In 1999, we decided to convert much of our suburban front lawn into a natural area. The mix of pictures below ranges from ones taken in early June through late July, 2000 and show how the project has progressed in the second year. There are two paths through the natural area which make it easy to walk through the prairie and permit closer looks at the plants in the yard.

    By late July 2000, the Black-eyed Susans which dominated the prairie in June were overshadowed by plants with a much richer variety of colors and heights. The Wild Bergamot and Yellow Coneflower dominate but there are a number of larger white plants (Mountain Mint and Culver's Root which add to the variety). Also, the goldenrod are getting ready to bloom and should start to show up in August and September. You can also see some pictures from 1999 showing: the original planned layout, the planting of the prairie (by David Mindell and Plantwise), and some plants which were blooming then July and September.

    Starting year 3 off with a bang (or at least a flame) we had the prairie burned to kill off non-natives and to help warm the soil in the weak spring sun. Check out the Burn page.
 

View toward street.	View toward house.
Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis)	Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus)	Common Spiderwort & Sand Coreopsis (Tradescantia ohiensis & Coreopsis lanceolata)
Blue vervain (Verbena hastata)	Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta)
Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)	Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
Showy Tick-Trefoil (Desmodium canadense)	Yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)	Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
June Grass (Koeleria macrantha)	Bottlebrush Grass (Hystrix patula)

Questions or comments, contact Rick

Pages and pictures copyright R. Neubig
LastUpdated 3/19/2003