My favorite episode by far. LOVE how your plants have grown and how you have truly re-wilded that section of your front yard. Amazing shots of the animals enjoying your garden. It is so rewarding to see pollinators and various bugs making a new home in your incredible native garden. You have done an amazing job! and clearly you have caught the "re-wilding bug"! :-) Your enthusiasm and hard work is incredible.
Thank you for telling me this is your favorite episode and all the other feedback you have been providing. It is extremely hard to know what people think about a video I publish so the comments are very helpful and shape how I present additional topics and episodes.
Great video Jeff - Love the pics. You have inspired us to plant native pollinators in our yard and I can already see the difference in the number of bees and butterflies visiting.
Another wonderful video and amazing macro photography! Such great camera work getting all those bees, bugs, and butterflies in action! Thank you for listing the names of all of them at the end too, I'm learning a lot while enjoying such beauty. You've done an awesome job rewilding Jeff!
Jeff, I’m glad you checked on the ladybug larvae. It’s important to know what beneficial insect larvae and eggs look like before they mature into recognisable insects. That way they can be left to do their natural thing.
Ruth, I realize there is so much I don't know or understand and in most cases the right response is to leave everything alone. It is so fun to sit and learn just by looking closely at what is going on all around us. Insects are amazing!
So glad youtube sent your fledgling channel my way! Greetings from a fully organic, no-chemicals whatsoever, native plant gardener in Massachusetts, and supporter of **all** flora and fauna alike. There are no such thing as pests (love my bunnies, deer, coyotes, woodchucks, etc visitors to my yard), or categories defining what are or aren't "beneficial" insects -- they're all beneficial!
Glad you enjoyed the video and hopefully you will be able to watch the other episodes 1,2 and 4. Curious what you think of the other episodes? It sounds like we have the same belief regarding nature. In episode 5, I plan to address native vs non native plants and why it is so important to plant native plants of the area you live. I will be interested in what you think once I publish this episode but it is going to be awhile as I am just getting started. Thanks again for watching the video and your comment.
Your view of aphids is unique. Hopefully more people will adopt your perspective so the natural world can support a more diverse population of insects which will help support an other wildlife! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
I used to always kill the aphids on my balcony with my fingers and complained that no ladybugs ever visited my balcony. Then I decided to stop killing the aphids! The aphids have never become a problem for my flowers, because within a day or two, or even hours, they have been eaten. And I have seen so many ladybugs! Many species of ladybugs I didn't even know existed a few years ago :D
@@Narnendil great story!!!!! We are all learning. It's amazing if we just give mother nature a moment she will balance the "problem" quicker than we think. In addition, as you outline, if we leave nature alone the diversity increases and gives us so much more to watch. Thanks for watching the video and sharing your experience.
Beautiful natural yard. I too have maintained a natural portion of our yard. It’s my version of SCNT. I refer to it as the Bluff Creek Nature Trail, Everything Coming up is Natural and Local. Thank you for sharing Jeff.
Peter, Thank you for caring about wildlife (this includes insects) and doing your part to provide nature a place locally to call home. I wish I had my current knowledge many years ago so I could have done more! Thanks again for always being supportive! I hope to visit the"Bluff Creek Nature Trail" some day.
@@Jeffswildlifeadventures When the Trail Crew were blazing Trails at Mussel Pond, we had to remove pines. One is growing in our natural area. A trail crew member gave us American 2 Beauty berry, and they are thriving too. We added Lantana to our Cul de sac Island, which looks great.
I am sitting in my garden writing this reply: I have a cup of coffee watching the bees visit the flowers, the hummingbirds are zooming around and a cardinal is singing. This garden is definitely my happy place. Nature and wildlife are so beautiful! Thank you for watching this video and making a thoughtful comment!
Hayley, The biggest surprise of this project is the variety and quantity of wildlife which has moved in so quickly - truly amazing!!! Almost every day I see something new and interesting. What a great way to learn. Thanks again for watching the videos!
