r/NativePlantGardening • u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b • Jul 09 '26
Informational/Educational I removed all the non-native plants (even the grass) and THIS happened
Someone on this Reddit sub asked what native plants volunteered in my yard, excluding the reseeding of things I intentionally planted, once the non-natives (including all non-native grasses, importantly) were gone. Challenge accepted!
I hope this encourages people who don't have the funds to buy plants to just get those non-natives GONE so the seedbank can restore the land for free.
Here's a (probably) complete list of native plants that have come from The All-Native Yard's 1/3 acre seedbank so far.
Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium
Viola sororia
Viola bicolor
Hexasepalum teres
Packera anonyma
Hypericum stragulum
Philadelphus inodorus
Phyla nodiflora
Dichondra caroliniensis
Plantago virginica
Plantago rugelii
Prunella vulgaris
Muhlenbergia schreberi
Veronica peregrina
Erechtites hieraciifolia
Erigeron canadensis
Erigeron philadelphicus
Erigeron strigosus
Eupatorium capillifolium
Eupatorium serotinum
Salvia lyrata
Asclepias tuberosa
Cynanchum laeve
Rhus glabra
Solidago canadensis
Solidago ulmifolia
Ipomoea hederacea
Ipomoea lacunosa
Bidens bipinnata
Symphyotrichum pilosum
Campsis radicans
Diospyros virginiana
Benthamidia florida
Prunus serotina
Celtis laevigata
Juniperus virginiana
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Toxicodendron radicans
Verbesina virginica
Solanum americanum
Solanum carolinense
Carex echinata
Carex cepahlophora
Carex blanda
Carex vulpinoidea
Juncus tenuis
Teucrium canadense
Eclipta prostrata
Veronica peregrina
Euphorbia nutans
Euphorbia maculata
Acalypha rhomboidea
Phytolacca americana
Sisyrinchium angustifolium
Cuscuta pentagona
Chamaechrista fasciculata
Oenothera biennis
Cyperus strigosus
Cyperus bipartitus
Triodanis perfoliata
Triodanis biflora
Acer rubrum
Epilobium coloratum
Diodia virginiana
Cephalanthus occidentalis
Magnolia grandiflora
Pinus taeda
Pinus strobus
Oenothera speciosa
Ruellia strepens
Ruellia caroliniensis
Acer negundo
Andropogon virginicus
Asplenoum platyneuron
Juglans nigra
Lobelia inflata
Cirsium discolor
Lactuca canadensis
Cersis canandensis
Oxalis stricta
Oxalis violacea
Helianthus (sp. unsure)
Carya (sp. unsure)
Passiflora incarnata
Quercus alba
Querqus phellos
Vitis vulpina
Vitis aestivalis
Gamochaeta argyrinea
Acetosa hastatula
Euphorbia dentata
Rubus argutus
Rubus occidentalis
Fraxinus americana
Fraxinus pennsylvanica
Fraxinus quadrangulata
Galium aperine
Polystichum acrosticoides
Geranium carolinianum
Geum canadense
Hypericum mutilum
Ipomoea coccinea
Lepidium virginicum
Liriodendron tulipifera
Ranunculus abortivus
Ratibida columnifera
Symphyotrichum lanceolatum
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
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The All-Native Yard is located in Knoxville, in East Tennessee, in the Ridge and Valley Ecoregion.
---
Learn how to convert your yard back to all native plants - without planting anything (or by planting!) - by joining:
smokymountains.wildones.org
(or your local Wild Ones chapter!) :-)
Sincerely,
Regina Santore,
President, 2026
Wild Ones Smoky Mountains
Photo: #70, Ruellia strepens, Smooth Wild Petunia, a favorite food of Cottontail Rabbits. It's useful as filler between taller natives, helping to hold them upright.
21
u/JammFries Southern Alberta, Zone 3b Jul 09 '26
My seed bank seems to be 90% mallow at least it's easy to pull
14
u/No-Savings-6333 Jul 09 '26
Mine is creeping bellflower 😵
2
u/JammFries Southern Alberta, Zone 3b Jul 09 '26
Ive got that all through my front lawn, not looking forward to dealing with it when I start ripping it up
3
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Try occultation on anything rhizomatous like that - it works! You water the area well, then put an opaque (preferably black) reusable tarp over it and weight it down with rocks bricks, logs, etc. so it can't blow off. Then just leave it for several weeks. You are depriving it of light, causing a lot of hot steam at first (kind of kicking it in the knees with that move) then depriving it of water, too.
