Places like Maryland did away with that nonsense. It is possible if neighbors are willing to come together and fight for it.

https://www.humanegardener.com/butterflies-1-hoa-bullies-0/

You’ve convinced me 👩‍🌾 the bees were all over them so there’s dozens of future fruits growing. I think these are at least two different species/hybrids given the variance in flower form and coloration. I’ll be neat if they taste different, too!

The pads are what I really want to try… the new growth looked so yummy lol. I read they taste like a mix of green beans and okra. Sounds delish.

Watching them flutter around the milkweed, over to my neighbor’s flowers, across the street and back again was beautiful. It was amazing to see one in person. They’re much larger than I imagined and very graceful.

Update! Today’s blooms:

All of my neighbors have grass on these narrow strips, maybe these cheery yellows will inspire them to plant some flowers instead.

I want to, but I’m too nervous about removing the glochids myself 😅 so not yet. Those fuzzy orange spots on the pads are no joke.

I never took care of the lawn other than mowing it, so much of this stuff was already here in small amounts. Two years ago, I started dividing up the violets and planting them into the grass. They launch seeds up to 4 feet so they quickly spread, clump and bully the grass. Ants move the seeds around too. Last year, I started dividing and transplanting the nimblewill. Panicled aster and late boneset volunteered which pushed out some more.

There’s still plenty of grass closer to my neighbor who treats their lawn. Some I buried in woodchips, the rest I’d like to shade out with edibles and dig out for another rain garden.

If nobody got me, I know Chesapeake Bay Watershed got me 🙏 Can I get an amen?

They’re looking for ecoregion photos if you’re into photography!

If you want to learn more about your local plants and animals, I recommend iNaturalist or their Seek app.

The staff members that are assigned incarcerated workers often appear to act as if the humanity of these workers begins and ends with their labor. Once, an educator I worked for entered a hallway full of residents and said, “My God, I just wish I could load you all up in a bus and take you to my house.” Everyone smiled, some cheered until she continued: “I need so much work done in my yard. Y’all could fix it right up.”

Having worked in social services, dehumanizing clients was not an uncommon practice. My former clients were not incarcerated but seniors in low income housing. The mentality was the same, like something had to be inherently wrong in a person to end up on the other side of the desk.

Thank you for sharing. After reading, I found a local group working on food justice and prison abolition.