Melissa Casti

Squash bugs. They kill my compost volunteer pumpkins every year.

🐝

It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing. 🙌

I think you mean “girls” or “children” and not “underage women.”

a woman is sitting at a desk opening a red box with a newspaper on the wall behind her ALT: a woman is sitting at a desk opening a red box with a newspaper on the wall behind her

Wrapping paper is trash. Plastic tape will never biodegrade. Try a sustainable alternative this year like reusable colored boxes, reusable cloth bags, brown paper with natural twine or masking tape, wrapping with a tea towel that becomes a second gift, or no wrapping at all.

I hate them. I wish they would be banned here. I can’t enjoy peace in my own yard (or even inside my house at times) from different neighbors employing landscaping crews that use these ridiculous unnecessary noisemakers.

Baby plants do do do do do do, baby plants! Got these 96 in the ground today. I’ve planted over 400 in the last few weeks. I think I have 80 left. #plantnative

Dug out this volunteer chinkapin oak and potted it up to be transplanted in my aunt’s yard. I hope it makes it.

WTF?

American Beautyberry 💜

Kansas City, Missouri. I’d say at least 7,000.

Kansas City, Missouri. Just one of several planned protests in the metro area.

Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

Fuzzies in the garden. If you plant it, they will come. #Plantnative

Native asters and goldenrod. Fall perfection.

September garden beauty. Check out the FIVE caterpillars on the one tiny Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) plant! Also featuring blue mist flower, American Beautyberry, and aromatic aster. #plantnative

Eastern Prickly Pear with ripe tunas (the red fruits)! This is the first year that my cactus fruited. I will harvest and eat the tunas soon.

Late summer garden beauty. Boneset, White Admiral butterfly, Blue Sage, and Texas Green Eyes.

Today’s garden beauty. Compass plant, rattlesnake master, purple coneflower, and butterfly milkweed. #plantnative

Prairie beardtongue

Pale purple coneflower

Yellow coneflower

Purple poppy mallow

Today’s garden blooms. #whatyouplantmatters #plantnative

Prairie Beardtongue getting ready to bloom. #whatyouplantmatters #plantnative

Today’s garden beauty. NE Kansas. #whatyouplantmatters #plantnative Monarda bradburiana and spiderwort (Ohio maybe?)

I’m not a fan of either of those things, but they are good methods when you have a large area you want to replace for as cheap as possible.

Better than turf grass, but you’d have to be careful that the seed mix you order is for plants native to your area. Also, seeds won’t germinate unless they’re in contact with soil, so you’d have to kill off the turf grass with either pesticide or by covering it with black plastic for a year.

Today’s garden beauty. Aesculus pavia (red buckeye). #plantnative

Plants found in Junction City, KS.

Today’s garden beauty. Dwarf Crested Iris. #plantnative

I planted this little dogwood tree in the summer of 2022. Now in spring 2025, it bloomed for the first time. Did you know that the flower isn’t made of petals but of bracts?

Today’s garden beauty. My woodland garden. Spring Beauty, Rue anemone, Packera obovata, and wild geranium.