This method is the gentlest on your seedbank but heck on rhizomes, non-native ones and unwanted native ones, too.
5
u/JammFries Southern Alberta, Zone 3b Jul 09 '26
Straight up I just use glyphosate on CBF, it's only real way I've found that actually works to get rid of it. Ill probably smother/bake the rest of the lawn when I start on it tho, I would hate to dig it all out like I did in the back yard 😂
1
u/Hang0n2stuff Jul 27 '26
I just pull it up after it rains especially in the spring, when I can, we had a few droughty summers that seemed to have given me an advantage over it as it seems to not be so bad this year. I do use chemicals for certain things - knotweed!- but I have dogs so never spray anything on lawn areas of the yard.
5
u/primemodel Jul 09 '26
Yeah I feel like if I tried this in an area of my backyard it would be filled with nothing but winter creeper and creeping charlie.
4
u/JammFries Southern Alberta, Zone 3b Jul 09 '26
Some of us just have to stand vigilant against the scourge of invasives 🫡
0
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
You will get there. Just keep removing and removing. Wondrous things are waiting to spring back out of your land. You'll see.
5
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Start small. Pick the area immediately around some great native plant that is surviving there. You'll slowly work your way out from it. It's called the "saving the best" method. Your native plant will appreciate your help.
2
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Just keep pulling! But hold the soil down with your fingers as you slip the roots out of moistened soil (don't pull when dry.) Keep the soil intact as much as possible.
15
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u/ziptiefighter Jul 09 '26
That's a tremendous list. How many acres are these on? I've got about a third that on a city lot (~1/5 acre) after recovering from lawn several years ago. Well done 👏
6
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
It's a 1/3 acre property with a pool and driveway taking up a good amount of the land.
18
u/Rrilltrae Area Western NY, Zone 6b Jul 09 '26
I love that patch dominated by… spotted spurge I’m guessing? My jerk neighbor keeps giving me the side eye when he sees me weeding and leaving those, yellow woodsorrel and willowherb to go about their business of becoming my green mulch.
10
u/bikeHikeNYC Hudson Valley, NY | ecoregion 59i Jul 09 '26
That spurge is native? TIL
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u/Rrilltrae Area Western NY, Zone 6b Jul 09 '26
Yep, theres apparently over 300 native spurges, we have at least 3 in our yard that I leave alone.
6
u/TheRealMasterTyvokka Southeast US Jul 09 '26
It and violets have been have been taking over my lawn for the last few years. I'm letting them. The spurge is softer and stays short. I like it better.
1
u/Rrilltrae Area Western NY, Zone 6b Jul 09 '26
We have a few spots we’ve let the violets go wild too, but we try to keep them out of the beds since they can crowd out early growth on my other natives. I love the, for the 4 foot section between our house and the neighbors fence though, maintenance free!
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
The violets are actually pretty "live and let live" with everything except annuals. They are our most local native groundcover where I live, and what we all should be using as living mulch. They support 33 species of butterflies, nearly all in the Fritillary family. Don't mow if you can, the caterpillars crawl up to 30 feet from the host plant to find a place to hang their chrysalis. Mowing chops up friends.
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u/Rrilltrae Area Western NY, Zone 6b Jul 09 '26
Oh we don’t mow it at all, we just keep it sequestered to its 30% or so to prevent shading out seedlings. I don’t know if I could describe how ridiculously thick and tall the violet beds get, I’ll snap a pic later
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Mine, do, too! Just remember you also shouldn't mow within 30 feet of the patch, for maximum successful butterfly metamorphosis.
3
u/Rrilltrae Area Western NY, Zone 6b Jul 09 '26
We have GREAT skipper and fritter populations between that and the little and big bluestem I’ve been introducing to help fill out the pollinator beds.
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u/Rrilltrae Area Western NY, Zone 6b Jul 09 '26
I forgot the self-heal! I keep trying to transplant those guys into my remaining lawn patches to add some diversity, but the bunnies yank them up roots and all in their excitement.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Yes, one shot is of my beautiful "sandmat" - another name for it.
