North America has been conditioned to that manicured lawns and manicured trees and shrubs type of garden. That works against wild life. In order to keep peace with neighbour......I keep some shrubs cut back.......but they were good habitat for birds etc. when they grew naturally.
Also, "cleaning up in Fall" destroys winter hiding places for critters.
I find lady bugs snuggling into Lavatera seed capsules. So I leave them until spring.

CarolineScott said:
I find lady bugs snuggling into Lavatera seed capsules. So I leave them until spring.

That is so cool!

I am currently in the planning stages of my back garden, which is only about 1/2 acre. While I will be changing the topography by landscaping this summer, this will produce a more varied environment than the existing gentle slope, resulting in more micro-habitats to suit and encourage a larger number of species of both flora and fauna. While I will be including non-native plants, I plan to keep some focus on native species, especially those native plants known to have practical or medicinal value, such as the "volunteer" native "wild lettuce" I've found and avoided mowing over. The whole area was completely overgrown with honeysuckle and blackberries chest-high when I bought the place two years ago, and with a riding mower (lawn tractor style), I rode down and cut paths through it so my daughter could get to the blackberries and pick them. When the blackberries stopped producing, I mowed the entire interior, leaving a hedge of honeysuckle and blackberries about four feet wide between my garden and the neighbors' yards on all three sides, and the vegetation adapted much more quickly than I thought it would, becoming lawn-like by the next summer without any encouragement other than regular mowing. Although the only large trees currently on the plot are a few pines and a sweetgum tree, I did spare several small oaks of different species (some of which I will move to better locations) and a few medium sized wild fruit trees, one of which has just this year bloomed and is growing fruit. (I first thought they were plums, but now I'm leaning toward crab apple due to the number of fruits in each cluster--more on that elsewhere.) The landscaping will create about three distinct levels marked by rockwork and/or thick hedge type plantings, allowing separate garden "rooms" which will each have a particular focus and style. Laid out across the levels will be a lined (but natural looking) stream stretching from a waterfall at the back corner to a medium sized lined pond at the opposite corner, which will recirculate back to the waterfall. A smaller, unlined natural pond will catch any overflow from the lined pond, as well as run-off which naturally collects there now after a hard rain. Although I don't see any attraction for deer in my plans (deer have plenty of natural habitat nearby), there should be many attractions for smaller wildlife, especially with the existing and future trees, the rockwork, thick plantings and large water feature. I've been collecting all the elements such as tons (literally) of large rocks, plant stock and decorative items for years, but at the moment, it is all waiting on me to get my tractor and blade over here to do the initial landscaping before I can start the rockwork and planting. When I'm done, I'm sure it will qualify under the program guidelines. I'll probably post a blog as I go, complete with photos of the progress.

Radly

It sounds great for wild life and a great deal of work for you !
Yes, do keep us up to date on your progress.

Caroline you are so RIGHT! The longer I garden the more I realize to be successful you have to mimic nature. I let everything drop in the fall and leave it alone. Plants were made to feed themselves. Dropped leaves, fruit, or nuts. Picking everything up is bad for the plant that made it and those that eat it. In the spring, I start cleaning up for the new growth. I get so many comments equal to this...so glad to see you are going to garden again after last fall I thought you might have given it up. Our mindsets of "neat" is natures worst enemy.

A sad comment is the #1 crop grown in North America can reasonably be considered to be grass, between lawns, sod farms, grass seed, etc. That is a lot of natural resources devoted to something that is non-life substaining. Even when you have a nice lawn there are things you can do. Let the dandylions come up in spring, put out some yellow flowers. Then instead of spraying get a dandylion digger and pop out. Pollinators will thank you for the early spring treat and so will your grass. In an area where St. Augustine experienced many diseases, mine never did. I was aerating it every spring when getting the weeds out. Not everything needs an immediate spray.

Tap into your natural procrastinator. Look at the aphids, do nothing, see if the lady bugs come. See a weed bloom. Watch for butterflies or bees. The ladybugs come later than aphids...ladybugs need the food supply to already be established for their larvae. Once your flowers are blooming, you can take the weeds out. Then tell yourself I learned patience, I am not a procrastinator and I hopefully made the world a better place.

If it was not bad enough that we cleared so much natural landscape for cropland, what are we now doing? What is happening to some cropland is a disgrace. A huge quantity of prime cropland is being paved over. Nice, flat and already cleared so it is cheaper to build on. How true is that song they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. In the event of a disaster...how realistic is it to think you could reclaim that good cropland? Then even if you could would it be any good or polluted?

May everyone be blessed to find joy in nature!

I live in a subdivision that shuns organized chaos so I moved my fence in order to have more of my yard "enclosed". Now I have a big adult play ground out of plain sight. I allow a corner of it to be less manicured, taller grass, when I trim bushes I stack the limbs in the corner and just let them decompose. I planted sunflowers one year and the house finches spread seeds everywhere. Now I let many of them grow where they may and leave them up until the birds finish. I let the herbs go to seed and watch the caterpillars feed. The birds build nest and feed their chicks, the butterflies lay eggs.
I cancelled my cable, play in my garden and share the photos with my family.They are surprisingly interested.
These little finches eating the sunflower seeds help me remember not to clean up too much.

Honeyx4,
Cancelled the cable too, we're just too busy being entertained by nature. Kudos to you for going against the stream!
My granddaugher tells her friends: "Nature doesn't like things too neat." We grow extra herbs, some for cutting and some we "let go" as you do for the insects and birds. Trimming shrubs and flowers is postponed too, I find that some dried florets, or seed pods, make interesting Wintertime bouquets. The vase is a $2 auction find and has huge cracks down the back, but the dried arrangement hides all that. It's just native Hydrangea arboresecens "White Dome", Brown-Eyed Susans picked clean by the Goldfinches, and Rosemary. The other is wood w/ native perennial Inland Sea Oats(Chasmanthium latifolium) Love your baby Monarch photo too!