A Fun Discovery to Share for Foliage Follow-up

Friday after work, I went to a few garage sales where garden supplies were listed, because I was looking for some wire baskets to put over some plants the rabbits have been eating.  One of them was in the neighborhood where we used to live before moving into our current home, where my husband grew up.  When I turned onto the street where the back of the elementary school property is, the area that was planted as a butterfly garden when the kids went there caught my eye.  Of course, I stopped, and took photos with my phone's camera.  This is where my kids entered the school grounds.  (I just looked this up to share on Facebook.  I am going to add the names of plants that I know now, that I didn't know when I first wrote this.  I'll put them in parentheses.)

Things sure have changed on the property since I was there last.

Can you read the bottom sign?  I wonder why the trees were treated with fox urine,  Maybe there are deer in the area that eat on trees.

We're getting closer!  Can you see the school?

It looks like a full fledged prairie!

I either don't know, or can't remember many of the names of the plants.  This one I should, but can't think of it.  (I think this lighter colored foliage is Pitcher sage.)

I think this is a dock of some kind.  I didn't see many of these.

If you know what these are, please let me know.  (This looks like Cup plant to me.)

I was pleased to see some gray headed coneflowers.  I don't think I saw any at a local prairie I went to a few weeks ago.

I like the different kinds of foliage here.   (I am pleased that I now have some Illinois bundleflower, shared from a local gardening friend, Jill, who is in the Facebook group, Gardening with Nature in Mind, that I'm glad I started this spring.)

I'm not sure what kinds of grasses are in here, either.  I took photos as I walked around the whole prairie garden.

I wonder if this is an ironweed.

I think this is a teasel of some kind.  (I looked it up, and found that this is not native to the U.S.)

Here's a closer view of the buds.

I think this is a silphium of some kind.  (Again, I think it's Cup plant.)

(Plants in the wild look different than the ones I thin here at home.  Now, I can't tell what these are.)

I didn't see many butterfly milkweeds.

There were more of these common milkweeds.

I thought this was something different, but now, I'm thinking it may be the same kind of silphium as the one shown earlier.  You can see the homes across the street here.  (Yes, they look like cup plants.)

I like the jagged edges on the foliage of this mystery to me plant.

This may be the only leadplant I saw.  I wanted to go in and pull out some of the plants that were crowding it, but that was not up to me to decide.

 

I wonder if this is an aster of some kind.  (Yes, I think these are asters, but I wonder what kind.)

You sure can find different textures, sizes and shapes of foliage in wild or native plants!  I wonder what these are.

Now that I've rediscovered this garden, I hope to make it back there at different times of the year and see what's going on.  Pam, at Digging hosts Foliage Follow-up on the 16th of the month.  Thanks, Pam!

Oh, and I was excited to find 5 or 6 baskets at the estate sale I decided to go to.  I snapped them up and put them over some asters and other plants that had been eaten down (by rabbits).