[Loret is a central Florida wildlife and native plant gardener, and I am so grateful that she decided to share a bit of her garden with us. It's beautiful! Thanks, Loret!]
I let a 10′ x 10′ area naturalize and have been rewarded with Baccharis halimifolia (Groundsel), Beeblossom (Gaura sp.), Phyla nodiflora (fogfruit or frogfruit depending on what part of the country you are from), several grasses as well as Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum) all native to Florida.
This year the native loosestrife seems to be the plant of choice for pollinators in my yard. Today, in addition to this Thread-waisted Wasp (Sphecidae), I was greeted by bumblebees, honey and sweat bees, wasps, eastern amberwing, eastern pondhawk and several other unidentified dragonflies, hairstreak, duskywing, crescent and gulf fritillary butterflies.
There was a droning noise coming from that section of the yard indicating just how busy a place it is. It is fun to let an area choose what it wants to grow. I also was rewarded this morning with 4 mockingbird hatchlings not 20 feet from this section. If you “build” it (or in this case let it grow) they will come!
I garden for wildlife….the benefit to my senses is merely a bonus!
[Loret is well known on twitter as @PineLilyFNPS, and you can read her blog Osceola Florida Garden Blah Blah Blog.]
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
I really like the quote “it is fun to let an area choose what it wants to grow”…seems like the essence of habitat gardening to me…who are we to argue with mother nature? (except for invasive plants, that is..)
Thanks for sharing!
I’m not sure Mother Nature would have moved all those invasive plants around with the speed that we have managed to do it!
It is fun to see what happens when we let an area go wild.
Thanks Ellen!
Before learning about native plants I killed an awful lot of things (and kept the big box store garden center in business). Since I stopped arguing with mom nature (as you so aptly put it ☺) and now shop at the native nursery for “right plant, right place” or just let an area return to what it wants to be, I have found beautiful plants that survive the harshness of Florida weather and attracted a lot more wildlife. The number of nesting birds on my property astounds me!
This makes me wonder if I have more native species in my Central Florida backyard than I may think, since I’ve let the whole area choose what it wanted to grow since we moved here 8 years ago! I would love to be able to identify everything that’s growing back there. In particular, there’s a tree that is not like anything I can find in any book! It’s like we have the only one in the world.
But the vines that have chosen to grow don’t seem like friendly natives to me. They’ve probably choked out a lot of what’s blown in on the wind. So, letting an area choose what to grow may have not been a good move for me!
Sandy, Pine Lily Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society is only one county away from you, so Loret may be your best resource to find out exactly what you have in your garden.
But the chapter nearest you is the Tarflower Chapter. Maybe take some photos of those viney things and see if they can help you identify them?
Sandy, post some photos on twitpic.com and I’ll try and help you identify some of your plants. Another good site for pictures of florida natives is http://www.wildflphoto.com/plistwt.php
it may take a minute or so to load, but worth the wait. This gentleman is a member of one of the FNPS chapters and I found his pictures helped me quite a bit.
Loret recently posted..Batting a thousand-
Loret, thank you! That is such a wonderful offer! Ellen commented below that having a native habitat is easier if you’re a little bit of a “compulsive gardener” — now, what would the opposite of that be? Whatever you’d call it, that’s me. I think it’s so great when plant-savvy people like you all try to make it easier for me and others who are missing the gardening gene!
Okay, making note to get new batteries for camera, and then I’ll go rummaging around in my backyard jungle. Thanks again!
*grin* The longer I battle the invasives, the more letting an area go wild seems like an act of astonishing bravery to me! I’m very impressed with the results here–did you have to weed out any nasties along the way?
Keep in mind that My area is somewhat rural so I have the luxury of being a little wild. If something gets too out of hand I can grab my self propelled mower and mow it down which I do with my spring wildflower “meadow” area once it sets seed. I’m working on trying to get the frogfruit as the main groundcover. A lot of butterflies use it as a larval host and most butterflies love it as a nectar source….as do the bees and other pollinators.
The worse thing in this particular plot is the bahia grass and when I get some quantity of leaf mulch, that will be reigned in.
I’m lucky not to have the really nasty nasty invasives….air plant, brazilian pepper, kudzu. I have MUCH what the lawn care industry might consider weeds, but if they are native to Florida and not on the FLEPPC invasive list, they are welcome to live here.
I do need to routinely pull out some dog fennel seedlings but I probably spend less than 5 minutes a week doing so and I happen to like dog fennel so it has a reserved spot in the garden. It becomes rich with grasshoppers which the birds LOVE. When I walk the property in the morning I just grab any wayward seedlings, pull it and drop it. Cheaper than a workout at the gym.
If I was fussy I suppose the joint vetch would have bothered me, but I know that it only lasts until the heat kills it off and then you can just rake it out…of course it returns in April every year, but I give it it’s short time at life.
I mostly do battle with mexican clover and before I knew about natives I had planted some mexican petunias I purchased at the local big box store. I have been lucky to be able to get rid of all the remants of THAT horicultural mistake. I find very few things growing that aren’t native…and a lot of those are considered “naturalized”….but I still pull them out!
My methods are not for everyone, but I definitely see the wildlife activity increase since I let areas naturalize.
Controlling the invasives is tantamount to the process…you have to be vigilant and learn to identify everything that pops up and remove them to allow the natives to re-establish. Being a compulsive gardener definitely helps
A good field guide, and internet research are sometimes necessary to really nail down a species…I am very excited that New England Wild Flower Society is developing a web app for identifying native plants in the field (on a handheld device). That is going to help IDing native plants so much!!
Loret I have seen the same results here…removing the invasives and allowing the native plants to seed themselves in certain areas has brought in HORDES of nesting birds – each year new species….