Hope this is an acceptable contribution here. I’ve been converting areas of my Midwestern yard to native plant habitat for the past 2+ years. It’s sparkling with fireflies tonight while the surrounding grass yards are dark. Gives me a bit of a boost to get ready for tackling the sprouts of pokeweed and thistle tomorrow.
I keep an area of my yard unmowed and pretty wild too by the forest edge, and there’s tons of em. Next step, get all the milkweed seedlings I’ve been growing planted out there and get the monarch butterflies to stop by. I’ve tried getting some native plants to my region started in there, but the deer just devour everything. So long grasses, wildflowers, and native milkweeds it is then.
I was really happy with how my coneflowers were turning out for this season (the narrow leafed ones are blooming and the orange ones have tons of buds). But the other night, some deer came through and chewed the buds off of all the orange ones and the goldenrod in the back. At least the narrow leafed ones escaped since they’re kind of fuzzy/prickly.
They can be relentless! I even planted a native wolfsbane once. Was told the deer would definitely leave them alone. Surely they wouldn’t mow these toxic plants straight to the ground… And they’re gone