Suburban Savanna – 5

/

Continuing my series on progress toward transitioning my yard to a suburban savanna…..

This is only my first summer implementing the strategy, but I am already experiencing some areas that are overgrown…with natives. In a larger space, the tangle would simply be allowed to continue but in my third acre suburban savanna, actions are needed on my part very similar to my actions when it comes to invasives!

Virginia creeper is great near my front door, and I can easily keep it controlled there because I see it all the time. In other places (in a corner of a flower bed behind some crape myrtle and boxwood, for example), it tends to be problematic, and it requires me to get back there to hack it out. I have been cutting only what is on the brick but now I will cut more and hopefully eventually reduce it to a once-a-year job.

My strategy with poison ivy was to leave it unless it was in a place I would likely be without gloves. Now I am rethinking that even though the patch is interesting because it has the poison ivy leaf gall too. I’m going to gear up and clean out that bed…maybe plant some cone flowers there!

Last year I had a clump of White Heath Aster near my driveway, and it is there again this year….and there is clump in my backyard too. I am leaving both since they are great for pollinating insects in the fall – but I don’t want more of them in my yard.  If they come up in more places next year, I will mow them!

I am learning to cope with pokeweed. If it comes up in an empty space, I leave it…but I trim it to keep it low and leafy. It has filled in an area under a window where a non-native cedar died, a slope on the side of the house (reducing the area I mow and holding the soil with its deeper roots, and filling in a corner (it is hiding a place I dump grass clippings too!).

Grapevines seem to be everywhere this year. I don’t mind them in some places…but I will keep them out of my trees. It is going to take some vigilance.

The same is true with the black raspberry canes. They have lovely pale green stems and white underside of the leaves. There are thorns too. I want to leave some of the plants since wildlife like the fruit…but I will be cutting them in places I want to be able to easily access!

I like violets for the ground cover in all my shady areas but they hide young redbuds and maples and oaks that will eventually need to be cut. Hackberries are everywhere – growing with the hollies and in other bushes. I am considering leaving them but also realizing that I will eventually need to cut them down since they are not in places where I want a larger tree!

All these native plants that I am considering controlling and this is my first year thinking about my yard as a suburban savanna!

April 2026 – Overview

May 2026 – Planting Natives

June 2026 – Shade Garden

July 2026 - Water

An Edge around the Native Plant Garden

/

Up until a week ago the native plant garden in my front yard was mulch that had been laid down last fall – originally 6+ inches thick – with plants added last spring. Installing something around the edge to define the space required too much back-straining work for me to do myself. I decided to have stone installed, but the work was not scheduled until October; I was thrilled when the company had a cancellation and fit in the work last week!

The two-person crew dug a trench for the stones and finished it in a few hours. Now I can easily do a quick round with the weed-eater and then mow neatly around the garden. I love its irregular shape.

Plastics Crisis – The Personal Economics of Less Plastics – Update

/

Last January I posted about what I had done over the later part of 2025 to reduce plastics around my house and the advantages we were observing. We are still benefiting from the investments I made without a lot of additional investments since January. I’ve notice that our grocery lists are generally shorter and we have less trash and recycle….and we aren’t feeling the full bite of inflation as much as I thought we would.

Trying to reduce plastic in all my purchases has encouraged more thoughtful purchasing. It slows me down enough to decide not to purchase something…realize that the item is not a ‘need’ and that I don’t really want it enough to purchase it. Identifying (and avoiding) ultra-processed food is another goal that seems to correlate with plastic reduction! What’s not to like about reduce costs and eating better at the same time.

I’ve refined some of my behaviors over the past few months that have reduced plastics further:

  • I have a collection of cleaned out/reused peanut butter (glass) jars that I use for making sugar water for my hummingbird feeder and am reusing the lovely green glass bottles (lemon juice) for storing filtered water in the refrigerator (or for the ice chest when we travel).

  • Our store has catsup in glass bottles again – and we have started purchasing it rather than the larger plastic bottles. It works well for us since we do not use it as often as we have previously.

  • I have enlarged my ‘favorite salad dressings’ to include honey – lemon….and am able to easily find honey in a glass jar and lemons in a bin without packaging at the store. I haven’t bought salad dressing since my original decision to avoid plastics in close contact with acidic or oily foods!

