Rewilding My Lot

By mid-October, the only things still standing in the wildflower meadow were a few Spotted Beebalms aka Spotted Horsemint (Monarda punctata) and Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis), one Silverleaf Nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium), and one Yellow Sneezeweed (Helenium amarum).

As each plant in the meadow has come to the end of its life, I left it long enough for seeds to be produced and then I cut the plants down to keep the meadow neat. Plants were cut into small pieces either by hand or using my shredder so that they could be left in place to feed the soil. Another advantage of retaining cut up or shredded plants is to recycle as much seed as possible back into the meadow in case they hadn’t yet fallen to the ground.

Once the beebalms were pretty much finished with seeding, then all remaining plants in the meadow were cut down, shredded, and scattered.

The next step was to tidy up the ground and set up the meadow for next year. There is a little more seeding to be done this fall, but after this year I intend to let the meadow reseed itself from year to year.

The Bermudagrass in the front lawn is rather brown because of heat and lack of water, but most of it is still alive and it will green back up once we get rain again. There are some bare patches but they don’t worry me. The Bermudagrass may grow back in, or other plants will fill in the spaces, either as volunteers or seeded by me.

So after cutting down the final meadow plants, then I mowed the whole area very short to scalp and mulch the grass. Interestingly, the area in the center of the lawn where the meadow was had not been mown (or watered) for 8 months.

Here are a couple of photos taken after the mow.

Finally, here are a few memories of the meadow’s first year. From month to month it looked different as various plants came and went. And next year will be different again, as entirely new plants grow from seed.