Welcome Back

Everything Must Change...

When last I posted, I was an expecting father who hadn't yet put any trees in the ground. So let's do a short review. The house when we had purchased it had very few plants at all, the one plant it had in plenty was Asiatic Lily.

In year one we made the following changes:
• Planted native grasses: Little Bluestem, Big Blue Stem
• Planted native flowers: Coneflowers, Black Eyed Susan, Blue Lupine, Obedient Plant, Butterfly Milkweed, and New England Aster.
• Planted Red Chokeberry, Serviceberry, Highbush Cranberry, and Pagoda Dogwood

In the two years since my last post, the yard has changed a lot. Each spring I've extended the flower beds and added trees. We've also had some mishaps along the way, primarily from rabbits chewing shrubs down to nothing in the winter.

Here's current list of plants in the yard
• Trees: Eastern White Pine, Quaking Aspen, White Spruce, Red Oak, White Oak, Eastern Redbud, and Washington Hawthorne.
• Shrubs: Serviceberry, Black Chokeberry, Highbush Cranberry, Staghorn Sumac, and Pagoda Dogwood
• New Flowers and Grasses: Prairie Dropseed, Prairie Coneflower, False Indigo, and Cardinal Flower.

So far all of the plants are pretty contained. They exist in flower beds or gardens. This year's plan is pretty simple. Replace anything which is dead or heavily damaged. Remove two highbush cranberry bushes which aren't growing and which might be too close to the property (please remember to respect your neighbors), and I'll probably need to replace the White Oak.

Of course, I'll pick some plants for fun.
• Staghorn Sumac
• Pagoda Dogwood
• And something for outside of the planters in the front yard: grasses and flowers TBD.

This year part of the front yard is going no-mow!

I'll post updates along the way and provide more information about our feathered visitors. It's good to be back.