  • The net plastic is sometimes less or similar between fresh and frozen foods. I have started buying frozen broccoli, corn, and peppers/onions rather than fresh. They reduce prep time for stir fry and there is no wasted food (i.e. something going bad before I can use it). The plastic is probably not degrading into the food since it is cold! I never cook the frozen vegetables in the bag even if the bag advertises that it is OK to use it to steam the veggies in the microwave.

  • I had planned to use violets in salads this summer and it worked well. The cyclosporiasis outbreak is an added motivation for me to continue to use this green – although this late in the season the leaves are better cooked than raw.

  • The main area of investment now is clothes. I am gradually replacing things that  are 100% synthetic (i.e. plastic: polyester, rayon, nylon, etc.) with equivalent items that are 100% natural fibers or a blend that is dominated by natural fibers. It is unfortunate that Amazon searches tend to return synthetic items – overriding the search terms completely! Sometimes local stores have what I want….and I am checking their stock more frequently now.

Progress is slower now…but I am still enjoying discovering ways to reduce plastics in my life!

Yard Work in August

/

The day was in the 70s rather 90s…a good day for yard work. I had big plans. The latter part of July had been relentlessly hot and/or rainy…so there was a lot to do. And the company that we hired to put some edging around my new native plant bed in the front yard was coming the next week rather than in October (they’d had a cancellation – good for us) which meant I needed to do so clean up of that bed as well.

My first project was to get the Virginia Creeper under control. I don’t like it to get all the way up the brick façade of our house or in the bushes or tangled with the air conditioner compressor/other external ‘boxes.’ It’s going to be a continuing battle but I do like to have enough of it showing now so that when it turns red in the fall, the house will look spectacular!

There is also the bed that has been taken over with poison ivy (with the yellow gall on it). I will wear my protective clothing (including gauntlet gloves) and take it out.

And there is a little bit of weed eating along the fence that needs to be done as well.

Around the edge of the native plant garden there is some encroaching grass which needs to be pulled. Hopefully after the edging is in it will be easier to keep it all under control.

On the way to the back yard the pokeweed has turned into clumps (I had cut them to keep them short). They are deep rooted so good for the slope. The corner of the backyard also had a nice clump. I cut the tallest one to keep it mostly below the fence level.

There was a pokeweed that almost hid the American spikenard when viewed from the  yard (although not from my office window). I cut the poke weed even though stepping into the sea of violets left a hole. Maybe the violets quickly

The pathway I take from my office door to the hummingbird feeder is mostly rocks but the violets are taking off there too. I try to avoid stepping on them. Closer to the feeder (which is suction-cupped to one of my office windows) there is a sad crepe myrtle, thorny black raspberry canes, and grapevine that makes getting to the feeder hazardous in less that yard work garb. I cut back everything but the hosta!

The day turned misty and my back started hurting faster than I expected – before I got everything done. But I made good progress and will be out every day it isn’t raining until I catch up. So much to do….and I need to plan to do it in 30-minute chunks to keep my back happy.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2026

/

July was hot…making is more challenging to enjoy time outdoors – but I still found plenty to celebrate!

Car chargers on my way to Texas. I noticed that there were car chargers at a place I normally stop along my route between my home and seeing my dad in Texas. That bodes well for me buying an EV next year!

Children in the butterfly house. I enjoy my shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House – particularly if there are children that enjoy their visit too. Their awe as they follow the flights of butterflies or watch the butterfly get nectar from a flower seems to transfer to everyone in the house!

Spicebush Caterpillar. There was a spicebush caterpillar that disappeared from the plant on the table just as I was leaving….and we weren’t seeing it anywhere. Then as I walked by – I noticed that it was on the other end of the table…crawling along the edge. We all celebrated that it was found and could be put in the pupation cage instead of risking getting squished on the floor.

Gall Webinar. Celebrating an interesting webinar that introduced me to new organisms that I will look for when I am out and about.

Blooming American Spikenard. Celebrating that the plant is bigger and has more blooms than last year. It’s one of the first native plants I added to the yard and probably my favorite.

250th.  It wasn’t as fabulous as I remember the 200th – but still worth celebrating.  

Home alone. My husband was away for almost a week and I enjoyed the time without the television blaring! Then again – I am glad it doesn’t happen very often.

Salmon. I celebrated making a dinner that I wouldn’t make if my husband was home!

Watermelon. It’s the summer food for celebration. I wish we could still buy the big watermelons with seeds that seemed to be even more flavorful.

Missouri Master Naturalist. I celebrated my chapter showing resilience to change….forging ahead.

