My rosemary, thyme, and Sage grow all year in containers, in partial shade, with hardly any attention. Plus, you can use them for cooking. More on reddit.com

You could put a sword fern there. They wouldn't mind the shade, and can get a bit big. I have a potted fern in a light well for a basement window. It's doing pretty good down there. More on reddit.com

Go check out Lauren’s Gardens, just off RT 32 More on reddit.com

cracks knuckles See INPS for more. Check their list of common invasives that suck. Also visit the PFW Extension Office showcase garden to get ideas. A nice thing about local species is they don't mind the clay or our weird weather, don't need fertilizer nor watering once established (they do appreciate leaf mulch). Water regularly the first year and thats it. Fertilizer feeds the weeds. Natives (like coneflowers and asters) also tend to bloom longer and later into the fall. Thats critical for pollinators to feed before winter. Many are easily found in stores, others you can get from special plant sales or even online. The tricky part is getting wildtype and local genotype versions. I'm not a purist but I like to have like a 10/1 ratio natives to exotics. Exotics that do well include apples, pears, cherries, lilacs, magnolias, peonies, roses, irises, tulips, daffodils, hellebore, hyacinths, asiatic lilies, the usual stuff you see everywhere. Some native species that do well in part sun, mesic-dry soil: Small trees: eastern redbud, flowering dogwood, pagoda dogwood, fragrant sumac, serviceberry, spicebush, American plum Big shrubs: witch hazel, elderberry, American hazelnut, arrowwood viburnum Small shrubs: coralberry, ninebark, american black currant, american blackberry, oakleaf hydrangea, smooth-leaf hydrangea, native azaleas, false bush honeysuckle Diervilla lonicera (great for dry shade) Vines: passionflower (Passiflora incarnata is the hardy one), Illinois rose, muscadine grape, American ground nut, Virginia clematis, trumpet vine (aggressive! pipevine or crossvine are less so) Flowering forbs: violets, Ohio & Virginia spiderworts, coral bells, columbine, Solomon's seal, Jacob's ladder, wild geranium, Amosnia, false indigo, swamp milkweed, golden ragwort, creeping phlox, wood phlox, blue wood aster, New England aster (most asters), native primrose, mountain mint, fire pinks, cardinal flower, blue flag iris (likes moist soil), tickseeds, nodding onion, Virginia wild strawberry, Canadian anemone, hoary vervain prairie plants that want more sun: eastern prickly pear, blanket flower, black-eyed susans, coneflowers, common milkweed, coreopsis, bee balm, rattlesnake master, beardtongues, bottle gentian, queen of the prairie, leadplant, ironweed, prairie smoke, joe pye weed, sneezeweed/wingstem/sunchokes (sunflowers are a native & have lots of perennial relatives) Texture/greenery: early meadow rue, wild ginger, wood sedge, bur sedge, ostritch fern, lady fern, sensitive fern (ferns are great for full shade), inland oats grass that wants a bit more sun: little bluestem, prairie dropseed, switchgrass, bottlebrush grass, purple love grass, sweetflag (moist soil) Woodland Spring ephemerals (delicate, slow growing, die back by summer, shove between other plants): Virginia bluebells, jack-in-the-pulpits, bloodroot, greater bellwort I hope you will try some of these, it helps our local ecosystem:) More on reddit.com