Native Front Yard

The project of converting my front yard from turf grass with Asian shrubs to all native plants.

American beautyberry: a leafy stem with clusters of fuchsia berries.

Look who's fruiting.

Today I reapplied mulch to their bed. A stinging insect moving too fast for me to identify objected and got me 2-4 times. The sting on my arm is a definitely, my face a probably, but the ones on my hand and ankle are only maybes.

Sign on a tree trunk reads:

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Hi friends and neighbors. There's a pause on the garden currently as the next steps are building steps and I'm recovering from a surgery that stops me doing that.

Before, I did mow back that gorgeous Virginia buttonweed that is the majority of the ground cover, which was getting a little too thick. That makes two (2) mows this season. I don't want to ever go back to grass again.

The gigantic pumpkin plant was suffering in the heat, so I removed it.

The ironweed looks fantastic, with its deep purple blooms.

The corn will be ripe soon. I had meant to stagger plantings, but I'll only be doing second wave this week. Alas.

Liatris is crispy and done, but surprise, surprise, the oxeye is blooming! I did not expect this.

Something had been eating the pokeweed, but only some plants. And for some, it's eating lower leaves aga leaving higher ones intact.

The big planter is finally finished.

A boxy structure of aging boards surrounded by lush plants; a tall tree stump and a house are in the background.

A boxy structure of weathered old boards enclosing log fragments, next to a stump with a travel coffee mug, a plastic crow skeleton, and several small pumpkins on it.

American beautyberrys are blooming now.

Stems with big jagged leaves sprouting tiny pink blooms; American beautyberry.

Stems with big jagged leaves sprouting tiny pink blooms; American beautyberry.

And so is the pokeweed.

Plant with big wavy leaves and a tiny cascade of wee white blooms; poke weed.

Sorry I haven't figured out how to do captions yet.

Once I got back to the car, I tog about leaving the dogs in the AC, grabbing my mask, and going back for the plants. But I was already exasperated from trying to handle the dogs, and my knee was flaring up. I was GROUCHY.

There will be another sale in the fall.

Feathery vines entangled with vines of jagged edged leaves; cypress vine and fox grape.

Love/hate cypress vines. They are gorgeous and the blooms are cute, but if I hadn't caught them in time, they'd have strangled the corn and the beautyberrys.

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Cornstalks scattered among ground cover of tiny leaves, bordered by logs.

Just

Have

Not

Been able to capture an image of the dramatic elegance of these corn stalks. Ever try to take a picture of a mountain. Yeah it's like that.

I love how the ponyfoot and spotted spurge make my garden look like a fairyland.

Sunlight falling dramatically on a blanket of tiny curled leaves and tiny flat leaves, with cornstalks poking up here and there.

Closeup on tiy curled leaves; ponyfoot.

An oblong metal party ice bucket with soil and plants inside; tall blazing star liatris with purple budding heads, and short oxeye plants without blooms.

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