I often just show images of the backyard gardens because, well, they are in the back where I can be a cloistered introvert. And I'm also enamored with the lawn to meadow business going on. But the front beds deserve an update because they are another big suburban paradigm shift. You can tell just how big by noticing how many neighbors were watering this morning when I was checking on things. (All three of my nearest neighbors were watering and one goes twice a day.)
Plants are filling in. Last year I added about 50 Carex brevior plugs to beef things up and to provide more spring green when neighborhood lawns are also greening up. Black-eyed susans are a bit thuggy so I have to thin their seedlings, and so far the grasses are simply filling in vs. taking over. But that may change. Little bluestem and especially sideoats grama are on the move, but also doing well fighting weeds (very well this spring!).
In the images below you'll see several forbs, including: purple prairie clover, nodding onion, stiff goldenrod, aromatic aster, purple coneflower, pale purple coneflower, meadow blazingstar. and hidden in there somewhere a lead plant, dwarf baptisia, butterflyweed, and purple poppy mallow. I added blue hyssop this spring to a very bare, large-ish area where it can reseed itself in a nice grouping.
Other plants not making an appearance below are rattlesnake master and smooth aster. There is a 6' wide lawn pathway that divides the two beds, which are in total about 450 square feet. Nothing is taller than 2' within several feet of the sidewalk or driveway, and there is always something in bloom starting about mid May into late October.
Plants are filling in. Last year I added about 50 Carex brevior plugs to beef things up and to provide more spring green when neighborhood lawns are also greening up. Black-eyed susans are a bit thuggy so I have to thin their seedlings, and so far the grasses are simply filling in vs. taking over. But that may change. Little bluestem and especially sideoats grama are on the move, but also doing well fighting weeds (very well this spring!).
In the images below you'll see several forbs, including: purple prairie clover, nodding onion, stiff goldenrod, aromatic aster, purple coneflower, pale purple coneflower, meadow blazingstar. and hidden in there somewhere a lead plant, dwarf baptisia, butterflyweed, and purple poppy mallow. I added blue hyssop this spring to a very bare, large-ish area where it can reseed itself in a nice grouping.
Other plants not making an appearance below are rattlesnake master and smooth aster. There is a 6' wide lawn pathway that divides the two beds, which are in total about 450 square feet. Nothing is taller than 2' within several feet of the sidewalk or driveway, and there is always something in bloom starting about mid May into late October.
RSS Feed
