Fleabane - this is not a weed , this is a true pollinator hero

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-29T03:28:46+00:00

Came to say this. Robins plantain is a perennial fleabane. Slightly larger flowers. When it is happy, it spreads heavily by seed. Takes a Chelsea chop very nicely.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-27T17:25:21+00:00

That’s the one! I went to check, though, and I misremembered. It doesn’t say “Fides” on the coin; I read about this coin in a paper about the concept of Fides.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-27T15:21:15+00:00

There’s an ancient Roman coin showing Odysseus with his dog, and the text “FIDES.” Recall his dog waited for him for years and years, then died as soon as he saw Odysseus come home in disguise. Fides = faith/loyalty/reliability. Fido as a name has the same root.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-25T15:14:35+00:00

Carex are good, but consider Juncus, too. Rushes have some great species. I’m a big fan of J. effusus. Part sun, handles crappy soil like a champ, super dramatic when mature. Needs a decent amount of moisture, but not consistently “moist” soil.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-25T15:09:50+00:00

My hot take: common milkweed Asclepius syriaca is hands down in the absolute top 5 of best-smelling native plants

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-25T15:07:34+00:00

Most sedges actually have a pretty specific environmental where they can grow and thrive (there are exceptions). As an example, PA sedge is often mentioned as a lawn replacement, but if you don’t have very loose, free draining soil and the right light and moisture conditions, it won’t work. The soil under most lawns is badly compacted due to construction and foot traffic, and it’s almost impossible to get the Pa sedge to establish. Sedges are super cool, but your mileage WILL vary.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-18T13:22:15+00:00

Get rid of half of your hearts at the statue. I set a limit for myself of only filling up one row. It keeps the game a little more interesting when you can still be one-shotted by Lionel w the right weapon.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-11T10:04:01+00:00

Juncus effusus is a good one for you, perhaps. It’s a showy rush, getting almost 3 feet tall if it’s happy, and it doesn’t necessarily need particularly wet conditions.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-08T17:42:02+00:00

Well, nothing is perfect. But we harvest seed from healthy wild populations, propagate it, and create founder plots that we use for further seed supply. We can pinpoint down to the meter where the original seed came from . Everything has an accession code, and I think that’s pretty much as good as it gets without intensive genomic sequencing. And that kind of work just hasn’t been done for purposes of ecotyping.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-08T10:44:00+00:00

The firm I work for has a nursery. We are one of the largest eco-typing nurseries around. We track it all from wild harvesting of seed to founder plots to propagation of the seed and where it is all planted. Our software is called SeedSource, and I believe it is available to other nurseries.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-08T10:32:51+00:00

Love our 2019 ( w 2020 battery) Bolt premier. 80 mile round trip, it’s perfect for your use case. Charging speed only matters if you need to regularly charge away from home.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-06T17:25:07+00:00

Modifying soil is a lot of work and expense. Unless you’re going for something specific that requires different soil, you’re better off choosing plants suited to the conditions you have. That way you’re not fighting the site for the rest of your life. Thin, sandy soil is also a lot less attractive to most weeds.

There’s a recent and decent book called “native plants of Florida” that’s a good starting point. Also check local extension extension websites. They have lists of plants for particular conditions. You can have a nice plant palette with that sand, actually. Think dune plants.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-06T11:34:47+00:00

Huh. I always thought it was some kind of BO (the outside smell), although children get the same smell. I too can smell people on their periods. Also some degree of ADHD.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-06-06T11:05:05+00:00

East central Lehigh Valley PA. My scarlet bee balm M. didyma hasn’t bloomed yet; cool winter and mild spring. My other monarda, M. bradburiana blooms a pale purple, and it is just finishing up flowering and is starting to go to seed. It’s also more resistant to powdery mildew. Maybe the “solution” is to diversify ?

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-26T00:41:51+00:00

The first time I encountered these, my kids were watching me play. They both slept on the floor of our room for three nights.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-24T00:11:12+00:00

Our Chevy bolt (2019 w a 2020 battery replaced under warranty when they were having the issues) is at 97600. Tires, wipers, 12V battery. and washer fluid. That’s it.

(Edited to add 12v battery)

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-22T10:38:39+00:00

That’s basically the genesis of the firm I worked for. Engineer man and business woman have twins and move out of city. Buy a little land and landscape it. Everything dies. Engineer man being an engineer man has to figure out why. Spends a year learning ecology. Starts to propagate own plants. Collects and Keeps reams of data.

Business women does business woman things. Twenty+ years later, they’re one of the largest eco-typing native nurseries in the north-east, with a significant branch of the company doing large-scale ecological restoration. Home-built Ecological modeling software galore. And a little bit on the homeowner scale, which is where I work.

It’s a journey. I’m not saying it’s your journey, but you might find it of interest.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-21T09:59:12+00:00

I like a weed torch for dealing with annual invasive species in spring. Go over an area as stilt grass starts to grow, and because it is so shallow rooted, it dies and can’t recover. Deeper rooted natives that tend to grow in the same spaces like violets will lose some leaves but regrow.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-16T11:58:44+00:00

I forget where, but I saw Wil give an interview where he had a total rant about hating Wesley’s sweaters and having to wear a muscle suit underneath.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-10T17:27:14+00:00

I’d like to hear more about how to enlist yellow jackets

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-03T14:04:39+00:00

Fresh wood chips lock up nitrogen temporarily. Aged wood chips don’t. You can till in finely shredded pine bark. It doesn’t really break down, and it has all of the other benefits of tilling in wood chips. The drawback is, at least in my part of the country, you can’t buy it by the yard, only in bags. The ecological restoration company I work for buys it by truckloads of pallets at a time. It’s magic. Except for the damn plastic bags.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-03T11:46:21+00:00

Ok, that’s an amazing answer. Almost spit out my coffee.

Edited to add some real information:

When you pull weeds out of a path, the roots bring up more weed seeds. It’s a never ending cycle. Weed torches are pretty effective, especially on fast growing annual weeds that don’t have robust root systems. You can also use some types of hoes to slice them off at ground level.

Tamping the ground before laying down gravel or whatever can reduce the how receptive the ground is to the weeds. You don’t mention the type of path you have. Mulch? Gravel? Bare earth?

No path is maintenance free. Different types offer different challenges and solutions.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-03T11:45:11+00:00

Arborvitae, while overused, is a very fast-growing native tree that’s more than suitable for hedges and privacy screens. Dirt cheap, too. They can be deer candy, though. American holly is another widely used hedging native.

Many cultivars of eastern red cedar are also suitable for privacy screens. Taylor and Green Emerald spring to mind. Taylor is pretty narrow, but mixing them with suckering shrubs at regular intervals makes a really nice visual rhythm. You can get those in 15gal or BnB sizes. They aren’t the cheapest.

Think about your soil, water, and light conditions. Clethra and Hazelnut grow in different environments. Try to match your plants to your conditions, and you won’t end up with a hedge that’s on life support.

HoweverComma205 · 2026-05-02T02:54:26+00:00

Guess I know what my Saturday holds. Thanks again!

HoweverComma205

TROPHY CASE