I spent the last six months anxiously awaiting the bountiful bloom of what I believed were gaillardia pulchella, or blanket flowers
Come to find out they’re lance-leaf coreopsis, but it’s still a good number of flowers, and the locals appreciate them either way
I really appreciate that! I made sure to make most of the things I planted look intentional, because my desire for wildness isn’t realistic in suburbia.
So I labeled every species with sharpie on paint sticks and defined borders, in the hopes that the new owners don’t just tear it all out
I did the math, though, and my gardens are roughly 1.8% of the lawn. Nowhere near large enough.
I told my wife that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to me that at least 20% of our next yard is native plants and (she doesn’t know this) a functional ecosystem.
I read “Nature’s Best Hope” by Doug tallamy this semester and it gave me a glimmer of hope against my almost total conviction that things are beyond saving
That 20% goal is awesome - even small native patches create crucial habitat corridors for pollinatrs and other wildlife that make a real diffrence in suburban areas!