Here's What's Happening in Year Two of our Native Seeding

The plants have been busy over the winter and spring! Perennials have been putting down roots and starting to emerge to diversify your plot. You should be seeing some more species than you did the first year at this point. 

Year two is typically filled with vibrant and beautiful yellow flowers. Black-eyed Susan tend to be the dominant species in the second season as they are mostly biennials and completing their life cycles. As the season gets warmer and we go deeper into the dog days of summer, more species should emerge and some late season asters may say hello. Also, some annuals likely reseeded from last year and are growing in with the perennial and biennial plants. Please keep in mind each site is unique and the diversity may be more or less based on a number of environmental factors. In fact, many of your perennial species are still growing down and not producing above ground growth yet. 

Soil is a living ecosystem, so you are likely seeing varying densities of undesirable plant growth as well. Even if you used the mulch layering method, now that it has been in place for a year it is starting to build up a seed bank from whatever wildlife brings into the plot. Also, the newspaper or cardboard are likely breaking down and some plants from the soil are coming up. If you are not sure what is growing, please check out some online sources with identification such as www.wildflower.org and plants.usda.gov/home. Feel free to reach out to us as well and we can make some recommendations.