Category Archives: Conservation

Got Wildlife?

Springtime flowers in the woods, with white and purple flowers
Some of my favorite native spring flowers are in bloom this month: great white trillium, wild ginger, trout lily, jacob’s ladder, wild blue phlox, cut-leaved toothwort, spring beauty, virginia bluebells, and bloodroot

We’ve been having lovely weather lately: warm, sunny days in the 70s. Cool evenings. Low humidity. The garden is awake and thriving, and I’ve been spending lots of time outside working on projects and just trying to soak up all the joys of the season. The pollinators and other insects are emerging, and watching the carpenter bees happily buzz around while we’ve been out spreading leaf compost and planting has really given me a mental boost.

There’s a lot of activity in the garden: the creeping phlox are blooming, as are the candytuft, broad-leaved phlox, and our flowering dogwood tree. The maidenhair and ostrich ferns are also waking up.

April in Ohio is officially Native Plant Month, and watching all the native wildflowers come alive again is one of my favorite parts of the entire year. We’ve included quite a few native wildflowers in our own garden to enjoy: bloodroot, wild geranium, dutchman’s breeches, jack-in-the-pulpits, rue anemone, wild ginger, trout lilies, woodland phlox, spring beauty, great white trillium, and common blue violets. Spring ephemerals are perennial flowers, mostly found in woodlands. They like life in the shade, sprouting up in early spring before the leaves on the trees branch out, shading the ground where these flowers grow. Spring ephemerals bloom for a very short window of time, in some cases like bloodroot, just for a single day. They provide very important nectar and pollen sources for the pollinators which are emerging from their winter shelters. Many native plants aren’t yet in bloom, and without our spring ephemerals, these important members of our ecosystems wouldn’t have the food and resources they need to stay alive.

I’ve been checking out the wooded trails at the local park a few times a week, because new flowers emerge daily, and it’s such a treat to watch them all in this short window of time. Back in our own garden, I’ve been regaling the husband with the play-by-play as each of our own spring ephemerals sprout, and the neighbors probably wonder who the heck I am, outside in my pajamas, hovering over tiny flowers with my camera, cooing at the ground about 55 times a day.

I can’t seem to get enough of the garden lately. In the evenings, I’ve been painting a few of my favorite native plants, like these big bluestem, prairie dock, purple giant hyssop, echinacea, st. john’s wort, and creeping phlox.

Warm weather has brought with it a list of the usual springtime gardening chores. Unlike my pile of laundry, I don’t tend to avoid these. After a few months away while winter did its thing, I’ve been more than ready to get my hands back in the soil. We ordered a pallet of leaf compost and have mulching all the beds with it. As the mulch goes in, I’ve been slowly cleaning up the beds from last year. Once the temps are above 50 degrees for at least a week, the insects that overwinter in last years plant stems are awake, and it’s ok to cut them back. Our plant debris goes into a large pile under the deck to slowly compost and provide habitat to birds and other insects.

Our new fence was installed a few weeks ago, a long overdue process. On one side of the house, our neighbors also have a fence, so we didn’t put a fence back on that side. Now, there’s about 8″ of extra growing space. In that space, there were a few invasive species that somehow grew up between the fences. We spent a satisfying afternoon ripping out a callery pear tree (now illegal to sell or buy in Ohio, finally!), some multiflora rose, and a thicket of amur bush honeysuckle. We’ve moved a few plants around and I’ve already hit up my favorite native plant nursery in Central Ohio, Scioto Gardens, for some great native shrubs and plants to replace the riffraff that used to be there. An arrowwood viburnum, black and red chokeberries, and allegheny serviceberry will all be providing habitat and food to the local birds and insects. I also grabbed some purple prairie clover, wild ginger, lady ferns, hardy aster, spring beauty, and more dutchman’s breeches to pepper into other spots in the garden.

L’hôtel à Insectes bug hotel is officially open for business! The hottest residence in town, this hotel features all locally sourced materials, from silken strands of northern sea oats to freshly trimmed poke berry stalks. A private stone entrance leads to the check in desk, where you’ll choose your room. Whether you’re looking for locust twigs, oak blocks, egg cartons, or goldenrod stems, we offer something for everyone. Come stay with us today!

