaves the past few falls and that’s been awesome to have on hand for free organic material!
Another informative, creative, and inspiring video. Your channel is going to grow and grow and grow....just like your gardens. Really, you create the best videos!
Thank you so much!
it makes me so sad to see all these videos about prairies with only a couple hundred views. we desperately need to spread awareness about this. people think about deforestation more. that’s an important issue too, but we need more people who care about prairies.
Couldn’t agree more, I’ve only started learning about how much we’ve devastated our prairies in the past few years, but it’s heartbreaking. I’m hoping we can shift our culture back toward nature, we’ve become so disconnected. It gives me hope that we can at least start designing our home gardens to restore some much needed habitat! 💓
@@gardenforbirds i live in southern minnesota and it makes me so sad seeing these endless field of corn and soybeans knowing there used to be a beautiful, diverse ecosystem in its place. i understand the importance of agriculture but we really need to save this ecosystem. i’m currently working on a pocket prairie in my front yard. it’s been hard work removing weeds and all but it will hopefully pay off.
Once your plants establish hopefully the weed seeds will be shaded out and won’t be able to compete anymore! The only “weeds” I get in this garden so far are other natives, boneset, goldenrod and “golden top” which is an aster. I’m going to collect seeds from those in the fall and move them to another location!
I enjoyed this video, but for future videos, please speak more slowly and leave the map on the screen long enough to read it.
Thanks for the feedback and for watching!
This is an incredibly well-made and fun video! Subscribed!
Thank you so much, that’s very kind! Welcome aboard!!
Great informative, interesting, funny, tragic (so little Prairie plants left) and wonderful diverse (indigenous?) planting content. Your little one’s wonder and commentary was so sweet. Well done. A bird bath for the birds and bees to live their best life too (if you don’t have one).
Thank you so much! My sweet kiddos are the reason I started the channel - I think they deserve (and need) a world with nature, and after decades watching governments spin their wheels, it seems like real change may have to come from grassroots efforts rather than top-down. And it's been amazing and inspiring to connect with other people who want their gardens to be providing habitat! (I have one bird bath but have been wanting to expand to more - hopefully as the kids get older and I can be more reliable with keeping it clean! 😃)
@@gardenforbirds Wonderful you have a bird bath too. Water for birds and water play for for tiny tots is so much fun and relaxing. The crazy high temperatures here mid winter and now are so warm I am putting a big yogurt container of ice in our birdbath every day….(it is just off the kitchen) to keep the water from overheating. Watching the visiting wildlife enjoying the fresh water brings me such a lot of pleasure….with day and night visitors (I see when the moon is large). I am sure you and your little ones are getting a lot of pleasure from these things too.
That sounds lovely - your birds are lucky to have you! I’m hoping to add more water play for kiddos, it’s like nirvana for them! And all of us, really! 😅🥰
This is great stuff, i enjoyed your sense of humor. See if you can partner with Planet Wild. They have subscribers supporting highly localized conservation efforts, but there haven't been any projects in the US. It would be great for them to come stateside and gain support by getting us involved/subscibing and showing us whats possible. Its win/win
Thank you! Love Planet Wild - they’re doing some awesome restoration and advocacy work! I don’t think I realized subscribers were supporting - very interesting!
We get seasonally sort of wet soil then the summer is dry. Maybe I should use some of these to soak up the water in the winter and spring
I think their roots could absolutely help break up soil, which will help water absorption and retention! If your soil has standing water at any point, you might need to search for specific plants that can handle those conditions. But if it’s just sort of rainy spring weather, I have that to and all of these plants have done well with that!
It’s missing _New England asters_ for the late September-early October blooms, last chance in the year to see flower colors and feed pollinators before the lame frost comes in!
Yes! I featured them in another video where I collected some local wild seeds and propagated them for my own garden - planning an update on that this fall! Gorgeous and so important for wildlife! I had some goldenrod pop up in this garden, and it’s covered in happy bees!
