After having the majority of the front yard redone last winter (driveway, grading), I seeded that side with a native seed mix from Native American Seed. Prairie grasses and flowers showed up! It turned out better than I expected considering the crazy summer and very little rain during that period.

It was my goal to finish the other side on my own, and today I’m mostly done.

After removing a crap-ton of liriope, light grading work, and fixing the stone path, I finished by seeding with shade-friendly grass and wildflower mixes. I’m really excited to see what happens here.

It took me almost 10 years to really think through what I wanted to do with this property. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me in the back, but it’s mostly all planned out. While completely different from almost all of the landscaping in the neighborhood, if not city, I’m proud of where it’s headed and hope this place can serve as a great example of suburban land stewardship that is both organized and wild (like me) and gives back greatly to the hyper-local environment.

The major goal is to populate 80%+ of the landscape with natives, and make a home for not only my family and friends, but wildlife and insect friends as well. I knew I was on the right track last year when I would look out in the front to find a bunch of birds wandering around the prairie grasses. So cool.