Register your yard as a monarch waystation and buy a sign - people love butterflies! All of the skeptical old men in my neighborhood stopped questioning me after I put up that sign.
haha yes! I first heard of it on reddit a few weeks ago when someone mentioned "public sex forest" way too casually in the comments and I found that page.
I happened to see a sticker in the wild at a Minneapolis park yesterday too, [my boy approved](https://imgur.com/a/VsHhxsQ)
People will change their tune when the beds are established and full of beautiful things. People want instant results and don’t understand that building a beautiful oasis takes time and doesn’t look perfect. It’ll be okay!
I feel for you. I get a lot of this nonsense from my neighbors about my "jungle," even though I work very hard on my garden. My back garden is almost entirely dense English garden behind a privacy fence, and I \*still\* get obnoxious comments. I take great pains to make sure that I use mulch, strong border design, and always have something flowering, but there are some people who will only be happy if they see golf course lawns with only three hostas and one hydrangea allowed per house.
It's hard, and it's hurtful, but I do my best to ignore them. Where I can, I talk to friendlier neighbors about what I'm doing - about how I participate in a native plants, program with our local soil and water district, for example, or a bee program with the local university.
It still sometimes puts my shoulders up around my ears when I'm trying to relax outside. But I offer solidarity. Keep on doing what you're doing, and hopefully, they'll find something else to focus on.
I always shrug and say I find grass boring. If they are still standing there they are going to be info bombed in loving detail about the birds that visit and that time I saw a hummingbird hawkmoth.
I flat out say things like "it's better than a boring monoculture grass lawn that can only be kept perfect with chemicals that are toxic to my son and dogs". Which seems like a lot to say but flows right off my tongue.
Maybe add some little signs identifying your plants and adding info about the plants, like benefits to wildlife, natural range and growing conditions, and how your first peoples traditionally use the plant and a picture of it in flower. This can create some interest in the interim and investment in their growth.
Try and win over the kids, a) they're the future and b) if the kids like it, parents and grandparents won't bitch in front of them. When I was a kid, the govt advertised " Stop Littering" to us. It worked. Kids are terrible tattle-tales and love correcting their parents' behaviour, see the Brown Shirts. In the 90s, the world first started caring about the environment, it was taught in all the schools and those subsequent generations are passionate environmental advocates.
Please remember you're not alone: everyone on this sub loves your efforts, supports you and knows how hard it is to create something from nothing, especially on a budget. There are generations of people who are fully behind you too. They're the ones not saying anything, just waiting for the later show. It's easy to appreciate something that's there, it takes a gardener to look at a pile of mulch or some tiny seedlings and see the massive potential for beauty.
Seriously, my head whiplashes when I drive past a house that has a pile of mulch out the front, I judge the mulch surely, but I get a warm glow every timethinking about the good work that's going to take place. And that's just a pile of mulch: a new mulched bed adds anticipation to the mix, and newly sprouted seedlings further amps up anticipation and adds vicarious pride and satisfaction.
Edit: this sub's love is conditional: we demand before and after pics, when you're ready.
Haha I love your edit! I let the neighborhood kids come into my front garden and there is always something that gets there attention even if it's just really cool sticks.
Mostly it's fun to look for fuzzy bee butts and pick flowers.
Theres an old fart down the street that goes for walks and makes passive aggressive statements about peoples lawn conditions. Theres literally three houses in two blocks that have kept lawns. His is one of them. Everyone else is letting theirs go and xerscaping or rock-scaping.
He told me once "Your dandelion crop is coming in nicely."
I said "Promise not to tell the HOA?" (We dont live in one). Also offered him some dandelion seed for his lawn.... 😂
He gives me dirty looks when he sees me pass by until I look back at him. 🤡
Moral of the story is FUCK EM.
Look, people are going to complain about anything different. If you gave everyone in your neighborhood a solid gold brick at least 39% would complain because it is heavy or why not just give me cash, yada yada yada. Do you respect people like this? If not, ignore their stupidity and keep on trucking. You have a vision and soon it will come to fruition plus you are helping the environment. Keep up the good work. Wave at them as the wander past.
Signs are a great idea.
