Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

A Small Native Plant Garden

Ken Sikora wrote this in an e-mail the other day: “Thanks for the Winter Seeding of a Prairie, Donna! Just last Thursday I did broadcast seeds in an existing prairie, trying to improve the wildflower diversity and fill in some thin spots. I did it knowing it was going to rain Friday, which would help force the seeds to the ground. Now, I’ll just sit back and wait a couple of years to see the results.”

A Small Native Plant Garden

Generally, I have been asked to assist in the plant design of large prairie fields, but this one is a small planting. One of the objectives of the design was to create a somewhat bold statement in sheer volume of foliage and color to draw attention to the site, as well as create a natural setting to attract pollinators and birds.

Bumblebee on Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis) with Sweet Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia subtomentosa). Photo by Joan Rudolph.

The Site

The site is a northeast corner lot that receives morning sun and faces south. It is shaded by a mature Red Maple (Acer rubrum) tree. The tree is approximately 8 feet from the edge of the area to be planted. The soil is medium. The area is approximately 9 x 18 feet or 162 square feet.

Maple trees are notorious for hogging surface water, so this will make a difference in the plant selection. The maple tree is likely far enough away so the root system may not interfere all that much with the garden (although their roots seem to extend forever), but I suspect the canopy will. We definitely want to stay away from plants that require a lot of moisture, like rain gardens do.

Native Plant Suggestions in Order of Bloom:

May-Jun Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

May –Jul Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)

Jun-Aug Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)

Jun-Jul Smooth Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis)

Jun-Sep Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) or,

Jul-Oct Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) Deadhead some Brown-eyed Susan in fall; aggressive seeders.

Nodding Pink Onion (Allium cernuum). Photo by Joan Rudolph.

Jul-Aug Nodding Pink Onion (Alliium cernuum) Deadhead some Nodding Onion in fall; aggressive seeders.

Jul-Sep Lavendar Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Aug-Oct New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae) Pinch back in June to maintain a shorter stature.

Aug-Oct Heath Aster (Aster ericoides)

Aug-Oct Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)

Others native plants to consider include:

May-Jun Long Beaked Sedge (Carex sprengelii)

Jun-Aug Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Jul-Sep Bergamot (Monarda fisitulosa) Will stay shorter in dryer soils.

Jul-Sep Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) Will stay shorter in dryer soils.

Jul-Oct Zig Zag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis)

Aug-Sep Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis) Over 3 feet tall, but not bushy. As a specimen plant, the city might not object.

Remember to humanize your native garden. Be BRASH About Planning for Nature.

This is a small garden. No need to plant spectacle plants. That is NO Siliphiums (Cupplant,  Campusplant, Prairie Dock and Rosinweed). NO Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium). NO Baptisia (Blue False, Cream False and White False Indigo).

To develop a successful garden with plants blooming throughout the season, we need to be mindful of the amount of moisture as well as sunlight the plants require.

Remember! A native plant out of place is not a native plant.

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Winter Seeding of Your Prairie

Reference my blog post titled Winter Seeding Your Prairie. I usually use the winter seeding of my prairie as a general overseeding of the prairie. Recently, a gentleman from Ohio e-mailed to ask me a few questions.

He began with the statement, “I’m working with the USDA’s Conservation Stewardship Program and planning on doing a conservation cover for pollinators and beneficial insects. I have purchased my seeds and plan on planting this winter.” Here are his questions along with my responses:

  1. How should I prepare the soil? Is the soil just an old field that’s ready to be planted? All invasive seeds and weed seeds have to be cleaned from the soil before planting the prairie seed. Just putting in the prairie seed without any management plan is setting yourself up for defeat.
  2. When should the prairie seed be planted? When the seed does not have any chance to sprout. If the seed sprouts before winter sets in, the seedlings may freeze.
  3. When should the soil be disked? The soil does not need to be disked. Just put the seed down in the winter snow.
  4. I purchased my seeds. What do I use to cover the mix? I prefer moist sawdust or hamster bedding. You will have extra expense if you go with vermiculite.
  5. What would you recommend — a wheelbarrow? Tubs? It depends upon the size of your planting. If it is a small planting, try a pail and tub. If it is a very large planting, a wheelbarrow or lawn-type wagon. Better yet, try to put one-fourth of the seeds to be planted and one-fourth the sawdust into a tub and plant one-fourth of the prairie.

