Most of the flowers are divisions of plants, some volunteers and others I got as plugs in summer 2022. I decided to start small and expand over time. The coneflower was four plants last spring which I divided into 12, then into about 30 this spring. Rose milkweed and late boneset are just as prolific.

I have spread some seeds around and others have blown in. The groundcover in the second photo is all volunteer.

The mulch was leftover from a chipdrop. I used it to make the beds look "intentional" when everything was sparse and muddy back in February :) The plan is for everything to grow so dense that I won't need to mulch it again.

The local cottontail raised her litter in my yard and the family didn't care for them, other than using them as a hangout spot. They did eat all the Virginia spiderwort and there's a bunch of violet stems around with no leaves, but mostly they stick to the plantains (Plantago sp.) in the lawn.

I had no idea deer lived in the city until I started doing this. Sometimes I'll catch one sleeping in my backyard which is a surreal sight. They munched the sunchokes, hazelnut, and chokeberry to the ground, but all are bouncing back.