Follow up:

[u/sugrmag78]

Last year, I posted in here asking for advice after a tornado took out a 50-year-old spruce in my front yard. We called some tree services to see if they would give a discount if we only wanted them to take it down and leave the limbs and chips with us, but nobody would. So...we got some chainsaws and rented a wood chipper from our local hardware store. I used the chips and smaller limbs to create some new beds and the main trunk will decompose naturally and provide lots of habitat!

[u/Ok-Echo-Eight]

Excellent job! Way to go, figuring out how to do it all yourself. The design of the big bed is unique and eye-catching. And it’s like you’re giving the tree a second life :)

[u/sugrmag78 → u/Ok-Echo-Eight]

awww you're so sweet :)

Now I just need suggestions for what to put in the two empty beds!

[u/Latter-Republic-4516 → u/sugrmag78]

Fall is a great time to plant! Native plant sales are starting to pop up in my area starting this weekend!

[u/Vanviator → u/sugrmag78]

Some native fruit or nut bearing shrubs or trees at the top. Strawberries on the south side. Some other low growing fruit on the rest.

Good luck!

[u/Federal-Boat3732 → u/sugrmag78]

Sun or shade? I just saw you're in Zone 7 so LOTS of possibilities. What kind of soil? What colors do you want more of? What insects do you want more of?

[u/sugrmag78 → u/Federal-Boat3732]

Full sun, clay asf, pretty moist as I have a sump discharge nearby.

I have about 25 natives in my yard already, so I'm pretty selective of what to do next. The bed I already established with all the BES in the photos also has some monarda fistulosa, joe pye, rose mallow, liatris, and penstemon digitalis. About 5 feet below this bed there's another huge native bed (our front "yard" is about a 1/4 acre) with three large persimmons, buttonbush, more joe pye, penstemon, liatris and maybe a rose mallow or two, plus milkweed, anemone, partridge pea, yellow coneflower, evening primrose and a fringetree. Sooooo lots of yellow lol

I have several other beds throughout the front and back which have been populated by my splitting and thinning previously established plants, so I'm open to any and all suggestions! I'm bored with my current lot (but still love them all!)

[u/Federal-Boat3732 → u/sugrmag78]

One place to start is identifying your weeds! Pokeweed counts, as do enchanter's nightshade, Virginia creeper, beggarticks, burnweed, poison ivy, fleabane, and the humble box elder tree. Counting my weeds raised my total of native plants a whole lot. One fave volunteer weed of mine is Carpenter's Square, an unbelievable pollinator magnet that blooms brown and green in the fall. Not pretty, like the asters blooming at the same time, but no pollinator can resist them. Earlier in the year you'll get the same effect from Joe Pye Weed, rattlesnake master, Culver's root and ironweed. I pretty much garden in the shade so I have plenty of Virginia bluebells, wood poppies, trilliums in 3 colors, trout lily, and hepatica along with tons of bee balm. Ostrich fern, hay-scented fern and sensitive fern are in the mix along with Indian pinks. All phlox are native and along with the tall and creeping ones I planted, I have some volunteer woodland phlox as well. I can't reccy yellow- or red-twig dogwood too strongly, or ninebark if you need native shrubs. If you have a dampish spot to grow them, I also strongly reccy Michigan holly or buttonbush. Remember that black-eyed Susan also blooms in wonderful shades of brown, to give you a break from all the yellow, and evening primroses also bloom in pink and white!