frogfruit
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A Mid November Look Around The Garden
It is already mid November, but even for central Texas we still have unusually high temperatures (daytime 80s F). Despite the warmth, the garden is clearly making seasonal changes so I thought it might be interesting to take a look around. I keep the area in front of the house fairly neat. For instance, I Continue reading
american beautyberry, beach sunflower, blackfoot daisy, bluebonnet, common sunflower, cowpen daisy, fall, flame acanthus, food, frogfruit, frostweed, habitat, indiangrass, leaf litter, meadow, mealy blue sage, mexican mint marigold, mexican plum, native grasses, rock rose, season, shelter, shrubby boneset, texas mountain laurel, white mistflower, yellow yucca -
Fall Mowing Of The Wildflower Meadow
October is a good time to put the wildflower meadow in front of the house to bed for the winter. It’s a seasonal project, so to keep the area tidy this is when it gets a good trim. The process for 2025 was largely the same as I did in October 2024. The plants still Continue reading
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Frogfruit Is Teeming With Wildlife
I use the groundcover Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) in several ways here. It serves as a lawn substitute in the sunny front yard, it occupies shady places beside the house or fence where grass is less eager to grow, and it rambles over my woodpile. Frogfruit tolerates traffic and mowing, and attracts a wide assortment of Continue reading
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When A Photographer Visits The Garden
The only camera I have is the one in my phone. For the convenient little device that it is, the quality of the photographs that I can get is pretty good. However, when my friend Ken Harvey visited the garden with his proper camera, the images he was able to capture were so much better Continue reading
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Returning To The Garden After Nine Days Away
I was recently away from home for nine days, right after a week when we had over six inches of rain. I expected to see changes when I got back of course, but I didn’t know exactly what I’d find. Here are some highlights. Some plants had grown a lot. Sunflowers were about a foot Continue reading
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Bee Fly
There’s a lot of Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) here and its tiny flowers are popular with little insect visitors. One day I saw this, which at first glance seems to be a bee but it’s actually a fly. (The photos aren’t great but it was moving around a lot!) If my ID is correct, this particular Continue reading
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Frogfruit As Lawn
I use Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) here as a sturdy groundcover. As a native plant, it’s healthier for the ecosystem here than is Bermudagrass, and I enjoy watching the tiny insects that feed and breed on it. Unlike behind the house, I have not removed Bermudagrass from the front lawn. However, I have intentionally not nurtured Continue reading
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Clearing Excess Frogfruit From Near The Wood Pile
One of the first things I did here once the Bermudagrass had been removed in the back yard was to create a pile of logs and to let a Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) plant scramble over it. Then I pretty much left it alone to be occupied by whatever wildlife wished to use it. In the Continue reading
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Frogfruit Master Plant Has Gone, But Its Children Live On
Last year I planted one Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) near the patio, and have used pieces of that master plant to fill other areas in the front and back gardens. Here are some examples: There’s a Frogfruit strip along the back of the house. It’s a bit straggly in this photo because I recently yanked out Continue reading
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Activity In The Front “Lawn” Frogfruit
There is Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) in the front lawn area, outside of the native flower meadow area. In that location, it’s mixed with Bermudagrass and lies close to the ground. There are a lot of blooms at the moment (they are short enough to escape the mower), and the quantity and diversity of insect visitors Continue reading
About Me
Nature Lover.
Inquisitive Observer.
Student Gardener.
I invite you to join me on my journey to convert my sterile (from a nature point of view) new house lot to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, as I make discoveries, mistakes, and hopefully progress. I am not an expert or professional. The project started in February 2023 and the location is Seguin, Texas, USA.
Rewilding My Lot 