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An Introduction and more About What Grows in my Yard

Hello and welcome to "What Grows in my Yard?" I recently began a project to to identify every living animal that lives in my yard and have decided to expand that to cover every living plant as well. Well, technically, more than just plants as, I guess, fungus is in its own category now and doesn't fall into the plant kingdom.

Anyway, the yard consists of 5.25 acres in Southern New Hampshire, about 30 miles from the Seacoast and at about 800 feet in elevation on average (some higher, some lower). About 1 acre is consumed by the house, driveway, lawn and vegetable gardens. the rest is forested. It's generally a mixed deciduous/ coniferous forest, but there are a couple of areas with very small pine barrens (perhaps 100 feet by 100 feet where very little other than pine trees grow and the forest floor is covered inches deep in pine needles. There are also two seasonal streams that tend to run dry around mid-July each year, and a small area that stays muddy and wet all year round.

From a plant habitat point of view, it's quite varied. When you add in all the domestic plants that we've added to the landscaping around the house, there's a huge number of different plant and fungus species here.

Let me be clear right up front. I am not a botanist or a plant expert, by any means. I've spent decades in and around the forests of New England and know at least common names for a fair variety of plants, but for most I'll be doing research to try to identify the plants that I find, much like the way I do for animals on my What Lives in My Yard Blog.


On that blog, I expect to identify around 1000 species of animals that live in my yard. If I had to guess how many plant and fungus species grow in my yard, I'd guess about the same number.

I'll be breaking the entries into two categories, native and introduced. Introduced will be used for anything that I have manually added to the yard. An apple tree, pole beans, daffodils, chives, and so forth whether they are native to the region or not.

I'll also detail which plants are edible, poisonous, or have other uses, relying on both my own experience and the research I'll do for each one. I'll relate any interesting information about the plant (like how to make birch beer and maple syrup), its formal taxonomic classification, and I'll note any insects or animals that appear to be feeding on it or using it as a home. I'll also note and apparent symbiots or parasites (fungus growing on a tree trunk, for example). For domestic or introduced plants, I'll also include a little about the care and propagation of the plant.
Sooner or later, I'll cover every plant and fungus that's growing in my yard. That'll include all of my perennial flowers and herbs, annual vegetables and flowers, mushrooms, trees, grasses, berries bushes, mosses and everything else.

If any or all of that sounds interesting, I urge you to use one of the follow this blog functions found in the side panels to subscribe.