The Doctor's Office

While waiting at the doctor's office today, I was reading "the Landscape Revolution" by Andy and Sally Warsowski.  This book was recommended by my native plant mentor, Jan Hunter.  Although out of print and hard to find, I was able to get a used copy from an internet search.  The authors walk through the reasons for converting to native landscaping and show with numerous pictures, how nice native landscaping can be.  They have a particularly humorous writing style that makes this an easy and enjoyable read. 

Both the nurse and doctor noticed the Landscaping title and asked me what landscaping I was doing.  Each of them was interested but had different reactions when I started to describe my recent activities.  "Native plants - those are weeds, right?" asked the nurse.  I laughed because that is probably a widespread misperception about native plants.  After a very brief discussion, she went on to describe some of the headaches she has with her landscaping.  She told me about a "weed" she is currently fighting.  I hadn't heard of "buckweed" before so she drew a picture.  Armed with both the description and picture, I'm sad to report I can't find anything that comes close to matching.  Can anybody help me here?  The doctor on the other hand asked me whether our native plants were any harder to establish with the climate change underway.  I told her I hadn't heard or experienced that so far.  But the invasives seem to be getting worse.  She was aware of invasive species, more so of foreign invasive insects (e.g. Emerald Ash Borer) that have plagued our plant populations.

Native Plants - NOT

Of course, we did get around to the medical aspects of the visit.  Nonetheless, I found it interesting that so other people are curious about the subject.  Unfortunately, the nurse's misunderstanding is a common one.   After all, "native plants" are those that grow when you don't apply any weed killer, right?   I too used to think that if I just let the yard go, it would be native plants that grew.  And what a mess that would certainly be.  Then too, it was interesting to find that the awareness of invasive species, both flora and fauna, might be growing. 

Grayhead Coneflower

On the way home, I found these two patches of land.  The first is a pile of dirt where whatever sprouted was allowed to grow.  A superficial inspection shows this weed pile is almost all invasive or at least non native plants.  No wonder most people think native plants are synonymous with weeds.  The second lot is a small field, blooming with Grayhead Coneflower.  There are a few invasives growing here, but mostly it is native.  How or why this plot of land came to be this way, I don't know.  But it sure was nice to see.

What Now?

OK.  So now I've got a beautiful little patch of native Tall Bellflower just teeming with life.  A variety of little bee species are constantly buzzing in and out of the flowers.  I've found a dozen or so different insects on the leaves.  This is adding up to quite a feast for some birds, toads, and other creatures.   In a little while, the flowers will turn to seed for a larger crop of flowers next year.  This is doing exactly what we want it to do.  As I stand looking at this little mass of biodiversity, I begin to worry.  What happens when the city truck comes rumbling down the street, spraying for mosquitoes?  Does all this life get zapped too?  I don't know but fear the answer isn't what I want to hear.    Is the mosquito spray effective?  I don't know, but I've been told that in a few short days after the spraying, the mosquitoes are back.  How fast will the other insects we've been nurturing return?  How much money do we spend on attempting to control the mosquito population?  Is it worth it?  Again, I don't know.  Here are a few articles I found while trying to understand this better.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/effectiveness-of-widespread-mosquito-spraying-for-west-nile-virus-in-question-56237797.html

http://www.calisafe.org/_disc1/0000005a.htm

http://www.epa.gov/reg5rcra/ptb/pest/mosquito_reference.html

Mosquito repellants: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in419

After reading these, I'm inclined to go more with individually applied mosquito repellant rather than wholesale spraying for mosquitoes.   And please, please city administrators, don't kill my little contribution to a healthy ecology.

What do you think?  If you don't want to post comments here, feel free to email me:  NativePlantNeophyte@gmail.com.

