Hey /an/, I'm from the Chicago suburbs and I want to attract as many bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, etc to my backyard. What's the best way to go about it?
I've been googling it but I know nothing about gardening or anything and I feel like you guys would have tips/experience/stories
There are certain plants which attract butterflies and bees.
google that.
Let your yard go to weed first, then you'll see them in the summer.
Hummingbirds like monarda, so do bees.
Melissa officianalis attracts them like nobody's business, and it's tasty.
Bats come after the moths, and the moths eat the weeds. To attract cool moths, grow tobacco, it summons luna moths when it flowers.
Any plant in the milkweed family will bring you some kinda butterfly.
Monarda officianalis is a good start for your area though, it's called bee-balm. And it cares for itself.
If you can get lemon balm you'll have bees after it spreads, (a little after a year) and then you'll be able to fight the weeds with it.
Dandelion flowers are a godsend to these little european bugs(honeybees and dandelion aren't from here, and so they stick together. If you don't have dandelions, then stop killing everything with roundup.
Seriously though, let your backyard have a weedy ugly patch first, then you'll have better soil. Those weeds make fertilizer, medicine, food, and shelter for good critters. They don't need your care, or water, but they will teach you what you need to know. If grass is all that grows, then take some old cardboard boxes, and place them where you want to kill the grass, cover them with dirt and let nature unfold.
>>2020990
Fill a bucket with yard/dead leaves clippings and water the spot with that shit. In fact, if you have a tree that sheds leaves, do not rake them, let them rot and bring forth the fungi and things that nature likes. Dead leaves are gaia's skin. You need a lot more water if somebody took your skin away.
Bees need lots of surface area, like bushiness, cause they can only drink dew that falls in the morning and night. The plants constantly breathe out water, and the bigger they are, the more it helps.
Mulch is the only bee-safe way to kill weeds, and it also feeds the soil, and thus indirectly the bees.
Some plants die after a year, look into native perennials if you want something stunning, and awesome. Nature uses everything, so you can't judge your yard harshly if you get box-elder bugs invading in the fall, or overly curious jumping spiders. If you kill something, you tip a domino, that affects the way things unfold until you stop doing that.
Plants love tea, any kind.
Cabbage tea helps their stalks, tobacco tea kills pests, old tea leaves or coffee grounds are their bread and butter.
If you try and yank it out of the ground, and you notice that it has a long root, then your dirt is compacted, and most plants won't thrive until it's fixed.
Again dandelions are this type.
If you let those ones be, you'll notice better dirt in the coming years. If you kill them, then you'll need to till or add new stuff. Mulch helps, especially if your dirt turns into a rock if you squeeze it in your hands. Worms are a sign of healthy soil for the most part. Centipedes are assholes that make vegetable growing a nightmare.
Look into raised beds if you want food gardening. It's easier to grow annuals(stuff that dies during winter) in that way.
echinecea purpurea is a great plant in your area if you have a lot of sunshine.
Don't do this too often, but if you mix 1/20th urine with rainwater and spritz it on healthy leaves, it seems to make a gigantic difference in the early months.
I'm talking like doubling in size, because that's what miracle-grow shit actually is. But they add poisonous chemicals to the mix to get rid of industrial waste for a profit.
A good garden needs no purchases aside from mulch, rockdust and sometimes sand and gravel. don't fall into the babying of the plants like everyone else, because dying and sick plants have their place in your tiny ecosystem. Bats eat what the bugs eat, and if they're poisoned then they're poisoned.
Strawberry patches are pretty awesome for nature, especially if you don't/can't eat all the berries.
Thanks you guys were a lot of help :)
What burb? I'm in Niles.
Also is this for full sun or partial sun? what kind of soil drainage?
Start by looking into native flowers, and then find ones that will work for the amount of sun your yard gets.
poke around this website for some help http://extension.illinois.edu/wildflowers/nativeplants.cfm