Food-wise, the produce sections of the garden are also steaming ahead. The basement greenhouse is packed with plants that I’ll very soon be hardening off and planting. (Just a reminder to check your last frost date before planting any tender annuals, like peppers, tomatoes, or flowers like dahlias, unless you plan to cover them on frosty evenings!). Outside, the coldframe is also hopping. We’ve been harvesting lettuce and spinach, and the nasturtiums, chives, and native plants I have growing from seed are also coming along well. Our asparagus patch started sprouting this week, and the garlic, onions, leeks, potatoes, and carrots I’ve planted are also looking well so far. I’ve also started making some sweet potato slips, that I probably should have started months ago, but just about everything else is on track for a nice harvest.

Another project I’ve been meaning to work on for ages now finally was tackled today. I made a bug hotel! We had an old box that some wine came in, which I used for the frame. I stuffed it full of recycled materials from the garden: twigs from last fall’s locust tree trim, dried grasses from the latest northern sea oats display, hollow stems and dried flowers from the pokeberry plant, and some other odds and ends I found while wandering around the garden. The husband also drilled a few holes in some oak boards we’ve had in the garage from a past project for the bees to enjoy. I am so pleased with the way everything turned out. As I was carrying it out to its spot in the garden, I found a stinkbug on the kitchen window, so I escorted him into the hotel to be the first customer. Hopefully he left a nice review.

It’s starting to rain, but before I go check on the hotel again (maybe someone new found it already!), I wanted to share a list of a few small things you can do in your own gardens to help encourage more beneficial wildlife this gardening season:

Wishing you all a lovely season, as our gardens wake up and start to grow. Happy gardening!

Small Fish in a Big Pond

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Hardening off the freshly-sprouted seedlings!

After waking up to thunderstorms in the wee small hours of the morning, I didn’t have tremendously high hopes for the day. But, in the afternoon, the sun came out, and it turned into a lovely time for gardening.

Today is the first of May, my favorite month in the garden. All the perennials are coming back up, there’s lots of trees and flowers in bloom, and it’s not yet so hot and humid that being outside for any length of time is miserable. We’re not quite past our last frost date here in Central Ohio, so I haven’t moved everything outside quite yet. But, I was able to start hardening off the tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, and flowers that I’ve been growing from seed indoors. The process takes about ten days/two weeks, so by the time they are ready to plant in the ground, it will be warm enough to plant them in the ground.

The deck is already packed full of pots. I started a bunch of native grasses from seed to add to the borders along our fence: Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), Big Bluestem (Andropogon geradii), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans), and Broom Sedge (Andropogon virginicus). There’s also pots full of strawberries, potatoes, thyme, chives, mint, and a bunch of native perennials, like Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). The cold frame filled up very quickly this year, but we’re about past the time where I need it. Looks like I skated by starting too many seeds for yet another year!

Out in the raised beds, things are also filling up. Our asparagus is in its fourth year, so it’s really coming in nicely. We’ve already been able to enjoy a few harvests on the grill. The garlic I planted last fall is also looking quite nice. It should be time to harvest those bulbs here in a few weeks. Also out in the beds are some carrots, leeks, onions, snow peas, and potatoes. We’re going to have potatoes coming out of our ears this year. I have four grow bags full of them on the deck, and two more rows of potatoes out in the raised beds. I’m just trying to represent my Irish heritage well!

As usual, the deck is filling up with potted plants.

Just off of the raised beds is the wildlife pond that went in last year. I’ve had a few people ask how the pond had its start in life, so I thought I’d share the tale again, and give an update.

I’d had a small water feature in mind for a few years, but I wasn’t sure about what to put in. Fountains are EXPENSIVE and I thought a pond would be too much upkeep. Two years ago, I added a few small, shallow pots to the landscape, filled with water for the birds and pollinators to enjoy. I highly recommend this. It’s a simple way to help lure more wildlife into the yard, and things are easy to clean and maintain. But, with every viewing of the BBC’s Gardeners World, I wanted more.

Our lot is just over 6,000 square feet, which is below average for the US (you people with acreage are really throwing off the curve). It’s more than big enough for two fairly lazy people who hate lawn maintenance, and as I searched online for examples of wildlife ponds, I knew the yard was large enough to fit what I had in mind as well. I wanted something about 3′ by 3′, in a circle-ish shape, and shallow enough that I wouldn’t have to do much digging to put the thing in. So, one day, I told the husband that we were putting a pond in, and we started to dig. Well, actually, back that up. First, I called 8-1-1 and had the utility companies come out to mark our electric and cable lines so we wouldn’t hit anything. If you’re ever doing any digging in your yard, for a tree, a pond, or any kind of larger hole, Call Before You Dig!

