I’ve been running a series on regenerative landscaping on another blog and asked folks to send me their garden stories. This one was one of my favorites:

Two weeks ago, there was a knock on my door. As I could not see anyone in the window, I knew who it was. My six year old neighbor, still too short to be seen in the door window. He was holding a bucket with three large Shasta Daisy plants. From his garden to mine. Three years ago, he brought me three small salvias from his garden, which are now a sprawling section of salvia in my yard. I named that section after him.

Huge Transylvania Salvia, with salvia garden behind

Another friend brought me a little plant and said, “hummingbirds love this, but you’re going to hate me if you plant it.” She was right on both counts. Transylvania Salvia, a non-native plant, it spreads like the weed it is. Luckily, all it takes is decapitating the seedlings and they go away. Otherwise, I might just hate her for that invasive nightmare.  But the hummingbirds sure do love it.

Showy Jupiter’s Beard, always a butterfly haven

A small Jupiter’s Beard sprout, given by a friend, that we thought might not even survive, is now a showstopper in its section of the garden (photo above). A lot of my garden is this way. Gifts from friends, gifts from neighbors who then become friends.

That’s the best part about this endeavor for me, sharing plants. I’ve given away countless irises and this fall it will probably be time to thin out some of my beds and give those plants away.

Our county has a great program called Community Fruit Rescue that helps people harvest their fruit trees and then donates the fruit:

Our Mission: From tree care to fruit share, Community Fruit Rescue empowers communities throughout the county to reduce food waste, increase equitable access to locally grown fruit, minimize wildlife conflicts, and foster healthy and productive fruit trees.

I like the idea of building community one plant at a time, one garden at a time, one fruit tree at a time.

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This week’s garden is from JAM. Wait until you see her butterfly collage!

I have been gardening for many years, but I mostly thought of gardening as a way of decorating the outdoor space and ignored ecological considerations (except avoiding insecticides) until I read Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy** about three years ago.

We’ve all heard that Monarch butterflies need milkweed, but in fact most butterflies and moths, as well as many bee species, beetles, etc, rely on specific native plants for their existence. Tallamy points out that a chickadee needs 9,000 caterpillars to feed a nest full of chicks, and I didn’t think they would find that many in my yard.  (Maybe on the tomatoes.)

So this is my attempt to help them out and I hope someday it will also look nice enough to inspire others to give it a try (I post on Bluesky). I dug the island bed last year and the bed next to the house the year before. The plants I grew from seeds I bought and collected–some were winter-sown in milk jugs and pop bottles and the rest sown in place or reseeded themselves.

The redbud tree seeded itself and I decided to keep it. I am still working to remake older beds with more native plants. The border by the fence had native hibiscus already, so I’ve been adding native plants around them, and a passionflower vine planted itself there.

It’s an aggressive runner, but it’s beautiful and smells heavenly, so I have just accepted I will be pulling the sprouts for as long as I can bend over, and then it will probably take over the whole garden. The last two pictures are the fence border taken now and last July.

My plans for insect-maxxing were a success. The nicest part about gardening with native plants.These were some of the butterflies last summer. (The collage only fits fourteen.)

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Thanks JAM! These are just beautiful.

**Here are some more links for Doug Tallamy:  Garden Tour Video here , Home Grown National Parks,  and from the Smithsonian. Thanks to JAM for bringing him to my attention.

Would love to hear about your regenerative, native landscaping adventures.