A Look Outside: February

View of the prairie and pond areas looking south

I took a walk outside to check on the pocket prairie we installed in late 2018. We removed about a third of the turf grass in our backyard to put this in and are very happy with its progress. You can see that we left the old growth in place for the winter so that birds and critters could take advantage of the seeds and shelter. The prairie was mostly planted with plugs and the growth in the first season was tremendous; the New England asters were at least 5' tall! (I'll include a full plant list in a future post) The area surrounding the pond is unresolved since that was just dug in the fall and is not quite finished. It will be densely planted so plants are trailing into the water and screening the pond from the rest of the yard to provide a hidden destination accessed by a path. 

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View of the hedge looking north

The native shrub and perennial hedge is looking great this winter. I particularly love the contrasting form and color of the redtwig dogwood, willow, and coneflower seed heads. It's providing some screening even without leaves. We had considered incorporating some evergreens, but were unable to find anything that felt "right" with all of our other plant choices. 
If your interested in native plants, keep an eye out for regular posts in this series!