A Burlington homeowner is fighting charges over her “naturalized garden” of native plants in her front and back yards. The city is taking Karen Barnes to Provincial Offences Court, seeking up to $400,000 in fines for violating a bylaw order to cut it down.
that sounds like a fantasy. i’m really intrigued.
may i ask, have you tried competitive species instead of insecticide/traps? if so, did you find it was ineffective? i’ve always had this idea of a native garden tending to a local species of endangered ant. i was hoping that with some management maybe i could help the relatively docile native ants outcompete the fire ants, but most people are so afraid of ants to begin with… they think all ants are fire ants or crazy tawny ants. i like social insects :)
anyway i was just wondering it sounds like you might have relevant experience and intereting anecdotes.
No idea what might compete with carpenter bees, but se seem to have killed most of them off along with all the other insects.
As to fire ants, they’re invasive, no natural predators I know of, and I have zero issue annihilating them. The destruction is unreal. They can take a patch of soil and turn it onto straight desert in a week or three. It’s hard to overstate how bad they are down here.
And because I can’t edit my damned comments.
My wife came home from work and started watering. Here’s the 150G, but you can’t see anything. The cucumber vines and wild flowers have covered it.
The vines are loofah sponges! There’s also purple martin bird house gourds mixed in. Got some corn and okra on the left, pear tree in the back. Only pic I have unfortunately.
Been down with COVID for the first time, haven’t been out for two weeks.
wow, looks like a little slice of paradise. it’s so green.
strange, i came down with covid for the first time this year, and i spent 2020 and most of 2021 getting bounced between shelters and a halfway house. shit sucked. glad for vaccines. i think it must be complacency, everyone stopped even pretending to wear masks, and don’t get me started with handwashing, which was already an unacnowledged public health crisis before covid imho.
I read something about loofah sponges a few days or a week ago or so… aren’t they related to bottle gourds? have you actually used them for like, scrubbing? probably a silly question but i don’t suppose birds could actually nesti in the gourds?
Can’t edit my comments.
Didn’t read well enough! Sounds like you are already familiar with fire ants.