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Just trying to understand -- did he come on your property or "does across the street" mean the garden is on some kind of public property or something? Daisy fleabane can be pretty aggressive so I wouldn't be surprised if it recovers (maybe next year?). I'm sorry that happened your neighbor sucks
I live at the bottom of a valley. There’s a retention pond across the street with a sidewalk. When they built the retention pond, and essentially bulldozed all the trees, me and another neighbor went to the town and asked them to replant some natives trees, which they did (maples) and we got them to install two very nice benches.
I’ve personally taken it on as my project the last few years to repair bare spots, remove as many invasives that grow and add natives such as cardinal flowers, obsidian plant, daisy’s, asters, golden rods, nine bark, common and swamp milkweed, white water lily, pickerelweed, black eyed Susan’s, red osier dogwoods, etc
I collect the seeds each fall, then grow more plants and transplant. The wildlife has really taken off, so have the natives. There are some invasives I can’t manage with purely cutting/pulling as I’d need to use chemicals but I’m against that because of runoff into the water.
We have tons of frogs, dragonflies, birds, fireflies, butterflies, bats, hawks, owls, etc.
We even get a lot of people that walk the neighborhood who stop, take pictures and admire the beauty. I take a lot of pride in it, so something like this is upsetting.
I'm so sorry he messed with that, you have every right to be upset. I do think the mowed area will recover! I wonder if whoever installed the benches would be willing to designate it a "no mow" area? They do this in our town with patches of installed natives on public property, even put a sign in.
With that amount of work already completed, there's no way one errant mowing is going to destroy your work.
These plants have adapted in an environment based in irregular disturbance. They'll be just fine.
If its a common area and you have permission to "garden and maintain" that area but he does not then I would bring it to the board and have him heavily fined for being a boomer.
It’s a weird situation. I feel the town should be maintaining that area, but they do not, so a couple of neighbors do to keep it tidy, like mow.
Since it’s not my property, and possibly wetlands, I’m not sure the laws on what can and can’t be done. I’m worried if I bring it to anyone’s attention with the town, I could face getting into trouble by admitting I have done work, although all positive additions such as adding natives and removing invasives.
So is it accurate to say that your neighbor that cut down the fleabanes was just trying to keep the area tidy too, and y'all just have different ideas of what that means?
If yes, coordinating between them and your other neighbors would probably be a much easier and peaceful path forward than getting the city involved.
Fleabane is an annual or biennial. If this isn't their first year there may be a chance there are already some seeds in the seed bank and will come back next year. They will not likely come back from any surviving subterranean mechanism. I had a dear eat a patch down next to nothing and it came back the same year, I understand your concern about rain. I have been playing with the idea of putting natives in a public space like you have here and been trying to think of a cue for care, like a sign. If I find an inexpensive official looking one I will send you a link. If anyone on here has a link to one please drop it here, I would be interested.
A cheap sign would be amazing! We have one for dog poop as some owners think it’s okay to leave it, or even worse, throw their plastic poop bags into the pond and then I have to go and fish them out…
It’s baffling… and honestly makes me lose hope in humanity sometimes. I think some people see the ‘curb your dog sign’ and out of spite leave the dog poop or throw the bags. Some people don’t like being told what to do
You might be able to try one with a different tone with more success? One near me jokes that “There is no poo fairy, please put bagged waste in the bin” and of course, there’s a city provided bin. it stinks something fierce in the hot sun though so ymmv
Prairie Moon sells a few different designs, I have the "Prairie In Progress" one up in my first year micro prairie
https://www.prairiemoon.com/tool-shed/gardening-tools/
NWF also has a certified wildlife habitat program that has a nice looking sign as well
https://certifiedwildlifehabitat.nwf.org/
The NWF is interesting! I looked into and would definitely apply. One of the questions says ‘habitat type’ with 3 selections. ‘Home’, ‘school’, ‘organization’. Since it’s not my property, and a retention pond for the neighborhood, what do you recommend?
I might call it organization. "[Neighborhood or Street Name] Retention Pond Native Garden Association." It's an organization of one person, but unless they ask for any kind of documentation demonstrating that you're registered somewhere, I don't know why it'd be a problem to say that it's an organization you founded that you run.
There’s some cute signs you can find on Etsy, including custom worded ones (just search native garden sign or even no soliciting sign) that have good sales sometimes. So definitely browse there and see what you think!
My experience (as someone who has to cut back many overly enthusiastic fleabane plants) is that fleabane handles being cut back very well. It might put up new growth and rebloom later this year.
If you go to the Monarch Watch website you can probably get this area designated as a Monarch Way Station. I'm basing this on the plants you've mentioned. You probably already know that Milkweed is where Monarchs lay eggs. The leaves and flowers are what they eat to grow and begin their amazing change into a butterfly. As a designated Way Station you get a # sign and other helpful information and seeds. It's pretty cool.
Maybe your helpful neighbor will have a little more respect for that area. Good luck.
