My Missouri Neighborhood – October 2025

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The mornings are cool…a sign of fall. I headed out for a short walk around the neighborhood pond. There is always something to photograph.

There are two good sized willows at opposite ends of the pond. I photographed the one that seem healthier…no dead branches; its branches move gracefully in dapples of sunlight.

Some of the native plants added last spring near one of the bridges have survived. They will probably do even better next year. There was a skipper sitting on one that seemed to be holding still just for me!

In the water, a few of the pickerel weeds are thriving. There were quite a few that didn’t. Hopefully the plants growing now will propagate…begin to take some of the extra nutrients out of the water. There is a lot of algae in the water this fall.

The maples are beginning to show fall color. We’ve not had much rain the past few months so it might not be as brilliant this year although these maples are near the pond so perhaps they got enough water.

I only saw one turtle, and it was gone before I could get closer. There was a lot of mud on that side of the pond and I wondered if it was from the weed eating too close to the edge.

A river birch has leaves dipping into the water.

The stump from a tree one of neighbors cut down before we moved to area has almost completely decayed. There is some fungus still working on the last of it…and another of the same kind in the nearby grass that might have been working on a root from the old tree.

When I got back to my driveway I noticed a mushroom near the streetlight in a corner of my front yard. It may be that mulching of grass as I mow has increased the plant debris in the soil enough to support more kinds of mushroom – I hope that is what’s happening!

Our Missouri Yard – October 2025

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We don’t have many leaves falling so I am still mowing the parts of the yard that are grass. I will stop mowing the back when our neighbor’s oak starts dropping leaves – participating in ‘leave the leaves’ for a second year and hoping to preserve some overwintering moths/butterflies.

I bought two new additions for my yard from Ozark Soul: Rubekia laciniata (common names: sochan, golden glow, and cutleaf coneflower) and Asimina triloba (common name pawpaw). The leaves of the first are edible; I will use it along with violet leaves for ‘greens’ next spring and early summer. The pawpaw will take years to produce fruit; I have some seeds in pots that I am sprouting to add to the ‘patch’ so there will be at least two trees eventually. Both plants are small so I have them marked with yard sculptures!

The Missouri Evening Primrose next to my mailbox is blooming profusely although not producing seed; I suspect that perhaps insects are not finding it.  There is a tiny prickly pear cactus growing with it which I am monitoring.

Pollinators are enjoying two types of late blooming plants in my yard: goldenrod and what I think is Symphyotrichum pilosum (white heath aster) which came up in a bare spot at the edge of my driveway, and I mowed around it. Both plants are full of insects…at least two kinds of bumblebees even on cool mornings!

My husband and I realized we had waited too late to plant our new native plant garden in our front yard so we will get the bed created sometime over the next few months then plant the garden in the spring after the last frost.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2025

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September still had some hot days…but there were some cooler mornings that were very pleasant. Our trip to Chicago offered some very different scenery! Lots to celebrate.

A cooler morning in the Butterfly House. It was good to finally get a break in the temperatures. I celebrated being more comfortable…and that there were more people that came to enjoy the butterflies too.

The end of busy morning in the Butterfly House. I celebrated the end of my shift in the Butterfly House when I was the lone docent – a bit frazzled but knowing I had done a good job.  A school group came through (45 students plus parents!). And 3 caterpillars had gone walkabout during the shift but I had managed to get them contained before they were stepped on!

Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. I celebrated that Chicago has managed to have a wild area in the big city.

Botany at Lincoln Park Zoo. I celebrated that the Zoo had areas that are mostly native plants…and I recognized most of them since they skew toward prairie plants which are the same as the ones we have in my area of Missouri.

Monarch Butterfly over Lake Michigan. I celebrated the surprise of seeing a Monarch butterfly flying over the lake a long ways from shore…hope it made it to the south shore.

Field Museum. I celebrated that I finally got to see the museum. I had missed it when I went to Chicago back in the early 1980s for a class…had always wanted to go back.

Crystalized Ginger. I bought crystalized ginger for our trip on Lake Michigan (it controls nausea for me). I celebrated that it worked and that it is a good treat when I travel too.

