Meadows

Margaret Renki wrote in the New York Times April 15th that one way to nurture nature is to neglect lawns. I second that opinion. Margaret and I love the wild flowers that come up in our mini meadows, where other people might put lawns.

Here in Texas the small flowers in meadow-lawns include Blue eyed grass, Wild onion, Hymenoxs, also called Four Nerve Daisies (those short yellow flowers that blanket the local fields including around the Wimberley Post Office), and Straggler Daisy.

Some of the larger more easily visible meadow flowers now blooming include purple Prairie Verbena, Rain Lilies, yellow Engelmann’s Daisy, pink Mexican Primrose (many call them Buttercups), Coreopsis, Bluebonnets, Poppies, orange and yellow Gaillardia (also called Indian Blanket), white Blackfoot daisy, Milkweed, Mealy Blue Sage and Penstemon (commonly called False Foxglove).

None of the plants mentioned above require fertilizing, pesticides or watering. They can use the minerals found in our environment and live off of the water when it comes. Hence, we are nurturing nature by not using chemicals that pollute our water and conserving water.

As for the weeds, I either pull them or mow over them before they go to seed. If they haven’t gone to seed yet, I just let the pulled weed whither on the ground. If they already went to seed I trash them.

Ideally I would put the weeds that went to seed in a hot compost pile, but my compost pile does not get hot enough, so I trash weeds with seeds.

The local weed I hate the most is Malta Star Thistle (Centaurea melitensis). You cannot even mow over it as it has a seed right in the base of the plant! Beggar’s Ticks (Torilis arvensis) does have a whorl of pretty tiny white flowers, but it will soon create a monoculture if allowed to spread. Bedstraw (Galium aparine) sticks to you like velcro, but it is another weed that will take over if allowed to linger.

I recommend you look up the image of these weeds on the internet so you can keep them in check.

I hope you too will decide to nurture nature and enjoy the natural wonders of a meadow.

Written by Jackie Mattice, Hays County Master Naturalist