Musings from Up North 2011

Up North

It’s early Friday morning, just a little after 6 am.  I’m sitting on the dock with a cup of coffee, looking out over the small lake where we vacation for a week every summer.  The loons we haven’t seen all week are now in front of me, silently diving beneath the glassy smooth surface of the lake.  The sounds of the Chickadees up at the cabin float down to me and I smile.  I’m thinking how pristine this environment in northern Michigan seems.  As we’ve driven around the area this week, I couldn’t help but notice how much native Milkweed is growing everywhere.  Earlier in the week, I found myself wondering what invasive plants they deal with here, just 250 miles north of our home in northwest Ohio.  It’s interesting to me how my awareness has changed and grown since I’ve started writing this blog.  Yesterday while visiting the Grand Traverse County Natural Education Reserve sitting adjacent to the Boardman River, I noticed a posting calling for volunteers to help remove one of their invasive plants, Swamp Thistle, from a natural area.  Then my wife later pointed out to me she had seen another invitation for volunteers to pull Garlic Mustard from the Brown Bridge Quiet Area.  This is an absolutely beautiful area we frequently hike through each year while we're up north.  This time hiking through a small part of the quiet area, I find myself looking at all the plants and wondering what is native here and what is not.  I marvel at the numerous small pine saplings growing everywhere in this natural pine forest.  These are apparently native trees here whereas at home in northwest Ohio, we have only one native evergreen, the Eastern Red Cedar.   

Still sitting on the dock, watching a small kayak quietly slip across the water, I think back to dinner the other night with the former owners of the small 3 cabin resort where we stay every year.  They are humble advocates of nature and the conservation of our natural resources.  I remember being startled when Jim asked me what the solution to the Colorado Blue Spruce was.  He pointed out that this gorgeous evergreen tree is not native to Northern Michigan, yet is a very popular ornamental tree frequently planted throughout the area.  Should we cut them all down?   I quickly responded with “it’s not going to happen”.  And we talked about what harm is done with our rearrangement of the natural world.  

So as I watch a small turtle raise its nose above the water, I reflect more this morning about the state of things.   Is there hope that we can fix what we’ve done?   Is it too late?   On the one hand it seems totally overwhelming.  How to increase the awareness and understanding of these things?  At this point in my new found passion, I realize I don’t know what I don’t know.  And maybe that’s where most of us are in regards to the natural world.   Fortunately,  we can and do learn.  At one time we thought that DDT was an important chemical to use in pest control.  Then we found it was dangerous and killing things we didn’t want killed, like the Bald Eagle.  Thank God Rachael Carson brought this to our attention in her book, Silent Spring.   Now we don’t use DDT anymore. 

My family of four loons has disappeared from sight.  But shortly, I hear an unfamiliar sound above me.  The wing beats of the loon are not usual sounds I hear.  The three other members of his group join up and wing off to better hunting.  As they disappear behind the nearby small island, their distinctive warbling cry reaches to my gut and warms my spirit.

I look up and the eagle that I’ve only seen from afar several days ago, gracefully glides toward the water in front of me.  As he tilts slightly, the early morning rays of the sun strike his white head and tail.  He quickly extends his talons into the water.  Immediately rising without the prey he was after, a few powerful flaps of the large wings takes him to another part of the lake to search for another fish.   This majestic bird is here today in spite of the mistakes we made.   We realized our error and took action.  We learned. 

Common Loon

Perhaps we have gone too far and the damage we’ve done is too great.  But the eagle gives me hope.  The small patch of Tall Bellflower in our yard back home is alive with creatures, adding to our environment rather than taking away.  We can learn and we can take action, even if only one yard at a time. 

The Monkeyflower Blooms

Monkeyflower

What a strange name for this native plant.  Monkeyflower.  My research says it was named because the bloom resembles a monkey's face.  I don't see the resemblance.  Do you?  But then I haven't spent all that much time up close and personal with any monkeys.  So maybe.... but something else I did find in researching this.  There are different varieties of native monkey flowers and I don't know which one this is.  Since my skills at identifying plants from the various guides are pretty minimal still, I'll have to ask someone at the park district.   In the meantime, I think it might be an Allegheny Monkeyflower, an endangered specie in Maine.  The plant came to our yard as a give at last year's Wood County park volunteer recognition dinner.  At the time I got the plant, I didn't know anything about it.  I didn't know if it wanted sun or shade, wet or dry soil, or what.  So it didn't get any attention, lingering in a small pot for most of last summer.  Late in the year as I found my interest in natives growing, I thought I should at least get it planted.  Later I could find out where it belonged in our yard and relocate it if necessary.  So what a delight it was to find it blooming the other day. 