A new grandnephew.  I celebrated that my niece and her new baby are healthy and home from the hospital…was in Dallas so I was able to share pictures with my father; the new baby is his third great-grandchild.

My Missouri yard. I love the subtle changes happening right now – mostly still green but more seed pods forming. Soon the leaves will change to their fall colors.

Brunch with by daughter. My daughter and I tried a place near where I live … and both celebrated an excellent brunch that had a triple berry tart at the end.

Pawpaws from Butterfly House

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I have been watching the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) fruit develop in the Roston Native Butterfly House every time I volunteer (about once a week). Yesterday, as I was pointing a group of them out to some visitors, 2 fell off! They weren’t very big, but they were soft – ready to be eaten. I brought them home and thoroughly enjoyed them with my breakfast this morning.

I’ve saved the seeds to plant in pots after scarifying/soaking ….and will plant them outdoors next spring. Since the seedlings will all be from the same genetic line, I will buy a seedling this fall at a native plant sale to provide two genetic lines; I want my pawpaw patch to produce fruit! It might take 5-7 years of growth before they do that.

Cool Day Yard Clean Up

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We had a few mornings that started out in the 50s. I chose one of them to clean up the accumulated pile of sticks and branches (mostly forsythia but some redbud, maple, and hackberry) on the patio under my deck. The pile has been accumulating all during the summer and was, mostly, dry enough to burn easily although there were dried leaves attached to some of the branches.

I put a small pile of dry grass in the bottom of the chiminea and then piled on some bundled sticks before using a fireplace lighter to ignite the grass. The blaze started and I kept it going by feeding in more bundles of twigs. The bundles are mostly from a branch that I break and turned back on itself enough times to produce a bundle that would fit into the chiminea easily. I learned to sit down for much of the bundle creation to keep my back from hurting too soon/much.

The pile was large, and I realized after an hour or so of burning, that the ashes were building up in the chiminea and were taking up too much space to easily fit in more bundles to burn. Most of the branches were small diameter…but there were a lot of them and ashes built up. I closed the screen on the chiminea and watched as the flames died down and then the red glow begin to fade.

I stirred the ashes to try to make sure the sticks burned as completely as possible. It will be a few days before the ashes are cool enough to remove from the chiminea….and then I can clean up the last of the accumulated sticks and branches.

Our Missouri Yard – September 2025

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There are parts of my yard that I am enjoying even with the prospect of the big landscaping change that is coming (which hopefully will not impact any of the plants in this post):

The Missouri Evening Primrose is thriving by my mailbox (there is a tiny remnant of a prickly pear cactus underneath it that I discovered when I cleaned out the weeds earlier this summer…its growing too!) and a crape myrtle that seems healthier than in previous years.

The Virginia Creeper is crowing on the front steps and onto the bricks. I’ll enjoy it a bit longer than pull it down – relegate it to the horizontal surface of the front flower bed.

The chives are thriving in several places in the back yard. They were started from seeds harvested from my mother’s garden. They don’t seem to care if they are in the sun or shade!

The American spikenard – one of my first native plant purchases – is larger each year. There are violets under it (and a small pokeweed in the foreground). The fruit is beginning to turn purple. I’ll harvest some and try to sprout them indoors to plant outdoors next year.

There are a variety of things in the garden where a pine tree once grew. The iris leaves look a little burnt on the ends, but the pokeweed is full of berries that the birds will eat as they ripen. I am still watching developments…not sure of everything there although I like the surprises discovering the naked lady lilies blooming in August and the beautyberry that I planted…glad that has survived.

The area under the short leaf pine is full of pokeweed – mostly. As the season changes, I will enjoy its red foliage…then cut it down and clear out anything else growing under the tree….except the redbud (perhaps).

Big Landscaping Change – Getting Help?

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I contacted a nearby nursery as I started to realize how big a task creating the new bed in my front yard was going to be. A landscape designer came out to look at my yard and then I went to the nursery to look at what they have…and get a better idea on their approach. I’ll get their estimate next week.

On the plus side –

  • The new landscaped bed will look good sooner than if I do it myself. It would have layers of topsoil/compost covered by finer oak mulch and it would have a flat rock edge that would make it easier to mow around. Part of it would be 18 inches above the rest.