I've been wanting to convert a chunk of my sad yard to a pollinator happy place, and here you are with your freakin' great videos. Yay! All praise the all-knowing algorithm!
Your vids are really helpful and fun to watch, too. Thank you so much!
((waving from northern Delaware))
Thank you so much for all the kind words! I still can’t believe all the joy that little pollinator strip brings us, I hope your garden adventure gets off to a great start!
I'm cackling! "These roots are as deep as 1.27 Amanda's." Hahaha priceless!
😂 💓
😊 I'm in NE Arizona at 6,000 ft elevation and I have a lot of hot, dry patches. I've been trying to get wildflowers to grow for several years now. I finally got a few things to survive this summer. It's very sad that so much of native areas are being destroyed.
I’ve never had much luck directly sowing seeds into the ground, but have had really decent luck sowing in containers outside, and planting small plugs. I found this list of native AZ plants, some tough beauties on the list! aznps.com/the-plant-list/
@@gardenforbirds Thanks! I finally went to a native plant sell and got a Yarrow (it's growing like a weed 😉). Golden Rod and Cosmos did well and produced a lot of seeds. Something that looks like Jerusalem Artichokes popped up several places and bloomed like crazy, but this was a tough year for my regular garden. 🌻🌸
This was a tough year for parts of our garden as well. I’m actually kind of glad the plants will get a rest soon, over the winter 💓
Your videos are great! 😃 What app do you use to identify plants?
Thank you so much!! 💓 This one was PlantNet - free to use and pretty accurate if you can get a decent picture! I used to use PictureThis and think that one might have been a bit more accurate but I’m not positive, planning to download that one again and do more comparisons!
Great video!
Thank you for watching!
Maybe the best intro to eco-gardening I’ve seen! 🎉 Thank you for this wonderful video. I’m in yr 3 converting lawn to habitat in Tx panhandle. A roller coaster of climate change here including the worst wildfires in Tx history this spring. Hopeful we can all join in restoring our ecosystems wherever we live. ❤
Wow, thank you for the very kind words!! Congrats on year 3! I know a lawn conversation is a real labor of love! I hope you’re starting to see the fruits of your labor! I am still in planning mode for my own, but dream of the day when I can convert most of front lawn to habitat! Thank you for what you’re doing where you are 💓
Criminally under-subbed channel.
Thank you for the generous compliment! 🥹
Thanks for including root depth :)
Still blows my mind to think about it - most of these plants are underground! 😲🤯
Really lovely video! Informative and beautiful! Subscribing now!
Plus you are quite funny “murder at will” was great.
Thank you so much, that's very kind! Excited to have you! 💕
Awesome micro prairie!
Plant ID apps are not very good. That was definitely cup plant you spotted at the roadside, not cut-leaf teasel.
Thank you!! Yeah, the apps can give some pretty wonky answers sometimes 😅 but I think they were right on the teasel - it went into bloom a few weeks later and had all the signs of being teasel unfortunately 😕
I'm also in Maryland and also have my south facing garden densely filled with natives if the deer and rabbits don't eat it ... I've lost many many plants that way.
Awesome! Yes, that can be one of the hardest parts of gardening in my experience! Inside my fenced area we only deal with smaller mammals, which so far haven’t been enough to kill any plants. Deer are a whole other story! 😣
Hello can you do a video on where or how you purchased the plants or are they from seed also a list. This information is great.
Hello! I ordered these plants (and seeds) from Prairie Moon Nursery, and have a video here on this and two other useful sites!: th-cam.com/video/Yi7jpoFWfNc/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
A second video that shows how I like to use the Prairie Moon site is here: th-cam.com/video/gBoxgau1Xf0/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
I live in central Minnesota. Super excited to try this out next spring! Our drought was nasty this summer.
Minnesota is a great place for a prairie! You all get such weather extremes, I think prairie plants will tough it out well alongside you all!! Prairie Moon Nursery is right in your neck of the woods! (Prairie Nursery is pretty close too!)
So inspiring! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! And thank you for watching!! 💓
I enjoyed your video. Subscribed!