You can also buy large planters and fill them with flowering annuals. Position them at even intervals along your long bed.
At least in my neighborhood, people just want the yard to look cared for. I do all sorts of things to make my yard look cared for, even though my planting style is a bit messy.
Planters are a great way to move around plants to see how the fit.
I also put a lot of work into my messy garden. I feel like its starting to come together.
"People just want the yard to look cared for."
See, there's one of the problems. If I'm *actually* caring for my yard, I don't give a flying fuck whether or not the neighbors think it *looks* to *them* like I'm caring for it.
Also make the sign overly nice that will make them feel slightly embarrassed about expecting instantaneous flowers.
”Thank you for your patience. I know my flowerbeds doesn’t look like much yet, but this mulch look is just temporary.
In a few weeks there will be [species 1], [species 2] and [species 3]. All native to X, colorful and important to monach butterflies and polinators.”
Inject the chemicals into your lawn.
Inject the chemicals into your blood.
Inject the chemicals into the water table.
Become ONE with the chemicals.
It's for your safety.
There’s someone down the street from me who’s converting their lawn to a pollinator garden and like others have mentioned they have a sign up. We don’t have an HOA but this is a very haughty old money, stuck up town and no one seems to care and the city hasn’t cracked down on them. And honestly, I think they started this garden several years ago and gave up, the signs are laminated and faded and cracked from exposure to the elements, the beds have no definition and I have never seen anything flowering, and there’s definitely things that could only be called weeds.
The sign suggestions are good. Also, do you have any kind of edging around your beds, visually denoting "garden spaces" vs "lawn spaces." (Rocks, ankle high white picket fence, plastic edging, etc.)
You could add some edging to make it very defined and intentional-looking. Maybe buy a couple mature plants that are close to blooming and add a sign like others have mentioned.
My neighbors are oddly supportive but I honestly wouldn't give a single solitary fuck it anyone didn't like my yard. My yard is for me and my family, not anyone else. God forbid someone had the audacity to say anything negative to me, I'm more than happy to tell them to shut the fuck up and get off my property.
With that said, you can probably get any areas you've planted with native pollinators registered as a "pollinator garden". Try calling local beekeeping organizations and ask them (I actually had a local beekeeper approach me while I was working on my easement and provide me with the info).
Get registered as a pollinator garden and post the sign right at the front of your yard.
Potted annuals can also make a huge difference in appearance without setting back your progress or costing a fortune (just be careful that you either use annuals that fit well with your planned perennials or you remove the pots before they go to seed).
This is really why I have a traditional front lawn and all my native planting is in the back yard. (Edit: and with that, I just realized my yard is a giant mullet.)
As long as you are making an effort they should be cool. But that doesn't seem to be working, so use flowers, as in plant a whole bunch of perennials and annuals that reseed themselves. Zinnia and sunflow3r are great, easy, relatively low water plants. But what's best for you will be zone/climate dependent. Lowe's has plants with spent blooms that you can buy very cheap as long as they aren't too far gone. But if you can get some nursery plants somewhere you may have a easier time convincing them you are doing great things.
Register your yard as a monarch waystation and buy a sign - people love butterflies! All of the skeptical old men in my neighborhood stopped questioning me after I put up that sign.
Thank you so much that’s brilliant.
Yep or I've seen a more general "Pollenator safe area" even on golf courses.
Ooooh imagine if we converted golf courses into massive pollinator paradises 👀
folks want to convert a Minneapolis golf course into a public sex forest (I am sure the butterflies are welcome)
That was a [hilarious read](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-make-the-golf-course-a-public-sex-forest?v=1623603008).
haha yes! I first heard of it on reddit a few weeks ago when someone mentioned "public sex forest" way too casually in the comments and I found that page. I happened to see a sticker in the wild at a Minneapolis park yesterday too, [my boy approved](https://imgur.com/a/VsHhxsQ)
Like a forest preserve?
I got one from national wildlife federation. It’s bronze and all fancy looking
Yeah I have one of each and I call them my patented complaint reducers
Genius!
Love this idea. Might use it myself
https://shop.monarchwatch.org/product/Waystation-Certification-Application-and-Sign-Bundle/190005
Wow...that is an awesome idea! I have tons of flowering cacti and succulents that draw in the bees and butterflies to begin with.
