>
> You are welcome. Nandina is not a native, so in that regard I am removing it.
> The birds eat the berries (mostly the cedar waxwings) and spread the shrub to
> areas where it takes over and eliminates native forbs and grasses. >
> Since our garden is a prairie garden, there are going to be things which take
> over, no question. However, if these are native plants taking over it only
> encourages more wildlife to fit in.
>
> Things which reseed, readily are easily controlled in spring, after the rains.
> Simply pull out what you don't want, leave the rest. It is a great deal of
> work the first five or so years till you know what goes where and how much
> re-seeding any given plant does.
>
> For example: The native argeratum...Gregg's Mist. This plant can be an
> aggressive spreader via seeds. However, it is covered in red admiral
> butterflies spring to winter with a slight lapse in summer.
>
> I suppose the point is, native plants taking over are not the big problem for
> areas outside my garden. Aggressive spreaders via bird droppings in water ways,
> or outer fields is a great problem. Any time it takes up space, it's less and
> less space for blackland prairie plants to exist.
>
> We have a half acre. That largest of the borders is in the back. It runs about
> 20 feet deep by about 100 feet wide. The raised bed in back of the pool runs
> the length of the pool at 50 feet and we have another bed in shade which runs
> about 75 feet long by about 6 feet deep in shade. On one side of the house
> there's a hedge row of viburnums and live oak trees and front beds go the full
> width of the house, about 40 feet (that's where the Nandina domestica are) and
> the border on the west side of the house is 10 feet deep by about 40 feet long,
> not counting the trees planted to shade the west side and the A/C unit and pool
> equipment.
>
> I'm working on a webpage to be more specific, but it has been a TON of physical
> work. Since I am not a designer, I made a lot of awful mistakes...some to my
> advantage. I'm not through moving things around come fall, so I've been taking
> a lot of notes. I did add at least 100 echinacea to the gardens this year and
> the daturas reseed, readily. Gaura lindheimerii reseed and so does the Palo
> Verde which I have been digging out, potting up and I'm going to grow them in
> gallon containers in the greenhouse over winter to sell to a garden center
> around here. They have a hard time keeping gaura in stock, and virtually nobody
> grows Palo Verde for the trade. I swap the plants for the best compost in the
> land, made at The Natural Gardenerformatting linkThey are also
> brewing fabulous compost tea as directed by Dr. Ingram at
>formatting link
> They recently changed their website address for anyone who wants to update their
> bookmark.
>
> Victoria
I'm impressed! I want to naturalize most of my backyard--a bit selectively (meaning, I would plant some native plants and also remove others from locations where I don't want them). I feel sorry for all the critters, since all of my neighbors most mow their lawns down to one inch and liberally apply herbicides and pesticides. We need to share this planet, I think.... Anyway, kudos. I do hope you have a website someday so we can learn from it.