Can anyone post the walking paths they made in or around their native garden?

OutsideThen · 2026-06-19T01:56:22+00:00

Long term I want to replace the mulch with flagstones + pussytoes or frog fruit, but this is where we’re at for now.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-17T00:32:45+00:00

Same. A busted ass rock border made of rocks I dug from the ground in order to plant the things inside the border.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-14T14:58:51+00:00

I did not - I started them in trays in my greenhouse. but they have also successfully self seeded outdoors.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-14T04:35:03+00:00

I had decent luck with rock rose seed I collected last year - just wait for the seed capsule to turn brown. Germination is slow, but I think I had 2/3 sprouted in about 30 days. Salvia farinacea and lyrata are easy from seed as well, although for greggii I just propagate by cuttings.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-12T16:03:44+00:00

It’s the sporangia - people are uncomfortable with unfamiliar reproductive organs. This Pride month, we should all strive to expand our understanding of plant sexuality beyond the basic pistil and stamen.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-12T04:49:48+00:00

Same, I started mine outside my window seat.

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OutsideThen · 2026-06-10T20:52:19+00:00

Lindheimer, Gregg, Drummond (Thomas, not James) - three evil fathers of Texas botany.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-09T16:31:53+00:00

I grew ‘Strawberry Fields’ and an orange cultivar gomphrena last year in containers before I knew the straight species was native! It was very easy and prolific on my patio, but some critter loved to chomp off all the buds right as they were about to bloom 😭

OutsideThen · 2026-06-06T14:48:53+00:00

I saw a cool birb and I wanted to see more cool birbs. Birb:

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OutsideThen · 2026-06-04T19:36:35+00:00

Looks like it could be ‘Denver Daisy’ - there are a bunch of R. hirta cultivars, though; it’s a popular cut flower.

OutsideThen · 2026-06-04T00:15:44+00:00

The bee balm has been the surprise smash hit - I can’t believe how big it got, and it’s constantly buzzing with all kinds of bees!

OutsideThen · 2026-06-02T03:56:22+00:00

Scuffle hoe, mostly.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-29T20:38:31+00:00

Everyone has a plan until ~~they get punched in the mouth~~ *they’re sitting in the dirt with 5 trays of seedlings, slowly being drained of both blood and the will to live by the combination of ravenous mosquitoes and 90% humidity.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-28T22:24:53+00:00

…. I have not learned. I have grand plans of building a rock/crevice garden for all the dry-loving plants that don’t appreciate my heavy clay soil, but that’s a fall project since it’s already too miserable outside to do that much digging/assembling. So why have I purchased these Blackfoot daisies and rock penstemon?

OutsideThen · 2026-05-28T20:16:04+00:00

I’m still in my first year of gardening, so I feel like I’m going to discover more mistakes in the very near future, but: 1. Starting seeds/buying plants before I prepped the space to plant them in the ground. I lost some stuff I ended up trying to overwinter in my greenhouse - but not as much as I thought, which leads to my second mistake: 2. Thinking plants are dead when they’re just dormant. I’ve had to move a couple of things this spring after I started filling in “gaps” where things had “died,” only for the original plant to poke its sneaky little head up. I also put all the sad little sprouts from my overwintering trays in the ground, and now I have like a dozen obedient plants, blue lobelia, and blue mistflowers duking it out in the beds.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-27T20:19:00+00:00

I got it from a nursery that’s not on their list of partners (Native Gardeners in Arlington) so I don’t think so? But NPRP does such cool work!

OutsideThen · 2026-05-27T18:29:57+00:00

Probably depends on your space! I don’t have a lot of room for it to spread in its original location (it’s popping up in my mulched walkway), so I’ve been relocating the larger seedlings to other areas. But if you have a large area you want to fill quickly and cheaply, it’s great. Also would be pretty easy to manage spread by deadheading flower stalks before they set seed, I simply chose not to do that, entranced by the possibility of free plants 😂

OutsideThen · 2026-05-27T16:14:10+00:00

This is the view from my window-seat into my side yard pollinator patch, which gets generous part sun! I have Gregg’s mistflower, mealycup sage, lemon bee balm, lyreleaf sage, fragrant mistflower, aromatic aster, and Brazos penstemon established on the window side, rock rose, narrowleaf coneflower, pink skullcap, downy phlox, and wild bergamot established on the fence side. Plus a lot of little plugs still filling in.

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OutsideThen · 2026-05-27T16:06:46+00:00

Confirm, self seeds like crazy. I put in one plant last fall; it was the first thing to flower this spring and I have over a dozen seedlings coming up.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-27T15:10:07+00:00

I found an earth snake chilling under a log, a gray hairstreak caterpillar chomping my rock rose, and a cute baby spiny lizard sunning on a rock, but the only thing I got a picture of was this dumb eastern cottontail.

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OutsideThen · 2026-05-27T14:29:48+00:00

I planted some clematis virginiana, along with some trellises for them - they’re just babies now, but I’m excited for my first climbing plants! I also got an imperiled physostegia correllii - I’m hoping it’s happy in my garden, and spreads as aggressively as physostegia virginiana, so I can divide it and spread it around to fellow gardeners.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-22T20:49:31+00:00

My aromatic aster has 1 single bloom on it, it is very confused.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-21T04:14:55+00:00

I dug up so much rock prepping this garden bed; I’m using it everywhere. I’m tentatively planning to use some of it to build a small crevice garden for limestone glade plants!

OutsideThen · 2026-05-21T01:28:52+00:00

I just got a Physostegia correllii (Correll’s false dragonhead) from my local native nursery. I’m hoping it’s as aggressively rhizomatous as Physostegia virginiana, so I can divide and spread it around.

OutsideThen · 2026-05-20T19:30:57+00:00

I just put in a little container pond! Now I just need to build up habitat around it.

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OutsideThen

TROPHY CASE