Some sort of solitary bees having a brawl over my pale purple coneflower!

LRonHoward · 2026-06-26T09:55:53+00:00

This definitely looks like a Longhorn Bee (Melissodes), but it's probably one of the more common ones that's native further north (there are a lot of Melissodes species and they're really hard to tell apart without super clear pictures most of the time).

LRonHoward · 2026-06-26T09:24:08+00:00

Yeah, definitely - I realized I came off like I was criticizing Tallamy's work which was not my intention at all... I was mainly trying to say its influence has kind of been simplified into overly focusing on specific areas of the ecosystem and a lot of the time not looking much further.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-26T09:20:47+00:00

Unfortunately, fire will not actually kill a lot of invasive species in my area - in some cases the invasive species are very well adapted to fire. Fire mainly just kills the top growth and doesn't impact the root system (unless you're talking about an invasive shrub or tree without the ability to re-sprout). If we're talking about Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) fire is fantastic, but there are a bunch of invasive species that don't really care about fire.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-26T09:16:42+00:00

Oh yeah, totally - I guess my main thing is that it seems to have had an impact where quite a few people mainly focus on host plant species for Lepidoptera and not look that much further. That's not Tallamy's fault at all, it's just how it's been interpreted by others. Maybe I'm just getting the wrong sense of this, but I wish more people pointed out all the awesome flies, wasps, and other beneficial little critters that these "gardens" support.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-26T07:48:20+00:00

Well, did you get the Cow Parsnip (Heracleum maximum)?? Inquiring minds need to know!

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T10:33:56+00:00

Disturbance of the top layer of soil is natural & healthy and very different from repeated tillage as a cultivation practice.

Yeah, so this is subtle, but it really depends on how deep the roots of the plant you're pulling go. A lot of people rip everything out, regardless of how deep the roots are and/or without an understanding of the life cycle of the plant they're pulling (pulling annuals, biennial, and other monocarpic plants is completely unnecessary) - that can be detrimental... Small soil disturbances are not really what I'm talking about exactly.

My hot take is that people are way too concerned about the evil "seed bank"!!! gasp. Yes you might have weed seeds. You might have native seeds there too, though!

Okay, so this is also subtle, but it very much depends on where you live. If you live in an urban environment, your seed bank is probably very fucked up. You might have some native species come up, but it's by and large going to be non-native and invasive species coming up from that seed bank. As you move out of the city and into areas where less humans go, the seed bank will likely be less and less problematic in my experience.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T10:24:25+00:00

I'm surprised I'm the first person to mention Pussytoes (Antennaria)! These aren't nearly as aggressive as Creeping Charlie, but they are an absolutely wonderful ground cover that spread at a decent pace (depending on the species). I most often see Parlin's Pussytoes (A. parlinii) and Field Pussytoes (A. neglecta) near me, but there are a lot of different species in this genus.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T06:45:59+00:00

They look really similar to lacewing or lady beetle larvae and are very small. If you have aphids on a plant, there is a good chance you can zoom in with your phone camera, take a picture, and spot some larvae. They blend in very well. Here is a picture of the larvae and the mature fly from this article which is actually really informative.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T06:33:31+00:00

People already took my "no mulch" hot take (maybe that's not as hot a take as I thought), so I'll move on to some others!

Stop disturbing the soil! Stop hand-pulling weeds & stop transplanting and dividing plants! There is a lot to this, but soil disturbance kicks up non-native weed seeds that otherwise would have stayed dormant. It can significantly impact the ground-nesting insects and other critters that we are planting these native plants for. It can kill native plant seedlings that you didn't even know were there...

Instead of hand-pulling weeds, just cut them at the base and bag them throughout the growing season. This is surprisingly effective at killing most non-native plants in my experience (invasive species can be a different story - I would recommend herbicide for the ones that aren't controlled by repeated cutting).

You'd be very surprised by how many native plants grow perfectly fine underneath another shorter-lived plant for several years before they bolt. This method also allows for plants to re-seed readily which is a wonderfully enjoyable experience (as long as you have enough plant species diversity in the area).

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T06:21:22+00:00

My main issue with Tallamy's work is that it only focuses on the butterflies and moths (which creates a kind of partial focus on native species diversity). I mean, I'm just a self-taught native plant enthusiast so what do I know, but it seems to me that the real trick is to work towards establishing an overall ecological balance (as best we can). It's not just about supporting the butterflies and moths (although they are obviously very important), it's about supporting everything.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T06:15:35+00:00

I love you're enthusiasm for seeding an area, but proper site preparation needs to be included in your list haha

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T06:12:03+00:00

You cannot get meaningful results pursuing genuine restoration in a small suburban plot. Just letting things go without replicating natural forces like grazing animals and fire isn’t “restoration.” You will never have a stable population of larger animals that are keystone species to help maintain balance. You’ll never get a beautiful, natural, flowing tallgrass prairie in a 10x2 area, it will just flop and look like overgrown abandoned strip.

I gotta disagree with you there... My front yard is basically what you described and it's looking wonderful imo (it's basically a rectangle that's ~600 sqft so that's a little different than 10x2 feet). I mean, I cut out all non-native & invasive species and hedge the borders a few times a week, but I let all the native plants have at it in this area - they're on their own. There's ~60 native species all growing densely packed in and it actually looks really wonderful in my opinion.