When I started rewilding I never would have believed how many photographs I was going to take while in the garden. So many times I am in the garden, see something, and run into the house to get my camera because I am seeing something I have never seen before. Obviously the Butterflies are my favorite and I feel I have been able to capture some really nice photos. Thanks for leaving a comment! Take care!
Great video. What a great how to do something special and share you’re passion. . When I watch your work I ask myself why don’t I do something like this. Well maybe someday
Dean, you have been contributing to the love of nature through your volunteer work on trail crew and your “Fairy House” carvings. We all do a little bit in our own way and collectively we make a big difference together. Thank you for your continuing enthusiasm for my hobby of publishing RUclips videos.
Violets invited themselves to grow in my yard. How they got there I haven’t looked up, but they didn’t come from a nursery. In spring when I saw their heart shaped leaves chomped all over with holes, I did search to learn what bug was causing it. Oh my, bad news, good news! The bad news was that the violets weren’t for me. Forget about cute little bouquets of amethyst violets. The good news is my surprise violets were for the fritillary butterfly, the Speyeria cybele. They only feed on violets. It was their babies that were chomp, chomp, chomping all over my violets every spring and early summer. So I switched from wondering how to kill the chompers to how to propagate the violets. Now, cybele means earth mother. With a name like that what else could I do but notice how violets propagate themselves. Every spring I search out the strongest young violets separated from the parent plant. Those I replant. A long row of violets now stretches down my driveway as a border planting. Every spring the entire border is ugly with holes. Non horticultural guests walking up the drive must think “Look at all those holes. She’s certainly a horrible gardener.” But I know, as you must, it’s not nice to mess with earth mother. Blessings all.
I am learning so much about insects and the benefit they bring. Its funny and sad at the same time, people love butterflies but don't want any insects to eat their plants and flowers. I have a much greater appreciation for the need to see leaves and flowers which have been eaten. Really interesting to understand the unique relationship between so many host plants and the insects that rely on one plant or small group of plants for their survival. Its one of the reasons I include so much diversity of plants in my garden. Every time I learn a particular butterfly or moth relies on a particular plant I am looking for it so I can add to my garden and support the unique species. I enjoy your comments and can tell you have learned so much from your rewilding experience.
Adrienne - It appears from your RUclips channel you are a much more experienced gardener than me. I do find milkweed is more difficult to grow than I thought. I have have to buy new plants almost every season as most of it dies out each year. I did have a number of plants seed down from the plants which went to seed which was exciting as I hope it means they like the area I have planted this year. There is a nursery close by that is going to attempt to propagate 5 different species of native milkweed in Texas and I hope to buy at least 5 for each. I think the key is planting in the right place which gets enough sun but not so much it bakes. I will provide an update in a future episode. Good luck in your efforts to add milkweed to your garden!
@@Jeffswildlifeadventures Jeff, good stuff on your channel. Make sure that any nursery plants are not sprayed with noenicitinoids (which is unfortunately common practice - as the nurseries want their plants to look pristine so they sell better.) Just a few billionths of a gram of ingested nicitinoids will kill any butterfly or moth or caterpillar that imbibes on the plant. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a great document on the many, many Texas-native species (tpwd dot texas dot gov) and describes typical habitat for each. BTW, planting from seed is not too difficult. The seeds are typically cold stratified - so look up that procedure.
One of my sons owns four connected lots. The corner is his pizza shop, my granddaughter lives next to that, next house is used for office and storage, one behind is vacant lot with grass. Lots of room to grow. Granddaughter is the gardener, she grows lot of vegetables and is expanding/propogating flowering plants. Milkweed showed up several years ago between trees on the lot lines. This year wild raspberries have shown up. When the milkweed moved in, we first tryed transplanting them, but it didn't work. They don't transplant ! After researching, we waited for the pods to mature in the fall, then spread the seeds in a semi-shaded area of my yard. It worked great, I now have some, apparently native milkweed ! ! This year we are planting some pods in the back of the acre yard at my late in-laws home, that my son owns. There is a small woods, with wild roses and raspberries. Milkweed will go in at edge of lawn.
