Tornados are not especially rare in smalltown Indiana. Nearly as common, in fact, as religious riots were in the city where I was raised (do with that comparison what you will). We’re projected to get heavy storms with a possible tornado later this afternoon, and so, alongside stocking our crawlspace with food, water, and blankets, I’ve prepared for the storm by taking pictures of the wildflowers in my yard before the 70mph winds strip them away. Not exactly Noah’s ark, as prep work goes, but it’ll do.
I thought I’d take a break from shameless-self-promotion posts to share a few of these pictures with you.
There’s an old pit in our backyard where an aboveground pool resided during the tenure of a previous homeowner. Last year I plowed up the soil in the pit to remove invasives, harrowed as many chunks of concrete from the ground as I could, cold-stratified a pound of native wildflower seeds, and, come springtime, scattered those seeds in the fallow mud. My goal was to create a flower pit, teeming with insects and bright colors, and the scheme mostly succeeded. Wasps, bees, and butterflies positively swarmed around our yard, to say nothing of the birds the insects attracted.
I didn’t plant any new seeds in the pit this year, and I wasn’t certain how much of the old stuff would return, but I left plenty of leaf piles for insects to winter in. More from laziness than from trying to be a friend of the environment, if I’m honest.
To my joy, quite a few flowers have returned to the pit. And I’ve tried to bolster the pollinator-friendly environment by adding a ring of stones filled with yet more wildflowers and other tall plants to our front yard, in a bald spot where a tree was previously uprooted. It involved bringing in a lot of dirt, but I’m happy with the results:
The goal for later this year is to kill off a big strip of grass with the cardboard-and-woodchips method, followed by eventually planting some native shrubs. I also need to have a knowledgeable friend guide me through the process of identifying and dealing with invasive plants, quite a few of which can doubtless be seen in these photos. That should happen in the not-too-distant future.
A pompous thought: because I purchased the initial wildflower seed with the PayPal account where my short story royalties get deposited, I like to think of our grubby little pit as a Garden of Words. Don’t we all deserve to feel pompous on occasion?
Here’s to storms and flowers, my friend.
Luke Wildman 