What I learned in my first year: Balance

Around this time last year I had just bought my first house and wanted to bring some life back into the gardens which had been understandably neglected by the older previous owners. I'm not a perfect native gardener and some might disagree with my views (and both of those things are okay!). But I offer some lessons learned and "before and afters" in case they help others who are looking to achieve a balance of ecological value and personal fulfillment while taking small steps, like me:

1. Defining meaningful parameters: I am a gardener who appreciates parameters to confine my planting choices because decision fatigue is real. At first I was determined to only grow species that were native to my county. I found that that left me with limited my choices as far as what seeds I could buy and successfully grow and added unnecessary stress to this process. I loosened my parameters to prioritize species native to my region while including or keeping some others if they served a purpose I could clearly articulate. I was much happier and better positioned to sustain and scale a transformation of my yard after that point.
2. Direct sowing worked out: I only tried winter sowing in containers after I was panicked that my direct-sown seeds were going to wash away. I was shocked by how many direct-sown seeds took off. I probably won't do it again, though, because it was difficult to tell what was coming up (I didn't listen to the warnings about this!) and winter sowing + transplanting gave me a lot more control in terms of placement.
3. Winter sowing in containers works better for me: Using an adapted milk jug method was extremely successful for me. Without getting too deep here I will say that the process was also very spiritually and mentally nourishing for me over the difficult winter months. I'm very much looking forward to doing it again.
   • This year I will use (again): Opaque oat milk jugs with holes cut in the top; salad containers; yogurt containers with the top of the lid cut out and covered with plastic wrap; translucent kefir bottles; and others.
   • Last year I tried: 1) clay soil from the yard; 2) Happy Frog only; 3) seed starting mix only; and 4) 50/50 Happy Frog and seed starting mix. The last one was the most successful method by far, so that's what I'll use this year.
   • This year I'll wait a little longer to transplant and plan placements/siting/spacing more thoughtfully.
4. Giving myself something to look forward to: In one year I revitalized the existing beds AND established 2 new huge beds along my back and side fences, more than I originally set out to do. Setting new goals as I made progress was immensely motivating for me. Canva is my program of choice for planning. I'm growing 40 species from seed this year (!!!), up from about 15 or so last year. The natural progression of plant growth, the changing of the seasons, and setting new goals is a winning combination that keeps me deeply invested in native plants as a hobby.