Native Front Yard

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

I'll be out of state for three weeks. Given the amount of rain we've had lately, there will probably be a lot of growth by the time I get back.

I did vigorously weed eat this week, and I put down large amounts of clethodim to kill the resurgent turf grass. I hope it was enough to overcome the wet conditions.

My roommates will be holding the fort while I'm gone, but they don't garden, so it may not look great.

When I get back, I plan on some food plants, some gravel and dirt work, path building, and PLANTERS!

Found the bergamot! It was right next to the ironweed.

Green plant, tall stems, 4 leaves per tier at right angles to each other.

I need to go back and tag everything I've identified so far.

#bergamot #WildBergamot

Tiny yellow flowers among clover-like leaves.

I'm happy to get clumps of woodsorrels here and there.

#sorrel #WoodSorrel

In s mulched bed next to a log, a long stem with lots of healthy looking leaves on it.

The American beautyberry plants survived the winter! They were so far behind a lot of other plants, I thought they might not have made it but all six are intact.

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Little red berries that resemble tiny strawberries are nestled among serrated leaves.

The mock strawberries are going nuts over by the front porch. They are not true wild strawberries as they have no flavor, and they are not native. I wonder if true wild strawberries, which are native, would choke them out if given the chance. Or would they interbreed? I would love to have native strawberries.

#strawberry #WildStrawberry #MockStrawberry

Floodwaters moved my log borders, which my plant markers were attached to. I don't remember what I planted where, so reidentifying as they grow. And most of them are indeed growing.

The blanket flower is even blooming a little.

A many-petaled flower with a red center, orangey yellow around the edges.

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I changed my mind about planting the pawpaw trees in the back yard. Decided to take them to Papaw Dew's instead.

#PawPaw

Delicate little white flowers with yellow anthers.

I was so jealous because my dad has a lovely bunch of crow poison coming up by his back stoop. But just now while weed eating, I found some in my yard!

People used to believe crows would eat this instead of your crop corn and be poisoned. No evidence for that though.

It is also called false garlic. It doesn't smell like garlic, but garlic does have similar blooms.

#CrowPoison #FalseGarlic

The false spring continues and may turn out to be a real spring after all. Been holding off on gardening because I expect one last freeze. The American beautyberrys have not budded out so I think they agree. Nonetheless, the non-native weeds and some of the prolific native ground covers have taken all the rain and turned it into explosive growth.

Sigh. I have to weed eat today.

I yearn for that future date when my lawn has become a garden. So much work still to get there.

#spring #AmericanBeautyBerry #TurfGrass

On second thought, the grass that's springing up again in the native section is most noticeably not sprouting in the border areas that are dedicated exclusively to St. Augustine, so maybe that's not what it is. It grew quite confidently in the cold until last week's very hard freeze. Now it is severely wilted. Whereas the St. Augustine is simply brown.

When it next comes back strong, I'll have to make a proper ID.

#TurfGrass #StAugustine