Why We're Trading Our Lawn for Wildflowers
(And Why It's Great for All of Us)

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You probably noticed that our front yard looks a little different, and that's intentional! We're in the process of converting our grass lawn into a mix of native and Florida-friendly wildflowers. 

Grass lawns might look neat, but they're a monoculture, meaning there is one single plant species covering the entire yard, and nature doesn't really work that way. A healthy ecosystem depends on variety: different plants blooming at different times, offering different kinds of food and shelter to different creatures. When everything is the same grass, there's very little for wildlife to eat, nest in, or raise their young. 

Native plants, on the other hand, have spent thousands of years building relationships with local bees, butterflies, and birds. By giving them a home in our yard, we're helping support the little creatures that pollinate our food and keep our local ecosystem healthy and balanced.

We're still pulling up grass in spots and letting the new plants fill in, so things may look a little rough around the edges for now, but that's all part of the process! The goal is a yard that pretty much takes care of itself. Native and Florida-adapted plants are built for our heat, our sandy soil, and our rain patterns, so once they're established, we won't need to water and fertilize every week like a traditional lawn demands. It saves time, saves water, and it looks alive - because it is. If you'd like a cutting of anything, we'd love to share. Just please don't cut, pull, or disturb the plants on your own, and feel free to knock on our door to ask or chat! (Just no visits before 10am or after 10pm, please!)

What's Growing in Our Yard

Native Plants

• Tropical Salvia (Salvia coccinea) - Great for hummingbirds and several species of butterflies. Those bright red spikes are basically a fast-food stop for pollinators passing through.
• Spanish Needles (Bidens alba) - I know it looks a bit like a wildflower weed, but it's an important nectar plant in Florida. Bees and butterflies absolutely love it.
• Frogfruit aka Turkeytangle (Phyla nodiflora) - An easy to grow ground cover with tiny purple flowers that's a host plant for several butterfly species, meaning caterpillars actually eat and grow on it. Great for the whole butterfly life cycle.
• Coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora) - The Coreopsis genus is the state wildflower! The bright yellow blooms feed bees and small butterflies, and it reseeds itself so it just keeps coming back.
• Firebush (Hamelia patens) - A Florida native superstar. Hummingbirds, butterflies, and birds all flock to it for nectar and berries. It's incredibly tough and heat-tolerant, and we love the bright red leaves.
• Wineflower aka Red Spiderling (Boerhavia diffusa) - Not to be confused with a related non-native plant, this is another one that can look a bit weedy. It's a delicate but hardy native that produces tiny blooms loved by small native bees and other insects that often get overlooked.
• Sida ulmifolia (Sida ulmifolia) -  A native host plant for several skipper butterflies. It's not flashy, but it plays an important supporting role in the local food web.
• Virgina Pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum) - This bushy native plant produces clusters of tiny white flowers that are loved by butterflies, small native bees and other beneficial insects. It's also a host plant for checkered white and cabbage white butterflies, meaning they rely completely on it!
• Painted Spurge - (Euphorbia heterophylla) This native wildflower is easy to miss until it starts showing off its colorful upper leaves, which can range from green to bright red. It’s an important nectar source for small native bees and other pollinators that often get overlooked. Like many spurges, it’s tough, adaptable, and thrives in Florida’s heat and sandy soils with little help.
• Green Amaranth (Amaranthus viridus) - This fast-growing native plant might look like a simple weed, but it plays a valuable role in the ecosystem. Its tiny green flowers provide food for pollinators, and the seeds are eaten by birds and other wildlife. It’s also known for thriving in poor soils and disturbed areas, helping bring life back to bare or struggling patches of ground.
• Florida Pusley (Richardia scabra) - This low-growing native wildflower is often dismissed as a lawn weed, but it’s a valuable nectar source for bees and small pollinators. Its tiny white flowers bloom close to the ground, making it especially important for insects that don’t visit taller plants. Tough and well-adapted to Florida’s sandy soils, it thrives with little care and helps support biodiversity right at ground level.
• Corkystem Passionflower (Passiflora pallida) - This delicate native vine plays an important role in Florida’s ecosystem. It serves as a host plant for butterflies like the Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing, meaning their caterpillars rely on it to grow and develop. The small, pale blooms also attract bees and other pollinators, and it thrives naturally in Florida’s sandy soil and heat with very little care.

Non-Natives (but Florida Friendly!)

While these plants aren't native, they also aren't aggressive or invasive, meaning they won't crowd out or over take resources for the native plants, and they're good for the pollinators. 

• Perennial Peanut (Arachis glabrata)-  This ground cover with bright yellow flowers fixes nitrogen in the soil naturally, meaning it actually improves the yard without any fertilizer.
• Blue Evolvulus (Evolvulus glomeratus) - Not technically native, but very Florida-friendly. This plant is hardy, heat resistant and it's pretty blue blooms attract bees. 
• Lilac Tasselflower - (Emilia sonchifolia) Not native, but very Florida-friendly, this delicate plant produces soft, lilac-pink tassel-like blooms that pollinators love. Bees and butterflies frequently visit its flowers.It’s a great example of a non-native plant that still supports local wildlife without becoming invasive.

Pollinators You Might Spot in Our Yard

• Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) - Drawn especially to the Tropical Salvia and Firebush, these tiny birds are a thrill to watch and are important pollinators of tubular flowers.
• Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) -  A famous migrating visitor that nectars on Spanish Needles and Coreopsis as it passes through Florida on its journey south.
• Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia) - Florida's state butterfly! Frequents Spanish Needles and Firebush, and depends on Native Passionflower as its host plant — it's one of the few butterflies that actually eats pollen, making it an unusually effective pollinator.
• Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) - A striking orange butterfly that relies on Native Passionflower to complete its life cycle, and is commonly seen nectaring on Spanish Needles and Firebush throughout Central Florida.
• Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) - This bright yellow butterfly visits Tropical Salvia and Coreopsis and is one of the most commonly spotted butterflies in Florida yards.
• Checkered White Butterfly (Pontia protodice) - A delicate black-and-white butterfly that uses Carolina Pepperweed as a host plant and can often be spotted fluttering low through the yard.
• Sachem Skipper (Atalopedes campestris) - One of several skipper butterfly species that uses Sida ulmifolia as a host plant, and nectars on Frogfruit and Spanish Needles.
• Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phileus) - Another small but common skipper drawn to low-growing blooms like Frogfruit and Spanish Needles.
• Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica)-  A large, important native bee that pollinates many of our plants and is especially fond of Tropical Salvia and Coreopsis.
• Halictid Sweat Bees (Family Halictidae)-  Small, often metallic-green native bees that visit nearly everything in the yard. Easy to miss but incredibly important — they're some of the hardest working pollinators out there.
• European (Common) Honeybee (Apis mellifera) - This is the honeybee everyone knows. While they aren't native to North America, they still provide a benefit as pollinators and are welcome visitor to the yard all the same! Honeybees are generalist foragers and will work just about every flowering plant we've got. While native bees are actually more efficient pollinators for many local plants, there's no denying honeybees are a fun and familiar sight, and every flower they visit still counts.