Putting the existential dread and enviromental panic aside for a moment, I'm really excited to see how my neighborhood handles this over the coming years. I'm living in a midwestern neighborhood...
Putting the existential dread and enviromental panic aside for a moment, I'm really excited to see how my neighborhood handles this over the coming years. I'm living in a midwestern neighborhood that's awesome about its diverse plantlife, and it'll be so interesting to see how people change their landscapes as the climate changes. The lack of snow has always been back-of-mind since snowy weather is seen as it's own segmented phenomenon, without any visual indicator in photos that something's changed other than less frequent photos. But the slow change to the color palettes of people's lawns will be identifiable in photos and media going forward, and I think that's just (horrifyingly) neat. :)
Macro level climate news is often so depressing that it's easy not to see beautiful, ground level stories of adaptation and the culture it creates. Love reading this.
Macro level climate news is often so depressing that it's easy not to see beautiful, ground level stories of adaptation and the culture it creates. Love reading this.
Use of native plants was accelerated where I live because we were not allowed to water lawns during drought, and for a while there were government credits for removing lawns. So now more than half...
Use of native plants was accelerated where I live because we were not allowed to water lawns during drought, and for a while there were government credits for removing lawns. So now more than half of my neighbors have native plants or fake grass. And most of the rest just have dead lawns.
In fact it’s weird to see a nicely maintained real lawn now because only a few people just ignored the law against watering. To me, and probably to most other people here, when I see a lawn like that I assume the owner is not someone I would get along with.
I am slowly allowing the clover to take over my lawn, and I pay someone to mow it in the meantime, but also, I don't water it. I feel bad sometimes for not doing more faster? But I figure as long...
I am slowly allowing the clover to take over my lawn, and I pay someone to mow it in the meantime, but also, I don't water it. I feel bad sometimes for not doing more faster? But I figure as long as I don't waste additional resources, it's mostly neutral, if not as good as getting more native plants in there.
(Open to suggestions from folks about the lowest of maintenance ways to let my lawn get replaced by natives. But I mean lowest)
I bought clover seeds and sprinkled them in my back yard a few years ago. It did a pretty good job of taking over a lot of the yard in the first season even though I never water. It's only there...
I bought clover seeds and sprinkled them in my back yard a few years ago. It did a pretty good job of taking over a lot of the yard in the first season even though I never water. It's only there about half of the year because it's too hot and dry in the summer. While it's growing, it's pretty interesting how many more insects and birds are in the yard, so it's somewhat closer to having native plants than a lawn.
I have some native plants such as sage that I put in around the edges. The main thing I notice about the native plants in my area is that they grow like crazy for half the year and then they whither and die when it gets to hot. So if you want an extremely low maint native yard you'll have to get used to it looking dead about 1/3 of the time.
Oh I don't care about how it looks, we do have enough moisture here that drying out isn't usually an issue (oh the humidity) and I'm so bad about the weed maintenance around the fences and my...
Oh I don't care about how it looks, we do have enough moisture here that drying out isn't usually an issue (oh the humidity) and I'm so bad about the weed maintenance around the fences and my porch that I grow small bushes (some of these grow literal trunks I swear) and baby saplings until I chop them down because they're covered in spikes... I'll pick up some clover seed and let the existing violets and clover take over.
I think I need someone to help me figure out which of the "weeds" I should keep around as native plants and which are maybe hazards/etc.
I do have mock strawberries starting out compete the other weeds by my porch so that's nice. (Maybe? Or is it bad? Idk)
(Edit: seems like they're invasive.... This is annoying.)
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a useful native plant search that can filter by state, habit, bloom time, soil temperature, and a host of other factors. We’re using it for planning our...
I think I need someone to help me figure out which of the "weeds" I should keep around as native plants and which are maybe hazards/etc.
If you want something nice and low maintenance but still lawn-ish, clover is a common recommendation, there’s also various Eco-grass seed mixes (typically fine fescues, sometimes mixed with clover) that can give a natural lawn look.
Thanks, I now just need my ADHD to decide this is the new hyperfocus. I do have a friend who has been nativizing their backyard and I'll probably ask them to come over and help too. Their front...
Thanks, I now just need my ADHD to decide this is the new hyperfocus. I do have a friend who has been nativizing their backyard and I'll probably ask them to come over and help too. Their front yard is still pretty normy but I'm not sure if it's a work in progress or a desire not to piss off the neighbors (which I do have a strip that probably has to/will naturally stay grass on the side of my house outside my fenced yard too.