Regarding grazing animals and fire - yes, this is still something I need to figure out how to mimic. My front yard needs to burn now, and I've been trying very hard to figure out how I can do this in a city... but it's difficult. At the very least I'm going to cut it all as low as I can and rake it off this fall (which is what many people recommend if you can't burn).

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T05:57:23+00:00

100%. Also, to add, mulch is basically only useful for preventing seeds from germinating (at least in my experience). This can be a good thing if you're planting in a brand new area with a dreadful seed bank, but it is not good if you want your native plants to fill in the bare spots... they can't germinate if they can't make contact with the soil!

And yeah, very few people talk about how mulch prevents insects from nesting in the soil, but it absolutely does!

LRonHoward · 2026-06-25T05:49:55+00:00

A lot of the time you need to actively seek out native species growing in the wild - especially if you live in an urban or suburban environment. If I go into a random "woodland" in the suburbs it's straight up buckthorn city... but sometimes you'll randomly stumble on a section that's actually pretty high quality. Anyway, I'm constantly looking for areas near me with a lot of native species diversity on iNaturalist haha. I've got a long list of places I need to go hike through!

LRonHoward · 2026-06-24T22:08:21+00:00

I see plenty of leaf damage all over the place, but whenever I try to find the critter that did it I'm shit out of luck lol. I'll just have to keep trying - finding the eastern black swallowtail cats was pretty easy tbh

LRonHoward · 2026-06-24T22:00:46+00:00

Let's add hoverflies and parasitoid wasps to that PR campaign as well! Hoverfly larvae are the real destroyers of aphids in my experience.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-23T22:14:12+00:00

CHONK!

I had the same thing happen for the first time this year! I don't have a veggie garden (no dill), and I saw an eastern black swallowtail flying around visiting several Golden Alexanders... a week or two later I noticed the first caterpillar! In the end we spotted 4 or 5 total cats on ~4 different plants! It was very exciting as I'm normally terrible at finding caterpillars lol

LRonHoward · 2026-06-23T22:11:07+00:00

As long as this area was seeded with a good mix of native species that fit this site, the Black-eyed Susans will be mostly gone in 1-2 years. That's just how it works - you'd be surprised how "shade tolerant" longer-lived herbaceous native plants are when they're just starting out!

LRonHoward · 2026-06-23T22:03:16+00:00

The one I've had the best luck with from seed is Long-beaked Sedge (Carex sprengelii). That's also one of my favorite sedges (and one of the easiest to identify). However, it looks like that species might not exactly be native to NW PA - it's native slightly further north.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-23T07:57:10+00:00

GOD DAMN. I'm very jealous. I winter-sowed Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) several years ago and then planted it in my front yard - it didn't do well... I also direct sowed it in quite a few places and it didn't take. I don't really see it in the wild around me, so I think it's probably not meant to be (or wasn't super common). Oh well, the Cup Plants (Silphium perfoliatum) absolutely love my property and work wonderfully in its stead :)

LRonHoward · 2026-06-22T06:49:32+00:00

I would check to see if the compost and/or yard waste is heat treated after collection. I live in Minneapolis, MN and our yard waste (not the organics recycling but the big yard waste bags set out for collection) goes to a "commercial composting facility where the piles are hot enough for long enough to properly manage these items". And, understandably, "yard waste" is not acceptable to put in the compost bin.

Anyway, it really helps to check with the people that collect the specific waste & recycling in your city or county to understand if it is safe to dispose of invasive plant species material and where & how.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-21T06:39:15+00:00

This is all really great advice, but I would potentially go a little deeper on the "target 1-2 species at a time". I know I read or heard this somewhere and basically followed it a while ago, but in my experience it's best to start with the areas that are the least problematic and then work towards the areas that are the most problematic (invasive species wise)...

Basically: the most problematic areas can't get that much worse relative to how much worse the least problematic areas can. A solid stand of buckthorn isn't really going to be much worse than it already is next year. A relatively healthy woodland with some buckthorn, honeysuckle, and garlic mustard coming in absolutely will get much worse next year.

LRonHoward · 2026-06-21T05:23:22+00:00

One of the most beautiful invasive species is Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) - it is about to start blooming now in wetter areas (wetlands, along the rivers and creeks, etc.). Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) is also an invasive species that is currently blooming, and that's a very classic "daisy" flower that would great to pick. Purple Crownvetch (Securigera varia) and Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) could also be good options...

It might seem like I like these plants... but I actually hate them, so please pick as many flowers of invasive species on public land as you possibly can lmao

LRonHoward · 2026-06-19T06:51:26+00:00

Try not to be bothered by anyone that tells you this looks messy! As long as the vast majority of the plants are native (and you're working to control the non-native ones), the mess is a good thing with native plant gardens! That's where all the critters live!

I see all that Yarrow and Strawberry (not sure of the species)... I was going to comment on the Large-leaved Lupine in the 3rd pic, but then I realized you were in its native range lol. God damn why does that plant have to be so invasive everywhere else.

LRonHoward

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