Pauline, Your garden and natural area sounds amazing!!! I am happy to hear you have figured out the secret of growing milkweed. A nursery by me is going to be propagating 5 native milkweed species and I plan to buy a couple of each species to see if I can figure out what will work well in my area. I will provide an update on this subject next spring! Thanks for sharing your story!!!
@@bill8985 The Xerces society did a whole talk about this phenomenon, some nurseries will even treat milkweed plants with neonics and then when people buy those and plant them, the caterpillars that hatch there can get sick and die :(
What plant do you have bordering the flower beds?I’ve been looking to add an edging plant to some new beds we’re adding this year, but I’m not sure if I want the maintenance of boxwood, or something like them. Love the images of insects throughout your videos, I just subscribed🙂✨
The border is Jasmine ground cover. I would not recommend as it is not native. I used it because I have so much of it and I wanted to give the garden a border put I will be taking it out as it is already spreading into the garden and will create a maintenance issue I don't want to deal with. I would like to replace with a sedge or grass but concerned about the same problem. I will update in a future episode when I figure out what I am going to use. Thank you for subscribing and while I don't publish a lot hopefully you will enjoy the updates a do provide. Really appreciate you watching, leaving a comment and subscribing. Take Care.
My favorite episode by far. LOVE how your plants have grown and how you have truly re-wilded that section of your front yard. Amazing shots of the animals enjoying your garden. It is so rewarding to see pollinators and various bugs making a new home in your incredible native garden. You have done an amazing job! and clearly you have caught the "re-wilding bug"! :-) Your enthusiasm and hard work is incredible.
Thank you for telling me this is your favorite episode and all the other feedback you have been providing. It is extremely hard to know what people think about a video I publish so the comments are very helpful and shape how I present additional topics and episodes.
Great video Jeff - Love the pics. You have inspired us to plant native pollinators in our yard and I can already see the difference in the number of bees and butterflies visiting.
Iain, Thank for caring and making a difference. Hope you continue to be amazed by the visitors who find a meal in your gardens!
Another wonderful video and amazing macro photography! Such great camera work getting all those bees, bugs, and butterflies in action! Thank you for listing the names of all of them at the end too, I'm learning a lot while enjoying such beauty. You've done an awesome job rewilding Jeff!
Glad you enjoyed the video as Nature has amazing performers with the butterflies taking the starting role in this video.
Great video Jeff! You definitely walk the walk
with your rewilding endeavors - good for you!
Keith, thank you!
Jeff, I’m glad you checked on the ladybug larvae. It’s important to know what beneficial insect larvae and eggs look like before they mature into recognisable insects. That way they can be left to do their natural thing.
Ruth, I realize there is so much I don't know or understand and in most cases the right response is to leave everything alone. It is so fun to sit and learn just by looking closely at what is going on all around us. Insects are amazing!
Some amazing pics!
Thanks Jim!
So glad youtube sent your fledgling channel my way! Greetings from a fully organic, no-chemicals whatsoever, native plant gardener in Massachusetts, and supporter of **all** flora and fauna alike. There are no such thing as pests (love my bunnies, deer, coyotes, woodchucks, etc visitors to my yard), or categories defining what are or aren't "beneficial" insects -- they're all beneficial!
Glad you enjoyed the video and hopefully you will be able to watch the other episodes 1,2 and 4. Curious what you think of the other episodes? It sounds like we have the same belief regarding nature. In episode 5, I plan to address native vs non native plants and why it is so important to plant native plants of the area you live. I will be interested in what you think once I publish this episode but it is going to be awhile as I am just getting started. Thanks again for watching the video and your comment.
Beautiful AND informative 😊
Thanks for watching!
Thank you.