  • The plants will be bigger than the native plant supplier would provide. They have some of the plants I want in stock: golden ragwort, wild indigo (gold and blue), American Beautyberry, and serviceberry.

  • They would handle all the labor and logistics for creating the new area.

  • They had rattlesnake master in stock and I remembered seeing in on my prairie walks…it would add some drama to the front yard planting.

The negatives could be -

  • Cost – although I don’t have the estimate yet…but it will obviously cost more that if I did it myself.

  • They don’t have spicebush and I really wanted that instead of serviceberry in the front yard.

  • Some of the plants might be varieties of natives rather than the native form of the plants.

  • They would use roundup as part of the initial bed creation.

I’ll wait to get the estimate before making a decision, but I would very much want the initial bed creation and some of the plantings to be done by professionals. I can fill in with more plants next spring if I want.

I’ve already ask my arborist for another load of wood chips…so, if I accept the proposal from the nursery, I’ll use the load of woodchips in other parts of the yard rather than in the front….and I might need to move some of the mulch I put in the front yard to other places before the new bed is created.

Previous posts about Big Landscaping Change

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2025

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August was hot…so some of the celebrations were indoors (with air-conditioning) this month!

Naked lady lilies. It was a pleasant surprise that I have three of these plants in my yard – blooming for the first time this August. But I celebrated them because they are a remnant of my mother’s garden from 2023 just before the house/garden was sold.

Spicebush caterpillars. Earlier this summer my young spicebush didn’t have caterpillars…but is does now. I celebrated that the swallowtails have found my plant to lay their eggs.

Beautyberry. While I was pulling grass and weeds in my yard, I discovered that the beautyberry I planted last fall has survived…and is blooming. Time to celebrate!

Dispelling Myths of Native Gardening webinar (from Grow Native!). I celebrated the timing of a panel discussion about native gardening (webinar)…and gleaned some ideas I will apply in the next few weeks as I create a new area of by front yard…with native plants.

Field trip at the Lake Springfield Boathouse gardens. Another well timed opportunity for learning how to better create my new native plant garden. It was hot…but I learned enough to make it all worthwhile.

Roston Native Butterfly House. Celebrating my favorite volunteer gig of the summer…every time I work a shift there.

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. The big cats are the draw, but I celebrated seeing a juvenile racoon and butterflies!

Two caves in one day – Cosmic Caverns and Onyx Cave. Celebrating caves…cooler than the outside temperature.

Dr. Megan Wolff’s webinar “Plastics and Public Health: the unsettling latest in medical research.” A different kind of celebration…it’s more like FINALLY someone had done a reasonable job to at articulating the rationale in one place about why our plastic creation must change dramatically. Here’s the link to the video. The bottom line is that we can’t “recycle” or “reuse” our way out of the mess.

Lawn mowing – getting it done. It’s been hot this month and I celebrate every time I finish mowing the yard…so glad that it is done for another week.

Juvenile Cardinal

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I’ve seen several rounds of juvenile robins in my shade garden so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when a juvenile cardinal was there recently. The bird perched on a hose I had used to water the area after some of the vegetation looked like it was not getting enough water to offset the high heat. I saw the bird from my office chair and took the pictures through the window!

The adult feathers were just beginning to come in. At first, I assumed that the bird was a female but the area around the eye is red already --- so probably a male.  

What is eating the pokeweed?

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I have learned to tolerate pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) in many places in my Missouri yard…where it provides lush greenery…eye-catching magenta stems…flowers for small pollinators…food for birds.

This is the first year I have noticed that something is eating the leaves.

I thought perhaps it could be Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe Scribonia) caterpillars that are reported to eat the plant….but I have never seen them on the plants.

I did see some frass one morning (the fly is for size comparison) but the caterpillars are apparently stealthy.  The mystery is not a bad thing necessarily; it motivates me to check the plants more frequently…and I’m pleased that the pokeweed leaves are food for something rather than remaining pristine!

Spicebush Caterpillar Update

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After a hard rain – I checked to see if the caterpillars were surviving on the spicebush. I had seen 4 very tiny ones when I checked a week ago. I found a very tiny one right way and then two that were probably from the group I saw last week. One was completely enfolded in a leaf and was probably waiting to dry out a bit before venturing out. The other was partially in a leaf…looked like it had eaten part of its hiding place!

