We made a point of keeping the big oak tree that was in the yard before we started building. We've been told it is a chinkapin oak, but other arborists have disagreed with that.
We put in tall fescue 26 years ago but it is in sad shape. I'd switch to buffalo grass, which is a native grass, but that would cost us more than what I'm willing to pay, and finding a reliable supplier for it either as sod or plugs is not easy. If the app on my iPhone is right, much of what's in the front yard now is actually St. Augustine grass, which is more of a southern grass, but maybe climate change is increasing its range.
We've got two or three types of milkweed in the yard, we encourage it. The back fence has a lot of what I think is serviceberry. I've got some elderberry but have never gotten any I could pick, the birds start eating it before it ripens. There's black raspberry along the east side these days, we started it in the back but moved to the east and west sides, encouraged by the birds. We also found some catnip along the east side last summer.
The plant ID tool on iPhones is a fascinating thing to use.
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