The project of converting my front yard from turf grass with Asian shrubs to all native plants.
Sunflowers come in much more variety than the big-headed snacky sort so popular. Right now Highway 49E north of town has these beauties along the roadway and railway.
Helianthus grosserratus, sawtooth sunflower, although the leaves are not all that serrated. Twelve feet tall and full of bees.
There's even this short version. Hairy sunflower, Helianthus hirsutus.
I'll want at least some of the short ones for my yard, and maybe some tall ones too.
I need to do another test of federation in the fediverse, so here's a picture of a day flower.
A couple of weeks ago I got excited because a whole bunch of these were cropping up between my carport and the next door neighbor's carport. So I looked it up.
Day flowers are invasive. They're from Asia.
I need to make a test post to test federation. So here's another picture of some calico asters in North Carolina. All summer long some bushy bright green plants had been growing in my yard, and I couldn't get an identification on them.
When they flowered in October, that's how I found out what they were.
Two other plants I deeply miss from North Carolina, which are also native here but I haven't seen any yet, are frogfruit and calico aster.
My worms arrived today, before I figured out how to house them for composting. Not to worry. I've got cat litter buckets.
I don't think hemp vine is related to ordinary hemp.
These pictures are from the house I had in North Carolina. When I came out to Mississippi, my mom asked me to help identify something and it turned out to be more of this. So she saved me some seed.
Found a new welcome addition today. Common blue violet.
Spotted spurge, pictured above, is highly welcome inside the log border, as is Virginia buttonweed, pictured below.
Later in the day, Mossy Oak Nativ Nurseries returned my call and reassured me the beautyberries can be okay. Dudley prescribed daily watering for the first week, every other day for a week or two, every third day for a week or two, then every fourth day. This is to coax the roots to reach on out without getting dehydrated first. After that they shouldn't need irrigation except in drought conditions.
And they should have plenty of time to acclimate before first frost.
These arrived today. After some confusion caused by the wrong instructions being included (tree instructions) I got the right info.
I'm really planting a little too early but there is no cool place in the house to store these until later in the fall. Fingers crossed they actually work here.
