I bought my house in 2021 and its been so fun to take care of the yard, garden and everything else. I have been doing sheet mulching (composting in place) in my garden for a few years now and it turned from terrible soil with potential into something wonderful. I am doing a large scale native install in my front yard this year after getting a grant from the state. I am so excited.

Nice! I’ve had no luck germinating my native seeds yet but it is only early Spring and the last frost here isn’t for another few weeks, but there is at least some campanula and primrose out the front that early bumblebees have been feeding on. We bought this house off an ex-landlord so the garden hasn’t been looked after at all - it’s taken me ages finding and digging up all the plastic plants, and there’s glitter in the soil from cheap garden decor that should never have been sold in the first place. Next big project is to build this greenhouse since my home office is so filled up with seed starters I can no longer work in there, then by the summer I should have some usable compost to replenish the plastic contaminated border.

See if your city has compost pickup. It’s usually located where brush and yard waste gets dropped off in the early spring. I load up on gallons of it each spring for my gardens.

Native seeds (assuming you are in North america) are harder to germinate. Most need to be cold stratified for at least 30 days and then they have a low rate. The best method is either directly sow in the fall (which is what I do in my wildflower section) or winter sow in a container. I usually buy mine as starters except for my wildflower section which I do from seeds.

Gardening is a long term project so it’s going to take time. Spring is the best with the anticipation and potential in the air