One of the things I'm coming to realize is that we can treat and use native plants much the way we did  our old imported exotic ornamentals, but without the harmful use of pesticides and fertilizers.  Those of us gardeners who like to dig around in the dirt, can amend the soil with compost, and mulch to keep the weeds down.  We can water the native plants to help them get established.  We can put them in places that might not be perfect for them and see what happens.  In our yard, most of the soil is rock hard clay soil.   And even though we're constantly surprised to find what just grows naturally here, I suspect that some of the natives I want to put in specific areas of the landscape just won't be happy without some nuturing.  I'm glad to help them along. 

Once upon a time

Tall Bellflower

What a delight to see this success.  A nice patch of about a dozen Tall Bellflower now graces an area of the side yard that a few short years ago was doomed to invasion.  This beautiful native plant has popped up all on its own.  Just a few years ago this area was a prolific breeding ground for that nasty invasive, Garlic Mustard.  If you watched the Garlic Mustard video posted earlier, you'll remember that this non-native takes over wooded areas and poisons the soil.  Several years ago, my wife and I became aware of the growing effort to take back our public woodlands from this unwanted invader.  When we found our own property was threatened, we set out on a mission to remove all the Garlic Mustard we could.  Since then, every year, we search out and pull all the flowering Garlic Mustard out by its roots.  And now, I make it a point to pull out even the first year plants that pop up everywhere. 

Garlic Mustard is a biennial that sprouts the first year and flowers and then dies the second.  That first year plant is small and building its strength to sow thousands of seeds the next year.  Those seeds can remain viable for many years.  So it's really important to get rid of it before it goes to seed.  Unbeknownst to me until this year, the plant is so tenacious, the seed will continue to ripen even after the plant is pulled.  Bad news.  This means all the Garlic Mustard I dumped into our compost bins in ealier years has probably contributed  to the abundance of small mustard plants popping up around the property.   The proper way to dispose of the pulled plant is to burn it. 

Tall Bellflower flower

Nonetheless, the effort of removing the Garlic Mustard was worth it.  This reclaimed part of our yard is now home to a beautiful flowering native plant.  The patch is alive with small bees and other insects buzzing around it.  This lifts my soul and encourages me to continue converting our landscape to natives.   Even this small section of native plants is contributing to the biodiversity, the natural beauty that adds to the richness of life.  This Tall Bellfower will continue to seed itself, hopefully making itself at home in other parts of the yard.    

Out damn Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle removal team

The other night I had the opportunity to spend several hours with some fellow Master Gardeners and the Park system's stewardship coordinator, cutting and pulling bush honeysuckle from one of the Wood County Parks.  In just two hours, the five of us were able to make quite a pile of cuttings.  We used loppers to cut the large stems down near the ground.  The following day, Bryan was going back with his team of Park employees to put the cuttings through a chipper.  Then they would apply a chemical brush killer to the stumps.  Had we just cut the branches and left the stumps, they would sprout and rejuvenate.    Each area of the country has their own invasives to deal with.  Honeysuckle is one of the top 10 invasive plants in Ohio.  Like so many invasive species, the honeysuckle was imported to the US to use for ornamental landscaping. 

So....What's the big deal.  Let nature take it's course.  That's what I used to think.  Turns out that's what we should have done and not brought in these plants.   Using the honeysuckle as an example of just one invasive, here's the problem.  The honeysuckle is aggressive and grows rapidly, crowding out our native plants.  It doesn't have much in the way of pests or natural controls, so it continues to spread.  The berries look pretty to us and are attractive to birds.  The birds eat the berries and spread the seeds around with a little extra fertilizer.  The honeysuckle is the first bush in the spring to leaf out and green up.  With this early shade, our own native plants don't get that early spring sunshine to get going strong.  Thus the Honeysuckle wins.   Last year Eileen Metress, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor,The University of Toledo, gave a talk to the local Wild Ones group where she compared a bird eating a honeysuckle fruit to us eating Twinkies.  In other words, the honeysuckle doesn't provide the nutrition the birds need.  Furthermore, as with most exotic invasives, the honeysuckle doesn't provide the other natural requirements for our local wildlife.  It's great in Asia, but not here.  

By the way, I was surprised but shouldn't have been, to find out some of our plants have been exported to other parts of the world where they have become invasive.  Makes sense, but I thought it was only happening to us.  The Wild Black Cherry tree is a great tree in the US, supporting a lot of wildlife, but a real problem in Europe.