I've replaced ~3/4 of my front lawn with [mostly] natives. I try to keep it somewhat presentable so passersby don't see it as weedy/neglected.
Cheers
Excited to have you! Wow, that’s amazing! I’ve been dreaming up a big lawn replacement for our front but still working my way up to it! Doug Tallamy gives some tips on planting design to keep a tidy look - namely using plants of roughly uniform height and keeping them ~2-3’ tall. Using large swaths of the same plant can be good to give the eye a rest too! (Those are some of the things I’ve been thinking about in planning my lawn replacement!)
@@gardenforbirds I did mine in chunks over the last five years...starting with two modest triangular beds. Renting a sod cutter would be wise if you wanna do it all in one season. I dug mine out by hand, and pounded out the chunks to retain as much of the soil as possible. It took a lot of beers...and good canine company :)
Or if you have the patience, tarp or cardboard the desired areas. After de-sodding, I laid lots of wood chips on top of cardboard...then parted the chips, cut a hole, and planted. This kept weeds at bay and moderated moisture. This proved to be a very good move what with these last few years being ridiculously dry for the first several weeks of the growing season here in WI.
I relied heavily upon Prairie Moon Nursery's site to learn what plants work together/complement each other. I'm only on a city lot, so I didn't have the room to do "large swaths" of anything. Check with your city's regulations on plant height, especially if you're on a corner. Mine has limitations on the terrace (strip between the sidewalk and street)...otherwise anything goes. Hopefully you're not in a HOA. They are the devil. Haha
Wow, that’s awesome! I’m thinking of a similar process and doing it in stages - probably about 1/5 of an acre or so in front of our house. Without smothering it seems like you have to do a few years of tilling before you can grow anything, which isn’t really conducive for a front yard. No HOA here - if there was I think I’d get myself on the board, cause there’s no stopping me! 😅
I moved from Missouri to the deep South a while back. I brought purple cone flowers with me. They all died from the heat except for one plant. That one plant had the genetic makeup to thrive in the deep South,. I gave heaps of it away over the years before moving elsewhere. I hope the descendants of the plant are happy there still.
In my new digs I discovered Bidens alba. There were no bees to be found on this property. Then, at the end of the summer I found a single Bidens alba growing in a crack in the driveway. It was covered in bees. I took seeds from it later in the season and put them down the side of the drive. Now, they grow everywhere and continue to be covered by pollinators of every description. Gardening is hope. Keep at it.
Amazing - and fun to hear your gardening science observations! I believe bidens is also a specialist host plant for some pollinators, so doing important work both with quantity and quality of food source! Your pollinators are lucky to have you noticing and observing your plants, I consider it an art form (and so rewarding)!
I really like how you do videos. Informative and amusing and... with a touch of depression thrown in. It's warranted.
Today was a day for me to deal with a nasty invasive that has made serious inroads along our wood line, Lesser Celandine. Even though I am a registered pesticide applicator in 2 states I really don't like using chemicals. But the best way to deal with it to use Roundup. It's bad enough that I think it's going to take a few years. Anyway, I enjoyed this.
Thank you for the kind words! Yikes, that is stressful. Our property is badly invaded in some spaces too, but I wasn’t familiar with Lesser Celadine so looked it up and found this article about a native look alike to keep an eye out for!
torontobotanicalgarden.ca/virtual-gardening/whats-in-bloom/whats-in-bloom-in-may-marsh-marigolds/
@@gardenforbirdsThank you for sharing that link. It's definitely the celadine that I have on the property. But I like that you are looking out for our natives!
@@Javaman92 Ack, wishful thinking! 😅
great video! Thank you!
Thank you so much!
EXCELLENT video! You’ve got a great selection of hardy performers. 👍🏻 Time to add Rattlesnake Master to the mix. I took an awkward section of my front lawn, by a ditch, and turned it into native plant habitat. Soon followed by some water retention in that ditch….which became a breeding ephemeral pond for 3 species of frogs and toads. I love it!
