Oh Happy Day

Monarch caterpillars

I never saw them until this morning.  Remember that "incident" a while ago where an ill fated foot step wiped out one of the new Butterflyweed plants?  Remember that it resprouted, and bloomed?  Well, today my friends, we have Monarch caterpillars! Big Ones!  Hallelujah.  I don't know why I never saw eggs or little caterpillars.  Do they hatch overnight and get this big in one day?  Do these guys travel from plant to plant as caterpillars?   Today these caterpillars have eaten a good amount of the top part of the plant.  They remind me of myself eating a good ear of corn.  There's also two more caterpillars on an adjacent plant. 

The Monarch Farm

Apparently it doesn't take a large garden or lots of plants for the Monarch to make itself at home.  Among other natives, there are five Butterflyweed plants in this small plot.  You'll remember the Butterflyweed is a milkweed.  It's also commonly called Butterfly Milkweed.  And milkweed are the only plants where the Monarch will lay its eggs.    The only plant.  Nothing else will do.  However, I thought I'd have to have at least a larger group and more milkweed species to really make a Monarch happy enough to start a new family.  There certainly are a lot of other native nectar producing plants in the yard.  So the newly hatched  Monarch's will have enough juice to get them going on their epic migration to Mexico.  I can't wait to see the chrysalis the caterpillars form.  And perhaps in a few weeks I'll get to see some Monarch's emerge.  We now qualify and have submitted our application to the Monarch Watch organization for certification as a Monarch Way Station.  Welcome to the Monarch Farm!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Ravine planting of
 Virginia Wild Rye

No wonder the native plant experts tell you to start off with small projects.  These  plants are certainly hardy and low maintenance, once established.  "Once established" is the key phrase.  It takes time for them to get established.  And as I've said before, I'm impatient.  It's been a long, very hot summer here in Northwest Ohio.  Very dry.   My impatience with this conversion has caused me to add a lot of plants.  And that's requiring a lot of work.  That's OK because I enjoy it.  But I sure am anxious for the results.  Even though we have a drip irrigation system I put in many years ago, it doesn't reach to all the areas where we put new native plantings.  I've been forced to stretch hoses, and carry buckets of water to help get these new plants through the drought. 

Several things I've discovered along the way.  Smaller plant specimens are much easier to get established than larger ones.  The  Eastern Wahoos Jan helped me get from the last plant rescue are from 2 to 4 feet tall.  Digging them up certainly had an adverse effect on the root system.  It's taking a lot of energy to get water up to the leafs.  That's putting a bit of stress on the diminished roots.  In the act of transpiration water moves from the roots up to the leaves where it is given up to the air.  I cringed as I watched the Wahoo leaves wilt in spite of the large amounts of watering I've done.   I decided to mist their foliage once or twice a day.  That's seems to be making a huge difference.  Perhaps that helps them conserve their moisture a little more while their roots grow enough.  Before planting, I cut back the rescued Joe-Pye Weed, leaving only short stalks and large root masses.  The idea is similar to the Wahoos in lessening the burden of transpiration.  It is also encouraging the energy from the healthy roots to go into creating new growth instead of pumping water way up the stalk.  I also cut back the newly rescued Virginia Wild Rye and Bottlebrush Grass plants to only a couple of inches.  Dividing the Virginia Wild Rye into 16 individuals, I  planted them on an eroding slope in the woods.  The other day I noticed that half of them are showing new sprouts.  Likewise, the Bottlebrush Grass clumps were divided into 9 plants and planted with only short stalks.  Several days ago I saw the first new shoots sprouting from the Bottlebrush roots. 

Northern Sea Oats

In spite of all this additional work, I bought two Northern Sea Oats to replace some foreign exotic ornamental grasses in the front; planted 5 Winterberries, 3 Red Chokeberries, 3 Cardinal Flowers, Tall Ironweed,  Joe-Pye Weed,  and transplanted several Ostrich Ferns .  I also managed to snag a couple of Dotted Horsemint plants from a recent volunteer weeding session at the Park system's native nursery.  Although listed as "endangered" in the state of Ohio, they have all they want at the county nursery.  These two growing wild in the Columbine bed were headed for the compost heap.  Funny - rescuing plants from the nursery.  In addition to all this I got sidetracked on experimenting with organic lawn care.