So, yard spray-painted with lines marking the important things, we mapped out the spot for the pond with an old hose. I’ve seen this done before, and it’s a great way to “see” what your new project is going to look like before you start digging around. Just use the hose like a border, and make the shape you want. Once we had things outlined, we started digging.

The pond is about 2′ deep in the center, with tapered edges, and a little beach on one end. I specifically wanted a wildlife-style pond in the yard, and for animals to be able to get in and use the thing, I knew a gradual entryway was required. Once the digging was complete, we added a lining, using plastic sheeting. The sheet is fairly thick, and I folded it in half to add even more oomph to the lining.

The perennials are coming back in nicely this year, framing in the pond and helping to provide food and shelter to any critters who may be in the area. Now that the rocks have settled in, I have a few more to add, but I’m happy with the progress so far!

Next, we added some river rock and pebbles to the bottom, and along the edges. Then, larger flat stones went in around the border of the pond and along the sides, to hide the plastic sheet. Once that was finished, we filled the pond with water, and I used some old branches and sticks to line one end of the pond and make it look more natural and wild. This makes a great space for wildlife to hide and nest. After a simple bubbler went in to circulate the water around, that was that for the pond.

The area where we put the pond is mostly in the shade. It was a damp area to begin with, that grew a lot of moss and henbit. So, I added in plants that liked the shade and wet conditions, and used mostly species native to our area to lure in even more o the things we wanted, like dragonflies and caterpillars. There’s a lot around the pond, all perennials: an eastern redbud tree, a buttonbush, maidenhair ferns, wild geraniums, creek sedge, blue flag irises, sweet flag irises, jack-in-the-pulpits, rue anemones, sea oats, spiderwort, a pitcher plant, and a little grouping of hostas and heucheras. The native plants and trees (all but the last two) support over 100 species of caterpillars!

Today, I added the bubbler back into the pond for the season. I started with a little, floating solar fountain. But, after a couple of months, it bit the dust. So, I added in a little aquarium pump, that plugs into an outlet on the deck. It helps keep water circulating and the sound attracts more birds to the pond for bath time.

Other than that, I don’t do a thing to the pond, except weed around it. (And, today, I pulled a few leaves out of the water so they wouldn’t clog up the bubbler). I don’t use any chemicals to clean the water- the bubbler takes care of that. And we’ve had the neatest wildlife show up in the short time the pond has been around: all kinds of birds, dragonflies (just one can eat up to 100 mosquitoes in a day, in case you’re worried about the water in the yard attracting too many of the bloodsuckers), beetles, spiders, other insects, and most excitingly, frogs! Two arrive last summer and I hope we see more this year.

Some of the shade-loving plants and trees in bloom right now: great white trillium, dutchman’s breeches, rue anemone, and flowering dogwood

So, that’s the wildlife pond. It’s doing exactly what I’d wanted: luring in wildlife. And, it’s been fuss-free. Is the water always 100% clear? Nope. Does it look like a well-manicured water feature? Absolutely not. But, those things weren’t my goal. I wanted the space to look natural and I think we succeeded. This spring has already been filled with joyful moments and I wander around the pond, looking at the different wildlife which lives there- the insects, the native wildflowers, and the occasional bird, stopping by to wade around the beach.

Hopefully, this helps get you started if you’re interested in adding your own pond to the yard. There’s lots of books and resources out there to inspire, including this one that I used from the Conservation Foundation. Happy gardening!

The One Where We Save the Birds

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The Virginia Bluebells are in their prime right now, and looking absolutely gorgeous!

We had some very nice, warm weather this weekend. I think I could actually feel the stampede of people heading outdoors to try soaking up the sunshine before things cool off again. We’ve had a string of lousy weekends, with sleet, snow, rain, and general cold, so it felt pretty great to be outdoors, working in the dirt again.

I cleaned out a few of the beds, trimming back last seasons perennials, mulching, and weeding. I don’t care what grows in the grass (the bees have been enjoying our crop of dandelions already!), but I try to keep the beds free of all the creeping charlie, thistle, dandelions, and bittercress.

There’s been a lot happening in the raised beds lately. Our garlic is growing up quite well, and has been joined by the leeks that I started indoors the other month, along with some snow peas, yellow onions, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, and spinach. The crop of native plants that I grew from seed this winter have been thinned and moved to larger pots. And our asparagus crop is coming in. We harvested the first batch for dinner. Yum!