Amazing! There's a little pond near our house and the spring peepers are so loud even from a distance - would love to get a little pool or pond on our property, but haven't worked out where yet!
@@gardenforbirds yes! It doesn’t take much. I inadvertently left a plastic bin on my deck….that attracted a tree frog…that attracted another tree frog….that begat a tub full of tadpoles.this was my 3rd year of tree frogs on my deck. They do have a big ol vine upon which to hide and hunt. Charming!
Now you mention it, one of the containers I forgot outside caught some rainwater and suddenly had a little frog in it! It’s truly amazing how fast they come when we make a space 💓
Really great video, love the creativity. ❤ keep on keepin’ on!
Thank you so much, it means a lot!! 💕
Hi Amanda! Great, informative video!!
Hello! Thank you so much! 💓
Love this!!! Great work.
Thank you so much! And thanks for watching!
The amount of time I rewinded to find the remaining prairie .. 😢I missed the dot…. Unbelievable
Yeah…it’s pretty upsetting 😣
Echinacea, Anise Hyssop, Butterfly Milkweed. I'm going to drop some seeds right now outside.
Yay! Awesome!! 🙌
Loved this video!!!
Thank you so much!
Love your video and the important facts you shared. So important to plant natives. I just planted 3 more goldenrods today (caterpillar king in my zip code), Rosinweed, and Carolina Phlox. All natives to my area. Thanks again Amanda, new subscriber :)
Thank you! Awesome 🙌, always great to hear others are planting for habitat!! Gives me hope! Welcome aboard!
Check out the Midewin Tallgrass Prairie, located a mere 3.5 miles from my backyard in Elwood Illinois.
Awesome! And so nice it’s so close to your home, you might get some enhanced insect biodiversity in your garden as a result!!
Your videos f****** rock! I'm super into native stuff right now but there's only so many boring old ladies I can listen to... your content is a breath of fresh air and quite humorous. 🤘😎
😂 Thank you!
Fantastic video, thanks Amanda. The patch looks absolutely beautiful
Thank you so much!! And thanks for watching!
I’ve been thinking about doing this but felt unsure of where to source plants. You just solved that for me, thank you! I have a small bit of land in Illinois. I’m not farming it, but a pollinator field there sounds lovely. One small field of just flowers would be amazing. It may take some time though.
That sounds lovely! I’ve been dreaming of doing something similar, but as you say it does take some time and planning. Prairie Moon Nursery has some different seed mixes you could think about while you’re in planning mode! www.prairiemoon.com/seed-mixes/
Your video was fun to watch, as an artsy person with a short attention span yours had me hooked haha. Never change.
Thank you so much, that’s very kind!!
Well done. Every little bit counts.
Thank you! 💓 It’s amazing to watch all the life gather around this little garden!
This was a depressing video but thanks for doing your best to make a dent.
Oh no! Finding the balance between awareness and overwhelm is hard - but I find hope in seeing how much life I can support in my own back yard, and knowing others out there are starting to do the same. The “homegrown national park” initiative is one way to get a sense of community from other habitat gardeners, too. 💓
Great video! There needs to be more information like this out there. Thank you :)
Thank you so much! And thank you for watching!
was going to plant mountain mint in my yard in early spring but I didnt have enough room, after my father accidentally decaptated half of our irises with a power washer I have plenty of room for them now! :]
Haha, we have similar mishaps over here 😅 I really love our mountain mint, it’s a great plant!!
@@gardenforbirds ive seen it planted in my local parks and its amazing how much life they can bring to an area hopefully it cannot grow in a partially shaded area
In Washington State I started with bachelor's buttons and blue flax, both grow easily from seed without any prep work. What I wasn't expecting is how tall native flowers get!
Yes, many of them can get quite tall! Probably gives some competitive advantage in seeking out the sun! But many natives do stay under 2’ tall as well, if you have spaces where you need shorter! I’d be curious about the Latin name for the bachelors button - the only species I was aware of are native to Europe
@@gardenforbirds My mistake, they grow everywhere here and are often spoken of as native. In truth the European bachelor's button is considered naturalized rather than invasive.
