Bonnie's Back Yard/Early Summer

Sometimes we need look no further than our own back yards for amazing natural spectacles. Such is the case with my neighbor Bonnie's back yard, which (thankfully) she chooses not to mow until the coreopsis have finished blooming.

The photo above is how her yard looked a couple of days ago. The flowers are still blooming brightly today; I can see them from my house, and they look like a bright yellow carpet on the western horizon.

Yellow Wildflowers, Old Farmhouse

Here's another view of the yellow wildflowers shown in the last picture, with the old farmhouse in the background.

I love these rural landscapes. When I was very small, I used to beg my parents to live in the country. "Why can't we live on a farm and have horses?" was a constant, pesky question.

I guess some childhood dreams don't die.

Land of Flowers, and a Vanishing Way of Life

Not all of our spring wildflowers are purple. Here are some beautiful yellow ones, although I'm not sure exactly what they are—they could be blackeyed susans or maybe coreopsis, the state wildflower.

"Florida," after all, translates from the Spanish as "land of flowers." Evidently the early Spanish explorers were so impressed with the native flora that they named this area for its flowers. I hope that over time, more and more people will come to appreciate and encourage these wild beauties. 

I love the old barns in the background of this picture. They stand as silent reminders that an old, honored way of life—that of the family farm—is fast disappearing, although not entirely gone.

I have been heartened recently to see that there is a growing movement that encourages people to eat locally-grown food; perhaps this will inspire more farmers to stay in business.

Carpets of Purple Phlox

The spring wildflowers are blooming, providing feasts for the eyes on nearly every rural roadside.

The phlox are my favorites, so thick in places that they look like purple carpets along the roads and in the fields. Here, above, is a glimpse of what I see every day on my commute to my new job. (Remember, you can always click the picture for a better view.)

The key to encouraging the wildflowers is NOT MOWING THE GRASS. I've noticed this year that some places that used to be thick with phlox have been mowed, so of course there are no flowers at all where there used to be many of them.

In our front yard, we have some phlox that we are trying to encourage, so last year we didn't mow until all the phlox had gone to seed. I'm sure our neighbors looked askance on that particular practice, but our spot of phlox has expanded this year, so we will again follow the same practice. It would be wonderful if our whole front yard could one day be covered with phlox!