Native Plants

I was reading an interesting article today on Native Plant "purists". You can find it HERE and well it got me to wondering, I would LOVE to be a purist! Yes I want to be the lady I mean have the yard where everyone in my town says "that is the yard of that crazy freak!" and then "I wonder if she has anything for my headaches?" in their next breath!

lol!

Yes eventually my goal is to have NO grass .... well let me correct that, no LAWN to mow... cause I fully want some grasses. Like lemon grass and some nice tall grasses to help with privacy and provide some food for the chickens I will be getting. :)

The college where I go to school and work has nice prairie garden filled with native plants. And I am slowly identifying them all. Ok, now do not laugh, but I just realized we have Dogbane in that garden! If you have never seen Dogbane, it has a very unique fruit. Two ovaries fuse, making two long fruits (similar to a skinny green bean) and then fuse on the ends. Just the two ends are fused. I need to get a picture.

but it is raining and storming out right now. I will try though later :)

Now I already have a pretty good start on some native plants in my yard. I have some nice yarrow and will most likely take a trip along the Ridge (that is Crowley's Ridge which is very unique, Google it) and see what plants are in seed right now. I hope to find some passion flower in seed. I always seem to miss that!

And despite my numerous efforts, I cannot seem to get Echinacea, purple cone-flower, to grow in my yard. I will be snagging some of the Ozark/Golden cone-flower from the prairie garden this year and trying that next year.

Here's to Native Plants! I hope you plant many and learn all about them and their medicinal uses!!

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