More American tales from the wildlife garden

I'll be back talking about 'home grown' wildlife gardening by next week, but I'm still full of my American trip and I wanted to share my experiences of their wildlife gardening.

How good it was to see the National Wildlife Federation running a scheme whereby they 'certified' whether your gardening had created wildlife habitat, a lovely little incentive that for this little street-corner public garden (left) had resulted in a winner's rosette. How fitting that a Blue Jay perched on top for me as if to rubber stamp the award.

Those gardens tended for wildlife often had some of the plants we might grow here, especially Buddleias including some wonderful shrub varieties, but gardeners were also very keen on various Goldenrods (Solidago), native to the eastern USA. Here's one (right) I photographed with a gorgeous Buck-eye butterfly on it.

It is very tempting to grow Goldenrods in this country, and should you do so you will be rewarded definitely with several species of bee and other pollinating insect visiting, and also with some nectaring butterflies. But there is a big downside - Goldenrods tend to be horribly invasive, and as a non-native species here in the UK they can turn into a right menace, escaping into the countryside and replacing native plants.

It was quite powerful, then, to see American gardeners and conservationists having to fight their own battles against terribly invasive plants too. The two worst culprits were Porcelain Vines from Asia, shrouding entire trees, and our own Common Reed from Europe, invading their marshes. It was a reminder that we have to be responsible as gardeners, and not harm the countryside while trying to help wildlife in your garden.

And finally, I couldn't resist another Monarch photo, just to show how numerous they were, and to make Jef more envious!