A Better Sense of Place

I've planted and left alone species fairly native to my parish and I've pulled up many an exotic from the ground, but there are still many larger individuals in the yard that are definitely not from 'round these parts. I thought it'd be a good exercise to write about them and why I haven't killed them yet. I also list alternatives that I would plant instead (and which are not necessarily what native appears the most similar).

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I talk and think so much about native plants that I'm sure people assume my gardening is nothing but success upon success. Surely I've got a lush, healthy, multi-layer ecosystem flourishing around the house, right? Well, now that it's fall and plants are starting to peter out in preparation for the winter hibernation, I thought it'd be a good time to share how things did in this 2014 growing season.

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As I said in yesterday's post, this post will sum up with pictures what's been going on the past two months. I'll start with the alley circa August 15, a mere twelve days after my neighbor accosted me at my front door with "But have you seen the alley?"

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Yes, I'm writing a blog post about this blog. I think I just want to lay down some thoughts about why I'm making this upgrade. I wasn't sure when I created my "Yard Diary" webpage on July 20, 2013, how many entries I was going to write or for how long I'd be writing. Maybe I thought it'd only be a year and that I'd have a good before-and-after picture set and a feeling of completing another 12-month project. Well, it's not turning out to be as finite as I thought.

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