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I miss the night
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this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2026
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Nature and Gardening
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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.
See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.
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This native plant finder can help you find native plants that will attract the insects and other life you're hoping to entice. The associations listed are the research results of Doug Tallamy and other researchers. And as Tallamy says, plant for specialist insects and you'll attract generalists as well.
Off the top of my head, plants like canadian ginger, serviceberries, purple flowering raspberries (R. odoratus), and members of the worts can do a lot of restoration work in moderate to deep shade. Having a patch of grass that doesn't get mowed is a huge boon to many insects, as is leaving any mowed grass clippings around other plants as mulch. Lightning bugs in particular require grass debris or patches where it got so long it fell over to complete their life cycle.
Thanks for the plant finder. There were clearly a few things missing from the list, but it was correct in the results that showed as I was familiar with most. Over half are growing up there right now, though not so well. It's just a rough patch of property.
I went with a lawn grass that is drought and shade resistant. I pick up our 150lb mulch mower and carry it up the hill manually. It's awful and brutal, but the back can endure it so far. The first patch got mowed last Saturday at it's 30 day mark, and looks fan-fuggin-tastic. Have to see how it holds when the dry season hits. We got skimped on our rain last week, and everything started drying out. I had to lug 45 gallons of water up the hill manually to water the new patch with a watering can.