The Oddyard Little Lawn featuring Clover Cover and Flower Zone

This little rectangle of land in front of my no-luxury apartment building in Park Extension was mostly bare, rocky, compacted soil with some patches of grass and plenty of ragweed. Knowing that this yard will never be carefully tended, I wanted to introduce some drought-tolerant, well-adapted greenery and flowers, some of which will reseed and thrive long after I've moved out. White and red clover now covers the formerly bare areas and attracts bees. Coneflowers and ground cherries are key features, and there are young tufts of native perennial grasses and irises that I hope will return and occupy the space currently taken up by the motley collection of annuals, some of which were surprise volunteers, like the "mystery squash", which I allowed to thrive for its contribution to the insect population and for the shelter it has provided more delicate plants as they establish. By using clover as a lawn cover and by hiding green bottles fixed with clay watering spikes amid the larger plants, this garden has required very little extra irrigation. The only "herbicide" I've used is a trowel. Capucine plants, while not native, have lured aphids away from the other plants and still survived. My goal for next year is to introduce more native plants including some woody shrubs.