Aphids are the best! They attract such a wide variety of interesting creatures. Pretty cute too. 😊
Your view of aphids is unique. Hopefully more people will adopt your perspective so the natural world can support a more diverse population of insects which will help support an other wildlife! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
I used to always kill the aphids on my balcony with my fingers and complained that no ladybugs ever visited my balcony. Then I decided to stop killing the aphids! The aphids have never become a problem for my flowers, because within a day or two, or even hours, they have been eaten. And I have seen so many ladybugs! Many species of ladybugs I didn't even know existed a few years ago :D
@@Narnendil great story!!!!! We are all learning. It's amazing if we just give mother nature a moment she will balance the "problem" quicker than we think. In addition, as you outline, if we leave nature alone the diversity increases and gives us so much more to watch. Thanks for watching the video and sharing your experience.
Beautiful natural yard. I too have maintained a natural portion of our yard. It’s my version of SCNT. I refer to it as the Bluff Creek Nature Trail, Everything Coming up is Natural and Local. Thank you for sharing Jeff.
Peter, Thank you for caring about wildlife (this includes insects) and doing your part to provide nature a place locally to call home. I wish I had my current knowledge many years ago so I could have done more! Thanks again for always being supportive! I hope to visit the"Bluff Creek Nature Trail" some day.
@@Jeffswildlifeadventures When the Trail Crew were blazing Trails at Mussel Pond, we had to remove pines. One is growing in our natural area. A trail crew member gave us American 2 Beauty berry, and they are thriving too. We added Lantana to our Cul de sac Island, which looks great.
The joy from nature is priceless. ❤
I am sitting in my garden writing this reply: I have a cup of coffee watching the bees visit the flowers, the hummingbirds are zooming around and a cardinal is singing. This garden is definitely my happy place. Nature and wildlife are so beautiful! Thank you for watching this video and making a thoughtful comment!
That’s a lot of progress! Well done
The yard has taken more time than I thought but the "progress" is rewarding!
Great video & beautiful yard
Nishi, Thank you watching and glad you like the yard!
This is why we do this... Endless entertainment and opportunities to observe right outside our doorstep. :)
Hayley, The biggest surprise of this project is the variety and quantity of wildlife which has moved in so quickly - truly amazing!!! Almost every day I see something new and interesting. What a great way to learn. Thanks again for watching the videos!
Great photos!
When I started rewilding I never would have believed how many photographs I was going to take while in the garden. So many times I am in the garden, see something, and run into the house to get my camera because I am seeing something I have never seen before. Obviously the Butterflies are my favorite and I feel I have been able to capture some really nice photos. Thanks for leaving a comment! Take care!
Great video. What a great how to do something special and share you’re passion. . When I watch your work I ask myself why don’t I do something like this. Well maybe someday
Dean, you have been contributing to the love of nature through your volunteer work on trail crew and your “Fairy House” carvings. We all do a little bit in our own way and collectively we make a big difference together. Thank you for your continuing enthusiasm for my hobby of publishing RUclips videos.
Violets invited themselves to grow in my yard. How they got there I haven’t looked up, but they didn’t come from a nursery. In spring when I saw their heart shaped leaves chomped all over with holes, I did search to learn what bug was causing it. Oh my, bad news, good news! The bad news was that the violets weren’t for me. Forget about cute little bouquets of amethyst violets. The good news is my surprise violets were for the fritillary butterfly, the Speyeria cybele. They only feed on violets. It was their babies that were chomp, chomp, chomping all over my violets every spring and early summer. So I switched from wondering how to kill the chompers to how to propagate the violets. Now, cybele means earth mother. With a name like that what else could I do but notice how violets propagate themselves. Every spring I search out the strongest young violets separated from the parent plant. Those I replant. A long row of violets now stretches down my driveway as a border planting. Every spring the entire border is ugly with holes. Non horticultural guests walking up the drive must think “Look at all those holes. She’s certainly a horrible gardener.” But I know, as you must, it’s not nice to mess with earth mother. Blessings all.
