Our Missouri Yard in Early Fall 2025

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Lots of changes in our Missouri yard. The Missouri Evening Primrose is blooming – seemingly liking the cooler temperatures (and the rain). It has not produced any seed; maybe there aren’t any pollinators finding it.

A very white mushroom came up in a part of the yard that hadn’t had mushrooms previously. Its surface looked a little like a roasted marshmallow.

The pollinators are waning with the flowers…and seeds are dominant as the growing season draws to a close.

Some leaves are still green…some turning very red. The Virginia creeper near our front steps is still green.

There are small branches from the oak on the ground (squirrels?) and what might be an oak seedling has colorful leaves.

The chives seeds are black and ready to topple from the husks; the goldenrod seeds are not yet mature.

The beautyberry has one small cluster of berries, and the poke weed berries are maturing (some have already been eaten by birds). The poke weed stems are magenta until the first hard freeze.

I am thrilled that my fragrant sumac has at least one part that has rooted outside the flowerbed…taking over a part of the yard. The rose bushes are blooming – a last hurrah before winter.

As I finished my walk around the yard, I noticed a lone dandelion puff….more plants with deeper roots to hold the soil next year!

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.