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

Our Missouri Yard – May 2026

/

May was full of new growth in our yard.

In the front yard…the Kousa Dogwood bloomed…and began to fade. The Missouri Evening Primrose near the mailbox began to bloom. In the new native plant garden, the new plants (like the Ratttlesnake Master and Elderberry) began to thrive; there was a robin’s egg in the mulch under the maple there. The Virginia creeper was lush and green filling the spaces in the flower bed near the house and climbing over everything. There were some asters that came up in one bed on their own in spaces near some daylilies. In the side yard a clump of lambs ear and poke weed were in the same place as last year – not specifically planted but seemed to thrive in that spot.

The shade garden at the side of the house includes young pawpaws (one purchased from Ozark Soul last year, 2 from seeds of a pawpaw from the Roston Native Butterfly House, and 3 from seedling I bought from MDC). The American Spikenard presides over an expanse of violets (I’ve been harvesting the violet leaves to eat as leafy greens). The allium bulbs I planted the first fall we lived in the house bloomed in April and are forming seeds now. The hostas (not native) sometimes provide a contrast with nearby violets. The Eastern White Pine that makes the lower part of the shade garden may produce cones this year – if it does it will be the first time.

In the back yard….The Witch Hazel will probably grow rapidly this year; it did have a few blooms last winter but has no seed pods. The hollies are blooming (delighting bees). The garden where a pine once stood has lambs ear…some elderberries…and an oak seedling (squirrel planted); it will be interesting to see how it develops. The columbines along the fence have a few blooms but are fading….and the irises are done for the year. Some of dandelions seem huge and I wonder if they are a variety grown for greens; I will start to harvest them! The Fragrant Sumac that was the first native plant that I purchased is taking over a space near the patio; I need to keep the Japanese honey suckle away from it….otherwise let it do its thing!

May growth points to 2026 being a great year for my developing yard!

Missouri Evening Primrose Flower

/

The Missouri Evening Primrose that I planted by my mailbox last year had its first bloom on May 5th. The plant is looking very robust, and I am hopefully it will bloom all summer long!

I have 6 new primrose plants that are in the new native plant garden in the middle of the front yard. They are very small this year. Maybe they will thrive and become the groundcover around the elderberries and wild indigos. I want something that grows robustly enough to crowd out other plants (non-native weeds particularly).

Daughter’s April Yard

/

I am enjoying my daughter’s yard through her occasional pictures and when I am at her house. Early in April, she sent me pictures of the plants in her garden by the driveway. She was uncertain if the second one (not blooming) was a weed or something they had planted.

The small red buckeye we had seen in her yard last summer was up and had one cluster of blooms.

Later in the month the young tree had grown more than a foot and had two bloom clusters. Hopefully the hummingbirds are finding the flowers.

The bloom stalks were visible in two yuccas. Penstemons, azaleas, clematis, and yellow wild indigo were already blooming.

Several plants in the shady part of the yard (including oak leaf hydrangea and American spikenard were looking good too.

Her house was built in the 50s so many of her trees are quite large – particularly an oak, a river birch, and an Eastern Hemlock. Her yard has more shade than mine…and she is slowly adding more natives to the mix of perennials in the few sunny places.  

Our Missouri Yard – April 2026

/

A lot was happening in my yard in April – beyond the planting of the native plants in my front flowerbed.

Early in the month was the maximum bloom time for dandelions, violets, fragrant sumac and daffodils.

A week or so later the crested iris and columbine were blooming.

The Kousa dogwood (Asian) and false shamrock Oxalis trangularis (South American) were also blooming.

The irises bloomed in several places in the yard. I cut some of them and enjoyed creating some macro images.

The Missouri evening primrose near my mailbox that was planted last spring is growing well – but not yet blooming. Once it starts it will probably have a lot of flowers.

The Virginia Creeper is looking good as the groundcover in my front flower bed.

I planted two more native plants near the end of the month: a red buckeye that I got from a Master Naturalist friend to replace the one that froze (and was killed) a few weeks before) and a smooth sumac that I picked up as a give away from a table at the Earth Day Music Festival in Springfield.

The American spikenard that I see from my office window is on its third season and is almost as tall as me. It dies back to ground level in the winter (i.e. it is not a woody plant) but the roots get more substantial as time goes by and it has been bigger every year I’ve had it.

I’m pleased with the way the yard is shaping up for 2026!

Ten Little Celebrations – April 2026

/

April was full of springtime happenings worth celebrating.

Native plants for my garden. I celebrated finding all the plants on my list at a native plant sale….and when I got all 28 of them planted.

Angel’s Diner. Celebrating finding a great place to stop for lunch on my way home from my monthly trips to Dallas….in McAlester OK.

Luna moths. 10 luna moths emerged from cocoons that had overwintered in my John Deere room. I celebrated every time one took off into the wild.

Another red buckeye. My young red buckeye that made it through the winter was killed by several frosts as its buds were popping…so it was a day to celebrate when a Master Naturalist friend dug up a seedling from her yard for me.

Dandelion and violet leaves in my salads. It’s that time of year when I don’t need to buy leafy greens…there are so many that are available in my yard. I’m celebrating the bounty.

Pawpaw and elderberry seedlings. I hadn’t anticipated how hard digging 10 holes for seedlings was going to be….so the biggest celebration of the day was when it was done!

Earth Day. I celebrated having 2 (very different) tabling gigs for Earth Day this year.

Scissor-tailed Flycather. Celebrating that they are back…I saw one in Oklahoma on my trip to Lewisville/Dallas this month.

Rhododendron blooming. Celebrating the big clusters of flowers.

