Native Gardening

[JBtheExplorer]

Planted a native wildflower garden last year. Never got the chance to mow it in the fall. Lots of flowers coming up already.
How often do you burn your gardens out?

I only started burning last year (in a different garden), but going forward it'll be every 2-3 years just like they typically aim for in prairie burns.

 

[GBBUDD]

I BURN OUT PLANTS THAT GET UNRULELYburn out plants that get unruly . put a hurt on them for a time, this helps slow them down from taking over like my fern and blue rush

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Prairie Smoke

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I used to keep a list of all my native plants but stopped keeping track quite a few years ago. Last night I decided to sit down and make a detailed, updated list. Last time I kept track, I had around 40-45 species. Now I have 78! 64 species are native to my exact county. Roughly 12 species already existed in my yard and through seed or division I helped them multiply.

I've always had a super small budget for native gardening. Whenever I had a couple extra bucks I'd buy a seed packet or two. It took every bit of the last 11 years to get this many species, almost entirely through seed because it's way cheaper than potted plants, but I did go to a couple native plant sales too.

I think my long term goal would be 100 species.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Another expansion? Sure, why not!

Blue is original border, green is new.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Lots of green already popping up in the gardens I burned.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I can't remember if I mentioned the seed stratification box I built last fall, but I'm seeing some growth in it! If this is successful I'll be able to grow so many more native species going forward.

Royal catchfly

Showy goldenrod (I think)

EDIT: Oh yeah, I did mention it here.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

In memory of my grandma (who loved sunflowers), I'm adding two species of native sunflowers to my gardens.

Prairie sunflower is an annual that looks a lot like the typical farmed sunflowers that most people think of, but smaller. The eastern edge of its native range ends right in my area.

Woodland sunflower looks like most native sunflowers and rosinweeds. It's a perennial and spreads aggressively by rhizomes. I'm gonna let it go wild in a couple of shadier spots in my yard and see what happens.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Last year I took these two photos of a bumblebee in my shade garden strip. It was just confirmed to me that it's a queen rusty-patched bumblebee! It's not the biggest surprise since I've seen the endangered bees in my gardens many times in recent years, but it's nice to have a queen documented here!

Meanwhile, today in the native gardens I saw rattlesnake master and wild bergamot starting to pop up, and some deer tracks.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

My neighbor's tree had developed a trunk that was leaning on a dangerous angle. My biggest worry is that it would drop in the middle of summer and flatten a part of my native garden, so yesterday I cut it down. I saved a few of the logs as habitat in my native garden. Pushed them into place today. Looking forward to seeing chipmunks and squirrels run across them.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

It's so nice seeing some color again. I've noticed about five species blooming, but it wont be too long before many more begin!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Sadly the rabbit nest in my rain garden is no more. Something got to it.

Common blue violets are blooming.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

First wild ginger bloom of the year!