local natives you grow

[Martin Bohnet]

My place was a 5-acre corn field about 40 years ago. [...]  Crop fields came very close to being quite sterile.

Jim

Hmm, 40 years ago they were just starting to eliminate the worst of agricultural chemistry - I hope you don't have too much nasty stuff accumulated in that soil.

[MarcR]

Jim,

You might find wooden buildings that are being torn down and use scrap lumber to build inexpensive raised beds. Then you can control the soil that goes into them.

[Martin Bohnet]

As May moves on, some more local wildflowers appear:

First one is a Rhinanthus alectorolophus - a plant with a purpose, as its job is to weaken the grasses as Orobanchaceae like to do. Next is Silene flos-cucculi, A plant I always adored and never could grow until I got me a bog garden.
Last ones are Salvia pratense and Onobrychis viciifolia, both are adored by the bees

[Martin Bohnet]

Dictamnus albus is another one I adore, I grow a white form and planted the type form last fall, but it will not flower this year - until last Sunday I'd have added that it is so rare I never found one in habitat. This has changed now!

[Martin Bohnet]

Now in the second half of summer there's another adorable native for me, the gold thistle, which I actually prefer over it's cousin, the silver thistle most people find iconic. The gold thistle produces masses of smaller flowers, and the bumblebees adore it. like the bigger cousin, this bi-annual closes on wet weather.