I am learning so much about insects and the benefit they bring. Its funny and sad at the same time, people love butterflies but don't want any insects to eat their plants and flowers. I have a much greater appreciation for the need to see leaves and flowers which have been eaten. Really interesting to understand the unique relationship between so many host plants and the insects that rely on one plant or small group of plants for their survival. Its one of the reasons I include so much diversity of plants in my garden. Every time I learn a particular butterfly or moth relies on a particular plant I am looking for it so I can add to my garden and support the unique species. I enjoy your comments and can tell you have learned so much from your rewilding experience.
Great video Jeff!
Thanks Tom!
Wonderful work!😊
Thank you for watching all the Rewilding videos and I am glad you have enjoyed!
I tried growing milkweed, but none came up. I'll try again next year. I saw my first swallowtail butterfly this summer. 🌻🦋
Adrienne - It appears from your RUclips channel you are a much more experienced gardener than me. I do find milkweed is more difficult to grow than I thought. I have have to buy new plants almost every season as most of it dies out each year. I did have a number of plants seed down from the plants which went to seed which was exciting as I hope it means they like the area I have planted this year. There is a nursery close by that is going to attempt to propagate 5 different species of native milkweed in Texas and I hope to buy at least 5 for each. I think the key is planting in the right place which gets enough sun but not so much it bakes. I will provide an update in a future episode. Good luck in your efforts to add milkweed to your garden!
@@Jeffswildlifeadventures Jeff, good stuff on your channel. Make sure that any nursery plants are not sprayed with noenicitinoids (which is unfortunately common practice - as the nurseries want their plants to look pristine so they sell better.) Just a few billionths of a gram of ingested nicitinoids will kill any butterfly or moth or caterpillar that imbibes on the plant. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a great document on the many, many Texas-native species (tpwd dot texas dot gov) and describes typical habitat for each. BTW, planting from seed is not too difficult. The seeds are typically cold stratified - so look up that procedure.
One of my sons owns four connected lots. The corner is his pizza shop, my granddaughter lives next to that, next house is used for office and storage, one behind is vacant lot with grass. Lots of room to grow. Granddaughter is the gardener, she grows lot of vegetables and is expanding/propogating flowering plants. Milkweed showed up several years ago between trees on the lot lines. This year wild raspberries have shown up. When the milkweed moved in, we first tryed transplanting them, but it didn't work. They don't transplant ! After researching, we waited for the pods to mature in the fall, then spread the seeds in a semi-shaded area of my yard. It worked great, I now have some, apparently native milkweed ! ! This year we are planting some pods in the back of the acre yard at my late in-laws home, that my son owns. There is a small woods, with wild roses and raspberries. Milkweed will go in at edge of lawn.
Pauline, Your garden and natural area sounds amazing!!! I am happy to hear you have figured out the secret of growing milkweed. A nursery by me is going to be propagating 5 native milkweed species and I plan to buy a couple of each species to see if I can figure out what will work well in my area. I will provide an update on this subject next spring! Thanks for sharing your story!!!
@@bill8985 The Xerces society did a whole talk about this phenomenon, some nurseries will even treat milkweed plants with neonics and then when people buy those and plant them, the caterpillars that hatch there can get sick and die :(
What plant do you have bordering the flower beds?I’ve been looking to add an edging plant to some new beds we’re adding this year, but I’m not sure if I want the maintenance of boxwood, or something like them. Love the images of insects throughout your videos, I just subscribed🙂✨
The border is Jasmine ground cover. I would not recommend as it is not native. I used it because I have so much of it and I wanted to give the garden a border put I will be taking it out as it is already spreading into the garden and will create a maintenance issue I don't want to deal with. I would like to replace with a sedge or grass but concerned about the same problem. I will update in a future episode when I figure out what I am going to use. Thank you for subscribing and while I don't publish a lot hopefully you will enjoy the updates a do provide. Really appreciate you watching, leaving a comment and subscribing. Take Care.
Thank you for rewilding!
Sometime when you give ,you get more in return. The rewilding project is a great example of the rewards you reap from doing the right thing.
Great video, Jeff!
Glad you enjoyed the video!