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[Abbienormalanna]

Hello everyone! My name is anna and i am new here.
A bit about me. I struggle with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromialgia. For the last few years it has been a real struggle to do any kind of yard work. But as of two months ago we finally found a medication that works, so im back into my love of plants full swing. I have just under an acer of land that i desperatley want to turn into a wildlife santuary. My only hurdle....money. buying plants gets expensive and although i do have a decent selection already, its not quite enough to satisfy me. My younger brother has been a patron of this loveley community for several years now, and with his encouragement i decided to bite the bullet, ignore my social anxiety and join.

Seeds/bulbs/cuttings i have to share:
Sweet grass
Wild violet
Wild straberry
Oak sapplings (3 types)
Lilac bush
Tulips
Tiger lillies
Easter lilly
Roses
Ivy
Dogwood sapplings
Pine sapplings
Irises
Corkscrew willow
Mulberry sapplings

I also dabble in aquatic plants as well.
Here is a list of what i have that can be propegated
Amazon swords,
Flame swords
Anubias nana
Rotallia green
Ludwigia super red
Tiger lotus

Theres a few more plants around my yard i havent identified yet, but once i do ill add them to the list too.

Plants im interested in:
Litteraly any native (illinois)pollenators
Im especially hopefull for milkweeds and trumpet vines.
In general anything that flowers and provides food for birds, bees, or butterflies. I dont need any trees, im overun with those as it is and uprooting the sapplings and giving them away has begun to take up a lot of time. But anything else that anyone can share would be appreciated.
This fall i plan to put in a small pond, butterfly puddling stations and birdbaths, but for now im trying to expand my biodiversity amongst the plants.

I hope i put this in the correct place, thank you all so much for reading, i hope to be a productive member of your community

[Frog Pajamas]

Hey Anna! Welcome to STS.

I will keep an eye out for plants you're looking for, but one thing we've done at my property is just let areas go wild. We're got about 2.5 acres that were mowed like a golf course back to the edges on all sides when we bought it. First, we let a long side along a creek grow a couple meters back from the creek, then we let an area under trees that used to be wet all the time go. The overall aesthetic is better than it was because we have wildflowers blooming all the time and the property now has cool paths and still has manicured areas, but we have sooooo many birds, bees, bugs, turtles, frogs, snakes, etc. because of the wild areas. It's my understanding that letting areas go wild also pulls a ton of carbon out of the air, so it's beneficial all around.

[Abbienormalanna]

I wish i could do that! Unfortunatley i live in the middle of town and they fine us if we let anything get too overgrown or wild. When i lived in the country thats basically what i did and it was glorious. I currently have a family of racoons, a family of opossums and one lone groundhog, i also have a nesting pair of cardinals and a nesting pair of robbins. We occasionally get hummingbirds when everything is in bloom, and i have a space on my porch that i leave to some local orb weavers, 5 generations strong so far. Thank you for keeping an eye out. I appreciate it 🙏 😌 im so excited to be a part of a community that loves local wildlife as much as i do. So many people i know think im crazy for not calling pest controll to get rid of them. We destroyed their habbitats to build our houses, the least we can do is try and give them a safe place to live.

[Frog Pajamas]

Isn’t that crazy that you’ll be fined for doing the eco conscious thing!?! What a world we live in. My next door neighbors are friends with the people we bought our place from, and she said us letting areas go wild makes him crazy. 😂 I would get it maybe if it was all overgrown, but we keep a lot of areas mowed and I think the wild areas are beautiful, too. Right now the fireflies are in full effect and we have Gray Treefrog and Bullfrog tadpoles growing. My partner David rescues the eggs because the bullfrog lays them in one of the kiddie pools for the Muscovie ducks, who eat them,  and the treefrog lays them in the human pool, where they get pulled into the filter. Pretty cool!

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for you, and we’re happy to have you here.

1 Like BubbleCat likes this.

[Abbienormalanna]

It truly is. I tried to make a small brush pile of twigs, logs ect, to act as a home to a pair of killdeer that had previously nested at the base of a bush that i had to remove (highly invasive species it was taking over my whole yard) and got fined for that too. You would think providing breeding spots for native species would be aplauded not condemed but that's  the crazy world we live in. Im really hoping that by creating a decoritive border and mulching around the spots im going to go ham with wildflowers the city will at least recognise its planted on purpose lol thank you again for being so welcoming. it's so nice to find a place where i feel welcomed.