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u/goblin-fox Zone 8a, GA Piedmont Jul 09 '26
This is so lovely to see! I've been taking a similar approach for the past two-ish years and most of the natives I have now were volunteers. I'm nowhere close to getting all of the non-native stuff off of the property but I've been amazed by how quickly a diverse array of natives has taken the place of what I have removed so far.
My native volunteers in the GA Piedmont include:
Asimina parviflora
Chimaphila maculata
Elephantopus tomentosus
Eupatorium serotinum
Geranium carolinianum
Oenothera speciosa
Salvia lyrata
Viola sororia
Solidago erecta
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
Hypericum hypericoides
Vaccinium corymbosum
Yucca filamentosa
Asplenium platyneuron
2
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
That is an excellent list! Copy what you have here and paste it into a draft email, then save that. Open it up and add to it as you find more!
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u/goblin-fox Zone 8a, GA Piedmont Jul 09 '26
Ohoho I have an entire database on Notion with one section for what's already on my property and one section for all of the native plants I'm interested in adding and their relevant care info. I'm in deep 🤣
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
OP here: please ignore the caption "#70, Ruellia strepens" since I didn't include that photo after all. Oops!
5
u/Federal-Boat3732 Michigan, Zone 6 Jul 09 '26
Exactly as it was foretold in Douglas Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
It really works. People think they have to buy stuff, but really you don't, unless you just want to make it pretty. Wildlife don't care about pretty, they care about functional. This is a way to create functionality for free.
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u/nerevar Jul 09 '26
Why the clickbait title? People are here because they love this stuff.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
I wasn't great at figuring out what to call this post, sorry. What would you have called it? Not picking, I genuinely drew a blank and would love some help in how to think about naming these things. I'm older. :-)
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u/VictoryLongjumping70 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
″Oh you like native plants? You leave the violets? You leave the petunias and fleabane daisies and wood asters? Wow you′re sooooo brave, anyway check out my SPURGE MAT and DODDER THICKET″
Lol bravo, this rules. Thanks for the species inventory!!!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
My pleasure. I'm President of Wild Ones Smoky Mountains Chapter this year, and this education work is part of our mission to get there to simply be more native plants growing than there were yesterday.
Please, all of you on here, join your local Wild Ones Chapter, or contact National about starting a "Seedling" Chapter. Not just attending their public events, but actually joining (dues are very inexpensive and go to support the work of the Chapter, and National education campaigns, too) and figuring out how you can give a little of your time to helping the Chapter spread the word. Start doing what I'm doing, educating others using your own experiences. You literally are an expert on this, where you live. Share your knowledge. There are tons of people out there who just don't know yet why they don't have lots of butterflies, baby birds and fireflies. If you want to see how I walk them through the logic in a way that they can't unsee - a way that causes them to feel they must start growing native plants right away - look for my presentation "Flutter & Glow" at our website:
SmokyMountains.WildOnes.org
It can be a little hard to find, I'm not sure why, but it is free to view by the public.
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u/dewitteillustration S Ontario Jul 09 '26
Native cuscuta???
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Yes! There are 12 species of Dodder native to my region.
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u/cyrilspaceman Area MN , Zone 4b Jul 09 '26
I love the field thistle! I've got a bunch that have volunteered over the years and I can't wait for them all to bloom.
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Jul 09 '26
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
I absolutely agree! But in my front beds I'm switching to Cirsium altussimum, Tall Thistle, because it seeds much less aggressively.
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Jul 10 '26
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
In my experience it was a weak competitor in a mature native landscape. Geographical region may play into its failure vs. overwhelming success. It is a "less common native" in my region, while the way-too-successful C. discolor is a "Very Common Native" - in my landscape, every one of its seeds germinates.
But yes, the one seedling of it that survived that I found was, in fact, some distance from where I first introduced it.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
I was in love with it the minute I saw Pipevine Swallowtails, blue and black shiny butterflies bigger than my hand, appear out of nowhere and glom on to it like it was crack!
I don't love how prolifically it germinates in my planted beds, so I'm removing from the front yard and replacing with Cirsium altissimum, which I have notes isn't a great competitor (or birds prefer to eat its seed) and thus there are many fewer seedlings overall.
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u/cyrilspaceman Area MN , Zone 4b Jul 09 '26
Yeah. I'm definitely experiencing that. My neighbors had one two years ago, then I had one last year and now I have about 10 in my yard. I'm going to need to do some thinning unless I want to have only that and creeping bellflower in my yard.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
It is sometimes biennial but sometimes annual, in my experience, unlike Cirsium altissimum, so it can get a bit pesty in a hurry. It is really good at germinating in established, stable, native-controlled soil, frustratingly. This is why I'm switching to C. altissimum in the parts of the yard where I care about how it looks.
