Regina

I began gardening in the PNW about 20 years ago. My MIL was a rose fanatic so I wanted that too. I have about 50 or so now. I also focused on just beauty without thinking about birds, bees, and wildlife. And yeah, it’s like park out there. But then I retired and started thinking about birds and how I could support more wildlife. I haven’t been focusing on natives AT ALL. So what I want to change is just that. I will identify the few natives that I have (a snowberry for sure) then try to figure out where I can put some others. I do have a lot of birds-chickadees, towees, wrens, woodpeckers including pileated, downy, and flicker. Robins, warblers, sparrows, junkos, and hummingbirds. I have recently started mulching with natural woody chips and I can already see birds preferring to hop around these beds and not so much just the feeder. Where you see the rock wall is where I lost a huge hemlock tree. It was a sad day when that came down as it displaced so many birds. I replaced it with a parrotia (not native) and the kousa dogwood. The native dogwood in the back is my neighbors and provides for some of what mine lacks. I would love to see more waxwings.