One of our first native plants put in this spring, Prairie Dropseed, is now showing its first seed heads.  I can just imagine how attractive this will be as it fills in next year.  The seed heads blowing in the breeze will be spectacular.  And now I see the Purple Love Grass also is showing some seed.

And two nights ago it rained and rained.  Last night's forecast proved correct with even more.  Thank you Lord.  We really needed that. 

Attack of the Hummingbirds

Cardinal Flower

I couldn't stand it.  I just had to try.  Over the past several weeks I've seen several magnificent displays of Cardinal Flower.  I don't really have the ideal spot for them since they like to be in moist soil. But hey, what can I say,  I'm a gardener and I like to experiment.  So, off to the native nursery where I purchased three very small blooming specimens.  At least I won't be out much if they don't survive.  As I was about half way through putting the first plant in the ground, I heard a familiar buzzing over my left shoulder.  Slowly turning, I found a Ruby Throated Hummingbird hovering just inches away from me.  I'd swear he would have shoved me out of the way had I not had my awesome trowel in hand.  Not wanting to get in the way of his afternoon snack, I quickly finished and stood back.  That little guy dove into the bright red flowers and methodically worked his way through all the blooms.  He pressed so hard into those flowers I thought he was going to break the single stem of this little plant  Apparently, this natural nectar was much more appealing than the sugar water in a nearby feeder.  After a few minutes, he rose quickly, happily chattering away.  What a smile that brought to my face.   I'm already glad I bought these little plants.

Finishing up planting the remaining two Cardinal Flowers, I went back to work in my home office.  A little later, a movement caught my eye in the small native garden outside my office window.  Another hummingbird was eagerly working over the Blue Lobelia.  Knowing the hummingbird's attraction to red, I hadn't expected to see this tiny bird drinking up nectar from a blue flower.  Nice!

Blue Lobelia

Later that day,I had a chance to take a break outside.  No sooner had a I sat down on the side deck, than I heard the excited chattering of my favorite bird.  Another hummer was extracting nectar from the first Cardinal Flower.  After a few seconds, he zipped over to the second plant about 10 feet away.  Then, onto the last Cardinal Flower about 20 feet from there.  He spent quite a bit of time reaping a harvest from that plant.  In the meantime, a Chickadee flitted in to rest at the top of the pole holding a hummingbird feeder.  What a ruckus there was as that hummer came back and hovered a few inches in front this black and white bird.  Finally the Chickadee took off and the hummer settled down to take a few sips from the feeder before shooting off into a tree.   I sure hope these Cardinal Flowers thrive for next year's show.

It's Alive?

Wahoo sprout

Monday morning, Jan Hunter dropped by to check up on the natives she planted for us last spring.  I took advantage of her presence with tons of questions as we toured the yard.  She identified native Black Raspberry and  Elderberry plants as well as some unwanted: Black Nightshade, and Lamb's quarters.  Discovering several invasive Norway Maple trees, she showed me a very neat identification tip.  When you tear a Norway Maple leaf stem from the branch, it will exude a white sap.  Norway Maple is the only maple that does that.  Cool!  So now I can confidently identify the invasive maple seedlings that are sprouting up around the property.  She must have taken pity on me when she saw the now dead Eastern Wahoo sapling acquired at the first plant rescue.  She invited me to revisit the rescue site.  So that night, Jan helped me rescue lots of Wahoo, several large clumps of Joe-Pye weed, some Wild Ginger, Jack in the Pulpit, Bottlebrush Grass, and Virginia Wild Rye.  Imagine my surprise the next day when I went to replace the dead Wahoo.   This tiny sprout rose from the bottom of the sad looking stick in the ground.  Yeah!  Maybe it'll make it after all. 

