One Small Step

By Kendall Kroesen

 One small step for native plants, one giant leap (okay, also small step) for turf reduction.

Back Yard


Lance-leaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
New England goldenrod (Solidago sp.)
Hairy mountain mint (Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum)
Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium)
Blue-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia)
Spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.)
Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)
Wild marigold (Caltha palustris)
Grass-leaved goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia)
Ohio goldenrod (Solidago ohioensis)
Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

The idea is that these plants will grow a little bit in the fall, survive the winter, and grow big in spring/summer. Maybe some mulch would be a good idea, to help protect them over the winter. 

The lawn here is a thick mixture of grass and weeds. I used a shovel to chop out chunks of sod. I used them to fill in a strip on the side of the house where the ground had subsided over sewer line that was put in when the house was built. 

Because of my experience in the front yard (see below), I expected the soil here to have a lot of clay in it. Fortuntately it had less clay than the front yard and was easier to break up. Still, I mixed in some potting soil with the native soil so that it would drain a little better. This is all an experiment, so we'll see what works and what doesn't. 

I didn't put down permeable landscape cloth, as had been done in the front yard (see below), so I'll have to monitor for weeds. I may put cardboard and mulch around the edges of the plot to reduce the likelihood that the lawn will encroach from there into the plot. 

Front Yard


Heart-leafed aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium)
Hart-leaf bluewood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium)
Short's aster (Symphyotrichum shortii)
False sunflower (Helianthus helianthoides)
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Coral bells (Heuchera sp.)
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
Yellow giant hyssop (Agastache nepetoides)
Sunflower (Helianthus anuus)
Dense blazing star (Liatris spicata)

In the front yard I planted in an area where the original landscapers (before we bought the house) had landscaped. They put down permeable landscape fabric, planted a small number of plants (mostly non-native), and then added a layer of nice-looking mulch. 

The soil there is very heavy clay. I raked back the mulch, made holes in the landscape fabric, dug holes a little larger than the plants' 1-gallon root balls, mixed the clay soil with potting soil, and planted the plants. Then I restored the mulch. I think the root balls will stay wet for quite a while after watering in spite of having mixed in potting soil, given that the surrounding soil is not well drained.  


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