Summer in Minnesota shines bright for birdwatchers, with colorful visitors like a Green Heron and Hairy Woodpecker bringing joy to backyard patios and ponds throughout the warm afternoons.

With bell-shaped purple blooms, creeping bellflower is pretty, but it chokes out wanted plants — and it’s all over the place in Minnesota.

While Prairie Restorations’ flowers are visible among the black-eyed Susans on the ground, only the yellow blooms stand out in the 400-foot-wide smiley face from the sky. The native wildflowers ...