COLUMN: Driftwood Outdoors: Native grass and wildflower yards

Every spring I come to the same conclusion; mowing grass is a colossal waste of time. While I go around and around on a lawnmower, my mind drifts to the fish I could be catching. Time is our most precious resource, and I’m spending mine on a task I do not enjoy, when all I have to do is convert my lawn into a field of native grass and flowers to free myself from the monotonous burden.

I understand this isn’t an option for everyone, as some people live under rules requiring certain appearances to be met. And for some odd reason, the appearance of native prairie plants a foot tall or more surrounding a house in a subdivision doesn’t appeal to the powers that be. Native grasses and wildflowers are beautiful and support pollinators, birds and all sorts of critters. Natives are also beneficial to erosion and eliminate the need for fertilizer. Prairie yards shouldn’t be banned; they should be encouraged.

Instead of Kentucky bluegrass, think about spreading switchgrass. It’s one of the toughest, most adaptable native plants you can put in the ground. It tolerates a diversity of soil types from sand to dry slopes to marshes. Once established, it needs no fertilizer and very little water. The airy seed panicles emerge in summer in shades of yellow, pink or purple. Then the whole plant lights up in gold and red as fall arrives.

Switchgrass is a staple species of tallgrass prairies, a habitat that once covered 170 million acres stretching from Texas to Minnesota. Today, less than four percent remains. The vast majority of these fertile lands have been converted to agriculture and subdivisions. Subdivisions where precious water is pumped from depleting aquifers to water manicured lawns of imported varieties. Costing untold homeowners hours upon hours of evenings and weekends that could have been spent on any number of more enjoyable tasks.

Give me a field of switchgrass, big and little bluestem, and I’ll be happy watching nature take its course. But there is no reason to not let a native habitat shine. Adding in a wildflower mix brings even more beauty and excitement to the landscape, as reds and blues and purple and yellow combine to paint a native masterpiece. Two common, yet gorgeous, wildflowers are the purple coneflower and black-eyed Susan.

The drooping petals of a purple coneflower around a spiky orange cone are unmistakable. Every bee, butterfly and goldfinch in the county seems to know exactly where to find them, and they will thank you with their appearance for restoring this essential wildflower.

Coneflowers bloom from early summer into fall, then keep giving after the petals drop. Those spiky seedheads are winter bird feeders, which release the seeds to propagate more flowers. This is a slightly taller plant, ranging from two to four feet for the straight species and anywhere from one to five feet for the many available cultivars in red, orange, white and yellow. It handles part shade, tolerates dry and rocky soil and doesn't need fertilizer.

Black-eyed Susan is a native perennial that shows off golden-yellow daisies with dark chocolate centers from midsummer to the first hard freeze. Goldfinches and other songbirds flock to the seedheads. Black-eyed Susan tops out at two to three feet. It spreads steadily via rhizomes and self-seeding, so expect a bigger colony each year. It's cold-hardy and laughs at heat, humidity and drought once established.

These are just a few of the amazing native grasses and wildflowers we should be celebrating on our landscape instead of banning their appearance with a four-inch maximum grass height rule to satisfy the neighbors. Even if you can’t convert an entire lawn to natives, just restoring a portion will save you time and money, giving you a great excuse to go fishing.

See you down the trail…

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