What a Day

Yesterday afternoon I attended "Beyond My Back Yard", a talk my mentor, Jan Hunter was doing for the Ottawa / Sandusky County Master Gardener group.  This was so good, I sure wish her presentation was available for all on the Internet or DVD.  Even though I've been obsessively studying the subject of Native Plants, I left with my head spinning.  I was so absorbed in the presentation  and the subsequent garden tour, I forgot to take some pictures.   Thank goodness for a handout which gave the bullet points shown in her PowerPoint presentation.  There was no way I could take notes fast enough to keep up.  Here's just a few of the items that really struck me.

• One picture showed a residential landscape, all with natives, that was as beautiful and striking as any I've ever seen.
• Wildflower seed mix - NO!  Many of these seed mixes include, exotic, invasive species.  a University of Wisconsin study of 19 "wildflower" packets showed 8 contained 3 to 13 invasive species, 8 had seeds considered noxious weeds, 1/3 had no contents listed, more than 1/3 had incorrect species listed.  And be suspicious of any plant labeled "Wildflower".
• We import approximately 800 million plants into the US every year.  It is projected that the US horticultural industry will grow to around $30 billion by 2013.   (yes, billion with a 'b').   BUT, we spend more than $137 BILLION on exotic plant and animal management every year in the US.  "That's 375 MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY."
• There are about 4,000 species of native bees in the US.  Only a few sting.  Most of them nest in the ground, or twigs.  They are much more effective at pollination than the non-native European honeybee.  Ninety percent of flowering plants, including fruits and vegetables, are pollinated by insects.  One third of human food crops are insect-pollinated.  Many of the chemicals and other pest controls used on grains, migrate by wind to flowering plants where they kill insects.
• Native Plants add color, structure, and texture to the landscape, while providing valuable benefits to both wildlife and people.
• Native Plants can provide Wildlife Habitat, Color, Erosion Control, less lawn maintenance, water management in Rain Gardens, and attractive landscaping in problem areas. 

A small section of
NNN display garden

Given the pictures I saw of marvelous home landscapes, the wonderful variety of native plants available, and the benefit to our ecology, I'm beginning to think I may start replacing those Hostas I've featured in our landscape for so long. 

Regretting my absence of pictures, I drove back to the nursery in the early evening to get some shots of the display gardens.



Raised beds ready for more soil

And my head spinning day wasn't over.  I met Paul at last week's native bed maintenance volunteer session.  Late in the afternoon, He was kind enough to spend several hours with me, guiding me through his personal backyard native nursery and answering my never ending questions.  Paul has a chemical engineering background and he's taken a somewhat scientific and experimental approach to his gardening.  Paul utilizes raised beds, allowing him to cram a lot of plants into a relatively small space.  I imagine his entire garden is about 20 feet by 20 feet.  He combines some vegetables, and some commercial cultivars with his native plants.  Given the amount of time he spends studying, volunteering, and otherwise working with native plants, no wonder he is replacing at least some of his hybridized plants with natives. 
Paul told me he's gotten his native plants from both Lucas and Wood county sources.  He pointed out to me some dramatic differences in some Cardinal Flower.  Two from Lucas County, and the other two from Wood County.  Based on this distinction, he's decided to concentrate on genotypes native to Wood County because that is where he lives.

In addition to getting plants, Paul also starts native plants from seed using his own soil mix of 1/3 sand, 1/3 commercial potting mix, and 1/3 compost.  Some of the seed comes from his own plants.

One of his raised beds is all sand, simulating an environment only found in a few areas of Wood County.  Here in this special bed, he's been able to raise Wild Lupine.

Wild Bergamot

His Tall Coreopsis was taller than me (6 feet), the Wild Bergamot was dense and colorful, 3 patches of Butterfly Weed were buzzing with insect life, the Tall Ironweed was growing tall in the sunny location, the Purple Coneflower was strikingly beautiful,  and the Joe-Pye Weed was just getting ready to bloom.  

Inspirational Paul.  Thanks for sharing.

