4/18/19: Yard of Carol Thomas

Now that Carol is retired, she has more time to spend in her yard. Above she shows off a path to the street that she installed at the western edge of her property and how her neighbor now has native plants in her landscape, too. Notice how natives – not turfgrass – grow to the edge of the road.

She “advertises” at the street that her comely yard includes mostly native plants and that it provides for pollinators …

Wildlife, too. We were greeted by a screech owl who emerged to check out the dozens of people in the driveway …

A canopy of live oaks (Quercus virginiana) provides shade and habitat …

Lots of wild coffee (Psychotria nervosa) graced her yard and attracted this zebra longing butterfly …

(Pepperomia obtusifolia) is a delightful ground cover for shady areas …

Native plumbago (Plumbago zeylandica) has white flowers and performs best in shade …

Ironwood (Krugiodendron ferreum) is a not-so-common native tree …

Snowberry (Chioccoca alba) gracefully sprawled along the edge of the driveway …

Tropical sage is a wildflower that grows in shade or sun and is shown here in seed …

Carol provides scale for crownbeard (Verbesina virginica) that grows larger and thicker in full sun. Check out its distinctive winged stems …

Dahoon holly (Ilex cassine) was flowering alongside her bee house …

A red mulberry tree (Morus rubra) grows in the background, a Florida thatch palm (Thrinax radiata) provides contrast, and twinevine (Funastrum cynanchoides), a.k.a. climbing milkweed vine and a larval food for monarch butterflies, climbs around the owl-topped post …