Ah, gotcha! I’ve heard other channels refer to them as native, so think this one can be confusing since it’s naturalized as you say. I see them frequently on roadsides, but it’s never wandered onto my property so far so haven’t had much opportunity to observe them up close!
You’re garden is beautiful!
Thank you so much!
Where do I get indiangrass? I really want one to put next to my mailbox, just dry, awful, nutrient-deficient clay soil
Both Prairie Moon Nursery (based out of Minnesota) and Prairie Nursery (based out of Wisconsin) offer it. I've ordered live plants from both and received beautiful and healthy plants each time. You could also order seeds, which would be very affordable - I think they should be easy to germinate, and do not require any pre-treatment like cold stratification to get them going! Both nurseries I listed above should offer seeds as well. There are other online nurseries that offer live plants as well, so you could check for something closer to you if those are not! If you buy online, be sure to double check the Latin name before ordering to make sure you get the right species - Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans). Indian grass will get about 6' tall, so might hide your mailbox a bit. Some shorter but equally beautiful species you could consider are Little Bluestem (about 3' tall max) and Prairie Dropseed (about 2' tall max). I am thinking about planting Prairie Dropseed around our mailbox. All of these will do fine in your tough soil, and should actually help to break it up some and improve its quality!
@@gardenforbirds I want it to get tall, I want to plant it behind the mailbox
That’ll look lovely, I love the way grasses look all through the year!
This was great thank you.
Thank you!
My backyard his been allowed to grow over with natives. A single sq yard typically has more pollinators on it than I can easily count. I am 60. If young people knew how common pollinators were when I was little and how many are now missing, they would cry. Get rid of the lawn.
Yes, I’ve noticed the decline too in my own lifetime and you’re right - young people may not have the ability to notice the decline since they’re inheriting such a degraded state 😕 I’m so happy to hear you’re slice of heaven is thriving - gives me hope! 💓
What a delightful, well-made video. And your garden is equally delightful and well put together.
Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say! 💓
Couldn't understand what you said that got you flagged with the CC warning
It’s something they call “automatic concepts” - I think it’s meant to be more informational rather than as a warning, but I had turned it off and it seemed to turn itself back on, so thank you for pointing it out!
@@gardenforbirds there might be some words that the algorithm thinks are not ok. Perhaps YT can offer a list or something of words to avoid so as not to scare people away. Can't imagine anything in your message was controversial.
I thought I could turn it off (there’s a button to disable “automatic concepts” for your videos) but it’s still showing up under the video 🤷♀️. I referenced carbon storage when talking about the extensive root systems of prairie plants - that’s my best guess!
What's the source of the map at the beginning? th-cam.com/video/ORg8Wdiaj1I/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5oPLZjoKCyFHcGfi&t=22 I live a bit east of the section you showed and want to see if my area has a classificaition
The map from the video is here www.grasslandgroupies.org/grasslands/american-prairie/ but doesn’t quite show the full US. You might find the ecoregion maps here useful: www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america
The level 2 map is a nice balance of detail without overwhelm, but if you aren’t intimidated by the level 3 map detail then you can really see more resolution in the ecological landscape!
I just published a video that touches on how to get a list of important plants by ecoregion with some links to those resources in the description: m.th-cam.com/video/6wAocfmgH_0/w-d-xo.html
@@gardenforbirds thank you for such a comprehensive answer!
Also, I had tried to look on my own, I had been looking specifically for grassland/prairie and so my results were not relevant for my area. learning "ecoregion" is great in getting the right results
Oh, awesome! So glad to hear!!
Thanks for your videos. They are very informative and entertaining. Please keep them coming. I hope you get a whole lot more views to keep you motivated to continue.
Thank you for the kind words! Being a new channel I'm keeping my eye on the long game - it can take a while for youtube to consistently pick up videos from new channels and share them, so I'm expecting a slow start! I've been very happily surprised at all the kind comments I've been receiving (like this one!) - I've found them the best source of motivation! 💓