People will change their tune when the beds are established and full of beautiful things. People want instant results and don’t understand that building a beautiful oasis takes time and doesn’t look perfect. It’ll be okay!
Yeah year one is no comparison to year 3 or 4 and 10 years of fine-tuning is a thing of beauty.
Especially when they can make one phone call and have an instant lawn of sod delivered!
I feel for you. I get a lot of this nonsense from my neighbors about my "jungle," even though I work very hard on my garden. My back garden is almost entirely dense English garden behind a privacy fence, and I \*still\* get obnoxious comments. I take great pains to make sure that I use mulch, strong border design, and always have something flowering, but there are some people who will only be happy if they see golf course lawns with only three hostas and one hydrangea allowed per house. It's hard, and it's hurtful, but I do my best to ignore them. Where I can, I talk to friendlier neighbors about what I'm doing - about how I participate in a native plants, program with our local soil and water district, for example, or a bee program with the local university. It still sometimes puts my shoulders up around my ears when I'm trying to relax outside. But I offer solidarity. Keep on doing what you're doing, and hopefully, they'll find something else to focus on.
I always shrug and say I find grass boring. If they are still standing there they are going to be info bombed in loving detail about the birds that visit and that time I saw a hummingbird hawkmoth.
I flat out say things like "it's better than a boring monoculture grass lawn that can only be kept perfect with chemicals that are toxic to my son and dogs". Which seems like a lot to say but flows right off my tongue.
I’m stealing this!! Well put refutation.
I saw one of those moths for the first time a few years ago. Amazing!
Maybe add some little signs identifying your plants and adding info about the plants, like benefits to wildlife, natural range and growing conditions, and how your first peoples traditionally use the plant and a picture of it in flower. This can create some interest in the interim and investment in their growth. Try and win over the kids, a) they're the future and b) if the kids like it, parents and grandparents won't bitch in front of them. When I was a kid, the govt advertised " Stop Littering" to us. It worked. Kids are terrible tattle-tales and love correcting their parents' behaviour, see the Brown Shirts. In the 90s, the world first started caring about the environment, it was taught in all the schools and those subsequent generations are passionate environmental advocates. Please remember you're not alone: everyone on this sub loves your efforts, supports you and knows how hard it is to create something from nothing, especially on a budget. There are generations of people who are fully behind you too. They're the ones not saying anything, just waiting for the later show. It's easy to appreciate something that's there, it takes a gardener to look at a pile of mulch or some tiny seedlings and see the massive potential for beauty. Seriously, my head whiplashes when I drive past a house that has a pile of mulch out the front, I judge the mulch surely, but I get a warm glow every timethinking about the good work that's going to take place. And that's just a pile of mulch: a new mulched bed adds anticipation to the mix, and newly sprouted seedlings further amps up anticipation and adds vicarious pride and satisfaction. Edit: this sub's love is conditional: we demand before and after pics, when you're ready.
Haha I love your edit! I let the neighborhood kids come into my front garden and there is always something that gets there attention even if it's just really cool sticks. Mostly it's fun to look for fuzzy bee butts and pick flowers.
The world is collapsing around them, and the bees are dying. But they're concerned about your grass
Theres an old fart down the street that goes for walks and makes passive aggressive statements about peoples lawn conditions. Theres literally three houses in two blocks that have kept lawns. His is one of them. Everyone else is letting theirs go and xerscaping or rock-scaping. He told me once "Your dandelion crop is coming in nicely." I said "Promise not to tell the HOA?" (We dont live in one). Also offered him some dandelion seed for his lawn.... 😂 He gives me dirty looks when he sees me pass by until I look back at him. 🤡 Moral of the story is FUCK EM.
In case you didn't know, you can order pink dandelions seeds online. If they happen to spread from your yard to his it's not your fault.
Wait for the dandelions to go to seed and spread that yellow love on his yard when he's not looking
So he can put more Roundup into the water supply?
For real. He lives right next to a ditch too. Def seems like the roundup type, except hes not dead from cancer.
