Of the dozens of native plants I purchased from Seattle Native Plants, only one small one passed on–an evergreen huckleberry. All the others are growing well.
Here is one of the surviving evergreen huckleberries. I really like the reddish new growth and compact nature of this shrub.
The plant I thought would be the most challenging, the maidenhair fern, has surprised me by staying green and healthy despite likely receiving more sun than it would prefer. The leaves are fantastic and the patterns they make with sun and shadow.
Another plant that is doing really well is the osoberry shrub. It has grown well and added some strong new starts from the base.
Another plant that is doing well is the largeleaf avens. It has set a lot more seeds, which are beautiful under the macro lens.
I took some time with the macro lens to capture some pollinators around the garden today. I am amazed at the variety of bugs that are coming to the garden already! I can’t wait until I get the native garden filled in more and attract even more of them. They are like little jewels darting around the late summer flowers.
The above gallery includes hoverflies, a furrow bee, and a flying sweat bee.