Rewilding My Lot

After two very good rain events about two weeks apart, annual plants (wildflowers) are growing extremely well, especially Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella). In some cases, they are crowding over pathways or smaller perennial plants, so I have been cutting them back when that happens. Here’s an example of Frostweed being crowded by Firewheels.

And here is the same Frostweed after being given more space. In this instance, I even found a small Blue Curls nearby that I had forgotten I planted.

I don’t want to waste the plants that have been cut down, so they are usually chopped up and placed onto the ground somewhere nearby (as above), laid on top of mulch pathways (as below), composted, or saved for shredding.

I cut down the Firewheels instead of pulling them out so that the roots stay in the ground. These are annual plants so they will eventually die and the decaying roots underground will provide nutrients for the soil and pathways for water drainage. If there should be some regrowth before the plants eventually die, I don’t expect that will be a problem.

I cut back Firewheels in a number of locations. Photos below were taken after the trimming. You can see that despite the cut-back, there are still thousands of these plants here. Given that this year I am starting to see an increased diversity of wildflowers, next year I will not let Firewheels grow quite so abundantly to let other things have their chance.