Hopefully I will have some that will survive to become Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies.

I didn’t look over the entire plant…it could be that there were other caterpillars although birds could have eaten some of them. Caterpillars are – after all – high quality bird food.

Our Missouri Yard in August 2025

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July was very dry here, but our sprinkler system has kept up. Our shade garden looks lush with violets and a few hostas and lambs ear going to seed. The dried remains of alliums and some grass seed heads offer some highlights in the sea of violets.

The American Spikenard is blooming with violets under it a little further up the hill – and where I can see it from my office window.

Even further up the hill with violets around it, is the spicebush I planted last fall. I have been checking it for eggs or caterpillars --- and it finally has caterpillars. I counted 4 – all Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars. I am leaving them alone right now but will go out and check on them. They are easy to spot even when they are small because they pull the leaf around themselves (like a leaf taco) when they resting.

One morning last week when I was out weed eating, I noticed that one of my mother’s naked lady lily bulbs that I planted in my yard in January 2023 has survived! The pokeweed shades it from the heat. There was a second plant that was mostly still buds. I was happy to see it --- glad it was there to spark memories of Mom. I took some macro images of the flowers. They start out a darker pink then fade as they mature.

The pokeweed seems to have more evidence that insects are eating its foliage…but has plenty of energy to make seeds. None of reached maturity yet (i.e. no purple fruits). I am going to let the ones in the bed with the lilies make seeds and hope the birds will enjoy the this fall/winter.

There are birds around: a female hummingbird that comes to my feeder frequently and sometimes flies to the nearby pine or visits the plants in the shade garden, a family of finches,

A young wren,

And a juvenile robin in the pine tree (the third brood for the summer). I am glad that the shade garden seems to be attractive to so many birds.

In the front yard, the crape myrtles are doing better than I expected. They tend to die back in winter but this year they seem to be more robust.

The Virginia creeper is a thick ground cover in the front bed around two of the crape myrtles. I periodically pull it off the bricks although the way it adheres is not damaging like English Ivy can be.

Our yard is looking good in August…and I am looking forward to the work to do the landscaping this fall in the front of the house.

Big Landscaping Change – the plan

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Having a maple cut down after a storm damaged it, prompted some thinking about what to do with our front yard. It looked way too open, and I didn’t want more grass to mow! I talked to another Master Naturalist that has a lot more experience than me for advice about good native plants for a front yard. She had done a lecture about native plantings last fall when I attended the Missouri Master Naturalist core training, and I remembered her comments about serviceberry (Amelanchier aborea) – was leaning toward that plant as the largest in the new landscaping. She invited me to see the plantings in her yard…and that helped me decide on the other plants I wanted:

Wild hydrangea (the one that would be the next largest and be planted midway between the remaining maple and the serviceberry)…this is the one in am still thinking about…my alternative would be a Ninebark like I had in Maryland…it does well here too!

Multiple wild indigos as a smaller shrub and a legume that will put nitrogen into the soil

Roundleaf groundsel that will become the groundcover and will stay green when the other plants are dormant

My Homeowners Association has an Architecture Committee that wants to know about significant landscaping changes so I drew a sketch and listed the plants I was considering….and they approved it about 30 minutes after I sent the email! It was much easier that I thought it would be.

Now to get the bed made (an area encompassing the three areas I heavily mulched with wood chips from the maple)…and order the plants…and plant them in late September/early October.

Goodbye to a Maple

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Our maple that was damaged by a storm in late June was cut down in late July.  All that was left was a stump surrounded by saw dust in our front yard and a pile of wood chips in our driveway. I dusted the stump off and discovered that I will need to sand it if I want to count the rings.

I had tentative plans for the wood chips, but they were left during a time when the heat and humidity was too high to work in the afternoon. All I got done the first morning after the tree was cut down was pulling the grass in the bed near my mailbox. I put as many wood chips as I could mash into the soil and surrounded the Missouri Evening Primrose with bricks. That project made a very small dent in pile.