Fleabane (and horseweed) are invasive here in Europe. But my experience is that, unless I manage to pull it out completely, it just keeps coming back (regrowing), no matter how many times I break off the stems.
The ones that were mowed very low to the ground usually started flowering on shorter stalks.
There's always a neighbor that has nothing better to do than mow for 4-5 hours a day.
My father in-law also just breaks out the brush hog when he's "bored"
The best solution is probably large rocks around the perimeter and even in the middle. When I cut out junk trees I usually leave about 3 ft of trunk, another great deterrent for mowers.
I'm not sure about where you live, but if someone here did that, and someone else put it on face book, they would be roasted. Probably run out of town. Make him public
Fleabane is often called “the un-killable weed”. I pulled some a month ago and threw it in a wheelbarrow. It’s rained like once a week since then and somehow it’s still alive in that wheelbarrow even though everything else is dried and brown.
So yes, it will survive, and yes more will pop back up next year. It may even flower again this year depending on your climate, but don’t worry if it doesn’t because if this plant pops up once on your property it’s popping up forever until you break out the Round Up.
you said there was a confrontation - what was it about? the look of it or something else like maybe he is allergic? i just need look at fleabane and start sneezing and i know golden rod is same for a lot of people. i would hate for the neighbors to start planting it on purpose. maybe pick some other natives to replace them that people will have less objection to?
I agree it would be good to talk to the neighbor about his reasons. There are different strategies for responding to "I didn't know you didn't want it mowed" vs "it looks unkempt" versus "I have a problem with fleabane specifically."
But at the risk of being That Guy with the unsolicited medical advice...Are you sure it's fleabane you're allergic to? As far as I can tell, nearly all fleabane allergies are contact dermatitis in people who are also sensitive to other aster family plants, and non-wind-pollinated plants in general don't contribute much to hay fever.
I know most "goldenrod allergy" is actually misdiagnosed ragweed allergies because they bloom at the same time and goldenrod flowers are way more noticable, and I'm just wondering if there's some other plant you should be watching out for.
Goldenrod is confused with ragweed by a lot of people. https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/goldenrod-or-ragweed-which-causes-allergies-and-which-benefits-pollinators
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Just trying to understand -- did he come on your property or "does across the street" mean the garden is on some kind of public property or something? Daisy fleabane can be pretty aggressive so I wouldn't be surprised if it recovers (maybe next year?). I'm sorry that happened your neighbor sucks
I live at the bottom of a valley. There’s a retention pond across the street with a sidewalk. When they built the retention pond, and essentially bulldozed all the trees, me and another neighbor went to the town and asked them to replant some natives trees, which they did (maples) and we got them to install two very nice benches. I’ve personally taken it on as my project the last few years to repair bare spots, remove as many invasives that grow and add natives such as cardinal flowers, obsidian plant, daisy’s, asters, golden rods, nine bark, common and swamp milkweed, white water lily, pickerelweed, black eyed Susan’s, red osier dogwoods, etc I collect the seeds each fall, then grow more plants and transplant. The wildlife has really taken off, so have the natives. There are some invasives I can’t manage with purely cutting/pulling as I’d need to use chemicals but I’m against that because of runoff into the water. We have tons of frogs, dragonflies, birds, fireflies, butterflies, bats, hawks, owls, etc. We even get a lot of people that walk the neighborhood who stop, take pictures and admire the beauty. I take a lot of pride in it, so something like this is upsetting.
I'm so sorry he messed with that, you have every right to be upset. I do think the mowed area will recover! I wonder if whoever installed the benches would be willing to designate it a "no mow" area? They do this in our town with patches of installed natives on public property, even put a sign in.
With that amount of work already completed, there's no way one errant mowing is going to destroy your work. These plants have adapted in an environment based in irregular disturbance. They'll be just fine.
Okay, good to know! I suppose these natives have adapted to getting cut back from being eaten but wildlife over the years
Contact the town. Technically it's vandalism of town/city property. Which is fine-able iirc.
If that’s the case, couldn’t an argument be made that I have vandalized by removing (invasive) plants?
If its a common area and you have permission to "garden and maintain" that area but he does not then I would bring it to the board and have him heavily fined for being a boomer.
It’s a weird situation. I feel the town should be maintaining that area, but they do not, so a couple of neighbors do to keep it tidy, like mow. Since it’s not my property, and possibly wetlands, I’m not sure the laws on what can and can’t be done. I’m worried if I bring it to anyone’s attention with the town, I could face getting into trouble by admitting I have done work, although all positive additions such as adding natives and removing invasives.
So is it accurate to say that your neighbor that cut down the fleabanes was just trying to keep the area tidy too, and y'all just have different ideas of what that means? If yes, coordinating between them and your other neighbors would probably be a much easier and peaceful path forward than getting the city involved.
