A buddy at the nursery swore I should skip fertilizer on my native wildflower patch, so I tried it for two seasons and got way more blooms than the year I fed them.

He pulled out photos of his own yard showing double the bee activity without any added nitrogen, and now I'm wondering if I've been overcomplicating this whole time, anyone else get better results just letting natives do their thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.drew25d ago

Jumped on the same bandwagon two years ago with my little patch of coneflowers and black-eyed Susans, and I swear the bees practically moved in. It's like that bigger pattern you see in so many things where we overcomplicate stuff that's already fine on its own. Like how people spend forever tweaking their coffee machine settings when cheap drip coffee tastes just as good most mornings lol. Or how my buddy micromanages his lawn with soil tests and fancy sprays but his neighbor's "weeds" are full of butterflies. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just step back and let nature do its thing.

raymitchell24d ago

Exactly. People love to overthink everything... especially when it comes to plants. Native stuff evolved here for thousands of years without our help. Funny how that works. Your buddy's photos prove it too... more blooms and more bees without all the extra work. Sometimes doing nothing is the smartest move.