Show-me less plastic events. 2 successful events….good interactions and learning experiences. Celebrating baby steps toward plastic reduction.

Zooming – April 2026

/

April was a mix of temperature extremes with some plants thriving – others not faring so well. By the end of the month, it was obvious that the majority were going to be OK. I enjoyed my yard in April as I planted almost 40 new native plants (the bulk in a new garden); I photographed older plants as I added the new ones. I released 10 luna moths that emerged from last summer’s cohort; the temperature swings might have been challenging for them but I opted to release them within 24-48 hours after they emerged since their adult life span is so short. There is one picture from my Texas trip…3 from a visit to Powell Gardens.

Rhododendron Blooms

/

The big rhododendron bush just outside my office window is in full bloom. I love to take pictures when there are still some buds….and other flowers fully open. I like the luminescence of the flowers, and the pollen sometimes looks like gold. It is probably a cultivar of the rhododendron native to North America….but not to Missouri.

I am wondering if the bloom time this year will be prolonged by the recent cold days when the flowers probably simply slow or stop opening. The beautiful flowers seem to fade quickly.

I cut some stems near the bottom of the plant to bring inside since the bush is encroaching on the stone path in front of it. The blooms fit nicely in a largish wine glass on my windowsill.

Pawpaw and Elderberry Seedlings

/

I ordered Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and Elderberry Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) seedlings from Missouri’s George O. White State Forest Nursery (a service provided by the Missouri Department of Conservation)….and they came last week! There were 10 seedlings for each species – the plan was for me to plant half of them in my yard and my daughter getting the rest for hers.

The box came in the evening, and I opted to plant the next day. They came in a box wrapped in paper backed plastic held in place with ties. The tops of some were showing at the top.

There was an instruction sheet that got a little damp even though it was outside the wrapping. The seedlings themselves had been packed with damp moss. They were labeled – the pawpaw is the darker bark/roots and the elderberry – aside from being lighter in color – had leaves beginning to emerge.

Digging the 10 holes was work; the day was cool but very humid. I planted 3 elderberry in the front yard native plant garden (these were the only easy holes because they were in mulch!), all the pawpaw in an area of my backyard that will become my pawpaw patch (it already had one plant that I purchased last fall), and the other 2 elderberry at two places in my back yard. It had rained not long before I planted, and rain was in the forecast, so I packed down the soil around them and let nature take over.

I finished up and took the remaining seedlings to my daughter…left her to dig her own holes. It was an exhausting day.

I hope at least half of what I planted survive….would be thrilled if more did. Getting seedlings this way was less expensive than buying that many plants from at native plant sales, but I am not as confident about their survival.

Slime Mold in the Oak Mulch

/

I started my native plant garden last fall with a thick layer of wood chips – primarily oak from my daughter’s tree trimmers. I’ve only recently planted into it. When planting, I observed that while the surface looked dry, it was moist just below the surface. There were some areas of crust on the surface that I wondered about. Then the yellow splotches of slime mold appeared after a rain…..and a few days later dried out and became crusts like I had seen earlier.

It’s good to have natural cycles playing out in my yard…and molds are part that often go unnoticed. My goal now is to observe frequently….enjoy the garden’s evolution.

Suburban Savanna - 1

/

Shortly after I started the 9-month Missouri Woodland Mentor series back in January, I started pondering whether the sterile suburban yards (highly fertilized, sprayed with pesticides, rigidly trimmed, full of non-native plants, toxic to most wildlife) could be transformed into something with a positive impact on the natural environment. It seemed to me that the definition of a savanna fit closest to what suburbs looked like on the surface: grass interspersed with trees providing less than 30% canopy cover.

There are some qualities of a suburb that would work against it becoming a full-fledged savanna:

There is too much impervious surface: streets, houses, sidewalks, driveways…which means that water will run off more quickly. There are often water retention ponds in newer developments to collect run off – somewhat slow the flow.

The building of the houses and infrastructure often is a severe disruption to the land: scraping off topsoil and hauling it away, removing almost all vegetation, and planting of turf. Sometimes there are a few trees planted by the builder – but they are not necessarily natives.  It takes a long time to recover from that disruption. It is the starting point for neighborhoods to progress toward a suburban savanna.

Even with those challenges, there are things I am already doing to nudge my yard toward the savanna goal:

  • I don’t spray pesticides or herbicides….and I don’t fertilize.

  • I don’t mow the fall leaves in my back yard until late spring (let the moths and insects emerge.

  • The non-native trees to Missouri (a Kousa dogwood and an eastern white pine and a variety of holly) are not going to be cut down…but I am planting more native woody plants: pawpaw, fragrant sumac, spice bush (hosted spice bush swallowtail caterpillars last summer), red buckeye, elderberry, and Ozark witch hazel. A red maple and shortleaf pine are the two native trees that were already growing in my yard. The forsythia and Japanese barberry will eventually be dug up.

  • The violets that were contained in a bed on the east side of the house when I moved here have been allowed to spill out taking over half the grass/moss area of that side yard. I have noticed more birds finding food in the debris from the violets over this past winter – even that small change has made a difference to birds.

  • I have planted a native plant garden in the middle of my front yard. As it matures – I will extend it so that there will be less ‘turf’ remaining.

  • Last summer I avoided mowing patches of clover I found growing in the year as a step toward improving the quality of the soil.

  • I am learning to recognize goldenrod, asters, and Rudbekia coming up in my yard that I can simply mow around!

I will post next month about my progress transforming my yard into a suburban savanna. My focus currently is on my yard …but I will take every opportunity to encourage others in my neighborhood to begin the process as well.