West Front Yard

I was planning on doing this post of the area where the tree used to be for Gail's Wildflower Wednesday, but decided to go ahead.  I may go to a local prairie Tuesday, and will post photos of that, or if I don't make it, will show some flower close ups on Wednesday.

I like to start with the views from the porch.

Coming off of the porch, this is the area right next to it.  Allium, wild quinine, a white blooming clematis, and a Mexican sunflower for the monarchs are gathered around the switch grass and giant fleece flower, which are quite large.  Oh, and there is a gray headed coneflower on the right.

Wild quinine is one of my favorites, and I've noticed bees seem to really like white flowers.

Here's a close-up of the allium.

I am so pleased the whorled milkweeds I transplanted from my flower bed at church are growing and blooming.

I am enjoying two kinds of mallows.  I have two that are tall like this, and one is a low growing spreader.  I forgot, I also planted some white blooming ones, but the rabbits ate them down to one leaf.  I have baskets over them, so hopefully, they will grow some new leaves.  They seem to be just sitting there right now, though.

I enjoy the little path through the switchgrasses, which are not native.  I'm not remembering now, what kind they are.  I have the right one tied up on the bottom, though, because when it rains, or is very windy, it falls down.  I don't know why the one on the left doesn't.

Another one of my favorite flowers is liatris.  I have a number of native ones, as well as the 'Kobold' ones I planted a long time ago, before I knew about the native ones.  The ones touching the chair are a native kind.  That's gray headed coneflower, the giant fleeceflower and mallow blooming.

This is turning back around, looking at the section on the other side of the previous photos, which would be on the left as you were going onto the path from the sidewalk.

I am wishing I could remember what this plant is.  It will be blooming soon.  It may be a goldenrod of some kind.

Going farther in, there are two gray headed coneflowers to pass through to get to this part.  This area has lots of dirt showing.  There are a number of slow growing plants that should fill it up in the future.  I also want to get some native larkspurs to put around.  There are little bluestems, yarrow, wild senna, phlox, and whorled milkweed in this area, with agastache that survived the winter on the right.

Going farther to the west, this is the same wild senna, and you can see the agastache better.  There is also some 'black and blue' salvia in there that survived the winter.  Purple coneflowers, and some that I moved from other places are in this area.  That's a Culver's root on the right, that is actually in front of the fence.

The gooseneck loosestrife is doing well in the tub.  The dianthus is from last year, too.

This is the wild senna I got as a tiny seedling from Benjamin's yard when it was on a backyard habitat tour last year.   That's yarrow 'paprika' next to it.

Soon, there will be yellow blooms on the wild senna.

Here's a straight view of the raised planter where I had to replace the shade plants with sun ones. The three peonies that my mother-in-law planted when she lived here are in the front of the planter.

I let a couple of the volunteer love lies bleeding plants stay this year.

We're back to the west edge of the garden.  I like this switchgrass.  It is not as wide and floppy as the other ones. The beauty berry bush, on the right was planted a few years ago, before we had to have the tree cut down.  There's another on the other end of this area.

This is facing south.  The Joe pye weed on the right was a volunteer that I moved this spring.  That looks like kiss me over the garden gate next to it.

I like the way the mallow travels around, but does not take root and try to take over.

I hope the few Mexican sunflowers I have grow quickly and bloom.  I saw a full grown, blooming one at a garden tour a couple weeks ago.

I am looking forward to the prairie dock growing larger and blooming.  I hope the rabbits don't eat it down again like they did when I first planted it.

This rattlesnake master is farther south in the west edge of the area.  I moved this volunteer from the other side of the yard.

I have had wild petunias in other parts of the yard for a number of years, and have been moving some into the front to fill in some of the blank spots.  I'm pleased that they are blooming, some within a few days from being planted.

This is facing back east and south. 

This aster is 'Jim Crockett'.  I recently learned it's named after the Crockett who was on The Victory Garden TV show.  I remember watching that show, and I remember being disappointed when he was no longer on it.  Like most other plants, it is blooming early.

I hope this purple milkweed sends up more shoots next year.

This is rudbeckia maxima.

I hope the strawberries do a little spreading.

This liatris 'punctata' is blooming while still small.  I just planted it this spring.

This is a different kind of native liatris.  One of the stems is broken, but has not died, so I hope it will hang on so the blooms can open.

Continuing east, we'll go to the area I didn't show yet.

As much as I love prairie plants, and have the desire for this to be a mini prairie, I don't think I can pull it off.  Many of my plants are tied at the bottom to prevent them from falling over, and I have contraptions about to stop the rabbits from eating plants.

The cup plant in the middle here, is growing fast, and I am glad I planted it near the sidewalk to provide a barrier on one side.

The woodland phlox has grown new leaves, which the rabbits would eat if I took the barrier off.

This is one of several meadow rues in the yard.

This purple prairie clover is 'Stephanie', I'm pretty sure.  I have some of the native kind, too, but the rabbits have not given them a chance to grow.  This one had, and all of the stems were tall and had flower buds on them, when a rabbit or more ate them clear down to a few inches tall, sparing this one clump.

I planted this native monarda last year.  I have been enjoying small cuttings of it in tea, as it is one of the ingredients in Earl Grey tea.   That's Larry's weird sweet potato vine that comes back every year.  I recently cut it back off of the light, but it will grow back over it yet this summer.

I've seen monardas blooming other places.  Maybe this is later because I have been cutting the few inches off.

We've made it to the south edge of the fence.  I think these are narrow leaf coneflowers that are blooming.  Farther in, are the larkspur, which I'm doing a good job of deadheading, as I want to get some seeds of native larkspur and grow those here and there in this area.

I have been having trouble getting this area full looking.  There are a number of plants that are still small, and seem to be slow growing.

The gentians are blooming.  I like the color of blue they have.

I have several of these short plants.  I moved one because I didn't like the spot it was in.  I don't remember planting these, but I probably did.  Do you know what they are?

I planted another gray headed coneflower in this front area, so there is kind of a curved row of them.  The blue flowers are from a 'black and blue' salvia that survived winter there.

There's the culver's root again.  The switchgrass is 'Heavy Metal'.   Down the way is one of several little bluestems.

This is inula, something I got at the arboretum last year.

Even though I'd heard that native switchgrass can be invasive, I decided to try this one. It is not getting as big around as the other ones I have.  Maybe I'll need to watch so it doesn't seed itself around.  I don't remember what kind of asters these are, but they sure are growing.

I better get this post finished!  It has been several days in the making.  I almost decided to rewrite parts of it and save it for Wildflower Wednesday, but changed my mind.  Not all of these are wildflowers or native.

I have been spending too much time on Facebook, and have gotten even farther behind in my blog reading.  I hope to use my time well this week, getting some cleaning, gardening, and blog reading done.