Text and photos by Judith West reporting for Native Plant News Fall 2025
As with many folks who are plant lovers, when it came time to purchase a house, I was as interested in the yards of homes we looked at as I was in the actual house. After about a year of hunting we purchased a house that was pretty much a blank slate as far as the yard was concerned. On the little less than a half acre, there were the requisite Bradford Pears, a very small Weeping Willow, a sycamore and two maples. The Weeping Willow and sycamore should have been a warning, but I didn’t understand their preferences at the time.
In the following paragraphs I will detail some of the ecological and water issues that confronted us. There have been many people and resources that we learned from over the years. An early book that was a tremendous influence and guided me through the blank slate to a designed landscape was Sara Stein’s Noah’s Garden: Restoring The Ecology Of Our Own Back Yards. More recently while visiting Piedmont Plants Nursery and its owner, Alison Northup, I serendipitously stumbled across the fact that the staff of the NC Department of Environmental Quality is there to help folks with information on how to handle some of their environmental issues. It turns out Alison’s husband. Robby Deans is one such person. He has been very kind in answering questions. This has led me to solutions to some of my recent issues.
Within a couple of months of moving into the house, our backyard and laundry room flooded. This was not due to any summer rains or plumbing issues. We shared our problem with the neighbors and one mentioned that it must be that artesian well. We had no knowledge of a well. After talking more with neighbors and exploring the flooded areas, we discovered that prior owners did indeed have an artesian well, had buried the wellhead, and were routing the water underground out to the storm sewer through a buried hose. The hose had ruptured and that is what was causing the flooding.
We took steps to identify the problem
We thought of that old saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” So we decided to install a small pond in our backyard. We also constructed a very small upper pond that drips or flows into the lower pond, depending on ground water levels. When the water filled the pond, the overflow was routed underground back out to the storm sewer. This solved that problem and, with the inclusion of Golden Club (Orontium aquaticum), Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) and other plants in and around the pond, created a wonderful habitat for birds, frogs, our family, and goldfish (the goldfish have a downside, but along with the frogs, do take care of mosquitos).
Sometime later we became aware of other water issues. Our home is downhill from all but one neighbor. The neighbor directly behind us now has, in addition to the home, a three-car garage with paved driveway, two sheds with concrete walks, and an inground pool with a paved apron. So when it rained we would get lots of water flowing onto our property. After much research we decided to build a couple of low berms dividing the yard into a front and back section that established a wooded area and a lawn area. The berms do not extend all the way across the property but are in two sections. The berms slowed the water, allowing more of it to be absorbed into the ground. In front of one berm we built a playhouse for our young sons. While digging to install the uprights we ran into water at between a foot and a foot and a half.
Water continued to worry us and my husband dug a trench around the house excluding the front porch and driveway. He dug down two feet or more and installed a French drain system. We later learned from a passerby that 16 truck loads of dirt were brought onto the property before they could build the house. Another fellow came by and told my husband that he used to bush hog the property and could not get in to do it until July or later because of the mud.
We found that native plants work best
When we bought our house I was not a native plant person. I did know and love many natives (favorites from childhood were Virginia Heartleaf (Hexastylis virginica) and Bluets (Houstonia caerulea), but I also liked all kinds of other plants. At that time, many plants now considered invasive were touted as being important for any natural garden and unfortunately I didn’t know better and planted them in various places. That is a battle I am still fighting. The more I researched our water issues, the more I was drawn to native plants with their many benefits for the environment.
There is an upside for all the issues we have faced and dealt with over the years. I can plant species requiring a number of different growing conditions. The backyard is usually moist or wet a large part of the year. In that area we have a Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum). I don’t think I can recommend it for residential yards. Years ago before planting it, I read that they only produced knees in wet situations. That information has changed and they now say that knees are produced when water tables fluctuate, as happens on my property. There are numerous theories about why the trees produce knees. I hope for answers someday. A few other species that are happy in the back include:
- Yellowroot (Xanthorhiza simplicissima)
- Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
- Blue Flag Iris (Iris virginica)
- Lizard’s-tail (Saururus cernuus)
- Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
- Golden Club (Orontium aquaticum)
- Atamasco Lily (Zephyranthes atamasco)
- assorted ferns
- Little Sweet Betsy (Trillium cuneatum)
- Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)
- Shooting-star (Primula meadia)
- Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
- and many more.
Around the house, it is much drier after all the work my husband did. I am still figuring out what species will work best there, and getting rid of Big Blue Lilyturf (Lirope muscari) and another invasive ground cover that I planted in the early days before I knew better. One native I am getting rid off due to its aggressiveness and flammability is Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica). Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) seems to be working, as do a couple species of St. John’s-wort (Hypericum spp.) and also some native hollies. A new plant I have only had a little over a year is Georgia Calamint (Clinopodium georgianum) and it seems to love the dry conditions and is well behaved.
Closer to the front of the property where I think they dumped the truckloads of dirt, it is much drier than the backyard. There are trees in the midsection of the front yard including:
- Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
- Flowering Dogwood (Benthamidia florida)
- Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris)
- Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica)
- Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
- Southern Sugar Maple (Acer floridanum)
- Blackjack Oak (Quercus marilandica)
In front of and under the trees there are:
- Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Common Wild Quinine (Parthenium integrifolium)
- Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) and several other phlox species
- Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
- Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) and a couple of other Monarda species
- Narrowleaf Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa)
- Lobed Tickseed (Coreopsis auriculata) and a couple of other Coreopsis species
- Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
- Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida) and Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana)
- Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis) and a couple other Baptisia species
There are always new projects as I become more aware of issues, especially regarding water. There are times of more than plenty and then times of cracked earth. Right now my rain barrels’ overflow goes into the storm sewer. I hope to rig them so that the overflow water seeps out into the yard.
This fall I plan to install plants that can help slow the flow of water along a brick sidewalk beside the south side of the house. Hopefully this will slow the river that rushes down the sidewalk and driveway when it rains and erodes the soil on one side of the drive before entering the storm sewer. This sidewalk gets fairly close to the property line and so I am researching and considering low growing Carex species. I think Eastern Woodland Sedge (Carex blanda) and/or Gray’s Sedge (Carex grayi) might work because they are supposed to be fairly adaptable regarding sun exposure and moisture. After that is attempted, I may remove the private buried storm sewer pipes and replace a section of the driveway that is sinking. The water will then flow through an open ditch and possible rain garden so the water has more time to infiltrate and will also provide more room for different native species. This will take care of sinkholes apparently formed by water rushing between and around the buried pipes.
While the yard is overgrown right now, the water problems have diminished over the years due to the exuberance of plants and their assorted root systems. The lemonade we made years ago, and have enjoyed since that first water issue, has benefited the plants, pollinators, birds, squirrels, frogs, crayfish, and other critters that visit or call the yard home.
Judy West was born and raised in Virginia but after living in several other states she moved to North Carolina in 1989. She was an elementary school art teacher with a passion for plants. Years ago before learning about the NCNPS she started her own local group called Wildflower Watchers. Later she served as the chair of the Triad Chapter of the Native Plant Society. She still develops information and projects to help kids see the connections between the various components in the natural world. While some people are hoarders of papers, cats, or knick knacks, she hoards plants. Over 500 species of mostly natives make their home in her yard.