Designed for Nature

In mid-June, we took part in a garden tour, Designed for Nature, held by the Woman's Farm and Garden Association in partnership with Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve and Audubon, PA. The focus was on showing gardens transitioning to use of native plants and showing creative water management.

Many weeks were spent preparing the gardens, weeding, replacing and filling in plants and adding more natives in corners that were dull.

To explain the history of our journey, I wrote the following:

Die Vogelweide story

Over 10 years ago, after surveying our new home, we decided to increase the habitat for the various animals, birds and insects, with whom we share the land. Already established, the lower meadow and wetlands, abutting a small stream, were filled with goldenrod, sensitive fern, pin oaks, jack in the pulpit, reeds, red maples, willows, and sweet gums. It’s home to a pair of red tailed hawks, crows, raccoons, turtles and even a mink. We’ve added an orchard area with blueberries, pears, plums, peaches and elderberry and we are hoping this year, that the paw paws will take hold. We also planted sycamore, white oak, black gum and red bud trees.

The upper meadow was created by simply staking out an area and stopping the mowing. Within a year, there were junipers, sensitive ferns and hard wood seedlings pushing up. Over the years, and with mowing every 2-3 years, it has evolved with now milkweed, dogbane and goldenrod present, attracting numerous native bees, butterflies, bluebirds, gold finch and fox.  We’ve added a nut corner with pecans and hazelnuts.

For privacy and creating a natural animal pathway, we’ve planted over 50 white pines and other evergreens, enjoyed by rabbits, birds, owls, turkey and fox.

A large fenced vegetable garden was added on the side and also a side garden filled with pollinator plants, such as cardinal flower, witch hazel, nodding onion and iris.

In the more manicured areas around our home, we’ve tucked in lovely natives, such as beauty berry bush, turtle head, iris cristata, clethra, itea, blue false indigo along with winter berry bushes and red twig dogwoods, a black gum, a sweetbay magnolia and a service berry tree.

A vernal pond, up by the ridge, is home to huge old snapping turtles, who migrate each season over the road to a large pond, as well as opossum and raccoon. Ragwort, blue flag iris, golden rod and bayberry have been added to the other natives such as pin oak and walnut and old maple trees and swamp cabbage. Don’t be surprised to see a cooper hawk bathing here on your way out.

A list was compiled of the native plants in various parts of the yard. This is not a complete or comprehensive list, but just a start, that will be continued to be added to as new natives are discovered, especially in the meadow and naturalized areas.

Native Plant List for Designed for Nature Tour 

Vernal pond

Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)

Pin oak tree (Quercus palustris)

Black walnut tree (Juglans nigra)

Sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum)

Golden ragwort (Packera aurea)*

Blue flag iris (Iris versicolor)*

Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica)*

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)*

Upper meadow

Hazelnut or filbert  (Corylus Americana)*

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum)

Golden rod (Solidago)

Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)*

Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus)*

Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis)

Riverbirch (Betula nigra)*

Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)*

Lower meadow

Sycamore – (Plantanus occidentalis eastern)*

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)*

High bush blueberry*

Golden rod (Solidago)

Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium)

Sedges

Red bud tree (Cercis canadensis)*

Willow (Salix alba)*

Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis)

Black Cherry Tree (Prunus serotina)

Maples (Acer Rubrum)

Side garden

Nodding onion (Allium cernuum)*

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)*

Dogwood (Cornus)*

Black walnut (Juglans nigra)

White oak (Quercus alba)*

Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis)

Red bud tree (Cercis canadensis)*

Hackberry tree (Celtis occidentalis)*

Itea  (Itea virginica)*

Manicured areas

Turtle head- hot lips (Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’)*

Itea  (Itea virginica)*

Hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos)*

Sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana)*

Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)*

Forthergilla (Fothergilla x intermedia ‘Blue Shadow’)*

Helianthus

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Seward’)*

Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)*

Iris (Iris cristata)*

Winterberry hollies (Ilex verticillata)*

Red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea)*

Black gum tree (Nyssa sylvatica)*

Pin oak tree (Quercus palustris)

Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)*

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)*

Serviceberry Tree (Amelanchier)*

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum x hidcoteense ‘Hidcote’)*

Blue Star (Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’)*

* Planted natives or from seed

Finally, the garden tour date arrived and despite pouring rain for hours, we had a big crowd come through, had a lot of fun, met many wonderful people, received lots of kind comments and encouragement, learned about many more wonderful native plants and even bought a bunch more natives at the end.

