Yard Habitat

So here are some Mexican Sunflowers that are growing in my my back yard. They are taller than I am now but will get even taller before they start blooming like crazy. The butterflies should be back in force this year now that the sunflowers have been established and the butterflies all know where they are. I'm thinking I'll get second and maybe even third generation butterflies from my own yard too from cocoons that wintered over. Some of my host plants wintered over well too.

I seem to have several varieties of wild things growing and I don't know what they are. I've been letting things get a bit over grown since taking up backpacking but that's okay. A few days of hard work and I can get it all back into excellent shape. Fortunately some of the weedy stuff is actually kind of attractive to me...it just seems more natural and I like that. I think I want my yard to heavily resemble our natural hill country landscape.

I already have several natives planted, but can use more. I've been considering the lawn and almost feel as if I want it gone and replaced with a total wildflower and cactus scheme. It wouldn't require watering and would provide much needed habitat. It will all have to happen slowly in stages though.

One more pic...I threw some wildflower seeds out sometime during the winter and I think this is one of the plants from that mix. I have no clue what this is. The big bushy thing in the back is sage. Most of what is shown are herbs, except for the grass and a couple of weeds.