I started converting my garden in 2015. I now have around 100 native species (mainly perennials, some grasses and ferns), mainly sourced from the Fletcher Wildllife Garden and Beaux Arbres, and a number of near natives. I have quite a big shade section, a middling number of partial shade plants, and a hard-fought-for sunny section, which will eventually have to be converted as the red oak gets bigger.
The garden is a constant source of entertainment, from when the bloodroot, wild ginger, jack in the pulpit, and dutchmans breeches first break through in spring to the last visits of the hummingbirds to the cardinal flowers and ironweed in early fall.
This season was the first time I’ve had snowberry clearwing moths, but I always get a flurry of different butterflies visiting to lay eggs, lots of different bees, nesting birds, damselflies, and dragonflies. I’ve had visits from merlins, coopers hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, and had a few years of leopard frogs living in the flower borders.