The Wimberley Way

Around here we have a saying – “The Wimberley Way”. When you here that it just means we do certain things differently in our “Little Bit of Heaven”. There is one thing I would like to see added to the Wimberley Way. What if we could say in the Wimberley Way we don’t sod lawns; we just leave them natural.

The grasses sold for sodding a lawn are generally either St Augustine or Berumuda. They come from far away, the tropics and Africa respectively, and require mowing, water application, and weed control. A natural lawn, on the other hand, will be a polyculture of mixed species. The predominant plant in my lawn is Horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis) also called Straggler Daisy. This lovely little ground cover attracts butterflies on the small reblooming yellow flowers. It grows very well in the shade but also tolerates sun. Horse herb never needs to be watered, but it can be mowed if plentiful rain causes it to grow too tall.

I have three favorite things about a native plant lawn. The first is that it provides habitat. In the symbiotic way of nature most every native plant will ben efit a native animal species. Also, it does not require weed control. And the third benefit is it requires no water. We all know the water situation in Texas. We need to conserve! I hope the native plant lawn will become part of the Wimberley Way in our Little Piece of Heaven.

Becky Denton, Hays County Master Naturalists.