I'll see what makes more sense for me between straight clover (which I know isn't technically native) and a mix like that. Thanks!
...we mow + sow native prairie grass blends once a year, early spring, and likewise native wildflower blends in the fall, but otherwise leave our meadow alone to evolve its own equilibrium habitat...
...we mow + sow native prairie grass blends once a year, early spring, and likewise native wildflower blends in the fall, but otherwise leave our meadow alone to evolve its own equilibrium habitat (a process of years rather than seasons) in which native + naturalised plants generally outcompete introduced 'weeds'*...it's low-maintenance and cultivates a lush ecosystem pretty much on its own...
Do you get the tall prairie grass with that blend or shorter ones? I don't really mind it being tall but clover/native mixes are appealing for not needing to mow (or pay someone in my case)
Do you get the tall prairie grass with that blend or shorter ones? I don't really mind it being tall but clover/native mixes are appealing for not needing to mow (or pay someone in my case)
...species depend on the region; i'm in central texas, so for the first decade we sowed the habiturf blend developed by the johnson wildflower center, which grows to about eight inches, tall by...
...species depend on the region; i'm in central texas, so for the first decade we sowed the habiturf blend developed by the johnson wildflower center, which grows to about eight inches, tall by lawn standards but short turf grasses by meadowland standards...
...more recently we've switched our deep meadow over to douglas king seeds' native grass mix, which introduces more variety and reaches around eighteen inches with some healthy variation...
...bear in mind, any native meadow's going to nuture a lot of volunteer species, too, but that's half the fun...
It's not something I find wondrous personally. And definitely not something I have much physical energy to invest in. This is a practical enterprise for me.
It's not something I find wondrous personally. And definitely not something I have much physical energy to invest in. This is a practical enterprise for me.
I'd have thought something like native plants would need more fidelity than state-level. Like surely what's native to one side of a state is different from the other? Or am I over thinking this?
I'd have thought something like native plants would need more fidelity than state-level. Like surely what's native to one side of a state is different from the other? Or am I over thinking this?
You're not overthinking this. The term that your looking for is ecoregion/ecotype. There's some movement of trying to preserve local genetics through collecting and sprouting local native plants....
You're not overthinking this. The term that your looking for is ecoregion/ecotype. There's some movement of trying to preserve local genetics through collecting and sprouting local native plants. We have few local groups that collect local seeds and culivate them for native restoration.
I've let a sunny section of my front yard (on a downward slope that somewhat hides it from the street) turn into native wildflower meadow. The local conservation district holds annual sales of...
I've let a sunny section of my front yard (on a downward slope that somewhat hides it from the street) turn into native wildflower meadow. The local conservation district holds annual sales of native flowering plant, shrub, and tree seedlings for reasonable prices, and I'm slowly replacing invasives. The local list [PDF warning] includes enough perennial bloom for a delightful three-season display - columbines, foxglove, irises, coreopsis, milkweeds, coneflowers, monarda, goldenrods, black-eyed Susans, asters, roses... It's not the best time for a picture, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, and the bees and butterflies are singing through the "weeds". It's thriving without watering or care.
Putting the existential dread and enviromental panic aside for a moment, I'm really excited to see how my neighborhood handles this over the coming years. I'm living in a midwestern neighborhood that's awesome about its diverse plantlife, and it'll be so interesting to see how people change their landscapes as the climate changes. The lack of snow has always been back-of-mind since snowy weather is seen as it's own segmented phenomenon, without any visual indicator in photos that something's changed other than less frequent photos. But the slow change to the color palettes of people's lawns will be identifiable in photos and media going forward, and I think that's just (horrifyingly) neat. :)
Macro level climate news is often so depressing that it's easy not to see beautiful, ground level stories of adaptation and the culture it creates. Love reading this.
Use of native plants was accelerated where I live because we were not allowed to water lawns during drought, and for a while there were government credits for removing lawns. So now more than half of my neighbors have native plants or fake grass. And most of the rest just have dead lawns.
In fact it’s weird to see a nicely maintained real lawn now because only a few people just ignored the law against watering. To me, and probably to most other people here, when I see a lawn like that I assume the owner is not someone I would get along with.
I am slowly allowing the clover to take over my lawn, and I pay someone to mow it in the meantime, but also, I don't water it. I feel bad sometimes for not doing more faster? But I figure as long as I don't waste additional resources, it's mostly neutral, if not as good as getting more native plants in there.
