Restoring

The light didn't fully turn on for me about the importance of native plantings until about two years ago after which I've been going gangbusters to repent for decades of exotic sins.

As I daily sit with and take in the charm and beauty of the English cottage feeling of the new garden I am rewarded by the insect, bird, and now butterfly visitors, the succession of flowering, the difference in growth habit, and the friendliness and intimacy I feel with all of it.

I've been birding at the Unitarian Fellowship down the road where the more mature and excellent native plantings are significantly richer in bird life. My most meaningful reason for existing these days seems to be to build on that initiative and extend the range of natives in this little patch of the valley, leaving things a little better for creatures than I found them.

I am enjoying my repentance and wondering if that is how it is supposed to work.