Well, the reason I asked ....
I could only find the alfalfa cubes at Tractor Supply. So what I do is put them in nylon footies and soak them in a 5 gallon bucket of water to use as a liquid tea for my daylilies. I do this twice with the cubes until they expand really nice. I then pull the soaked alfalfa footies out and lay them on a piece of wood to dry. After they are dry, I sprinkle the dried and fluffy alfalfa around the daylilies and other garden beds. This past time I did it, something got into the footies and tore them up and pulled out some of the alfalfa. I don't know what the critters were after unless it was the bugs that had buried into the alfalfa right after I removed them from the water bucket. I used 3 footies. Two of the 3 were torn up. One was not. I have no idea what critter did that.
As far as wildlife coming into my yard. I get all kinds of wildlife. The dropped bird seeds were part of the problem until I came up with a solution. I cut up an old tarp that is laid down underneath the bird feeder like a skirt. At the end of each day, I fold the tarp in half and then roll it up. I then dump all the sunflower shells and any left over seeds out into the woods right next to my yard. The seed shells decompose and enrich the sandy soil. Any edible seeds left among the shells are found outside my fenced in yard. So the critters have no reason to be in my yard. And I haven't seen any rats or mice since I started doing that.
I do feed the squirrels. There are lots of squirrels in my area. They don't really seem to bother my garden much since I started feeding them (and the birds). There is only 1 bird feeder area. I feed the squirrels under the feeder on the tarp. Well, actually 2 seed feeders right now because I feed the Painted Buntings and other smaller migratory birds in the Fall/Winter/Spring. But the main seed feeder stays up year round. I always know when I do have rats/mice in my yard as the snakes start showing up to eat them. As long as none of the creatures are poisonous, I don't care. But I don't like the mice/rats. They do chew on everything and often chew up my plants. So my goal is to try to keep them out of my yard. The squirrels don't really bother anything at all. I guess I feed them pretty well since they don't desire anything else in my yard.
My yard is a wildlife habitat as well as a garden. I also have bird banders that have come to my yard to capture, record, and band the birds on occasion. And I also raise and release butterflies (caterpillars). I initially started gardening for butterflies and then it expanded to hummingbirds. So my garden is not just about daylilies or other plants. Without the wildlife, I don't think I would enjoy my garden as much. But that is just me ....
The whole flower is such lovely soft shades. I'm guessing that's why they called it "Ash".
