Old timber overtaken by fern and sedum

It's a privilege to watch nature at her reclaimation. There will be lichens, mosses, ferns, slime moulds, moulds, and mushrooms and toadstools and sometimes new growth from inside the dying stump. I've been watching a young golden birch which is rising from the decaying stump/log of it's predecessor. I found helleborine orchids nearby and lots of ferns all living on the nutrient rich humus of the old log. wonderful use of nature in your garden, Kate.

Thank you Lori. I do love ferns and moss. Some people don’t like moss or lichen, they clean it off or away. I love it! You see some beautiful colourful lichens. It’s amazing to watch birds, especially the little wren or dunnock actually finding microscopic insects in moss which we can’t see.
I’ve looked at the plants you had mentioned, some really eye catching plants/shrubs. It’s amazing that the Asclepius is a wild flower! It looks so exotic. Saying that, why not!
I mean what you have growing, even herbs along the stream, wonderful.

The main reason for the Asclepias is to foster the Monarch Butterfly larvae. It's milky sap helps make the larvae and butterflies unpalatable to predators. Every year since coming to this garden I've discouraged the grasses (exhausting work keeping them cut) for Eupatoriums, Asclepias, ciliolate asters, echium vulgare, chicory, Queen Anne's Lace, creeping Jenny, and Creeping Charlie...ferns ajugas, black-eyed Susans, red and white sweet clover, wild perennial sweet peas, larkspur, purslane, wild daisies (leucanthemum), leeks, burdock...all in areas not already commandeered by poplar seedlings and goldenrod. I've begun to use a weed whipper to weed out the goldenrod and tall grasses that allow the poplar seedlings to establish themselves. I call it meadowing. Grudgingly, I've found that a certain little bird called a blue finch loves the seedheads of the tall grasses.. so I'm selectively leaving areas to the grass just for the birds. Good Grief..I do get carried away on this subject. It's a source of endless wonder.