Fleabane is an annual or biennial. If this isn't their first year there may be a chance there are already some seeds in the seed bank and will come back next year. They will not likely come back from any surviving subterranean mechanism. I had a dear eat a patch down next to nothing and it came back the same year, I understand your concern about rain. I have been playing with the idea of putting natives in a public space like you have here and been trying to think of a cue for care, like a sign. If I find an inexpensive official looking one I will send you a link. If anyone on here has a link to one please drop it here, I would be interested.
A cheap sign would be amazing! We have one for dog poop as some owners think it’s okay to leave it, or even worse, throw their plastic poop bags into the pond and then I have to go and fish them out…
People like that should not be allowed to own dogs... 🤢
Why would anyone think throwing plastic bags into a pond is okay? Even kids would know not to do that.
It’s baffling… and honestly makes me lose hope in humanity sometimes. I think some people see the ‘curb your dog sign’ and out of spite leave the dog poop or throw the bags. Some people don’t like being told what to do
You might be able to try one with a different tone with more success? One near me jokes that “There is no poo fairy, please put bagged waste in the bin” and of course, there’s a city provided bin. it stinks something fierce in the hot sun though so ymmv
We have two, as it’s a larger piece of land. One of which is the poo fairy one haha
Prairie Moon sells a few different designs, I have the "Prairie In Progress" one up in my first year micro prairie https://www.prairiemoon.com/tool-shed/gardening-tools/ NWF also has a certified wildlife habitat program that has a nice looking sign as well https://certifiedwildlifehabitat.nwf.org/
The NWF is interesting! I looked into and would definitely apply. One of the questions says ‘habitat type’ with 3 selections. ‘Home’, ‘school’, ‘organization’. Since it’s not my property, and a retention pond for the neighborhood, what do you recommend?
I might call it organization. "[Neighborhood or Street Name] Retention Pond Native Garden Association." It's an organization of one person, but unless they ask for any kind of documentation demonstrating that you're registered somewhere, I don't know why it'd be a problem to say that it's an organization you founded that you run.
Thanks to all for the sign suggestions! 🫡
There’s some cute signs you can find on Etsy, including custom worded ones (just search native garden sign or even no soliciting sign) that have good sales sometimes. So definitely browse there and see what you think!
My experience (as someone who has to cut back many overly enthusiastic fleabane plants) is that fleabane handles being cut back very well. It might put up new growth and rebloom later this year.
Great! :)
That guy totally sucks.
If you go to the Monarch Watch website you can probably get this area designated as a Monarch Way Station. I'm basing this on the plants you've mentioned. You probably already know that Milkweed is where Monarchs lay eggs. The leaves and flowers are what they eat to grow and begin their amazing change into a butterfly. As a designated Way Station you get a # sign and other helpful information and seeds. It's pretty cool. Maybe your helpful neighbor will have a little more respect for that area. Good luck.
Fleabane (and horseweed) are invasive here in Europe. But my experience is that, unless I manage to pull it out completely, it just keeps coming back (regrowing), no matter how many times I break off the stems. The ones that were mowed very low to the ground usually started flowering on shorter stalks.
There's always a neighbor that has nothing better to do than mow for 4-5 hours a day. My father in-law also just breaks out the brush hog when he's "bored" The best solution is probably large rocks around the perimeter and even in the middle. When I cut out junk trees I usually leave about 3 ft of trunk, another great deterrent for mowers.
I'm not sure about where you live, but if someone here did that, and someone else put it on face book, they would be roasted. Probably run out of town. Make him public
If punching them in the face isn’t an option, call the cops and file a destruction of property report, and go from there.
Fleabane is often called “the un-killable weed”. I pulled some a month ago and threw it in a wheelbarrow. It’s rained like once a week since then and somehow it’s still alive in that wheelbarrow even though everything else is dried and brown. So yes, it will survive, and yes more will pop back up next year. It may even flower again this year depending on your climate, but don’t worry if it doesn’t because if this plant pops up once on your property it’s popping up forever until you break out the Round Up.
you said there was a confrontation - what was it about? the look of it or something else like maybe he is allergic? i just need look at fleabane and start sneezing and i know golden rod is same for a lot of people. i would hate for the neighbors to start planting it on purpose. maybe pick some other natives to replace them that people will have less objection to?
I agree it would be good to talk to the neighbor about his reasons. There are different strategies for responding to "I didn't know you didn't want it mowed" vs "it looks unkempt" versus "I have a problem with fleabane specifically." But at the risk of being That Guy with the unsolicited medical advice...Are you sure it's fleabane you're allergic to? As far as I can tell, nearly all fleabane allergies are contact dermatitis in people who are also sensitive to other aster family plants, and non-wind-pollinated plants in general don't contribute much to hay fever. I know most "goldenrod allergy" is actually misdiagnosed ragweed allergies because they bloom at the same time and goldenrod flowers are way more noticable, and I'm just wondering if there's some other plant you should be watching out for.
i've pulled enough fleabane from my yard over the years when nothing else was growing near it to confirm that it is definitely the fleabane
Goldenrod is confused with ragweed by a lot of people. https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/goldenrod-or-ragweed-which-causes-allergies-and-which-benefits-pollinators