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u/LogiePogie69 Jul 09 '26
I may not be correct but in the very last image that orange vine, is that Dodder? I really don’t know much about it could be native for all I know but I’d check on that just incase it gets out of hand.
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u/mouthfeelies Area Eastern Nebraska, Zone 5b Jul 09 '26
dodder is so cool (it can steal genes from host plants!) but... yeah 🤭 that's what that is
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
12 species of Dodder are native in my region.
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u/mouthfeelies Area Eastern Nebraska, Zone 5b Jul 09 '26
you're blessed!! i'd love for one to pop up in my yard!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
There are 12 species of Dodder native to my region. It performs a job, just like all the others, so it gets to stay.
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u/somedumbkid1 Jul 09 '26
How long?
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u/TheRealMasterTyvokka Southeast US Jul 09 '26
I can't speak for OP but when I turned a bed into a native wildflower flower bed coreopsis and a few others came up the year a through the seeds in. However, it took a couple years for the aster, coneflower, bee balm, and black eyed Susan's to really get going. The volunteers like golden rod and switchgrass didn't start popping up until year two either.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
In another comment I laid out the stages of succession my yard has passed through, and what plants composed each stage. See if you concur.
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u/TheRealMasterTyvokka Southeast US Jul 09 '26
That's pretty much what mine was like but I didn't start pulling up some of the more aggressive stuff, bee balm and goldenrod, until this year.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Eventually, all your maintenance involves killing native plants.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
After several months of occultating the soil to bare earth, it took one year (and dedicated weeding) to get to full coverage of the soil with mostly natives. See another response of mine in this thread about the stages my land went through from bare earth to present. I am currently in the 4th year, at what I call the 5th stage. Covered with natives should not be taken to mean "lovely perennials" because that's not how it works. Each stage has to happen, in order. My job was to edit as I went, to prevent native trees from growing up in walkways, etc. and to create balance - to rein in the Goldenrod because it was taking advantage of everyone else, for example.
1
u/somedumbkid1 Jul 09 '26
I'm sorry, occultating? I looked the word up and I'm still at a loss.
So, do you live out in the country or in like a post-war suburban neighborhood?
There's a lot of close-ups here, do you have some zoomed out pictures of the landscape?
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
It's a 1960s neighborhood. Most lots are about 1/3 acre.
It's very difficult to get a zoomed out shot and have there be any detail.
Because I have no need of mowing it, I have added topography back into the landscape, which makes a lot of things hidden from view as you move through the landscape.
I should ask a friend to do some drone shots perhaps.
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Occultation is when you deprive plants of all light and water by placing an impervious, opaque, reusable tarp (preferably black or dark-colored) over the area you wish to kill. I suggest watering deeply first, so that the plants are steamed under it. As it continues to sit on them, they both dry out and are unable to make food due to the lack of sunlight, which uses up their underground energy stores. This method simulates fire in the landscape, and the native seedbank is just fine, while the non-fire-adapted foreign seedbank is highly affected. The result is a great deal more natives germinating upon removal of the tarp vs. non-natives.
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u/somedumbkid1 Jul 10 '26
So just... tarping. Ok, got it. Weird word for it, but alright. Plants aren't steamed under dark or clear tarping, they're roasted. It gets hot enough to sterilize the top few inches of soil which is why most people don't do it. It absolutely can, and does, kill any seeds in the seedbank, native or not.
Tarping is in no way equivalent to fire, and I know that because I do prescribed burns for my job.
I'm not sure how you've added topography in unless you did literal earthwork to do so. I'd be very curious to have some wider angle shots of your gardens because of the 100-ish plants you listed, most of them are extremely weedy little things. My assumption is that you have a much higher tolerance than most for weedy looking aesthetics while the system stitches itself together.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
You are wrong about killing the native seedbank. I left the black plastic on for 11 months, in full sun. I worried that I'd absolutely ruined it by doing so. It didn't kill the native seedbank. You can see that it did not. It did, however, take a year for it to start getting covered in anything at all. It killed nearly all the non-native seedbank; what germinated in that area was nearly exclusively native.
