Well, we all know I've been excited about planting more natives this year. There are so many to choose from, and the best part is they all will lend greatly to a natural look and habitat.
One of my all-time favorite flowers is the black-eyed susan. There's a couple different varieties, but I think the more common ones will be what we choose. I'm also gonna go a bit crazy with monarda (also known as wild bergamot and bee balm). If you've never had the chance to smell bee balm, it is a wonderfully refreshing scent with characteristic, fun-shaped flowers. Purple and yellow coneflowers will look nice; as mentioned before they are also a favorite food source for more than a few species. Beautiful asters will lend to the fall color, and I absolutely love them! I have a feeling asters will make it into my pressed-flower art and resin casting next year.
To round out the look, I'll probably plant some bluestem, little or big, along with a few prairie roses and sedges.
For shrubs, I'm thinking maybe some arrowwood viburnum and maybe ninebark. Dogwoods also are abundant in Indiana and who doesn't love those?
We will be cutting down our silver maple this year; it's seen the best of its life and is slowly dying and becoming a sad eyesore. We're not sure which tree we're going to plant there, although we were going to go with a bald cypress. Not anymore, considering our pact to only go with native plants. It has to be a tall, shade-giving tree. We have a baby thornless honeylocust growing close to it right now, we may just leave it where it is and skip replanting in the place of the old silver maple.
If you live in Indiana, or even the surrounding region, I urge you to check out Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society to get an idea of natives to spruce up your garden!
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