Rewilding My Lot

The Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) that I have in the back garden grows several inches tall. The Frogfruit that is in the front garden, interspersed with the Bermudagrass there, grows flat because it is regularly trampled and mown.

Almost as soon as I arrived here in February 2023, I started the process of inserting Frogfruit pieces into bare patches of the front “lawn.” I do this every few weeks, whenever the mood takes me, and there is no special treatment of the transplanted pieces — they either survive or they don’t, and I have an infinite supply of fresh pieces.

Here are some key areas of the front lawn where Frogfruit is nicely getting established. Frogfruit is currently blooming, and the flower stems are short enough to escape mowing, so Phaon Crescent butterflies often visit, as do other small insects. It wasn’t until I started looking closely at Frogfruit that I realized how tiny some bees are.

The oldest patch, growing from Frogfruit that I brought from my previous garden in Houston, extends several feet on the north side of the driveway.

The next best established area is a small area near the street that after the next-door property was turfed, our little “utility” corner was badly scalped. Several months later, grass and Frogfruit are growing about equally.

A third area is what is often referred to as a “hellstrip” — that part of the lawn that is between the sidewalk and the street. I don’t want to plant anything there that is too tall or that can’t be walked on, so as the Bermudagrass (which is completely neglected by me) struggles in heat and drought, I insert Frogfruit pieces into the bare patches. Infiltration progress is being made!