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.
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.