I haven't posted for some time but I thought since its kind of dead this time of year for gardening you might like to see some late summer 'garden' pics of what I call my 'Prairie Garden' or 'Gardening with Okie Weeds on the Cheap'. This is what a body does when they live in the urban part of OKC and wish they lived in the country like some of you lucky guys.

Actually, I let it run wild this year, especially allowing many of our wonderful prairie grasses to fill in rather than weeding them out like I've done in the past to see what would happen. Nature really did its thing and everything spaced out nicely growing where it wants. As it turns out, I like it very much and it cut back on a lot of work letting it just naturalize. Its nice to not have to worry about watering, pests eating the garden or molly-coddle plants. As it turns out its low maintenance except I will have a big chore come late winter when I cut back my winter interest but the only weeds I have for the most part are the ones I'm growing on purpose.

I had many butterflies of all kinds, moths, grasshoppers, preying mantis, hummingbirds and other interesting flying insects, the yard was teeming with life and we really enjoyed that a lot. The border patch butterflies that like the Cowpen Daisy's made chrysalis's on the sides of the house and the yard was swarming with Painted Ladies by the droves. I took the time to learn the different butterflies this summer.

You can do a lot with common native plants that grow wild along our roadsides. I always keep my eyeballs peeled for possibilities. Hopefully I'm going to add some Grey-headed Coneflowers and Basket Flowers--I sowed some seeds direct and will try some seeds in pots too along with a few other wild seeds I've collected from here and there.

Skeleton Leaf Goldeneye, Blue Grama grass, Muhlenbergia riverchonni, Standing Cypress, Salvia greggi, Cholla Cactus in foreground.

Indian grass, our state grass with little bluestem, sideoats gramma, purple love grass, azure sage, hairy golden aster, blackfoot daisy, bitterweed, cactus

Mexican hats, Little Bluestem, Blue Grama, Gaillardia (Indian Blankets), Mealycup Sage, Artemisia, Indian Grass, Bitterweed, Lazy Daisy, Missouri Primrose, Ephedra, Liatris, Cactus

Liatris, Bitterweed, Purple Love Grass, Ephedra, Little Bluestem, Wild Texas lantana

White flowers---Blackfoot Daisy (blooms all summer into fall), naturalize nicely

Looking out courtyard--Common Bitterweed, Pine Muhly, cactus

Using taller prairie grass out back. Switch Grasses, Muhly grasses, Little Bluestem and still small at this point--Big Bluestem--some improved varieties I got from Santa Rosa Gardens. They offer some named cultivars with spectacular red fall coloring and smaller size than the species. Big Bluestem (of all things) is becoming a popular 'nursery' grass joining the various named Switch Grasses & Little Bluestems.

Palafoxia --new addition, annual grown from seed sent by friend in Texas. Very delicate and airy. Oklahoma native--Muhly riverchonii makes a pink cloud-like background behind the Desert Spoon which I started from seed several years ago.

Conyza.

Thank you! I looked it up and thats it---'Horseweed' is the common name, I like that.

Love it! Really tempted to plant out my front yard like that.

There is another yard up in Culverson's, which is that old housing area close to the Capitol here in OKC and they did their theirs too. There is a bit a mowed lawn left which defines the main native plant area, its a very nice effect with minimal mowing. They have native Oklahoma plants, I know because I've seen the same plants along the roadside but they are different plants than I'm growing which makes it interesting to me. I drove by periodically all through spring, summer and fall to watch it change colors as the seasons progressed.

The city did a lot of this sort of planting around the Capitol buildings too, its all low maintenance and looks very 'Oklahoma'. Kind of a native pride sort of thing, lots of grasses. At the History Center, they have an all native garden with labeled plants.