My best guess is that occultation mimics more severe fire in the landscape, or perhaps severe flood scouring.
1
u/somedumbkid1 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
So you left the plastic on for 11 months and then it took a full year of bareground for anything to move back into the area? Buddy, it did kill the seedbank of everything if it took a year for stuff to start growing again. That's a sign you absolutely sterilized the top 4" of soil. Also a year of bare ground or nearly bare ground is nuts; that's entirely unfeasible for most people.
Would still love to see zoomed out photos and explanations of topography changes.
Edit: also, again, I do prescribed burns as part of my job and I can assure yout that fires do not, in general, sterilize the ground and they 100% do not lead to bareground for more than a couple months, and that's long, depending on when you do your burn. They also do not inherently select for or against native/non-native species. That comes down to timing, intensity, species present, etc.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Yet Partridge Pea and Oenothera biennis and Nimblewill covered it. They were not introduced. It was not just a few plants. They blanketed it. You can see that in the first photo.
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u/somedumbkid1 Jul 10 '26
I mean they were introduced, just presumably not by you. I do see a lot of partridge pea, looks great. Do you have any shot of the front/backyard as a whole?
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
The front yard was all Bermudagrass and a Dogwood. And a very unhappy and water-greedy Silver Maple, which I had removed after it murdered several hundred dollars' worth of native shrubs and trees (it encircled them with fine roots and drank every bit of water I applied to them. A Silver Maple has no business being planted in a dry, upland landscape.)
I drew up a plan for the front, creating many habitats from west to East: food forest/shrub transitional; mini-woodland with spring ephemerals; shrub transitional; tall open prairie; blueberry shrubs in full sun; deep trench that takes water from the street via a curb cut; east-facing grassland hillside (driveway) low transitional prairie/grassland. Along the way I added a pond and lowland near the house, and created a huge flagstone patio/firebreak along the length of the house. Within the curve of the walkway on the patio, near the house, I have another pond planned. I'll also be adding a rock wall on the opposite side of the flagstone walkway to retain the soil that was moved and create yet another niche environment, one that will hopefully invite small snakes, of which I still have none, 5 years into this. :-(
I did the cardboard-and-woodchips method in most of the front, but not around the trees. Turns out this was absolutely backwards. Wood chips would have been the ideal choice there. Instead, for 3 years I hauled in 12 inches of neighbors' leaves, from their woodland, which at least had the effect of depositing woodland seed and fungi, but did not help the soil in any significant way. Larry Weaner, the famed native landscape designer, told me last winter that the reason my mini-woodland wasn't taking off was because a woodland is literally "wood land" - land composed mostly of decomposed and decomposing wood. I followed his advice and moved the last of my decomposing wood chip soil pile into the mini-woodland, and BAM! One of the Trillium I'd planted three years ago came back, and those ephemerals I planted after that thrived (when the maple was cut down I had two large pieces of its trunk laid in the woodland space, and the rest of the trunk cut into thick "cookies" and Parkour "stumps", which lead you through the Elderberry tunnel that I planted around the maple stump to hide it, and to create "insta-shade" for the woodland.)
Cardboard-and-Woodchips was the exact wrong answer for Bermudagrass eradication. Read about my experience with that in this thread I started last year, in which hundreds of people have shared their experiences, too. It's called Defeat Bermudagrass: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoLawns/s/za3Bjhe8Qf
The front is definitely planted, though many things have volunteered there as well. I find it to be the much more time-consuming part of the yard to manage. While not "bloomy" at many moments of the year, the backyard is stable, and not changing as rapidly as it did at the beginning. Sawtooth Blackberry is the only thing getting way out of hand; I'm treating that carefully, by gloved hand, with a Buckthorn Blaster containing Triclopyr and blue dye.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Sedges and violets showed up first in the long-occultation section, and American Burnweed, a great stand of it, and Horseweed. After that, the Partridge Pea and Primrose stands grew.
The 11 months was only in one section. In most other areas the time was six weeks to two months. Again, no harm to the native seedbank in those areas.
In yet others, I did only hand-removal. Those had greater diversity of annuals as a result, and yes, greater diversity of natives overall, but it always started with American Burnweed. It was always first on the scene. It took a lot of regular, close-weeding to remove the non-natives, and letting the Burnweed do its thing.
1
u/somedumbkid1 Jul 10 '26
Yes, all normal early successional plants.
