This post is all pictures

Including my scintillating commentary on such things as why this is a good year to establish sunflowers and a possible slug deterrent.

This is a weed I don’t pull. I can’t remember what it is, but insects clearly eat it and enjoy it, so who am I to rob the mystery bugs of their food?

I also don’t pull this one. It’s lambquarters and you can eat it raw or cooked.

I think this year is a great year to establish oaks and sunflowers. Fall 2019 was a mast year for oak trees—they dropped a lot of acorns—so there were lots of squirrels in spring 2020. They dug up lots of baby oaks and sunflower seedlings. Their population seems to have crashed because fall 2020 produced a comparatively smaller amount of acorns. I see way fewer squirrels this spring and fewer seedlings have been dug up. Once sunflowers produce seed this fall, they should reseed abundantly for the next few years.

This bug lives in this flower.

And Boring Bees live in our fence. Sometimes I can hear them eating in there. Most people hate Carpenter Bees because they make holes in wood. We don’t care about our stuff so I’m happy to host them. Plus, the tunnels they make are about the size of an index finger. Putting a large block of untreated pine wood can deter them from your home. (They’ll nest in the block instead)

We’ve let some grass grow to flowering (ok, we’ve let most of our grass grow to flowering) and it’s incredible how many insects use it. Dragonflies perch in it and tiny bees visit the flowers for food. So let some grass in a corner grow and see who makes use of it.

The backyard doesn’t look like this anymore (way shaggier) but I thought this was a lovely photo of early spring. Here’s to year two of enjoying our wild yard!