A Better Sense of Place

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Describing conditions with graphs

The new front bed that I created in March is an area of stress. I didn't remove the St. Augustine grass after I hoed it and before I sowed seed. I just tossed all the seed right alongside the existing turf grass that I was trying to replace. I was once told (a rumor?) that natives would eventually outcompete the turf grass, so it's not super important to pull everything first.

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A hot, dry summer

A lot of plants found themselves put on my "At Risk" list this weekend. With temperatures rising to 95-100°F every day for the past 3 weeks and little rain for most of that time, I've decided to adjust my preference for what I plant and where. I know it takes a couple years for many plants to establish, so I'm not giving up on the newly planted stuff. Those guys generally need regular watering under dry conditions, even if they're native. And pretty much everything in a pot needs regular watering because their roots have limited reach. Also, established plants can go somewhat dormant in the heat of the summer and then come back to life when the temperatures start to lower again in the fall. So taking all of this into account, I've made a list of stand-out individuals and a list of questionable individuals.

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Plants for a rain garden

Another storm, more proof that it's a rain garden I built. I've started listing plants that would do well in all that water but still be ok when it's dry. My list has goldenrod, lyreleaf sage*, inland seaoats, buttonbush*, spiderwort, American beautyberry*, and Turk's cap. Depending on the price and availability, I might buy the ones with asterisks from the Hilltop Arboretum PlantFest on Saturday. Or I may just go with seeds and buy only trees (for my front yard plan).

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Starting a front yard plan

I'm now fairly certain that previous picture is of a partridge pea. They've gotten bigger and look a lot like the one that I have growing in the back alley. There are also so many of them that I figure they can't possibly be silk trees.

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Sketch upgrade

I printed out a better scaled drawing of the yard and copied my previous plan onto it.

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Less talk, more action

It was time to move beyond ideas. I whipped out a notebook and made a quick sketch of what I've been considering for a while now.

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alley before caterpillars exotic fall flowers front yard laws neighbor planning plant id prep rain rain garden snow sowing spring sprouts summer winter