Monday night, after loading the rescue plants into my truck, we drove around the corner to meet a friend of Jan's.  Linda is an amazing person who beams with enthusiasm.  She had hired a bucket lift and a bee keeper to rescue a swarm of Honeybees.  The bees had set up an ill fated nest 70 feet up in a tree next to her driveway.  This rescue was an amazing event to witness and I learned a lot about bees.  Even this small hive had 10,000 bees in it.  But the real treat was to talk with Linda about her yard.  She is an avid and outspoken advocate of protecting and restoring natural environments.  She has a residential landscape fit for Better Homes and Garden.  And it is almost all native.  She doesn't know what she's gotten herself into when she told me to visit anytime.  I'll certainly take her up on that, reporting back here with pictures.

Brown-Eyed Susan

And as we move into the late stages of summer, I'm finding lots of our native plants starting to show their colors.  Black eyed Susans, and Purple Coneflowers planted years ago are in full bloom.  Last year's planting of Brown-Eyed Susans are putting on a magnificent display in the "wild area" of the side yard.  Monkey flower and Tall Bellflower continue to bloom.  The brilliant orange flowers of the Butterfly Weed are certainly eye catching.  Sneezeweed is a newly identified species I acquired last year but had forgotten about.  Its yellow flowers are a nice companion to the blue Monkey Flower.  The  Blue Lobelia Jan Hunter planted in the spring has burst into bloom.  These flowers brought in a beautiful large butterfly yesterday.  I was thrilled to watch it enjoy the nectar for a while before it moved on.  It feels good to see all these colors developing.  The birds seem more plentiful.  The yard seems to be coming alive.  This conversion to native plants just might be working.

Learning to Chill

Purple Love Grass at sitting area

Several days ago I helped weed at one of the local county parks.  There was a bed of Purple Love Grass surrounding a formal sitting area which we wanted to tidy up.  Bryan, the Wood County Park District stewardship coordinator, asked me to clear out all the growth up to the fence.  Wait a minute!  "Bryan, there's a couple of young milkweed plants here.  You don't want me to pull those, do you?"  He assured me that we had plenty  and there was no danger of running out if he wanted more to plant somewhere.  "I'll take them."  "Sure, he said".  Then Joy who was weeding and thinning out another bed, had large clumps of Tall Ironweed, so large she needed a shovel to get them out.  "NO!  Don't throw those away.  I'll take them."  Bryan diplomatically told me to chill out.  This was a very common native and he had more than he could possibly use.  Besides, he grew 13,000 natives from seed last year and could always get more.  At the end of the session, he helped me load two tubs of Ironweed, and the small milkweed plants into my truck.  I'm glad to report they all are doing well, but I learned something.  Just because it is native doesn't mean you have to let it grow, particularly where you don't want it.

Oak seedlings - squirrel planted

When I started this journey a few months ago, I felt I had to preserve every single native plant I found.  These plants are special and we really do need them.  But he truth is some are very common, some not so common, and some are rare and endangered.  As I walk around our yard everyday, I run across a number of very common native plants growing where I don't really want them.  Ever questioning what I find growing around the house, I've taken leaf samples to Pam and Debbie, two of the naturalists for the Park District.  They recently identified one as an American Elm.  I didn't know we still had Elm trees, yet alone in our yard.  I thought all elms were killed long ago by Dutch Elm disease.   Now that I know what the leaf looks like, I'm discovering scads of little Elms.   The squirrels have obviously been doing a great job of planting Hickory nuts and acorns.  The Shagbark Hickory and Oak seedlings are numerous.  However, native though they are, and terrific trees for supporting wildlife, I can't let these seedlings grow where they are.  I'm transplanting a few of them to fill in for some Ash trees killed by the dreaded Emerald Ash Borer.  The rest of theses little seedlings will have to go in the compost heap.  I wonder if I could give them away through Craig's list?  It would certainly be nice if these native tree seedlings could find a nice home.  I still wince every time I do it, but I'm now pulling up many common natives just like any weed. 

Oh, by the way.  Those Purple Love Grass plants I carefully weeded really caught my attention.  So much so, I bought several from our local native nursery.  These little plants have now replaced several non-native ornamental grass clumps I had in front of the house.  It's probably going to be several years before they grow into the basketball size flowering clumps I saw at the park.  How do I wait that long?