u/s3ntia

I plant the native plants which feed and house the cottontails which make cottontail babies which feed the local predators like this large flying squirrel seen prowling the yard 2 hours earlier

Bonus photos: a female flying squirrel that is either also pregnant or gorged itself on rabbit, and a fox which cleaned out the last attempted cottontail nest

Yeah caterpillars and birds are cool or whatever. But check out all the biomass I'm creating on my cottontail farm

Viola cucullata in full bloom at a local wetland

V. sororia, pedata, and then I believe blanda and labrodorica. I grew the V. pedata and the rest are volunteers that I've encouraged.

Couldn't get a good picture of the white ones because they are a bit past peak flowering but they cover most of my backyard now, while common blues are thriving as ground cover in most of my garden beds and gravel walking area

I grew this bird's foot violet from seed last year. It's still tiny but producing flowers bigger than the foliage (4 different plants shown)