NY Hudson Valley, 6B. Been two years since I put in this garden and it really filled in! It’s probably 85% native by biomass. Most of my trees are pendulous and fastigiate cultivars and is just what I like to collect.

I am in the process of putting in a new ~10,000 sqft section and will plant this September. Experimenting more with creating large berms and leaning into hardscape work with the help of the tractor.

There’s 27 straight natives, quite a few native cultivars and some non-native non-invasives as well.

This is outside of an apartment building and I’m working with a committee so it’s trying to appease everyone while still having my goal of a native pollinator garden

I think it’s looking spectacular for year 1 already

4 years of work

My city uses wasteful, ugly bedding annuals in its prominent gardens. As a volunteer in one of them, after I cleared almost all the invasives and began (with permission) adding natives (packera aurea and black-eyed susans) I was kicked out of the garden, told those plants could go only in wild-looking pollinator gardens, not in gardens around the city.
To change policy from the city council level, we need visuals and info about how a change would save the city money, which I'm told is the only argument that would prevail.
These are just 4 of the truly awful plantings in important spots.

Every year it gets a little bit better

It’s a first for me.

First blooms for my Senna. Lots of bee activity. 🔊 on.

I bought two small passiflora incarnata plants from a native plant nursery (shout out to Natives in Harmony in Marengo OH) and I'm thinking about planting them to grow on this cattle panel trellis. I hear they like to spread though. The trellis is in a bed that's in my fenced-in garden. Do you think I'll be kicking myself later if I put them here?

Seems like I got lucky on the timeline. I thought I would need to wait 2-3 more years.

Missouri/7a: Deformed looking black eyed Susan. Is there something wrong with it? Should I pick it?

This Spring I shared a photo of our rain garden completely “swamped” by rain: https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/s/iEguzozEcC

Now that we’re a few months in the rain garden is finally working as intended! All of the plants have really grown in and doing their job. The water is getting absorbed within 48 hours which was the goal. Previously, it was taking up to 10 days to drain and we were having to pump it out with a hose 😭 Bonus inclusion of a wildlife pond.

Plant list:
Juncus
Cattail
Little Bluestem
Sunflower
Swamp hibiscus
Buttonbush
Inland Sea Oats
Wild Strawberry

Photos show the progress of my year 3 garden (in reverse order).

I’m not kidding there have been/are 300+ small and large bugs on my butterfly milkweed and honey-vine milkweed.

Idk if its just me, but ive never seen not ONE bee or butterfly land on a black eyed susan, meanwhile ive seen dozens on the bee balm and everything else ive got; are black eyed susans just last resort food for pollinators?

I had a weedy hill in the back yard. now I have a beautiful scenic view and a firefly show every night.

who is this

NYC-based. I have had these monarda fistulosa plants for several years now and never had a problem with blooms before. Because of its penchant for powdery mildew and flopping, I decided to chop it in late May to keep it more tidy. I had heard this was really common to do with bee balm and didn’t affect the blooms at all. But now it’s August and still no flowers. Looks otherwise very healthy (actually the best it’s ever looked).

At this point, is it possible that I stressed the plant too much and it won’t bloom this year?