Hi all! Eastern MA lawn here. I’ll start by saying I’m a newbie in the garden space. My family helped put in a clover lawn a few years ago with some other native plants and it was great. Rabbits ate most of the flowers and now the clover is dead. We have a lot of grubs and I’m wondering if that’s contributing. I’m not sure if the grub poison will be a problem for birds and chipmunks.
Any advice on where to start with getting some local greenery into the space? We’ve started clearing all the dead layer. Thanks for any help folks can provide.
by brokengummybears
2 Comments
This area is looking pretty dry. Do you know if the land here has rock under it? It almost looks like a limestone glade.
Also, what do you want to use this space for? If you aren’t looking to have it be a high traffic lawn area, you have a lot more options.
There’s a biological grub control product called milky spore you can buy. It will take a little longer to work but it works for years.
Many pollinator plants support predatory insects, including parasitoid wasps that prey on Japanese beetle larvae (and other beetles). Some sturdy pollinator plants such as coreopsis, golden rod, asters, and sunflowers will help bring in the cavalry as well as the pretty butterflies!
Some predatory insects eat insect prey as larvae (e.g., lady beetle larvae are aphid hoovers) and eat nectar as adults. They also need cover for themselves and their young.
Sorry about the bug digression! A lot of us got into native plants because we love bugs (or most native ones—Japanese beetles can just f right off).