Zooming – July 2026

/

All the images in this month’s slideshow are from around Springfield: the Lake Springfield Boathouse, Springfield Botanical Gardens/Roston Native Butterfly House, and my yard. There is a lot to see this time of year! The weather has been hot enough that I make short forays for photography rather than longer hikes.

American Spikenard Buds/Flowers

/

The American Spikenard I planted my first summer in Missouri (2023) might be my favorite plant in the whole yard. I see it from my office window. It is thriving with violets as its understory. When I planted it, the violets were mostly between the new plant and the house; once I stopped mowing they have filled half the side yard. I thought that the spikenard had been killed that first winter, but it came back the next spring and has been bigger every yearsince. References say that the plants get 3-5 feet tall but this one is taller!

And it is full of buds/flowers right now. They are not showy as individual flowers, but the cluster is noticeable because of the change in texture from the large compound leaves. The fruits will be even more noticeable this fall because they will be reddish purple.

The American spikenard is not as common as many of the other native plants, but it certainly has worked well in my garden. It should contribute to the lushness of my shade garden as it spreads via it roots or seeds. I planted a second plant this year at the northern end of the shade garden and wonder if the two plants will eventually expand to meet in the middle!

Rattlesnake Master

/

One of my favorite native plants is rattlesnake master. All three of the plants I bought and planted in my front yard garden have bloomed this year. The downside is that their flower stalks fall over if there is not a lot of vegetation growing around them to help hold them upright. I did notice that there were tiny insects all over the flowers even when they on the ground! They are touted as great plants for pollinators and some swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on them! As the season has progressed, I’ve noticed that they are continuing to grow more stalks. By next year maybe each clump with be substantial enough to support the stalks. They are the most interesting plants in the native plant garden structurally!

I saw a clump of rattlesnake master at the St. Louis Zoo which has become my and am wondering how long it will be before my plants are as dense. Maybe next year? Maybe the year after that?

Serendipity Trees

/

Serendipity trees are one of the joys of native gardening! I have 3 different kinds in my yard.

The oaks are from ‘squirrel planted’ acorns – probably from my neighbor’s red oak. Most of the time I mow the seedlings but there is one that is growing in the place where we had to cut down a pine (it fell on its own really). The oak is growing well and is no longer much shorter than the plants around it: iris, beautyberry, gray-headed coneflower, and newly planted elderberry. My plan is to enlarge the bed as the oak grows so that most of its leaves will fall in places that will never be mowed! In the front yard, there is a younger seedling in the native plant garden that is shorter than the Missouri evening primrose beside it! It too can continue to grow and the bed can be expanded over time to receive its leaves.

There is a dying redbud near the neighborhood stormwater pond, but it is leaving its progeny all over the neighborhood – seeds probably transported by birds. Some are growing as shrubs near the holly…and other is growing in a good place to provide some nice afternoon shade to our deck in the next few years.

The hackberries are also bird planted; there is a big healthy tree near the dying redbud with lots of seeds that I see on the sidewalk in the fall. I have several that are coming up in the bed with the hollies and with a Japanese barberry. The Japanese barberry is not native and somewhat invasive so I will be cutting it down repeatedly until it dies – making room for the hackberry!

I like the serendipity trees. It akin to a savanna replenishing itself naturally.

Cat Sitting

/

My family is traveling…I am the only one at home – which means that I am taking care of cats in 2 locations! Food, water, litter scooping….the occasional clean-up of throw up. Treats occasionally but they don’t seem to be as crazy for them as previous cats.

My daughter and husband left for an amateur astronomy event in Nebraska in the early morning. I took a picture of the sunrise at my house since I was up and ready for the day already.

They sent a picture of their camp later in the day…and then sunset.

Evidently the sky was clear, but it was windy which made photography more challenging. They did send one picture from the first night.

There are evidently some tiny prickly pears in the field where they are set up…they stick to everything – including tires.

My son-in-law left for a conference early the next day. I checked on their cat in the afternoon…refilled a water bowl and refreshed the food supply. My son-in-law had already put the trash/recycle bins out at the edge of the driveway; I put them away when I went the next day.

I am enjoying the quiet of home…even with the little bit of extra work cat sitting!

Suburban Savana – 4

/

Continuing my series on my progress toward transitioning my yard to a suburban savanna…..

