Save the Eco-system with Native Planting

Posted by: @jeanne-mayell

Laura, congratulations. Nice work. You have inspired me and no doubt others with you brave and bold choice.  

Hope to go lawless sometime next summer. Am hacking away at it (literally, my lawn is getting smaller as I add new natives). 

While we know you actually want to go lawn-less Jeanne, this post just made my day!!!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

 Just thinking that @Laura-f is inspiring you to go lawless is priceless.

I am now contemplating my own yard and the crime of water stealing lawns at a time where  water is more priceless than gold in the desert southwest.  My lawn should probably be against the law in my yard.  

It is really a bunch of lawn-less and lawlessness isn't it?

@Laura-f @jeanne-mayell

@lovendures yes, there are many who have inspired me to go law-less. @Laura-f would be one of them (in a metaphorical way of course) for sure. LOL.

@lovendures @jeanne-mayell

You all crack me up! Lawns SHOULD be against the law - we're lucky we do NOT have an HOA here. Many HOAs in SoCal demand lawns be kept and maintained to golf course standards. In which case I would totally be lawless and just not do it and have a patch of dead grass.

Lovendures - this was not an inexpensive project, but we only went slightly over budget (lol). Even so, worth it both morally and financially.  The biggest expenses are the new plants and the removal of the old lawn. You might be able to do it more affordably with cheaper plants (and no trees- the trees cost a fortune). The rocks cost $1 a pound, easy enough to budget for. And I went with a more expensive ground material: decomposed granite sand, because it's less prone to weeds. Pea gravel may be cheaper. I also had the guys convert the sprinkler system to a drip system. Keeping sprinklers encourages weed growth too. And my guys used a compactor tool to pack down the sand well, which also helps prevent weeds. If I was you, I'd put some saguaros and nopal cacti (the nopales are edible as are their fruits aka prickly pears or tunas - I hacked a chunk off our nopal at the old house and it is growing great here in my backyard - fruit is great for margaritas!). I also have a San Pedro I moved with us (winky face).

Jeanne - I seem to recall Pachysandra being a popular ground cover to replace grass in the Northeast. You can also do a butterfly garden (see below). For trees I'd avoid evergreens for the time being as the invasive beetles will just kill them. You should look into the recent revival of the North American Chestnut tree - a native species that I thought was extinct but recently learned is being brought back (can you guess what nearly made them extinct? Spoiler: east asian chestnut blight that spread in N. America due to importation - another invasive problem from the other side of the world). Info on them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chestnut - maybe you can locate the blight resistant ones that are being developed. Also American Holly will grow well out your way and is resistant to blights and bugs.

@deetoo

NoVa is so easy to grow stuff in. Is your property shaded? If so, you can plant native ferns under trees. You can use woolly thyme or dichondra for ground cover too. You can also create a butterfly garden by using seeds specifically for that plus a couple of butterfly bushes. Dogwoods and cherries are not necessarily native, but they grow well and are not invasive. I miss my old Yoshino cherry tree... and my sunset maple...  Azaleas and rhododendrons require little care and grow fast and are pretty. I also miss hostas (aka plaintain) - literally require no care and you can divvy them up when they get big - I used to really like the Elephant Hostas (biggest ones with huge leaves). I also miss my oak leaf hydrangeas - they require a bit more water, but also little attention.

Here's a link to some other good ground cover options for your area: https://choosenatives.org/articles/plant-native-ground-covers-make-america-green/

@bluebelle - thank you! The guest room requires advance booking but is available!

Posted by: @laura-f

Jeanne - I seem to recall Pachysandra being a popular ground cover to replace grass in the Northeast. You can also do a butterfly garden (see below). For trees I'd avoid evergreens for the time being as the invasive beetles will just kill them. You should look into the recent revival of the North American Chestnut tree - a native species that I thought was extinct but recently learned is being brought back (can you guess what nearly made them extinct? Spoiler: east asian chestnut blight that spread in N. America due to importation - another invasive problem from the other side of the world). Info on them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chestnut - maybe you can locate the blight resistant ones that are being developed. Also American Holly will grow well out your way and is resistant to blights and bugs.

Love what you have added to this thread. North, South, east, west plantings for all regions of the country. 

I'm in the northeast where I have planted almost a hundred native plants in my yard this summer, including two oak trees.  The White Oak supports about 900 pollinators, so it's the Queen of native plants here where I live.

Most of my plantings were small plug-size pollinators all certified as native, like columbines, Mountain Mint, Monarda (bee-balm), fox glove, various ferns, honey suckles, lobelias, violets, goldenrod, milk thistle, snake root, various rudbeckias (black eyed Susans) and various sunflowers, and native dog wood trees. I would like my yard eventually to l look like the photo I put in the first post of this thread.  But that's a way off.  I also have a ton of non natives that don't require much watering - hostas, roses, lilies, etc. 

There are many ground covers that are not native and are in fact invasive, like lily of the valley, various mints, and ivy. So don't want them as they don't support local pollinating insects. 

I meant to add - in many parts all over the US, including desert-you can find and/or plant Purslane. It's considered a weed, but no! It is actually edible! I put it raw in salads or add to a chimichurri sauce. It has Omegas and Lignans and is good for you! I have some growing here, but it's in the ground that I know for certain the prior owners poisoned with glyphosate, so I have to wait a couple of years.  A couple of my potted herbs got root bound, and I had to move them into flower beds, so I dug out extra dirt and put some organic potting soil in its place, that should help prevent them from pulling up the toxic chemicals that are clearly still in the dirt.

