Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Fall Equinox 2019

Have you noticed the days have been getting shorter? In fact, today, Monday September 23, 2019 at 2:50 am CDT, we reached the autumnal equinox when the night was about as long as the day. This equality between night and day also happens during the spring equinox in late March. From now on (for 182 days) the days will continue to grow shorter until late December.

AUTUMN CHORES

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) shown here on Ironweed (Vernonia altissima) overwinter as pupa inside a brownish chrysalis. They attach their chrysalis to plant stems, sticks and rocks, usually within a meter of the ground.

The autumnal equinox also signals the time for we landowners to begin preparing our yards for the coming winter. This year let’s try to keep as many leaves and twigs in our yards as we can. Many butterflies over-winter wrapped in leaves either as chrysalis or as caterpillars. Mulching the leaves, cuts them up. Removing them buries them in the local landfill.

Tiger Swallowtails, for example, overwinter. Their chrysalis looks like a dried leaf and are typically attached to a tree or the stem of a plant in the garden.

Besides butterflies, there are many other insects that winter over in the fallen leaves and in and on twigs and stems. As the lawn and garden debris breaks down over the course of the winter season, they also provide much needed nourishment for the soil. If  allowing the leaves and twigs to remain where they fall, is just not acceptable, try dumping the leaves around nearby trees to provide a mulch cover for their thirsty roots. You’ll be amazed how good this will make you feel, knowing you’ve helped maintain the home of an overwintering insect or simply nourishing the soil.

BACKYARD SURPRISE

Wednesday afternoon, September 20, 2019 we had a wonderful surprise in our backyard and in our prairie. The Monarch butterflies were grouping up. What an awesome sight!

Although you don’t see much of the Rubeckia fulgida ‘goldsturm’ in this video, the New England Asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) grow in the same area as these non-native Black-eyed Susans. With all the buzzing and flitting around, there still was NO insect activity on the goldsturm. In the video below you’ll see at least eight different Monarchs (Danaus phlexippus)as well as two Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) and a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos), along with a variety of bees and other insects.

After the excitement settled down, I walked out into the prairie and found more Monarchs helping themselves to the many New England Asters. Another one of the unexpected benefits which came from the flattening of our prairie during the July storms was the added sunshine, because of the fallen trees, which allowed the New England Aster to grow more prominently.

Although I try to keep the Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) under control, I do like the look of the golds and purples together. This year it seemed the goldenrod was blooming ahead of the asters, however.

 

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Colors of Late Summer

As I walked around my yard this weekend, I couldn’t help but take photos of some of my favorite colors at this time time of year. I hope you’ll enjoy sharing them with me!

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Remembering

During our last walk around the hunting property, my brother Dave and I found the Purple Fringed Orchids (Platanthera psycodes) he had discovered the previous year. It was the perfect memory for our last adventure.

This week is the fifteenth anniversary of my oldest brother Dave’s passing. Dave was my turkey hunting partner. We shared the joy of being at our hunting property — hiking and exploring, learning about all the different plants, watching how the hydrology changed what we saw from one year to the next, watching the birds and listening to their different calls, catching sight of the various animals as they stealthily picked their way through the underbrush…

And learning how to hunt turkey together. Oh the stories I could tell about our fun times — about the ones that scared us “half to death,” about the ones that got away, and about the ones that didn’t!

He died much too young, of course, and our family has felt his loss immensely. The brain tumor that took him from us has taken many other heroes also. Senator John McCain for one. I pray the researchers will find a cure for this horrible disease soon.

Note: Coincidentally, 9/11 happened just three years earlier — another day to remember!

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Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

I found this wonderful surprise in my prairie this week. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw two spikes of Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) blossoms standing there in between the Woodland Sunflowers and the Spotted Jewelweed. Everything is such a mess all around the area, but there was this surprise. I was amazed! Great Blue Lobelia was one of the earliest natives I planted in my wet mesic prairie, but I haven’t seen it in awhile. The reward from Mother Nature for sustaining all the damage to our landscape was this surprise.

Great Blue Lobelia

Great Blue Lobelia is native to the Eastern and North Central USA and north into Canada. It likes wet ground, so you’ll find it growing along streams, rivers and lakes, as well as swamps, marshes, ditches and low-lying wooded areas.

It’s stalks of bright blue flowers are showy and are often found in clumps. The flowers themselves consists of a tube like blossom with upper and lower lips. Two lips on top and three lips on the bottom with an accentuating white stripe. They bloom late July or August and continue through September or early October.

It’s leaves are alternate and they are a chubby lance-shaped, light green. They can be up to six inches long and are typically irregularly toothed, which makes them fairly distinctive as they climb up the stalk.  It gets it’s name siphilitica because it was used to treat venereal disease syphilis. The roots, stems and leaves are toxic, so large quantities can be hazardous to one’s health.

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