This month I am focusing on water. My yard has a sprinkler system that was installed in the late 90s. We get it checked at the beginning of each season and replaced the controller last year so that it doesn’t come on if there was rain recently (prior that that we often manually turned if off earlier in the growing season when our area gets enough rain for plants to thrive).

This year I am watering as I have in years past since so many of the plants are new. Next year I will likely reduce either the duration or the frequency since the plants are native and should thrive without extra water. In subsequent years when most plants are well established, I might simply turn on the sprinklers manually…only when there are very long periods with no rainfall (i.e. in drought conditions).

The only plant that will likely need extra attention is an Kousa dogwood (planted by a previous owner) that is growing in full sun. Even with the watering I do now, it tends to get some dry/brown leaves in summers with high heat and little rain. It’s not a native so obviously is not honed to our Missouri climate! I might put a soaker hose in to specifically provide water to the roots of the tree….or plant some green native ground cover (something like golden ragwort on the north and south, Missouri evening primrose on the western side, violets on the eastern side) under the tree that will keep the soil cooler than the mulch that is currently there.  

In a few years, if something on the sprinkler system breaks enough that it would required replacement – maybe I will decide I don’t need a sprinkler system often enough to warrant the expense!

More about my suburban savanna and blooms for pollinators next month.

Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:

April 2026 – Overview

May 2026 – Planting Natives

June 2026 – Shade Garden

Common Evening Primrose, Poke weed, and Fleabane

/

I have three plants in my yard that are native….but I didn’t plant them…and I have an evolving strategy for them. The first picture shows all three: the yellow-flowered common evening primrose in the foreground with a small poke weed between them. In the background – the white-flowered fleabane accents the yard between the patio and the pine. .

I had common evening primrose in one of my beds year before last…and it is back in that bed and beyond this year. I am letting it bloom. It is tall but sturdy enough that it remains upright. The individual blooms are fragile (heavy rain damaged the ones I photographed) but there are open flowers for pollinators longer because new buds are maturing further up the stalk - sustaining the bloom time.

Poke weed is a challenge. There are times I like the green leaves and purply pink stalk…other times they seem to crowd out other native plants that I want to thrive or they get so tall that they fall over in the next storm. Birds eat the seeds and something occasional eats the leaves…but they are not as much value to wildlife (insects, pollinators, birds) as other plants. My strategy this year has been to cut any that get too tall and leave ones that are small. Cutting has the effect of causing the plant to branch and stay low so at least they are not as dominate in the landscape as they would be without cutting. They die back to ground level in the cold but then return from the roots in the spring. Where violets are growing very densely, there are not as many poke weed so perhaps the key is to cut the poke weed repeatedly until the other native plants fill the area.

The fleabane came up in the grassy part of my yard, and I have been mowing around it. As soon as they make seeds, I will mow them. The flowers are small but butterflies, bees and moths like them. It’s great to have plenty of food for pollinators. My goal this summer it to observe when things bloom and then focus my buying of new plants on filling in the flower availability gaps for next season.  

Our Missouri Yard

/

There is so much going on in our yard this year that I might do more than one post about it each month. Every time it rained in June – there were mushrooms in and around the native plant garden in the front yard. They were often almost like a living edge…along the margin of the mulch – almost into the grass. A few times there was a clump in the middle of the bed. I love to see them because it means the natural decomposition of the mulch is well underway.

All three of the rattlesnake master plants have stalks. Unfortunately, most of them fall over but they still seem to be developing. I might have seeds and then more plants next year!

The new Missouri Evening Primrose plants are thriving and most have bloomed. The red oak seedling (squirrel planted) that I am leaving is next to one of them. In a few years it might be the tallest of the new plantings although it might be more years before it is taller than the maple. The yarrow (I bought 2 but only one survived) is next to another of the primrose plants; I like the very different texture the yarrow adds to the garden and hope that it will reproduce itself over time…or I will have to buy more!

In sunny, drier garden next to our front door, the day lilies and Virginia sweetspire have finished blooming now…the crape myrtle (out of the picture) is blooming and there are several fall blooming natives there. The violet (ground cover) is lush but will begin to dry out soon unless I remember to water it; the leaves are already not as good to eat as the violets that are growing in my shade garden.

The soapweed yucca appears to be thriving although I need to keep other plant away from it. There is a grapevine growing on the dead Japanese maple in the corner….and I am going to let it continue to grow there…and drive out other plants that are not as hardy.