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Autumn Meadow Plants Series: Part I - Shift from Common Milkweed to Dogbane

There has been a dramatic shift in the diversity of plants in the upper meadow this year. The Common Milkweed population has plummeted from over 1000 plants to just around 50 and it has been replaced by another milky sapped plant, Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum). (See Blog entry: July 7, 2014 for earlier story)

The meadow went from looking like this:

to this, in just over a year: 

There is greater diversity, than just 2 years ago, including many hardwood tree saplings including Sweetgum and Black Cherry, numerous grasses and the following plants:

Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadenis)

Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)

Yellow Toadflax (Linaria vulgarius)

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Common Ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata)

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota)

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

White Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides)

Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense)

In this entry, the focus is on the expansion of Dogbane, what it is and its role for pollinators. 

Dogbane or also known as Indian Hemp, grows 2 - 5' tall, is smooth, red-stemmed, which are filled with a milky, latex sap that is bitter tasting and highly toxic. It prefers full sun and wet soil and spreads aggressively from underground rhizomes. 

In early summer, it produces a grouping of small fragrant white flowers which are an excellent nectar source for many pollinators, including many different types of bees, butterflies, skippers, fritillaries and is a host to many larvae of various moths.(See: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/dogbanex.htm) 

and (http://the-natural-web.org/2014/07/08/what-good-is-dogbane/)

Historically, this plant's silky fibers were used by the Lenni Lenape and other Native Americans to make robe, netting and baskets. In the fall, long seed pods hang in clusters and pop open as they dry, to expose seeds, which are attached to white silky threads to help them float long distances. 

Common Milkweed and Dogbane are often mistaken for one another due to similar leaf shape and plant size and shape and flower clusters. Because it contains a milky, poisonous sap as Common Milkweed and serves as a host to many other pollinator larvae, I wondered if it was also a host plant for Monarchs? 

It is NOT, according to Robert Dirig of Cornell, who confirmed that Monarch definitely do not use it as a host plant. (See: http://flnps.org/native-plants/spreading-dogbane-and-butterflies)

The question remains of why Dogbane out competed Common Milkweed. They both have deep aggressively spreading rhizomes and prefer disturbed ground, sun and wet conditions, which are all present in this meadow. Perhaps, Milkweed has encountered a disease or a pest 

(see: thttp://www.monarchprogram.org/milkweed-pests-and-diseases/). There were no reported disease issues with Dogbane, that I could find. Perhaps, it was the combination of increased Goldenrod and Dogbane populations that have pushed out the Milkweed?

The upper meadow will be mowed November 1 this year. It will be interesting to see the changes in the coming year. 

Check back for the continuation of this series: Autumn Meadow Plants Series: Part II: Newcomers: Ironweed and Asters.

Weeds/Plants of the Meadow Series

When I first paged through“ Weeds of the Northeast”, I thought, wow, I have almost every single weed in this book in my yard. I must admit it pains me to think I have a yard of weeds, so what is a weed anyway? It is defined as an unwanted plant that crowds out cultivated plants in parks, gardens, etc. So, is a plant considered a weed when found in a meadow? Other questions to ponder regarding my "weeds" are: Is it a non-native species? and Is it invasive - hence, crowding out natives? In any case, I would like to embrace “the weeds” of the meadow and share some that have emerged since we went from lawn to meadow.

This weed pictured above is especially attractive and called Yellow toadflax (Linaria vulgaris Mill.) or also known as butter and eggs, Jacobs-ladder or wild snapdragon. It is sometimes cultivated as the flowers are long lasting. It creates a colony with creeping roots or rhizomes and blooms from June into the fall. Due to the shape of the flower, it is pollinated primarily by bees. Despite its beauty it is an invasive species and a non-native coming originally from Eurasia and introduced into the US in the 1600's.

Stunning transformation from lawn to meadow:

When we first moved here, we had oodles of lawn and wanted to create more natural areas. We staked out an area, making it curvy for visual interest and a clear boundary to show we were going to continue to maintain our property. The area we set aside is about 2 acres and compliments meadows that exist in our wetlands area and contain primarily goldenrod. The new area also contains a large groundhog home that was regularly being mowed over. Besides installing 2 blue bird house, we didn’t do anything more and just let things grow. With the help of the birds, we now have an amazing diverse habitat filled with vegetation such as numerous grasses, wild mint, thistle that the goldfinch frequent, common yarrow, wild carrot, carpet weed, and common milkweed for the monarchs passing through. The meadow provides not only important habitat for mice, insects and groundhogs but also for many birds. To name just a few, I have spotted blue birds, red and goldfinch, swallows, sparrows, mourning doves, vireos, chicadees, cardinals and blue jays and then the raptors and hawks including the red tailed hawks, turkey vultures, a sharp shinned hawk, and a large hawk that I still am trying to identify – perhaps a broad winged hawk. I cut a winding path through the middle for better observations. It is beautiful all day long and through the various seasons. See website listed on sidebar regarding meadow creation and managment.