Rewilding My Lot

Twice a year, our local Native Plant Society of Texas chapter (Guadalupe) holds a plant sale in Seguin. The fall sale occurs during the annual Pecan Fest celebration, which was a few days ago.

My fall planting plans in the back yard mostly involve getting as much seed to take as possible, because that’s the most economical way to get a lot of plants in the ground quickly. I do have a few trees and shrubs so far that have been planted from pots, and the seed to sow has been purchased.

The front flower bed has enough plants for now, except that there is space for a few extra things to replace original builder-installed plants over some undetermined future timeframe.

So I went to the native plant sale without looking for specific items, but open to things that might fit into this year’s plans.

I came away with three small plants each of Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) and Silver Ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea), all of which were placed in the flower bed in front of the house (removing a couple of unwanted builder-installed plants to make room).

My readers may remember that I’ve already had one attempt to sow Bluebonnet seeds in the front lawn, which were possibly washed away by heavy rain the next day, and that I plan to try the seeding again soon. So these Bluebonnet plants, which I have put together in a cluster, are my insurance policy to try to be sure that I have at least some Bluebonnets here next year. These plants are unlikely to do anything more above ground this year, but hopefully over the winter the roots will strengthen in preparation for flowering in the spring.

I was not familiar with Silver Ponyfoot, but several people now have told me that they have it and like it. It’s a sun-loving native groundcover with white flowers and silver-colored leaves. If it’s happy here, it will be useful for space filling and erosion control.