I noticed a stand of poison ivy in a small flower bed on the west side of the house…and it had something growing on the leaves. After watching a recent webinar on galls, I realized that the growths were caused by the poison ivy gall mite! It also can infect fragrant sumac; I checked the plant I have in my back yard and, so far, it doesn’t have any galls! I need to develop some better techniques to take gall pictures….since now I will be looking for them everywhere I go (particularly on oaks!).

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2026

/

The beginning of the month was very hectic….but I recovered in the later weeks. There was a lot to celebrate.

Violet leaves with spaghetti sauce. It’s such a joy to simply walk outside in the back yard and cut a few leaves to eat almost immediately!

Microplastics talk to Missouri Master Gardeners. The audience was not large, but they made up for it in enthusiasm. I celebrated that I’d gotten it done!

Clumps of mushrooms around native plant garden. The edges of the oak mulch are evidently perfect for mushrooms. I celebrated that they looked like a natural ‘edge’ to the bed.

Hummingbird and squirrels and chipmunk seen from my office window. Hurray! We finally have a chipmunk visiting our yard…the first time I’ve seen one here. The hummingbird is coming to our feeder regularly and the squirrels run along the fence tops and through the pine to get to the holly just out of my view.

New glasses. I celebrated new single vision glasses for distance….and really like them for driving.

Hellbender tour. The hellbender conservation lab at the St. Louis Zoo was a great opportunity to see an animal I’d heard about but never seen….and the two flamingos on nests were another sight to celebrate.

Audubon Center at Riverlands. It was too hot to truly enjoy Riverlands and confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers…but I celebrated that it will make a great birding trip for next winter.

Telecon about data centers in Missouri. I celebrated an interesting telephone conference on data centers in Missouri; I now feel more knowledgeable about the issue.

Yellow and white wildflowers between Missouri and Texas. The yellow and whites along the roadside are the colors of summer along my route…celebrating the season.

Glorious summer yard. There are so many good things happening in my yard – so many reasons to celebrate native plants!

Suburban Savanna – 3

/

Continuing my series on my progress toward transitioning my yard to a suburban savanna…..

This month I am focusing on the shade garden since it is closest to being complete. The plants there will continue to develop…without a lot of work on my part. It is on the east of my house and includes an eastern white pine and a group of holly trees with low branches; a neighbor’s river birch and oak add to the shade in the summer.

There were a few violets near the house when we arrived 4 years ago and they have spilled out to take over what used to be struggling grass (I stopped mowing and the violets took over); they have progressed about 6 feet into the yard and I will further reduce my mowing to allow them to take over more!

I noticed last winter that several birds – particularly mourning doves and wrens – seemed to spend a lot of time finding tidbits to eat in the brown debris of the violets; I wondered if they were finding the tiny Great Spangled Fritillary (butterfly) caterpillars.

I planted American Spikenard, spice bush, and pawpaw to provide some taller plants to break the thick violet groundcover. I might eventually add another spice bush since the one I have is male (i.e. no red fruits!). The American Spikenard was one of the first native plants I added to my garden (where it is visible from my office window) and it gets bigger every year…this year it is over 5’ tall so it must be happy in its location. It blooms in June – attracting pollinators; the fruit is eaten by birds.

The spice bush had black swallowtail caterpillars eating it last summer…a great indication that the shade garden is supporting wildlife that had not been in the yard previously. I also noticed more fireflies in the summer beginning last year.

The pawpaw trees are still very young: one was planted as a seedling last year, 2 came up from seeds this spring, and 4 were planted as seedlings this spring. Hopefully most of them will survive and eventually host zebra swallowtail caterpillars. It will be years before they bear fruit….but I am excited about the prospect.

Around the white pine there is a mix of native and non-native plants. The natives are another American Spikenard, black raspberries (that came up on their own), violets, grapevine (which I cut to keep it out of the tree), hackberry (which I take out periodically, there is a neighborhood tree so the birds plant the seeds everywhere), and, unfortunately, an occasional poison ivy. The non-natives offer some color/shape contrast: hostas and lambs ear now…earlier in the season crocus, daffodils….later in the season chives.

I like that there are plants in the garden that are edible…that I can easily harvest and eat immediately: violet leaves and flowers, grape leaves, and chives.