Volunteering to Learn

Volunteers weeding Native bed
(photo by Lori Anteau)

Young Preying Mantis
(photo by Lori Anteau)

The other night I had an opportunity to help out with the Native Plant beds at Wood County Parks Reuthinger Preserve.  Yes, it was just weeding.  The volunteers working that night were a good group.  And Lori always makes the work enjoyable.  I don't have the stats yet, but I know that over 13,000 native plants were grown from seed last year at Reuthinger.  Some were sold at the spring Native Plant sale, some put into several dozen beds at the preserve, and most planted into appropriate areas at various Wood County Parks.  I don't remember which plant bed we were working in when someone discovered several young preying mantis.  Lori got this this closeup shot and was gracious enough to contribute it to this blog.  Thanks Lori.  This is another great example of how Native plants help to increase the biodiversity our planet thrives on. 

I take every opportunity I get to help with the park system's effort to restore native plants to our local area.  It's a terrific way to learn about native plants and help the cause at the same time.  Tonight I'm off to help remove invasive plants from one of the parks in the southerly area of our county.  I haven't talked much yet about the necessity to remove invasive plants from our environment.  It's a hugely important issue to deal with and rest assured we're going to talk a lot about it.  I'm thinking about making Invasive Plants a separate page within this blog.  If you want to jump ahead and start exploring this topic, check out this highly informative 13 minute video
Garlic Mustard Identification and Control from Barbara Lucas on Vimeo.   I call Garlic Mustard the Asian Carp of our woodlands.  Also a good start is to check out this brochure from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.  

Next time  - "What a Day"

Its Alive

Butterfly Weed sprout

You'll remember the earlier post where I admitted my own foot had wiped out one of the newly planted Butterfly Weed.  That was a sad event because that little plant was in the first piece of landscape we changed from non-native to Native.  Well...hallelujah!  A little sprout has emerged from the mulch. 



The more I learn about Native Plants, the more I realize how vital they are to our existence.  I'm reading Douglas Tallamy's book "Bringing Nature Home". The first part of this book is discouraging if not downright depressing; but it's an important book.  I believe it is as important as Rachel Carson's classic "Silent Spring", which was instrumental in removing the chemical DDT from widespread use.  From this book, I've found our natives are not only easier to grow, lower maintenance, and better on the environment than our traditional, imported or hybridized ornamentals,  but they are vital to our existence.  Tallamy points out that plants are the beginning of the food chain.  We all like our gardens to be pretty, without holes chewed in the leaves by insects.  But apparently these plants are meant to be partially eaten, most likely by insects.  Then something else eats the plant eater.  A lot of birds, including the beloved hummingbirds, both eat and feed these insects to their young.  Non-native plants aren't eaten by insects.  That's largely why we bought and populated our yards with these exotic ornamentals.  They are often pest free.  That's one of the reasons foreign invasive plants are so successful at spreading rapidly.   They don't have any natural enemies.  So, in essence, we've taken away the food source for our wildlife.  Take away the food, the creatures dependant on that food, disappear.  No wonder we don't see as many birds, butterflies, and lightning bugs as we used to.   Example:  Butterflies.  In the past we often planted the Butterfly bush to attract butterflies.  And it does bring them in.  However, if we want to increase the number of butterflies, we have to provide not only the nectar that the adult butterflies crave, we have to provide a suitable place for them to lay their eggs, and food for their young (caterpillars) to eat.  The imported Butterfly bush certainly produces nectar but doesn't perform these last two vital functions.  Tallamy says to get a showy AND productive butterfly garden that provides all three of the necessary elements, we should plant a variety of milkweeds.  Tallamy goes on to say:  "When planted together, milkweed species such as butterfly weed (A. tuberosa), common milkweed (A. syriaca,) and swamp milkweed (A., incarnata) create a continuous display of wonderful pink or orange flowers that are highly attractive to several species  of butterflies from June into September.  Moreover, along with the floral show, you get brand new butterflies."  Remember that milkweeds are the only plants that the Monarch caterpillar lives on.  No milkweed, no new Monarchs.   It's hard for me to accept that we want and need bugs in our gardens eating part of our plants.  We'll have to talk about this a lot more in coming weeks and months.

Virginia Mountain Mint

Here's another bloom from the first converted native bed.  This Virginia Mountain Mint has opened up, producing a beautiful, aromatic bloom. This plant also attracts butterflies. There are five of these plants, right next to the 7 Butterfly Weed.  So, the combination of these plants provide all the requirements to produce future butterflies.