Winter Seeding Your Prairie

Dave Edwards and I broadcasting native seed on the WILD Center prairie just before a snowfall.

It’s pretty simple. The winter seeding method can be used for a new prairie seeding (as long as the site prep work has been accomplished ahead of time) or for overseeding to fill in the spots that didn’t fill in with seedlings from the original seeding.

Typically, you would plan to do this before the first snowfall, but it can also be done after there is snow on the ground. But not very deep snow, since that can make it more difficult physically to tramp around and broadcast the seed.

Pick a day to broadcast your native seed just before a snowfall, and preferably a day that’s not too windy. Sowing native seeds just before a snowfall, covers the seed and allows the winter weather (snow, sleet, freezing rain, etc.) to work the seed into the ground. The freezing and thawing provided by the weather drills the seed into the ground, and with Mother Nature’s help, to the exact depth for proper germination. In the spring when the soil temperature begins to rise, the seed germinates.

Late November to Mid-March is the perfect time to do this. Earlier in the fall is not recommended because if the seed germinates before winter sets, the new seedlings may freeze off  during the winter. Later in the year may not allow enough freeze-thaw cycles to satisfactorily drill the native seed down into the soil for proper germination in the spring.

Dave and I mixing native grass and forb seed with hamster bedding before broadcasting it on the WILD Center prairie.

Purchase your seed from a local native-plant nursery or gather it in the fall from your local Wild Ones chapter seed-gathering locations, or from their annual seed exchange. I mix the seed with hamster bedding or sawdust. These materials help to give some bulk to the seed and allow you to see where you’ve already broadcast.

I like winter seeding because it allows me to mimic nature, and nothing could be more sure than that. Seeds drop in the fall and germinate in the spring. That’s about as easy as it gets.

So if winter seeding (sometimes called dormant seeding) is something that appeals to you, don’t hesitate any longer. Get yourself outside and sow those prairie seeds. What a great reason to get outside and play!

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Four Simple Steps – Pollinators

Bumblebee on Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum). Recent declines in pollinators have alarmed scientists and naturalists alike. Pollinators include not only bees, but also birds, butterflies, bats, beetles and more.

National Pollinator Week, initiated and managed by Pollinator Partnership, is a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them.

Thirteen years ago, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week.” S.Res. 580 (109th Congress) reads: A resolution recognizing the importance of pollinators to ecosystem health and agriculture in the United States and the value of partnership efforts to increase awareness about pollinators and support for protecting and sustaining pollinators by designating June 24 through June 30, 2007 as “National Pollinator Week.” (GovTrack)

Four Simple Steps

It’s so simple to bring “back the pollinators” with only these four simple steps – Pollinator Protection Pledge:

  1. Growing pollinator-friendly flowers.
  2. Providing nest sites.
  3. Avoiding pesticides.
  4. Spreading the word.

Million Pollinator Garden Challenge

The National Pollinator Garden Network surpassed our goal to meet the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge. So far, 1,057,008 gardens and landscapes have been registered.

Useful info from the Million Pollinator Garden Network:

  • Use plants that provide nectar and pollen.
  • Provide a water source.
  • Situate the gardens in sunny areas with wind breaks.
  • Create large “pollinator targets” (clumps) of native or non-invasive plants.
  • Plant a variety of plants that bloom throughout the growing season.*
  • Eliminate or minimize the impact of pesticides.
  • Leave a dead tree or tree limb to create bee habitat.
  • Include plants that bloom at night to attract bats and moths.
  • Use the Pollinator Partnership regional planting guides to help you determine the plants most appropriate for your area. Enter your zip code to find suggestions for your pollinator garden.

*Choose plants native to your ecoregion. They will have evolved with the local biodiversity and will be most appropriate for the local pollinator species.

