u/Tooaroo

What asters do you have? Maybe some types bloom longer and later? My cutleaf coneflower, salvia, aromatic aster, blanket flower, little flower penstemon are all still blooming despite our bees being long gone and multiple hard frosts. It’s possible local ecotype may be a factor since my area is likely used to frosts.

Native Gardening for birds, butterflies, and edible berries. It’s fun bc it also is very artistic too, like designing the garden and picking the plants. Watching the birds and bugs is very calming. It’s basically winter where I am now and I’ve added a heated bird bath and some bird feeders to watch even more birds

I have done similar situations with great success and have a large area planted just like this into unprepared ground, so I wouldn’t get discouraged by anyone that has not had luck with it. I have found laying cardboard down (ensuring at least 2 layers and then overlapping heavily) and then a layer of purchased gardening soil or homemade compost over the cardboard to sow the seeds into works fantastic. Any areas I don’t plant in I just use mulch instead of soil over the cardboard. You could also just sheet mulch then winter sow the seeds in jugs and plant the plugs in the spring.

Both my serviceberry and blueberries have beautiful colors right now

100% blind to hanging baskets, as proven by the fact I have killed everyone I’ve ever hung.

Oh that looks so pretty! I love it!! Thank you so much for taking the time to add a photo 🌾

Same! This was last year and they are all thriving

Sneezeweed rocks at staying upright in my yard too!

Will it self seed into healthy established and cared for lawn?

Okay that’s adorable!

These are beautiful.

I’m sorry about the bugs, that really sucks. Any chance you can attract a bat or dragonflies to your yard? I honestly think they really helped that problem for us 😅. If I see a dragonfly in our yard I spray my trees, brush pile and plants with water to shake all the hiding bugs loose for them as a little thanks for stopping by.

I found strait species zizia aurea (golden Alexander) quarts at a local nursery in the regular (non native) section recently. I was so excited since they are a host plant for swallowtails and I bought 6 plants bc I also don’t have spring bloomers and early summer bloomers and it really was such a drag waiting all summer for my fall garden. I found out they turn a beautiful red/purple in the fall, so added fall interest 😅. I also purchased a golden currant shrub recently bc they are commonly available in non native nurseries and an early bloomer too.

Any chance you could winter sow in ziplocs or milk jugs? You might have a chance at 1st yr blooms for some things.

Now is a great time to buy plants basically anywhere bc there are many plants that might not overwinter well in their nurseries so they put them on sale! Check locally owned nurseries even if they aren’t native specific and see if they have any in their sale area.

Another option if you are not shy is reaching out to wholesale nurseries to see if they have any plants that won’t make it through the freeze that they plan to compost.

One of my absolute favorites though is buying a plant and dividing it into multiple plugs, double win if you get it on the sales rack 😅. Even small quart sized plants that are on the sales rack I can often divide into 3-4 plants. I bought 3 sneezeweed quarts for $3 each recently and they were overgrown and root bound and I just used a soil knife and chopped them into 3rds so they ended up being $1 plugs lol. You can also root nearly any perennial cutting as long as you baby it in well watered soil. Anytime anything breaks off a plant or if I especially love something I will purposely cut off pieces and stick it in my current propagation station (or really wherever if I’m not super worried if it will succeed). If you don’t mind playing the long game for a large plant to grow you can divide things very successfully as long as there is a little bit of roots for each plant. Basically I’ll plant anything in some soil and see what happens, most of the time it works and when it’s a random piece that would otherwise be composted then there is no downside. Cuttings would likely not take if you are experiencing freezing temps already, but for anything with a bit of roots I would plant, water and cover with a handful of leaves and expect great results next year.

My advice is to clear a spot in your garden to place a bench and table and on days that it’s nice enough when you get home have your beverage or meal of choice there and just observe, enjoy the bugs or birds or just whatever piece of it you DO enjoy. If it’s too cold or you can’t be outside for whatever reason, find the spot in your house that has the best view of the garden and do the same thing. I have found this or walking around looking at blooms and bugs to be enough to give me either the annoyance at what I see lacking/messy or the motivation of excitement to encourage me to do SOMETHING. You mention not having many early bloomers, I say go buy 10 plugs or plants for the 2 seasons you are missing and put them in the ground asap. That way you have them to look forward to in the spring no matter what and they will bloom their first year! Then scatter a BUNCH of seeds of things you DO wish you were seeing. If you can swing the cost plant 5 shrubs, they will give you structure quick.

I have come back from way worse than what you are dealing with after 4 years of pregnancy and very young children. Something that works crazy well is putting 4-6 inches of raised garden soil strait on top of whatever you don’t want and then planing plugs or seeds into that 😅. Then I just repeat this process if anything I don’t want grows through the soil. This process keeps me from digging in hard ground and the seeds germinate insanely well and fast compared to other direct sowing I’ve done.

Haha, I’m sure they will 😅.

Thank you for providing this update 😅. How are they doing now?

I hope this is how it goes for us, bc i took the gamble and I planted them 😅

My gosh that is beautiful!!!!!

Wow! Thank you so much for all the info and pictures! That Indian grass looks awesome!! I also love all the others! I picked up a north wind switchgrass this week and was so sad they didn’t have more! It was also very dry, so I’m hoping that it makes it through the winter. I ended up buying a few cultivars of big bluestem and a couple little bluestem cultivars too 😆. I usually try to do strait species, but I do want this planted this year and they were cultivars known for staying upright. I’m excited your northwind is so gorgeous, and I think I’ll grab some Indian grass (they did have the strait species so that is good!).

Thank you! I am looking at non privacy grasses too, so I’ll keep that in mind! I just happen to especially need/want something taller than our fence and trying to future out what it will be

It’s a pretty large area I have converted (40’x5) to natives, so the sprinklers can be capped they just haven’t been yet. I finished planting it in the last couple weeks and the sprinklers have already been blown out for the season since we’ve had multiple nights below 28°F this fall. Thank you for the resources and help!

They look so cool! Thank you for sharing

So pretty, please update us next year! I bought 9 grasses today and it wasn’t nearly enough, headed back tomorrow. They are just so cool!

Thank you, that’s awesome info. I saw “holy smoke” at the nursery today and maybe even “new wave”, but less certain on that one, it’s all a blur now 😆.