The maintenance I anticipate on the garden is mainly controlling things like grape vines, poison ivy, and hackberries….keeping an eye out for invasives like poison hemlock and wintercreeper (removing immediately). I will eventually begin removing the lower branches of the pine (they are already sparsely needled because they only get enough light at their tips); it could reduce the shade a little in the morning, but the hollies will shade the area in the afternoon and the pine needle mulch sustains the soil moisture).   The violets will grow out into the yard at least a little further but that just requires me to stop mowing the area where I want the violets to take over! My sprinkler system still waters the area when it hasn’t rained but I envision that I might turn off the zone once the plants are all well established.

More about my suburban savanna and water next month.

Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:

April 2026 – Overview

May 2026 – Planting Natives

Yard Work – June 2025

/

This time of year, all the grasses are growing well. I have reduced the amount of yard with grass…but mowing is still the most time consuming form of yard work for me over the whole season.

My goal is to cut back on the area I mow and skew the ‘yard work’ toward establishing my native plant gardens. My shade garden is close to being the way I want it. Recently I’ve cut down pokeweed and pulled poison hemlock that was growing in the area near the young pawpaw trees. I took a picture of the compost pile the day after I added the debris from that effort. The stems of the pokeweed are still identifiable by color. The more delicate curls of vegetation are the poison hemlock.

In the new native plant garden in the front yard, I am digging out dandelions that are growing through the mulch….keeping the area clear for the native plants to spread and fill the space.

The area under the shortleaf pine was crowded with pokeweed up to the lower branches. I cut quite a few down and will let them rot where they fell!

On the plus side, I discovered some blackberries growing under the pokeweed!

The hackberry that was growing in the yew hedge was cut back – I don’t want a tree growing there. I couldn’t get to the root so it will likely return.

My goal in June is to do as much as I can to get the yard in great shape so there won’t be much aside from mowing in the hotter part of the summer.

Our Missouri Yard – June 2026

/

There are a lot of things looking good in our yard right now…the time of year and the rains in late May resulted in a lot of growth since last month. The Missouri Evening Primrose near the mailbox is blooming profusely – will probably crowd out the non-native plant in the small bed with it.

Two of the three rattlesnake master plants in the native plant garden started this year have stalks getting ready to bloom!

Daylilies are blooming in the corner garden (along with some natives that will bloom in the fall) and in the native plant garden (they came up through the mulch and I am leaving them for now until the natives cover the area completely).

There is an oak seedling that sprouted in the native plant bed that I will simply leave where it is for now while the little blue stem and elderberries are still very small. The elderberries might crowd it out eventually…or is could become the big tree of the front yard.

On the east side of the driveway the white heath aster has come up again. I am leaving the plants since the area has a lot of mole activity and I want something there to hold the soil. They are prolific late summer/fall bloomers.

There is a small oak in the bed near the gate to the back yard. I will cut it soon since it is not in a good place for a big tree.

On the east side of the house there are at least 7 young pawpaw plants: 2 from seeds I planted after eating a pawpaw from the butterfly house last fall, 1 purchased from Ozark Soul, and 4 from MDC (there could be one more from MDC but I didn’t see that it had leafed out…maybe it didn’t survive).

In the garden where we had a pine taken out, there are lambs ear (blooming…not abundant because the bed is crowded with irises and goldenrod), two elderberries (from MDC), beautyberry (the garden is exposed so the plants appear to be dying back each winter and then coming up from the roots…there might be 2 of them), and a healthy looking oak seedling which I am leaving.

Some of the plants I have been mowing around are blooming!  I think most of them are annual fleabane.

There is common evening primrose in the garden by the patio…it seems to be everywhere…this is its year to bloom!

I have lots of maple seedlings…successfully pulled several of them after a recent rain and enough roots came out that they should survive in water for tree tabling later this month.

The Rudbekia laciniata (sochan) is thriving. I haven’t tried eating any of it yet…want to make sure it is well established before I do.

The shortleaf pine is full of new cones.

The Ozark Witch Hazel is becoming more established. Its new leaves have a reddish tinge.

There is a hackberry that is growing in the yew which I will be cutting down…it’s not in a good place for a tree. It is already colonized by gall-producing insects genus Pachypsylla (note the two whitish circles on one of the lower leaves…the galls are underneath the leaf).

Overall, I am pleased with the way the yard is shaping up for this season….but there is a lot of work to do too.

Office Views

/

My computer is on a corner table with two monitors and my keyboard….windows on both sides of the corner. The views while I am working make the place my favorite in this house.

From the east window, the view is full of violets and an American Spikenard…in the background are the neighbor’s River Birch and Red Oak. On breezy days, the large leaves of the spikenard make graceful arcs through the air.

