This native plant finder can help you find native plants that will attract the insects and other life you’re hoping to entice. The associations listed are the research results of Doug Tallamy and other researchers. And as Tallamy says, plant for specialist insects and you’ll attract generalists as well.

Off the top of my head, plants like canadian ginger, serviceberries, purple flowering raspberries (R. odoratus), and members of the worts can do a lot of restoration work in moderate to deep shade. Having a patch of grass that doesn’t get mowed is a huge boon to many insects, as is leaving any mowed grass clippings around other plants as mulch. Lightning bugs in particular require grass debris or patches where it got so long it fell over to complete their life cycle.

My favorite wasps are the wood-boring parasitoid varieties. Ovipositors twice as long as the rest of their bodies, and they drill holes in trees and logs to get to the grubs in the wood to lay an egg. They’re incredibly chill to be around and tons of fun to watch while they work

Our demo/reno that was supposed to start a month ago is due to start on Monday of next week… 😑

Turns out code enforcement gave us incorrect and incomplete information, then waited til the last day before his two week vacation to inform us that we needed to get a variance, since our house was built nearly twenty years before the town adopted zoning codes (no “grandfathering” here). Then he gave our contractor the wrong appeal form, which caused a ruckus at the appeal meeting. After the appeal was successful, he told our guy that literally anyone in town could appeal our variance in court (that’s not how it works). So our guy is spooked and drew up indemnity paperwork in case an impossible thing happens and now we’re five weeks behind schedule.

Bright side, almost everyone on our dead end street wrote very kind letters of support for us and our appeal was successful and our contractor has all of our permits in hand. I’ve also been asked by two different board members of our local land trust to participate in an educational program they’re launching centered on native plants, biodiversity, and conservation efforts anyone can do with just a few plants. And someone at my Sunday market called me “the real deal” while telling his friend to also buy some plants from me (he came back later to give me some of his own plants for the sake of genetic diversity.

Oh, and we raised over a thousand dollars for our town’s library with this past weekend’s plant sale. “We”, I should mention, is myself and all the wonderful people who donated plants and volunteered their time to help folks pick out plants for their gardens and give planting advice.

Welcome to parenthood! Sleep deprivation really does suck, but it will pass. It’ll come back a few times, but it gets better. Stay focused on the cuteness and the joy of showing them things and every day will be better than the temporary struggles 💕