By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on March 19, 2004
The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas recently initiated the SUN Award (Standing Up for Natives Award) as a way to give recognition to members of the Boerne community who have made special efforts in promoting or preserving native plants. This tribute will be presented only occasionally.
Bob and Dani Vollmer are the first recipients of the SUN Award. The Vollmers recently appeared before the Boerne City Council to defend landscaping with native plants, because one neighbor had complained to the city about the tall “weeds” in the Vollmers’ front yard. Bob Vollmer explained the water-conserving virtues of landscaping with natives and the need to let certain grasses and wildflowers go to seed before they are mowed.
This persuaded the City Council to vote unanimously that the Vollmer home on North School Street was not in violation of the city ordinance dealing with unmowed property. More importantly, some councilmen were moved to suggest that the ordinance needs to be changed to allow native-plant landscapes within Boerne.
When the Vollmers bought their creek-side property, the almost one-acre lot had been kept mowed and was cleared of native bushes and “trash” trees, but no lawn grass had been sodded. Previously, the Vollmers “had been slaves to San Augustine lawns” at their other Boerne homes. In their new home on School Street, they were eager to break those bonds with traditional landscaping and, instead, to take advantage of the natural setting and native vegetation.
When they declined to mow large parts of the yard, many different wildflowers, rough-leaf dogwood, Texas persimmon, aromatic sumac, flameleaf sumac, kidneywood, gum bumelia, nolina, post oak, chile pequin, and native grasses began to sprout up. They introduced some other water-saving native shrubs, such as silktassel, evergreen sumaс, Carolina buckthorn, and Texas pistache, and they allowed part of the front yard to become a wildflower meadow.
The Vollmers yard is anything but an unkempt weed patch. Parts of the yard use natives in a semiformal landscape, and other parts are less formal. Some native bunch grasses are used effectively as accent plants. The wildflower and grassy-meadow portions of their landscape have their awkward periods of the year while the plants go to seed, but in time these areas are neatly mowed.
The Vollmers have found many benefits to growing native vegetation in addition to saving on the expense of water and upkeep. The native vegetation enhances their opportunity to enjoy Nature right from their own dining table. For example, their native flowers attract many butterflies and hummingbirds. The native shrubs and understory plants entice many kinds of birds and other wildlife that do not frequent the typical manicured-lawn-with-trees landscapes.
The joy of wildflower patches is that they bring ever-changing colors and textures for many months of the year. But from year to year, the abundance of any one species is unpredictable. As the Vollmers have found out, there’s a certain mystery to growing wildflowers.
One thing I enjoy about having native vegetation in our own yard is that it gives us a heightened awareness of subtle changes in the seasons throughout the year. Most exotic landscape plants appear to remain insensitive to the natural setting. They remind me of eating in one of those chain restaurants, where you can’t tell if you’re in Texas or Connecticut or Oregon. Landscaping with native plants puts you in touch with Nature. It is never boring.
The idea of using native plants in a home landscape is an anathema to some people who worry that non-traditional “wild” yards will deflate property values. Unfortunately, some uses of native vegetation might even violate city ordinances or subdivision covenants. This of course inhibits many people from trying “alternative” landscaping that would help conserve and protect the water supply.
In fairness to a city council which would consider changing ordinances to allow landscaping with native grasses and wildflowers, it would be somewhat tricky to devise a rule to allow tall natives to remain uncut and at the same time disallow an unmowed lot full of Johnson grass. However, the effort made to write such an ordinance will benefit the whole community for many years to come.