(Open to suggestions from folks about the lowest of maintenance ways to let my lawn get replaced by natives. But I mean lowest)
I bought clover seeds and sprinkled them in my back yard a few years ago. It did a pretty good job of taking over a lot of the yard in the first season even though I never water. It's only there about half of the year because it's too hot and dry in the summer. While it's growing, it's pretty interesting how many more insects and birds are in the yard, so it's somewhat closer to having native plants than a lawn.
I have some native plants such as sage that I put in around the edges. The main thing I notice about the native plants in my area is that they grow like crazy for half the year and then they whither and die when it gets to hot. So if you want an extremely low maint native yard you'll have to get used to it looking dead about 1/3 of the time.
Oh I don't care about how it looks, we do have enough moisture here that drying out isn't usually an issue (oh the humidity) and I'm so bad about the weed maintenance around the fences and my porch that I grow small bushes (some of these grow literal trunks I swear) and baby saplings until I chop them down because they're covered in spikes... I'll pick up some clover seed and let the existing violets and clover take over.
I think I need someone to help me figure out which of the "weeds" I should keep around as native plants and which are maybe hazards/etc.
I do have mock strawberries starting out compete the other weeds by my porch so that's nice. (Maybe? Or is it bad? Idk)
(Edit: seems like they're invasive.... This is annoying.)
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a useful native plant search that can filter by state, habit, bloom time, soil temperature, and a host of other factors. We’re using it for planning our native yard renovation.
If you want something nice and low maintenance but still lawn-ish, clover is a common recommendation, there’s also various Eco-grass seed mixes (typically fine fescues, sometimes mixed with clover) that can give a natural lawn look.
Thanks, I now just need my ADHD to decide this is the new hyperfocus. I do have a friend who has been nativizing their backyard and I'll probably ask them to come over and help too. Their front yard is still pretty normy but I'm not sure if it's a work in progress or a desire not to piss off the neighbors (which I do have a strip that probably has to/will naturally stay grass on the side of my house outside my fenced yard too.
I'll see what makes more sense for me between straight clover (which I know isn't technically native) and a mix like that. Thanks!
...we mow + sow native prairie grass blends once a year, early spring, and likewise native wildflower blends in the fall, but otherwise leave our meadow alone to evolve its own equilibrium habitat (a process of years rather than seasons) in which native + naturalised plants generally outcompete introduced 'weeds'*...it's low-maintenance and cultivates a lush ecosystem pretty much on its own...
*(a plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered)
Do you get the tall prairie grass with that blend or shorter ones? I don't really mind it being tall but clover/native mixes are appealing for not needing to mow (or pay someone in my case)
...species depend on the region; i'm in central texas, so for the first decade we sowed the habiturf blend developed by the johnson wildflower center, which grows to about eight inches, tall by lawn standards but short turf grasses by meadowland standards...
...more recently we've switched our deep meadow over to douglas king seeds' native grass mix, which introduces more variety and reaches around eighteen inches with some healthy variation...
...bear in mind, any native meadow's going to nuture a lot of volunteer species, too, but that's half the fun...
I am admittedly going less for fun and more for "slightly more ethical low maintenance". But I'm going to see what I can do at least.
...the ecosystem of bugs, birds, + fauna which move in are wondrous to watch evolve over time...
It's not something I find wondrous personally. And definitely not something I have much physical energy to invest in. This is a practical enterprise for me.
I'd have thought something like native plants would need more fidelity than state-level. Like surely what's native to one side of a state is different from the other? Or am I over thinking this?
You're not overthinking this. The term that your looking for is ecoregion/ecotype. There's some movement of trying to preserve local genetics through collecting and sprouting local native plants. We have few local groups that collect local seeds and culivate them for native restoration.
This is a local group in my region.
https://www.pollinatehv.org/seed-work
I've let a sunny section of my front yard (on a downward slope that somewhat hides it from the street) turn into native wildflower meadow. The local conservation district holds annual sales of native flowering plant, shrub, and tree seedlings for reasonable prices, and I'm slowly replacing invasives. The local list [PDF warning] includes enough perennial bloom for a delightful three-season display - columbines, foxglove, irises, coreopsis, milkweeds, coneflowers, monarda, goldenrods, black-eyed Susans, asters, roses... It's not the best time for a picture, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, and the bees and butterflies are singing through the "weeds". It's thriving without watering or care.