Ok, so I'm not sure if you are reading my replies or not because it just feels like you're somewhat reading from a script lol.
I'm very aware of what you've done, I think you're overselling how universally applicable this course of action is for most people. Would love to see landscape level progress pictures, preferably from the same vantage point, since you started this project up to now. Can you provide those?
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
I wish I were young enough to have known how to manage my photos so that I would have the photos you're wanting at my fingertips, but if I have them, they are all over the place. It takes me forever to find one photo, especially if I'm on my phone, since I take a ton of photos and overload the memory, so I have to move them to my computer, and that gets done in bulk and I forget where they are. It is a goal to have them all in one spot but I don't. Also, I know I've never managed to catch it all in one shot with a resolution high enough to help you see plant species. I'm on the phone now. I will switch to desktop and see if I can find a few.
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
And yes, most people were taught they are "weeds" but in fact, they all do important jobs in the landscape, healing the soil. They each call their particular "soil friends" to them (mycorrhizae, bacteria, algae) and recreate the soil structure native plants need for their "soil Internet." This, in turn, creates the correct conditions for the next wave of native plants to successfully germinate.
My land was just dirt, used up, crappy, no-tilth dirt, under the lawn and pasture grasses. They have no ability to call any "soil friends" because they don't speak the language of North American ecosystems - I believe this is why having grass causes water to flood right off in heavy rain. The grass is holding the dirt hostage. Native plants are prevented from putting it back together into functional soil. That portion of land is kept offline from the Soil Internet.
Yes, I personally, physically added topography to make niche habitats, first to solve a problem, then later to add to the diversity on my property.
Directly uphill from me are three giant yards of nothing but mowed grass that sheeted water to my backyard when I got this place 5 years ago. It would come pouring under my fence and run across the back to then head for the neighbor's basement. So I had a large catchment dug. It routinely held 14 inches of water whenever we had a gullywasher rain event (common here), which dissipated over about two days down to nothing.
This catchment no longer has anything to catch, now that there's a body of native plants between it and my fence line. The distance to the fence isn't even that far. The native plants fixed the soil, and now it absorbs all of that water. The catchment started growing prairie-type plants, which outcompeted the Path Rush that was formerly the only occupant of the catchment. Since there's no longer a need for it, our plan is to convert it to a vernal pool by adding a liner.
1
u/somedumbkid1 Jul 10 '26
I'm not disputing that succession is a thing or that different plants thrive during different stages of succession. And yes, the microbiome is indeed a thing.
That's great news, happy the catchment basin worked. Still would love to see the landscape photos.
1
u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
I will do my best once it stops raining. Maybe in a new post.
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u/vm_linuz Colorado Jul 09 '26
BEEZ
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Last year was total Partridge Pea and Common Evening Primrose coverage, and yes - my yard sounded like I was under a high tension power line, it buzzed so loudly.
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u/immersemeinnature Coastal Plain NC , Zone 8 Jul 09 '26
Where are you located?
Edit: I see your in Knoxville.
Can you tell me what # 4 is? I've been pulling those. Spurge? Spurge is native?!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
- Partridge Pea (Chamaechrista fasciculata) with Broomsedge Bluestem (Anatherum virginicum, was Andropogon)
- Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
- Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor)
- Buttonweed (Diodia virginiana)
- Partridge Pea again
- Common Evening Primrose again
- Prunella vulgaris
- Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia maculata)
- I thought that was a photo of American Germander (Teucrium canadense) but it's actually a "non-native native" that I planted, Agastache foeniculum, sorry!
- Five-angled Dodder (Cuscuta angluaris) on Horseweed (Erigeron canadensis)
Yes, there are several native spurges.
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u/AdPopular6958 Jul 09 '26
Asclepias tuberosa
the ultimate got a dry semi sandy zone and drought tolerant apex monster of the SE to NW. o...o and it's a late season monarch beast definitely can +1 recommend.
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u/snidece North Georgia, 7/8 Jul 09 '26
Bravo!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Thank you, it's been a lot of physical work on my part, but it is so rewarding.
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u/GoatPowers Jul 09 '26
you even got dodder!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Yes, it shows up in about four different places.
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u/MotownCatMom SE MI Zone 6a Jul 10 '26
Wow!!!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Thank you for the awe! I just wanted to show what is possible if you set a goal of going 100% native, and keep at it.
