Go WILD This Year

Like many other seasoned gardeners, I pondered over purchasing additional perennials this year. This would work over here and that would work over there, etc.  Then something happened to my thought process.  It was interrupted.

As you know, I spend a good amount of time "in the woods" and I had pretty much made up my mind where I wanted to plant what perennial.  That was until I walked around the yard and really paid close attention to what is going on...naturally.

Remember, although we have (thanks to the Pres) a lovely, well-manicured lawn that will be even more spacious and beautiful when the "newly planted grass" comes in, it is only about an acre.  The rest of our lot is woods and even includes some wetlands.  

So, this year I am paying close attention to what is going on here...what belongs here...naturally.  Sure I want to eradicate the Japanese Barberry.  That is going to take a long time and a lot of hard work.  But, looking beyond controlling the invasive, the property has it's own natural plantings.

  For instance:

Bluets...aka Quaker Ladies...Houstonia Caerulea...have been popping up everywhere this Spring.  

Then, there are the Ferns...Ostrich, Hay, Sensitive and Christmas, to name a few.  (They were not fully formed as of this writing so you'll have to wait for pix of them.)

And you just cannot walk around the perimeter of the yard or in our woods with seeing tons of a variety of Sweet Woodruff either.  

I love this stuff with it's dainty white flowers on whorls of glossy green leaves.  It loves the woods as much as I do!

And I cannot forget all the varieties of Jack-in-the-Pulpits which are coming up like crazy along the forest floor as well this Spring.  As I walked, I realized something.  

Finally, it was when I spotted this plant and more like it, that my brain said, forget the cultivators...just go WILD this year!  I believe it is a variety of Trillium and cannot wait until it opens!!! 

"Just saying and sharing...."

Natures Notes

Oh the seed?

I'm going to till up an area beyond the bird feeders and just watch the cultivators go WILD too.  No clumps.  No strategic planning by size and color.  I want to see what happens with this plan of going wild this year.  After all, you don't have to be in school to enjoy experiments!!