Suburban Savanna – 5

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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

Our Missouri Yard – June 2026

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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.

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.