Also: Dandelions! butterflies and bees enjoy them, they require zero attention, and the leaves are edible. Cooked they can be bitter, but if you google it there are recipes that will minimize that.

@deetoo if you feel like visiting NC, we have an entire park dedicated to native plants many of which will grow in the VA  zones as well.

My parents grow cut flowers and sell locally. This year I installed a bed next to the pasture where I planted southeastern wildflowers. It became a flower hedge all season. And the best part is that I pretty much planted it and left it. No watering, no fertilizing. Just seeded it and walked away.

When one type of flower died, another would come in and take its place.It is about time to cut everything back, but it should have seeded enough to come back again next year.

Here is a photo of the hedge from earlier this year. 

My photo didn’t make onto that last post. Sorry about that, here is the hedge. 

@laura-f, thank you for all the info.  I'm such a novice, this is really valuable stuff.  I love the idea of a groundcover, but one that works in full sun, which is what our front lawn receives (except for a small area close to our front porch).  We did have a red oak in the front yard that died and had to be removed three years ago.  Looking to see what kind of tree(s) we want to replace it with -- maybe a sunset maple, but can't decide on another. 

Right now we have some very old and quite large azalea bushes and boxwoods in the front, both doing well.  Azaleas and boxwoods were very popular when this neighborhood was established in 1960.  Both came with the house. We have some elephant hostas along the side of the house that receive lots of shade.  Those are doing well.  Anyway, I'm looking to remove more of the lawn and expand from there.    

@april, I love the idea of an entire park dedicated to native plants.  I also love your hedge -- beautiful! -- and I especially love that the wildflowers seem to be low maintenance.  

@deetoo If you are interested here is a link to the park. 

https://naturalsciences.org/prairie-ridge

The Nature garden link has a list of many of the native plants found in the park. But not all of them, many trees are not listed. 

Posted by: @laura-f

Dandelions! butterflies and bees enjoy them, they require zero attention, and the leaves are edible. Cooked they can be bitter, but if you google it there are recipes that will minimize that.

Actually, the whole plant is edible- leaves, flowers, root, all of it. It's really good for your liver.  Agree that it tastes best raw, like in salads, or in the juicer w other veggies. They even sell them at Whole Foods, very expensively, of course lol

@April I love the plantings in the photo.  Amazing. Lovely.  

@Laura, feeling guilty about all the purslane I've weeded and thrown into the woods.  I did read once that the colonists used it to thicken soups.  But I would not have tried it until now. If you can eat it, then damn, I can too.  It sometimes takes over my veggie garden when I'm away a few days. Now I can just harvest it. 

@unk-p 

Correct! I drink dandelion root tea all the time - good immune booster too.

@deetoo 

If you look closely at my pic, you will see some planted flower beds in front of the house. I decided to keep those because they are old rose and white lilac bushes. The roses are Iceberg roses, and they require very little water and just trimming back now and again, mulch in spring. I will give them a bit of rose food over the winter when it's rainy. I couldn't bear the thought of killing 20 year old plants.

I love a boxwood - did you know they will flower if you let them be without trimming? I love the privacy they give.

A project to consider: Back in Leesburg, our common area had giant osage orange trees, they were about 100 years old. I loved them (some don't like the smell of the fruit when they fall). They are 100% native, 100% resistant to blights and pests. Indigenous people used them to make bows and canoes that lasted centuries. Fun trivia fact: the mammals that ate osage oranges as a primary food source were woolly mammoths! They apparently loved them, but no one else does - squirrels take a bite and then leave the rest. LOL.  Here's a great link about how to do that:  https://www.newsleader.com/story/life/2014/12/13/growing-osage-orange-trees-seed/20287053/

@unk-p  @laura-f @jeanne-mayell  I have let my yard go native as much as possible. As I am in a rural area with no home owners association this has been quite easy for me. I left what landscape plantings the former owners had done and then added native plantings for my area and let what Mother Nature sowed flourish as well. I planted and am planting more white clover. Dandelions, plantain,chickweed,lyre-leaf sage grow profusely as well as chanterells, turkey tail mushrooms, reishi mushrooms, lions mane mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and usnea  (old man's beard) and other forage-able medicinal and edible plants. Lots of natural flowers too...Boneset, Golden Rod, Lady's tresses,Cat's ear and so many more.

I have 3 fig trees ( which I bought ). and two freestone peach trees... which self planted...from seeds as well as an avocado tree that self planted. Blackberries and fox grapes and raspberries flourish here as well.

I also, spot planted some vegetables and herbs in amongst the shrubs and trees of the yard. 

I also do not rake my leaves ( I cut with a mulching mower) and I had an enormous number of "lightning bugs" aka fireflies this year (as the larvae overwinter in the fallen leafage) as well as many "neighbors" come to visit and eat... squirrels, chipmunks,songbirds,oppossums,raccons,armadillos,skunks and various others as well as those higher up the food chain... foxes, coyotes,bobcats... hawks, owls.....and once a bald eagle came to feed on a deer that was hit by vehicle and died at the side of the road (as well as the black vultures and crows)

There are many online groups/blogs for those interested in learning to aid and utilize what grows around them. Two that I enjoy? www.growforagecookferment.com as well as Pascal Badur www.urbanoutdoorskills.com

We can all start in small steps and build on them with each passing growing season, year.