The second day I was able to work for about an hour before 8 AM (the only time of day it was cool enough!) and put mulch around the stump and a dogwood tree.

The third day my daughter came to help. We got more done with both of us to loading the wheelbarrow, dumping it, and spreading out the mulch.

Quite a lot went into a low place in my yard (a large tree must have been cut down there a few years prior to when we bought the house) where I plan to add some landscaping plants; the places where the lawn mower had scalped the grass down to dirt helped me define the extent of the bowl. And then there was the base of the remaining maple where more mulch could be spread. I will probably hire a crew to create a bed that connects all three areas and do my plantings in the fall.

I had one more wheelbarrow and sweeping up the scattered chips left for the fourth day. The last wheelbarrow load were spread around the witch hazel I have planted in the backyard.

It took me about 4 hours to distribute all the wood chips. I’ve learned to drink a lot of water and pace myself when it is so hot and humid outside even in the morning. The 4 days allowed me to think more about what I want to do with the front yard too…and say goodbye to the maple as a tree knowing that its chips will stay close to where it grew.

Zooming - July 2025

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The places for this month zoomed images include: my neighborhood/yard, Fantastic Caverns, my dad’s assisted living home, Springfield Botanical Gardens, and Lake Springfield Boathouse. It was a good month to be out and about in the morning…before the heat of the day! The early summer flowers doing well: arugula, cone flowers, day lilies, sunflowers, prickly pear cactus, button bush, and Missouri Evening Primrose. Enjoy the July 2025 slideshow!

Yards in June

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There was a lot going on in yards in June.  I enjoyed documenting my own yard and that of my daughter’s too.

The native plants in my yard are doing quite well: fragrant sumac (the first one I planted),

American spikenard (one that is a few years old and another than I planted this year),

Missouri evening primrose with its big yellow flowers,

Common Primrose that is becoming well established in my wildflower garden, and

Mushrooms keep coming up in the area where a tree was cut down several years before we bought the house.

My daughter and son-in-law planted some native plants in an area near their driveway and the street recently; they are thriving along with the yucca that has been there for a long time.  

There are non-natives: daylilies in both yards,

Asian hydrangeas in her yard (that she generously cut for a bouquet now in my office window),

A very large Southern Magnolia in my daughter’s house,

Lambs ear – that bumblebees like when it is blooming at my house,

Roses and hostas at both houses!

I have arugula flowers since I didn’t start eating the leaves soon enough. Oh well – they attact some small pollinators. There are zinnia flowers nearby too.

We are both challenged with grass growing where we don’t want it…and some invasives like Asian bush and vine honeysuckles. I have a lot of tree seedlings to control too – particularly hackberry, mulberry, redbud, oak, and maple.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2025

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Butterflies and birds…visiting a prairie and the place I spent some formative years….lot to celebrate in June.

Butterfly Festival. I volunteered at the Master Naturalist booth for the Butterfly Festival at the Springfield Botanical Garden. It was very well attended, and people seemed to be enjoying filling in the butterfly passport; I began to feel like a recording talking about the spicebush swallowtail as I handed out stickers…but kept going because the children’s excitement was contagious!

1st graders in the Caterpillar Café. 80 first graders and chaperones. I was glad the cabbages had caterpillars on them! The big message of the game I played with them was that most caterpillars don’t survive (i.e. they get eaten…baby birds need them!). I was glad I had prepared well enough that none of them cried!

Morning in the Butterfly House. I always choose the 10 AM to 12:30 PM shift in the butterfly house because it is the coolest time of the day…and, so far, every shift has been something to celebrate…and there are lots of aspects to celebrate: quiet time with butterflies/moths, watching caterpillars munching on leaves (or deciding to go walkabout), the development of fruit on the pawpaw trees, people (local and from around the world) enjoying the place.  

Luna moth caterpillars. This celebration is ongoing because the caterpillars are still growing. I celebrate every time I count and realize that the numbers munching is staying about the same (i.e. not much mortality). Every time they shed their skin and are noticeably bigger, I celebrate their survival and realize that I will have to ramp up the amount of leaves I provide.

Magnolia petals as seasoning. I celebrated my daughter’s introducing me to magnolia petals. I tried slivers in salad and a stir fry. I liked them best in the stir fry (a little strong raw). My son-in-law made kombucha with them…and I am looking forward to trying it.