From the south window, the view includes a hummingbird feeder with an eastern white pine in the background…violets and hostas growing through the pine needles. In the early spring there are crocus in the area.

The near views are all in the shade in the summer…which is very appealing during hot weather. In the winter there is morning sun into the eastern window when the river birch has no leaves. The only negative to the situation is that the shade makes the hummingbirds look drab – no iridescence! I still enjoy their acrobatics on their frequent visits to the feeder.

And a few days later…..

I am dry…and comfortable

Contemplating the joy of a rainy day in the late spring….between showers

The most horizontal leaves of the spikenard and irises have large blobs of water that glisten in the increasing light

The pine needles have water drops at their tips

The hummingbird just made a stop at the feeder on my window…the moat overflowing from rain

Children have come out in the lull between rain showers to play in the puddles - it is warm enough to go without shoes

A little breeze moving the big spikenard leaves

The violets are dark green…and too low to the ground to be moving

I hear water in the gutters

There are so many shades of green

The birds are quiet

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2026

/

It seemed like a lot of my activities ramped up in May.

Volunteering

Roston Native Butterfly House. The butterfly house season started and I had 4 shifts….the first one on Mother’s Day. I celebrated that there were lots of butterflies….and people coming to see them!

Getting speakers for fall Missouri Master Naturalist core training. It was wonderful that virtually everyone I asked to speak or host a field trip said ‘yes.’ By the end of the month, I was celebrating that the plan for the training was looking more achievable.

Reconnoiter of a new field trip location. I celebrated a first visit to a new field trip location - rejoicing that is it such a rich place for Master Naturalist activities.

Soil field trip. The field trip to soil pits was one that I had arranged months ago. I celebrated that it finally happened….and how good it was.

My Yard

New native plant garden. Only one of the 30+ plants that I planted in my new bed looks like it won’t make it. I am celebrating that the rest are thriving and excited about how great the garden will begin to look as the warm weather continues. Next year it should look even better!

American Spikenard. Every time I look out my office window, I celebrate that one of the first native plants I bought and planted in my Missouri yard was an American Spikenard. The violets growing under it look great too!

Food

Salmon. I have discovered frozen salmon fillets and have been thrilled at how easy it is to thaw and then bake them at 325 degrees while I prepare the sides…..celebrating salmon at home rather than just in restaurants!

Chocolate cake. I stopped at a diner on the way back from my trip to Lewisville this month….and celebrated their version of chocolate cake!

Travel

Missouri Botanical Garden. It’s my favorite place in the St. Louis area. I like their art in the garden exhibits that have special lighting at night. This time I celebrated the garden with my husband and daughter.

Another butterfly house. We visited the Sophie M. Sachs Butterfly House on the morning after the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was only my second time to see it, and I celebrated being a visitor rather than a docent…and seeing some familiar exotic butterflies again.

Suburban Savanna – 2

/

Last month was my first post about my goal to turn my yard into a suburban savanna. The series continues this month.

I’ve done the planting for the year already.

The last new plant was a free smooth sumac from the Earth Day Music Festival that I planted in the corner of the yard where oak leaves (neighbor’s tree) accumulate, and the dandelions have very large leaves. I hope it will eventually fill that corner of the yard.

I have discovered a sturdy red oak seeding (squirrel planted) in the bed that I made after a pine fell. I am letting it grow. There will be elderberry and beautyberry along with iris and naked lady lilies around its base. It will be a long time before the oak will be big enough to make shade an issue. I anticipate that the progression of this garden will be the most interesting of the yard.

The panicled aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum that came up next to my driveway last summer is there again – and is larger. I am letting it grow since it is a fall bloomer and was full of pollinating insects last fall.

Goldenrods, rudbekias, and other asters are coming up in the yard too. I mow them in the front yard – keeping up the ‘look’ that the HOA wants for now – but I mow around them in the back and will let them bloom.

Our sprinkler system is over 25 years old and is fixed to begin the season…but might need to be replaced as more of the underground components fail (or leak). The further I get in the transition to native plants, the less watering the yard will require. I am going to water the native plant garden in the front yard this season to help the plants get established, but it might not need it in 2027! The decision to keep a sprinkler system might be driven more by our perception of how variable the rains will be as the climate continues to change than what the native plants require.

Next month I will write about the shade garden which is the most developed part of my suburban savanna.

Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:

April 2026