North Carolina 2025

This garden transformation has been ongoing for two years. This year, more natives will replace nonnative varieties.
This lovely garden along the fence has blue mist flower, obedient plant, ironweed, Joe Pye weed, turtlehead, st. john’s wort, and many others that are nourishing the local wildlife.
Homeowner is planting cone flowers, liatris, bee balm, and some other flowers for pollinators and hopefully birds. They’ll benefit the bees living in the background, too!
Pollinators love this new biodiverse spot!
After Hurricane Helene, this property lost 45 trees. They are using this tragic incident as a chance to start over and focus on native habitat.
Incredible! 60 native trees, shrubs, and perennials were added, along with trails with a climbing clematis growing over the archway. Time will make this a buzzing habitat filled with birds, bees, butterflies, and other biodiversity. Beauty can emerge from tragedy.
Property owner is adding mint, cardinal flower, nodding onion, ironweed, coneflower, Jacob’s ladder, shooting star and more to help birds, bees, and butterflies.
Vibrant garden didn’t have quite enough milkweed for the 52 monarches that found it this year! Always room to plant more :).
Ongoing changes to this yard will see new native plantings for birds.
Sneezeweed, bonset, blue lobelia, and coneflower was being enjoyed by rabbits as much as pollinators, so it was fenced. But the plants are full and abundant in their first year of growing.
This stump was a Bradford tree. New native plants will be added around it.
Many pollinators have been seen on the mountain mint, black-eyed Susan’s, and coral honeysuckles. Finches like flower seedhead and 12+ monarchs butterflies were spotted on the swamp milkweed. Overall a very successful garden!
This spot will have natives added for birds, butterflies and bees. They’ll also benefit from a stunning view :).
New native plants were added to this area. They’ve seen lots of bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and songbirds as a result.
This garden began to be transformed in 2020 and now supports a variety of native species, as well as some “for me to enjoy” nonnative plants.
Coral honeysuckle, silver maple, arborvitae, redbud, purple coneflower, native passionfruit, clethra, daisies and gaillardia have been added to transform this spot into a green oasis
Deer exploring the gardens. A finished water feature will be an attractant to a variety of wildlife.
New water feature will provide a water resource year-round for birds and other biodiversity.
This butterfly garden has several native bushes and now more perennial diversity will be added.
A new redesign of this space was inspired by this project where new natives were added that add plant diversity but are easier to manage.
Site will receive a variety of new native additions this spring.
A grant helped cover the cost of natives of which many were added this year.

Before

After

Goal: adding native plants to this spot to attract and support the healthy lives of local and migrating birds.
The birds love this new sanctuary, and this gardener is looking forward to adding more plants
Gardens will be expanded and added to with beneficial native plants.
More birds and a great number of bird species were seen in these gardens. Butterflies made their first appearance, mostly swallowtail species. Next year should bring more visitors and excitement as the plants fill-in.
The Angle Trumpet flowers will be replaced with native bee balm and lantana along with other flowers like cosmos and zinnias that hummingbirds visit.
Beautiful colorful collection of flowers that provide valuable habitat for pollinators.
Perennials will add color and character to this garden.
Hummingbirds love Cardinal Flower, and this gardener loved seeing all the butterflies
Upper view of the garden that will have new natives planted this year.
Three native plants were added here but a packet of black-eye susans took over.
Lots of natives will be added here to support biodiversity. Red columbine, hairy beardtongue, bee balm, white turtlehead, foam flower, and asters are all on the menu.
Frogs and anoles enjoyed this sweet new garden.
Rudbeckia, Forget-Me-Nots, and a local wildflower mixes will be added to this site to help wildlife.
Homeowner added several areas of wildflowers. Lots of birds were seen this year and they are looking forward to watching the plants fill-out.
Homeowner added azalea and foam flower to attract more wildlife in this already bountiful garden.
Foam flower settled in nicely this year, but did not flower. In the spring this should have lovely white early flowers.
Native plants will be added to this site to attract and support birds.
Shade garden with a bird bath for the birds.
Spot where native plants have been added.
Butterflyweed is establishing nicely and bound to flower next year.
New native to add diversity to this container garden.
Plant is happy in it’s new spot with volunteer tomato plants trying to join the growing party.
Goal: Make the yard more attractive to birds.
The colorful beautyberries are a sight to behold. The birds will love them, too.
In an existing native plant garden, Itea Virginica will be added to increase diversity.
Lovely fall color is an added bonus to the resources these new shrubs will provide.
Native plants will be added to support birds such as this one just starting to source materials for nest building.
Sunny garden for the bees.
Balcony where new natives will be added!
The new plants provided a popular scaffolding for spiders to build their webs
Homeowner is in the process of replacing non-native weeping, love grass with native grasses, little blue, stem, and other other native perennials.
The interplanting with natives is going well – these milkweeds have been defoliated by caterpillars, which have now gone off to pupate.

Remaining Before Photos

After removing invasives the homeowner wants to support the local ecosystem and be able to enjoy the wildlife at home.
Native plants will be added to attract birds so homeowners can enjoy their beauty.
Sunny spot with lots of bird-plant-potential.
This property lacks natives and will fix that inviting more pollinators into the yard.
Property owner is creating a rain garden for drainage and biodiversity.
Site wants to attract more birds and pollinators.
Garden focused on natives will be installed here.
Originally planted before native plant importance was known. Now, additional natives will be added for the birds and pollinators.
Corner spot soon to have native plant additions.
A butterfly-loving plant will be added here to help biodiversity.
The sod-free spots will get native plant additions.
Perennials will add to this character-filled patio garden.
Adding native plants to attract local pollinators, native bees, and hopefully birds.
This resident enjoys gardening and is adding to their garden to help wildlife.
Property wants to plant natives near the bird feeder.
New native shrubs to help birds and biodiversity.
Lovely spot for birds and biodiversity. This homeowner continues to find new places to add native plants.
Homeowner is adding more plants to support local wildlife. Notice the beautiful garden sculpture that adds a dynamic visual to this space.
Property owner is adding native habitat to swampy area to help avoid water run off.
Pots will be planted natives that support birds and biodiversity.
This site will eventually have a pond and in the mean time native plants will be added that will also feed wildlife.
After seeing great results of increased biodiversity in the front yard with native plants, family is adding new gardens to the backyard.
More native plants about to be planted to continue to increase bird, bee, and butterfly populations.
Yard will have native plants added this spring for the birds.
Native perennials are being added around the patio to help wildlife.
Native additions are being added to help local ecosystems to flourish.
There’s room for more plants! So why not?
This garden could use some additional color using plants that benefit birds and butterflies.
This area is near bird feeders. They intend to create a bird garden that can also help to feed the birds.
Homeowner will add a native plant in order to attract and support bird life in the yard.

Stay connected to the Great Backyard Bird Count.

By subscribing to stay connected to the Great Backyard Bird Count, you agree to receive communications from The Cornell Lab, Audubon, and Birds Canada. You may unsubscribe from any of the organizations' communications at any time.