I want to grow mountain mint (I was looking at Pycnanthemum virginianum, specifically). Does it spread a lot in your yard? I’ve heard it is a little aggressive, so I haven’t planted any yet, but I really want to get a mint family for the pollinators.
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I haven’t had it spread aggressively in my garden, but I suspect its vigor would be different from place to place. You might be able to find someone knowledgeable at a local nursery to ask, but otherwise, you could just plant one and watch it like a hawk for a few years. Maybe cut off the seedheads once it finishes blooming, too.
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I have three species of Pycnanthemum in my yard and they have been well behaved (compared to the Mentha-type mint in my mom’s yard that is smothering everything else). I have to admit though that I collect most of its seeds for seed swaps, so maybe that helps to keep them in check, too. They do attract a plethora of pollinators, not just bees and flies but also the most interesting wasps and beetles. Definitely makes for great observation opportunities, so I’d say go ahead and plant it!
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We dug up our turf grass, naturalized our yard, planted a bunch of natives, and left a bit for a vegetable garden. We’ve also had volunteers, both native and nonnative. We’re grateful for everyone who keeps their property for wildlife.
Quick question since this is an iNat forum, should these volunteers be tagged wild or captive? An IDer assiduously tags them captive if they pop up in our yard, which I sometimes mention and sometimes do not. Thank you!
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If you planted the plants, then they are captive. If you notice that they then seed themselves outside your garden, then they are wild. Making a note about the origin of a plant in your observation can help identifiers decide whether it’s wild or captive.
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By iNat definition, any plants spontaneously popping up in your yard that you didn’t sow/plant should be wild. I think volunteers based on seeds from stuff you planted are probably an edge case. I’ve planted a few things over the years with the goal to let these reseed themselves around my yard. I would probably consider the resulting offspring still cultivated since I planted their mother plants and intended for them to reseed.
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Thank you. I appreciate the reply, and I will do so! That makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for the reply, @annkatrinrose. I’ll try to be as accurate as possible about provenance. On a side note, I do love the surprises that show up. :)
I got lots of huge boletes last year
Also here’s a wild orchid, the only one growing in my land
It appeared in a spot where it might be crushed. I would like to relocate it in a safe spot but I’m afraid transplanting it might damage it.
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Yeah but your place looks a lot more wild than mine. I am in a completely normal suburb nowhere near any sort of woods.
Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum) volunteered in my planted rain garden patch of Physostegia. And Beardstongue Foxglove (Digitalis) by my stream. Since I seeded my backyard to be a meadow 12 years ago, I don’t know what volunteered and what persisted.
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I am unbelievably jealous of you.
Though I do have a patch of Blewits in the garden, so that’s at least something
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I’d put money on that bolete being one of the bitter boletes. Have you tasted them?
I love this and hope for this to happen to me at a greater extent. So far, only Epilobium ciliata and Chamaenerion angustifolium and tiny tiny sprouts of Pseudotsuga menziesii have shown up in my garden.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88865879
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93873574
I grabbed a couple cones with Douglas-fir cone mushrooms (Strobilurus trullisatus) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/100338175 on them and put them in the beds I planted natives in - I have stuffed every doug-fir cone I can find on my neighbors lawns in my bed so its basically a continuous mulch of cones, since I know that mushroom likes buried, well-decayed cones to grow on…
We just got a new tiny chunk of land we plan to build a house on. So far the only natives I see are Oregon grape and Sitka Mountain-ash, and the Oregon grape is massively taking over (I want to hold a Native Plant Salvage to get people to come dig up some of them and take them to their gardens, I do not need a monoculture of Oregon grape 
).
I’ve put in a few buckwheats and other native species of the sagebrush-steppe-mountain intergrade area - we will see what happens when the snow melts! I know the buckwheats are alive at least - saw them the other day on the hot, south-facing, rockwall 
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It’s February and my volunteer is blooming beautiful!
https://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2021/02/february-garden-metalasia-muricata%20.html
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A few years ago (pre-iNat for me) a Himalayan honeysuckle appeared in our back garden (no idea from where or how). We moved it from there to the front garden. This year I notice another one in a different part of the back garden. I haven’t made an observation of it though (yet!)
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Your garden sounds lush! I’ve never heard of Sweet Pepper Bush, but I found some information on how it disperses: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/sweet-pepperbush-2014.html#_04_3
Your roses are beautiful! We are expecting more snow tonight, so I’m enjoying your pictures and thinking of summer!
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That’s a great idea to “seed” those mushrooms into your garden! Have you noticed any of the Douglas fir germinating, or are the cones sterile?
Sounds great! You’re lucky to have a free “sedge nursery”!