Schuette prairie. My fourth prairie walk…and probably my last until it begins to cool down. I celebrated that I could identify some of the plants I’d seen on other prairies and saw bunchflower for the first time.

River Bend Nature Center. I visited Wichita Falls – where I attended grades K-10 in the 1960s - and celebrated the new-to-me River Bend Nature Center that is just the kind of place I would like to volunteer. There are aspects of our formative years that we seek to replicate in our lives….but this was an instance where I felt the place was still attuned to what I need now more than 50 years later.

Juvenile robins. I celebrated that the robins seem to spend more time in our yard…and the juvenile robins seemed to congregate in my shade garden. Maybe not using chemicals on the yard and leaving the leaves on the backyard through the winter has made a positive difference!

Missouri evening primrose. I celebrated the large yellow flowers of the native evening primrose I bought last month. It started blooming soon after I planted it and kept getting new buds.  

Hummingbird at our feeder. There is a female hummingbird that comes to the feeder on my office window multiple times a day. She gets a good long drink and seems to look at me before she flies way! I wonder if she is raising young birds nearby. Celebrating a relationship with a bird!

Missouri Evening Primrose

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One of the native plants I added to my yard this past spring was Missouri Evening Primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa). It’s growing well near my mailbox – becoming established in an area that was mostly weeds previously.

The first flower opened after a lot of rain and looked a little bedraggled. The flowers are quite large and the petals not strong enough to hold a lot of water droplets.

The second flower was better – more the shape I expected. The plant probably is happier without quite as much rain as we’ve been getting recently. And the old flower had collapsed – added swirls and some orange along the veins…a beautiful last hurrah for the petals.

I hope that the plant produces seeds at some point because I have some other sunny places I would like to plant it!

Clover Cushions

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One of the experiments in my backyard is not mowing areas that seem to have more clover growing in them. They look like ‘cushions’ in the otherwise mowed yard….an artsy look that doesn’t challenge the neighborhood yard police (as long as it is in the backyard…I’m not trying it in the front).

The idea is to let the plants grow, bloom, and produce seed…only mowing them infrequently…or maybe not at all.

Clover is a nitrogen fixing plant and its roots are generally deeper than grasses in the lawn – both positives from my perspective. It is a good way to improve the soil and stabilize the slope. Maybe eventually the whole west side of the backyard will be clover with some prairie plants mixed in.

Moving to Missouri Anniversary

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We moved to Missouri in June of 2022, so this is our third anniversary of being in the state and our house. I’m thinking about how much I have settled in.

There are boxes that were not unpacked in the first 6 months after we moved that are still unpacked. They are obviously things we shouldn’t have moved from Maryland. It’s not a lot but I am now thinking more seriously about how to convince my husband that we can get rid of them!

The yard is trending toward more native vegetation and less grass. It is slow going but I enjoy the process. It seems like the changes are beginning to snowball in terms of more birds visiting out yard in recent months. ‘Leaving the leaves,’ ‘no mow’ areas, and no fertilizers/herbicides/insecticides in combination is better than each one alone! I let Virginia creeper become the ground cover in my front flowerbeds, and they look very lush; the vines extend toward the front porch and have covered a bit of the steps up to our front porch making the entry look inviting rather than sterile concrete/brick.

Over the past year I have taken classes at the local university – something I hadn’t done in Maryland – and become a Missouri Master Naturalist so that I could do the type of volunteering that I did in Maryland. I am on track to volunteer at about the same level as pre-Covid this year. I am not as confident yet that I know as much about Missouri as I did Maryland – but I know enough to be comfortable with the naturalist activities I am choosing.

I’ve seen quite a bit more of the state with either my husband or daughter over the past year as well but am realizing there is a lot more to see. It easier to learn the physical aspects of the state than the social nuances, but maybe that was true occasionally in Maryland too. Over the course of this past year, the classes and volunteer gigs have provided opportunities for me to interact with more people…and that’s a good thing.

Our motivation for moving to Missouri was to be closer to where our daughter lives…and it is a nice bonus that we like our house and Missouri too!