This is a recent article from a Houston paper that someone in the butterfly forum posted. I thought everyone should see it. Click on "resources" and check out her list of plants!! Maybe someone here will even have seen this woman's yard? This makes me want to take a road trip just to visit it before they make her cut it down!
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/page1/3241936#
Homeowner fights for a yard she calls a habitat...
WOW this is something..... Thanks for posting. Too far for me to visit but would love to see it.
I would too! Maybe I'll Google around and see if I can find some pics "out there".
It's not a great picture, but I found a small one.
http://images.chron.com/content/news/photos/05/06/27/front_yard.jpg
Since we are talking about native plant habitats I think it would be appropiate to tell the story of ours.
We heard about the Texas Parks and Wildlife Urban Program in 1996 through an article in the Arlington newspaper, and they featured a yard in Arlington that was certified.
I thought that was a really neat idea, and called the lady to see if she would give us a tour. She was very gracious and showed us her yard and told us how to find out all about it.
We sent for the information, and received the packet in about 3 weeks, and 2 years later we were ready to send in our application. In about six weeks we got out certificate and plaque for the yard, and we were so happy, it is really a thrill to be certified.
The application cost only $15.00, the biggest effort is in having the required percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees, to provide food and shelter for wildlife. Of course water is also very important, especially in Texas.
We have never had bad feedback from our neighbors, as a matter of fact, the opposite is true, everyone comes by and admires the plants and they tell us how happy they are that we chose to have a habitat.
I would say that we have raised the awareness about native Texas plants in our neighborhood, people come for walks in the afternoons and ask, what is this plant or that plant, and they say that they never realized there were so many beautiful native plants and flowers in our great State, and to keep up the good work.
We have tried to keep it neat so that people will not have objections, you can have a habitat without going all the way out there.
I guess here in Arlington they are a little more linient, than in that lady's neighborhood.
The plants on the slope can get 5 feet tall, but we keep it neatly edged and it looks like a flower garden. I have worried at times that the city might say something, but I was surprised two years ago when a city code inspector nominated our yard for the Earth Friendly category, and we won honorable mention and a certificate from the mayor of Arlington.
I never saw the inspector , she came by, saw the yard, and decided to do it on her own, so I guess there is hope that this sort of thing will be accepted.
In case you are interested in having you own habitat, here is the link for the information. http://tpid.tpwd.state.tx.us/ If you have questions please let me know, I will be glad to help as much as I can.
Sincerely, Josephine.