For work (I love my job) I was asked to write a piece about native plants, Miyawaki forests, and the homegrown conservation effort. So with a lot of help from this sub (thank you!) as well as professor Doug Tallamy himself, I put together this StoryMap, which I hope you'll enjoy:
https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/grassroots-conservation-minus-grass/storymap
Of course it didn't end there— I ended up getting obsessed myself and spent much of the spring doing "further research" 😂 by digging up about 50 square feet of lawn out front, and planting almost a dozen native species: golden Alexanders, orange butterfly milkweed, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susans, blazing star, sweet goldenrod, New York asters, mountain mint, creeping phlox, common blue violet, eastern columbine, wild geraniums (as well as some creeping thyme, in an effort to keep our hungry rabbits away from the coneflower sprouts).
And then I couldn't stop myself so I pulled out about about 60 square feet of English Ivy in our backyard (after which I had to take a week off because I kept waking up with wrist pain and numb hands, yikes) and planted a serviceberry tree and northern spicebush, along with some spare asters and goldenrod and blue violet. And then I pruned about 80% of our hulking English yew bushes, enough to fill like 30 yard waste bags and barrels, and dug up and gave away what seemed like two million hostas, and planted some more spicebush and a couple of inkberry (and lavender for my wife) in that space. And THEN I went to a local garden club sale and realized I had a random patch on the northeast side of the house that gets some nice morning light so I added more black-eyed Susans, evening primrose, and great blue lobelias. And, well, you get the idea: now native plants are all I can think about.
Anyway I took lots of photos along the way in case any of them would be helpful for the story, and most of them weren't really — but I thought I might share some of them here in case they provide any inspiration for anyone. It's been a long time since I had such a fulfilling and purposeful hobby. Thank you to everyone on here for the guidance and inspiration, not to mention the crucial habitat you're all creating.
Photos:
– Digging up lawn in March (we don't have a wheelbarrow so I strapped an old recycle bin to a furniture dolly to move the sod to fill in bare spots 🤣)
– Golden Alexanders blooming in April
– Expanding the "soft landing" zone beneath our oak tree (this was an acorn ca. 2012); there are still non-natives like daffodils, tulips, and sedum in here but alas
– Wild geraniums loving life in mid-May
– Eastern columbine mid-May
– Pulling English Ivy is PUNISHING
– I couldn't find blue violets for sale in late March, but then I found some growing in our driveway crack and transplanted them to happier homes
– Look at all the caterpillar munchspots on the blue violet, swoon
by JohnPaulMcStarrison
15 Comments
Wow! Thank you for providing food and shelter for our wild friends!
You’re bringing Life to that Lawn!
Welcome to the club! I find that every year, I dive deeper into my love for native plants and all things ecological restoration. It’s a limitless field of study
I feel you so much! Theres soooo much native biodiversity that we just reach the tip of the iceberg on that I’m seeing with the places we do rescues at, it becomes an obsession to collect em all and preserve all these wonderful native flowers!
Don’t neglect the native fescue though, if you can! It gets forgotten so often but it’s important too!
Don’t stop. Now start pulling up the pavement. We live in a death cult. Plant flowers and rebel.
All that you wrote is nice but I can’t get over how neatly you remove sod. When I do it it looks like I used a machete followed by a post hole digger.
Love these photos and your article, which was such a nice blend of visuals and writing. Very excited about your yard, too – please keep us posted with updates as things progress!
Some of my favorites! What is the tool you are using the first pic? Just a straight edged shovel?
That’s great! Glad you’re documenting as you go.
Just a warning: I love violets but they can spread where you don’t want them.
Nice mix. And I always love it when somebody plants a serviceberry tree. Be sure to try the berries.
Beautiful! I do want to caution you that your oak might be planted too deeply! It’s hard to say for sure from the photo angle, but I don’t see root flare.
Welcome to the ~~cult~~ club!
All gardeners look for bug damage but native gardeners celebrate it!
This incredible, good job!! Consider exposing the root flare on that beautiful tree, too!
This is so awesome. It’s super cool to hear stories like this! Welcome to the cult =D
I’m so excited to hear about your new experience with the wildlife
WOWZA! I’m exhausted just reading this. LOL. Seriously, though, bravo to you for all this hard work.
This is so neat! I look forward to “digging in” and being inspired by your efforts!
Thank you for sharing.
Everything looks and sounds beautiful too!