Rewild Tennessee

Brentwood Rewilding Project

Brentwood Rewilding Spring-Summer 2026

June 22, 2026 · Written by Corey Bown

March → June

These photos were taken just a little over 3 months apart. Plants are amazing.

A freshly built circular native planting bed of bare mulch in a front yard in March, with logs, rocks and a blue water dish.

March 10th

The same bed in June, now full of green native plants with logs and rocks among them.

June 19th

Some of the plants in bloom.

Pink-lavender wild bergamot flower (Monarda fistulosa) in bloom.

Monarda fistulosa (Wild bergamot, Bee Balm)

Clusters of small blue-violet blue mistflower blooms.

Conoclinium coelestinum (Blue mistflower)

Yellow black-eyed Susan flowers with dark centers.

Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan)

Pink purple coneflowers with orange centers in the garden.

Echinacea purpurea ‘pow wow wild berry’ (Purple coneflower)

Pale lavender longsepal beardtongue flowers on tall stems.

Penstemon calycosus (Longsepal Beardtongue)

A purple New England aster flower with a yellow-orange center.

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England Aster)

Some pollinators in the garden.

A slender black wasp perched on a small flower head.

A metallic green bee on a pale mountain mint flower head.

A black wasp with a narrow waist visiting a flowering mountain mint.

A dark wasp feeding on small pink-spotted white flowers.

An orange skipper butterfly perched on a pink coneflower.

A bee collecting pollen from a cluster of small white flowers.

The backyard “plants from seed” setup. We had a lot of success from oak trees, tall sunflower, blue wild indigo, ironweed, hibiscus rose-mallow, and Joe-pye weed.

Rows of seed-starting trays with plant protectors, set on a table outside a fence.

A young oak seedling growing in a pot inside a wire cage.

A hand holding a small pot of leafy native seedlings.

Some salamander friends found throughout the property.

A slender brown salamander on wet gravel.

A salamander with a dark speckled body crawling over damp soil.

Some other shots from around the property.

Tall, thin-capped mushrooms growing from wood mulch in the mist.

A small lizard clinging to the bark of a tree.

A cluster of small white flowers above broad, soft green leaves.