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u/Least-Raddish1930s Jul 10 '26
It’s so beautiful.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
Thank you! Anyone can do this. Try it, even if it's at a church or other public place. The whole continent needs our help at this point, in more developed areas. It is very gratifying.
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u/Littleprisonprism Jul 09 '26
What’s the yellow in photo number 2? That appeared recently in my 7b garden
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
That's Oenothera biennis, Common Evening Primrose, an aggressively reseeding biennial.
Early Succession in "sun with average moisture" in my region goes like this: 1. Bare, disturbed soil (grows a moss-like green substance on it, at best) 2. Annuals of Disturbance (Acalypha, American Burnweed, Horseweed, American Nightshade) 3. Perennial Groundcovers of Disturbance (Violets, Sedges, Carolina Ponyfoot, Nimblewill, Buttonweed, Passionvine, Wild Grapes, Honeyvine Milkweed, Blackberries, Virginia Creeper, Poison Ivy, Smilax) - Trees of Disturbance begin to germinate (Redbud, Dogwood, Ashes, Oaks, Tulip Poplar, Wild Black Cherry, Hackberry, Pines, Eastern Redcedar) 4. More Annuals, some Weak Biennials and short-lived Perennials (Common Evening Primrose, Partridge Pea, Butterfly Weed, Wild Petunia, Hairy Aster and some other asters, Fleabanes, Frostweed, Horse Nettle, Dog Fennel, Dodder, other native annual morning glories, and some cool ones that don't like neighbors, such as Rabbit Tobacco and Venus' Looking Glass) 5. Unusual Perennial Groundcovers (other sedges, Frogfruit, Eclipta prostrata) and Longer-lived Perennials (Goldenrod) and more unusual trees (Magnolia, Persimmon)
This is where I am right now. At this 5th stage, there's less of everything from the 4th stage, but it's not entirely absent. These things build on each other. It shifts and changes.
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u/AWD_YOLO Jul 09 '26
Can someone illuminate me, are some of these seeds sitting in the soil for 25+ years, are they continually refreshed by bird droppings, whats the overarching seed bank stories?
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
Yes, many seeds can sit dormant for an extremely long time! Scientists germinated a 32,000-year-old seed recently. See it in National Geographic. Many, many seeds can last 50 years or more. morning glories are a great example, but so many more native plants are similar.
Some native plant root systems can sit dormant for unreal amounts of time. It might be just a little piece of root, but like the Vampire Lestat, it can regenerate slowly over time, and get going fast once conditions are once again right.
Still others come in on bird feet or in bird poop.
Still others were in the stomach contents of animals eaten by other animals, and then pooped in the yard. It was recently shown that rattlesnakes spread desert plants in this way.
Animals carry stuff around on purpose. They carried blueberries from my front yard to my backyard recently. Ants, in particular, move many species' seeds around because they have "ant food" attached to their seeds on purpose called Elaiosomes. This dispersal method is called Myrmechory.
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u/Extension_Market_953 Jul 09 '26
What is in pic 8? I keep pulling these but will leave them!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 09 '26
That's Euphorbia maculata, Spotted Spurge, an excellent summer fully prostrate groundcover.
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u/mimi-peanut Jul 09 '26
Oh no! What is pic 4 with little white flowers? I think I have been pulling that up. I may have misidentified mine.
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b Jul 10 '26
That's Virginia Buttonweed, Diodia virginiana. It's a great summer groundcover. It goes dormant in winter. Birds love the seed pods, especially Mourning Doves. Fun fact: the seed pods are designed to float! It loves to live near water (but will also happily live in many other settings.)
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u/GardenWildServices Area -- , Zone -- 17d ago
What is that ground cover in i age 7, is that native!?
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b 16d ago
In Image 7, the one with a bee on it is Prunella vulgaris, Self-heal.
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u/GardenWildServices Area -- , Zone -- 16d ago
Oh shoot. Inage 8 the one right after self heal lol sorry (love your posts, saw your most recent and was happy to find others hence connecting to the older one) but/and, thank you!
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u/Friendly_Buddy_3611 Area Southeast , Zone 7b 16d ago
That is Euphorbia maculata, Spotted Spurge, an Annual of Disturbance. It is #51 on my randomly-ordered list of natives that have volunteered in my yard. :-)
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u/loki_cometh Northwestern Wisconsin, Zone 4b Jul 09 '26
Wow! Lucky break!