In February 2023 I moved into a new house in Seguin, Texas. There are 122 lots in this development, and the entire area was cleared for the building project. So there are no mature trees in the immediate vicinity, the “soil” is basically sand and stones with no organic matter, and the lot came with Bermudagrass turf and a few standard landscaping plants.
For me, the ideal garden is more than just plants. It’s a healthy ecosystem that encourages a variety of organisms, seen and unseen, and with plants that support the garden environment. The plants here will be primarily native or adapted, have negligible watering needs, minimize water runoff in heavy rains, and provide food and/or shelter to visiting creatures such as insects and birds.
What others call weeds, I call volunteers, and some of them will be invited to stay. For instance, if something is green and will tolerate being mown, then it is welcome in my lawn. My goal here is to encourage a diversity of nature, and to inspire others to enjoy wildlife as much as I do.
I am not an expert naturalist, but I have learned a lot over the past few years. When our Houston house flooded in Hurricane Harvey, after the reconstruction finished in 2018, I started a nature garden there. The advantage I had at that time was starting with fertile soil, which is not the case here, so the process in Seguin will take longer. This is a collection of pictures that show my earlier garden after about four years of development. It hangs on my wall here as inspiration!
Rewilding My Lot 
Leave a comment