There is a lot in this photo that has yet to fill in. In the second photo, plants that are not visible or mature are sweet bay magnolia, sweet fern, culver's root, NY ironweed, Cornus florida, early goldenrod, sweet goldenrod, Anaphalis margaritacea, Eupatorium hyssopifolium, Lobelia siphilitica, New England aster, false sunflower, swamp sunflower Helianthus angustifolius, Iris versicolor, swamp, purple, and butterfly milkweed, Sensitive partridge pea, little bluestem, purple lovegrass, whorled loosestrife, St andrews cross Hypericum hypercoides, dwarf cinquefoil Potentilla canadensis, sundrops Oenothera fruticosa, Columbine Aquilegia canadensis, violet lespedeza, wild Senna, Monarda fistulosa, big leaf aster, and blue wood aster. Plants you can see pretty well are philadelphia Fleabane, lance leaf coreopsis, hollow-stem joe pye, Rudbeckia laciniata, and Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice'

Basically, I'll let the plants take over that corner, and just shear the tall things back a month or two before they flower so they don't grow too tall and rank. There are a few large dips in the ground which provides areas for the more water loving plants, while the areas between the holes can dry out some. It gets shadier and dryer closer to the fence which gives a different set of conditions. There are also dutchmans pipe vines I started from seed planted along the fence.
Starting plants from seed means you can do a lot of species and produce a lot of plants inexpensively. I'm aiming to grow another 500+ plants this year, mostly shorter species in trays of 50 or 38 to form a more uniform structured groundcover look for a different area. The goal for 2022 or 2023 is to start supplying plants or entire gardens to the community.




Over on the left in the wood mulch there are running serviceberry and black elderberry seedlings in the ground. The 3 shrubs toward the middle-right are Salix discolor with volunteer violets between them. Also young sneezeweed, false aster, and white meadowsweet in there. On the left against the fence and in the background there are young bladdernut shrubs, more NY ironweed and a division of fringed loosestrife someone gave me.

Skip, looking at that plant list, you're creating a pollinator paradise. It's going to be heavenly
I'm converting most of my yard for pollinators this year, but it's a fraction the size of yours.

Great job so far Skip!!!!! You're certainly getting there.

Hmm. Turns out my response didn't answer your question directly, Skip. Well, read at your leisure 🙂 and well done on your accomplishments of late!

Also, be sure to check out the native plant finder on the nwf.org web site. Enter your zip code and plants conducive to your region will populate.

SkipNJ said:What's your take on reforming a piece of property in this way?

I have some misgivings about "rip out and replace," particularly if the plants being removed aren't considered invasive. Personally, I think that's crazy. No where does it mention in the aforementioned books to do such things, but rather, add to what you ALREADY have with native plants, and I'm in that category. There's no way I'm ripping out my beloved paniculata hydrangeas, but I do have enough space in the front of the house to plant a tree (check. I planted a black cherry) and a couple of native shrubs. I've read some gardeners have gone as far as removing CULTIVARS just because it's a cultivar! Sorry, I'm not removing mine. I dare you to visit my yard in July/August and tell me my hydrangeas aren't beneficial. The pollinators say otherwise!🤗

I would hardly consider my projects as "renovation" since I'm not replacing anything. Rather, I am focusing and planting in empty spaces.

The first several years were spent beautifying the backyard because that's where I spend all my time. Because I was ALWAYS mindful of pollinators from the beginning (18 years ago), I planted some natives that are still thriving today ( trees: river birch, red maple; herbaceous plants: asters, goldenrod, purple coneflowers, rubeckias). My backyard is all good.👍🏻

Unfortunately the front of the home went largely ignored, though there is a shade garden on one side and "peony row" on the other. Of late, I'm heavily focused on beautifying the front of the home, and I have already started the process last Fall with extending "peony row" with the addition of a native garden catered to songbirds.

In that way, I am renovating. I am taking advantage of empty spaces, and getting rid of some lawn.

I have read (and own) both of Tallamy's books. "The Living Landscape " is readily accessible and has post-it "bookmarks" throughout the entire book. It's such a gorgeous book, and full of fantastic ideas. I'm a big fan of professor Tallamy - he is a hero. I'm looking forward to his next one about oaks (which I ALSO planted a red oak last fall )

This post was much longer than I anticipated. Hopefully I answered your question. Good luck to you!🙂

@SkipNJ - I am so excited for you! That all looks great! Sure, everything is in its early, baby stages now, but many things will grow faster than you may realize and soon you will have a gorgeous landscape. Thank you for showing updates!

I've worked as a volunteer at public gardens and I've worked for pay doing landscape maintenance for large estates. I could make a garden look better than before I started but I never created a backyard landscape for me or anyone else. So, during the shutdown I did my backyard over the course of 3 months starting the end of July last year. When I bought the house a couple of years ago, the back yard was quite blah. It looked like this:






Now it looks like this. I did all the work alone, except for delivering 9 1/2 cubic feet of that gravel. I did shovel it all into a wheel barrow and hauled it to the back to dump and spread it all out. I first put weed barrier down where all the gravel went. All the rocks and boulders I hauled by hand from a large field behind my back fence.










There's not many plants in the planter boxes as it was past the season. The boxes against the house are for veggies. The other planter boxes are for bulbs and spring flowers.

Nicely done! I can't say that much progress has been made here this last year but I do keep chipping away at the pile. Kudos!

How did you move the larger rocks?

jbcphotos said:I've worked as a volunteer at public gardens and I've worked for pay doing landscape maintenance for large estates. I could make a garden look better than before I started but I never created a backyard landscape for me or anyone else. So, during the shutdown I did my backyard over the course of 3 months starting the end of July last year. When I bought the house a couple of years ago, the back yard was quite blah. It looked like this:






Now it looks like this. I did all the work alone, except for delivering 9 1/2 cubic feet of that gravel. I did shovel it all into a wheel barrow and hauled it to the back to dump and spread it all out. I first put weed barrier down where all the gravel went. All the rocks and boulders I hauled by hand from a large field behind my back fence.










There's not many plants in the planter boxes as it was past the season. The boxes against the house are for veggies. The other planter boxes are for bulbs and spring flowers.

John ~ It is evident that you have put a lot of work into this makeover. I have a question about that extremely leaning tree...will that eventually go? That seems to draw my attention to it.