We know that more nectar and pollen sources provided by more flowering plants and trees help improve pollinators’ health and numbers. Increasing the number of pollinator-friendly gardens and landscapes will help revive the health of bees, butterflies, birds, bats and more across the country.

Click here to register your site today and follow the prompts.

Accent on Natural Landscaping

See more pollinator blog posts:
Buzzing causes Sweeter Nectar
More on Pollination – Pollen Sac
Plant Pollination Strategies
Pollinator Syndromes

 

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It’s Pollinator Week!

This week, June 22-28, 2020, is when we celebrate pollinators. This is the week we celebrate the special species in our lives – the bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles. It is a special time to pause, celebrate pollinators and focus on what we can do to help pollinators thrive in this world of global climate change and global warming.

Reprinted from my blog, here is Gardening for Pollinators.

Ecosystems

It all starts with ecosystems. The Earth is made up of naturally occurring geographical areas with similar climate, geology and soils. Typically, within each of these ecoregions, there are a number of ecological regions referred to as ecosystems made up of plants, animals, birds, butterflies, insects, organisms and the physical environment or habitat in which they live. Typically, all these elements in the ecosystem develop a mutually dependent relationship that becomes a Circle of Life.

Ecosystem
Ordway Prairie, Pope County, Minnesota. Photo by Peter Dziuk, Minnesota Wildflowers.

 

Pollination and the Circle of Life

Pollination is a very important element in the Circle of Life. Why? Because the Circle of Life starts with plants, and most plants depend upon pollination to reproduce.

  • Plants absorb sunlight energy through photosynthesis – solar power.
  • They use that energy to produce more plant material from water, carbon dioxide in the air, and nutrients from the soil.
  • In the process, they give off oxygen – thank goodness.
  • Herbivores (primary consumers) eat the plants and use the nutrients to produce more herbivores.
  • Predators (secondary consumers ) eat the herbivores and use the nutrients to produce more carnivores.
  • When death comes, a vast suite of soil organisms (bacteria and fungi) decompose the material, returning the nutrients to the soil.
  • This makes the nutrients available for plants to take up again, completing the Circle of Life.

Pollination is a reproductive process. Flowers offer food (nectar) to pollinators in exchange for reproduction. It occurs when pollen is transferred from the anther (male part of flower) to the stigma (female part of flower). And, it’s very important, because without pollination, we would not have vegetables and fruits to eat, and plants could not reproduce from season to season.

What Role Do Pollinators Play?

Although some pollen is dispersed by the wind, birds, butterflies, bees and other insects and animals are the main transporters of pollen between flowers, hence the term pollinators. They carry the pollen, which is a fine powdery dust found in the male part of the plant (anther) and contains the plant’s sperm, to the female part of the plant (stigma). Some pollinators have special structures by which they carry the pollen – like the native bees. Others, such as butterflies, bats and other insects carry the pollen from one flower to another when it affixes itself to their bodies, legs and wings.

Gardening for Pollinators

Flowers and pollinators co-evolved, developing features that make the exchange of pollen and nectar successful. To support native pollinators, we need to grow the native plants with which they evolved. Because they evolved together, native plants have the “right” features. Here are some examples.

Native habitat is disappearing rapidly as fencerows are being destroyed for crop farming, and land is being developed for residential, commercial and manufacturing use.* It is important to support pollinators by growing native plants to provide nectar and pollen throughout the seasons, and to make sure host plants are included that provide food and shelter for larval development. It is also important to provide access to clean water and to create variable heights for shelter and nesting. Most importantly, use insecticides sparingly, if at all.

Last, tolerate a little mess – leave dead snags and leaf litter, keep some areas bare for ground-nesting insects, and tolerate non-noxious, non-invasive weeds that provide food and shelter for pollinators.

*According to Doug Tallamy in the film Hometown Habitat, only 5 percent of our land remains as native habitat. 42 percent is being used for crop framing, and 53 percent for development.

See also A Naturally Landscaped Yard and A Living Landscape Mimics Nature. Although focusing on birds, these yard designs are appropriate for pollinators as well.

For more on the Gardening for Pollinators, see Part 2, Pollination continued.

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