Had to work in some rain, but got about a 42' x 4' area planted with native pollinators for the bees and butterflies. I really want one of these stupid plaques identifying it as a waystation.
The process for selection was actually easy and cool. A state University provided a plant and planting guide for our area, and had details about how to space and when to plant, etc.
I tried to grow as much as I could from seed. Some came up in the greenhouse, but had to order some live too. All told, with mulch and some cute solitary bee and butterfly houses I probably have a couple hundred bucks in it. Pretty happy with everything.
If there were seeds I couldn't find somewhere locally, I went with rareseeds.com. Definitely not cheap compared to some places. For some of the phlox I did from there it was like $3 for a pack of seeds. Can quickly become cost prohibitive.
It was sod before. Pain in the ass to tear out and clean up. If lumber wasn't so high, I may have done a raised bed to help with rabbit pressure and to avoid it, but what can ya do.
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Yeah, they've been hit or miss for me. Sometimes I've just scattered seeds and had a lot come up. Redid a lot of sod with an alternative lawn mix and basically nothing. If you've got a local seed place, I've found them to be a good resource.
May be worth it to try to bring something up potted and try to transplant. Might help with some of the competition.