Beautiful! I’m hoping I can get some established as well.

I’m on my 4th year with my pollinator garden (Colorado), and the goal from here is filling in every square inch of uncovered earth with ground cover and spreading plants. I love Western Sunflower for that purpose, and I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get Violets established (I know, right? They’re considered a weed in most places) so I’m going to give that another go.

Trying out Blue Flax, Wild Strawberry, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Wild Garlic, Wild Geranium, and Wild Phlox this year as well. Learned about Figwort’s amazing pollinator benefits last year, so going to plant out more of that in the side yard!

Right, but it’s the same part of the year that you’re able to hike, bike, and garden.

That might depend on where you call home. I used to live in VT where you couldn’t step outside without something (blackflies, mosquitos, midges, deerflies, horseflies) trying to take a bite out of you. But now I live in CO, and generally speaking most of the American West is an absolute joy to be outside in. You can just sit down on the ground in a forest and be at peace.

I think it’s important to spend time in wild spaces (backpacking is great for this), but since home is where we spend most of our time, bringing nature into the backyard is huge for daily exposure. I work from home, so whenever I feel like I’ve been staring at screens for too long, I head out to the pollinator garden for a reset.