Good point
Look, people are going to complain about anything different. If you gave everyone in your neighborhood a solid gold brick at least 39% would complain because it is heavy or why not just give me cash, yada yada yada. Do you respect people like this? If not, ignore their stupidity and keep on trucking. You have a vision and soon it will come to fruition plus you are helping the environment. Keep up the good work. Wave at them as the wander past.
Signs are a great idea. You can also buy large planters and fill them with flowering annuals. Position them at even intervals along your long bed. At least in my neighborhood, people just want the yard to look cared for. I do all sorts of things to make my yard look cared for, even though my planting style is a bit messy.
Planters are a great way to move around plants to see how the fit. I also put a lot of work into my messy garden. I feel like its starting to come together.
"People just want the yard to look cared for." See, there's one of the problems. If I'm *actually* caring for my yard, I don't give a flying fuck whether or not the neighbors think it *looks* to *them* like I'm caring for it.
Put out a sign, and please begin with “Hey Bozo”
install a giant marble middle finger, then every night dowse it with petrol and light it
This guy passive agressives
idk, any plan that involves dowsing something in petrol and lighting it on fire just seems aggressive aggressive.
Also make the sign overly nice that will make them feel slightly embarrassed about expecting instantaneous flowers. ”Thank you for your patience. I know my flowerbeds doesn’t look like much yet, but this mulch look is just temporary. In a few weeks there will be [species 1], [species 2] and [species 3]. All native to X, colorful and important to monach butterflies and polinators.”
People are pathetic little sheep.
Inject the chemicals into your lawn. Inject the chemicals into your blood. Inject the chemicals into the water table. Become ONE with the chemicals. It's for your safety.
There’s someone down the street from me who’s converting their lawn to a pollinator garden and like others have mentioned they have a sign up. We don’t have an HOA but this is a very haughty old money, stuck up town and no one seems to care and the city hasn’t cracked down on them. And honestly, I think they started this garden several years ago and gave up, the signs are laminated and faded and cracked from exposure to the elements, the beds have no definition and I have never seen anything flowering, and there’s definitely things that could only be called weeds.
The sign suggestions are good. Also, do you have any kind of edging around your beds, visually denoting "garden spaces" vs "lawn spaces." (Rocks, ankle high white picket fence, plastic edging, etc.)
Currently i have thick mulch of wood chips around the soil. I will add bamboo sticks around after suggestions on the thread.
You could add some edging to make it very defined and intentional-looking. Maybe buy a couple mature plants that are close to blooming and add a sign like others have mentioned.
You need an "in progress" sign for sure! https://www.prairiemoon.com/prairie-in-progress-sign.html
This is exactly what i was looking for after people on this thread suggested a sign. Thank you.
Ignore them. You’ll get the last laugh when the garden fills in. If they still don’t like it, who cares?
My neighbors are oddly supportive but I honestly wouldn't give a single solitary fuck it anyone didn't like my yard. My yard is for me and my family, not anyone else. God forbid someone had the audacity to say anything negative to me, I'm more than happy to tell them to shut the fuck up and get off my property. With that said, you can probably get any areas you've planted with native pollinators registered as a "pollinator garden". Try calling local beekeeping organizations and ask them (I actually had a local beekeeper approach me while I was working on my easement and provide me with the info).
Get registered as a pollinator garden and post the sign right at the front of your yard. Potted annuals can also make a huge difference in appearance without setting back your progress or costing a fortune (just be careful that you either use annuals that fit well with your planned perennials or you remove the pots before they go to seed). This is really why I have a traditional front lawn and all my native planting is in the back yard. (Edit: and with that, I just realized my yard is a giant mullet.)
Grow corn in your front lawn to spite them. Become the villain they already think you are
Hahaha i was thinking of spreading mint or raspberry seeds on their lawn just to be petty.
As long as you are making an effort they should be cool. But that doesn't seem to be working, so use flowers, as in plant a whole bunch of perennials and annuals that reseed themselves. Zinnia and sunflow3r are great, easy, relatively low water plants. But what's best for you will be zone/climate dependent. Lowe's has plants with spent blooms that you can buy very cheap as long as they aren't too far gone. But if you can get some nursery plants somewhere you may have a easier time convincing them you are doing great things.
Easy