This weekend saw a trip to one of my favorite plant centers, Scioto Gardens, for some more native plants to add to the wildlife pond. I picked up some more Blue Flag Irises (Iris virginica), Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), an Oak Sedge (Carex pensylvanica), a Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), and an Oak Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) to add to the native plants that already live around the pond. All told, so far, the plants we have living there play host to over 100 species of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)!

Our new Jack-in-the-Pulpits, flowering around the wildlife pond

Other than just simply enjoying caterpillars, moths, and butterflies in the yard, I’m making an effort to add plants that host these critters for a reason. Just in North America, in the past 50 years, we’ve lost 1 in 4 birds. This isn’t just happening in exotic, tropical rain forest locations. It’s happening in our backyards. The birds we typically see here in Ohio are all experiencing a mass decline. And a huge reason for this is because they simply don’t have enough to eat.

Lots of my gardening friends put up bird feeders during the winter months, myself included. But the largest part of most birds diets are from bugs, especially caterpillars. Robins, woodpeckers, blue jays, wrens, warblers, sparrows, chickadees, cardinals, and many more rely on caterpillars for their survival. And they need to eat a LOT of caterpillars! According to Douglas Tallamy, (Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware) a single pair of breeding chickadees must find 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to raise just one clutch of young.

We don’t make this easy on them. Think about the yards in your neighborhood, or around your area. What do they look like? Are there a lot of native trees and plants around, or is much of the area covered in turf grass? While it’s hard to imagine having a yard without at least some nice grass to enjoy, it doesn’t support the insects that our birds need to eat to survive. Add in all the chemicals we dump onto our lawns to kill of weeds and “bad bugs,” and it’s no wonder that birds are experiencing such a tragic decline.

As gardeners, there is so much we can do to help out the animals around us, and honestly, we need these birds and insects to thrive for our own well-being, too. Without insects pollinating our crops and flowers, we wouldn’t make it. We all need a healthy ecosystem to enjoy, and this spring is a great time to consider ways to make a difference in your own yards and areas.

I know I’ve talked about native plant species already, but it’s so important to add these to your landscape! There’s a great tool out there, The Native Plant Finder, where you simply type in your zip code, and the site will show oodles of native plants for you to try adding to your garden, along with a list of how many and which species of moths and butterflies they play host to. Search for native plant nurseries in your area and try out a few this year. You will be amazed at what shows up, seemingly overnight.

Another great way to help out our pollinators and birds is to replace all of our outdoor security lights with yellow LED bulbs. Bright, white traditional incandescent bulbs, and LEDs, attract insects and birds in far greater numbers than warm, LED bulbs. You’ll help these critters out by diminishing the light pollution in your area, since many of our birds migrate at night.

Finally, a really important way to help out our local birds and insects is to stop spraying our yards and gardens with chemicals. We all like a healthy lawn, and no one wants to grow a bumper crop of mosquitoes, but the chemicals that we use in our yards, like pyrethrin, do not simply target mosquitoes. They are also killing off our bees, butterflies, moths, and birds. According to the National Wildlife Federation, “There is no way for companies to spray these broad-spectrum insecticides in your yard without also killing other insects they come in contact with, including bees, butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs, dragonflies and other beneficial insects, along with the mosquitoes.”

So what’s the alternative? In my own yard, I let the birds, dragonflies, and other mosquito-eaters to it, but if you’re really concerned, there are some safer methods to mosquito-removal. Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis), is a bacteria that will kill off mosquitos, leaving our pollinators to safely fly another day. Fill a bucket with some water, and drop in a Bti tablet. The mosquito larvae will eat the toxin, and die off, while other insects fly away free. When you are able to, however, it really is best to leave well enough alone. Our bird populations and other insects that rely on mosquitos will thank you. And your yard will be much healthier for it.

That was a lot of information, but hopefully it wasn’t too preachy. I am very passionate about using our yards to help out our local eco systems, but I realize that it’s a different way of gardening than many of us grew up with. It’s all about balance. Planting a favorite rose or having a nice bit of lawn for the kids to run around in is not a problem. It’s when we don’t provide anything else that our winged-neighbors start to suffer.

Hopefully this spring, you’re able to add in a new plant or tree to your landscape that once grew there naturally. Maybe you just have a small porch and no yard at all- you can still add a pot of milkweed to that doorstep! It’s a sad truth that no one is going to fix this situation for us. If we want our planet to survive, it’s up to us to do the work. But we can make a very big difference, one plant at a time! Happy gardening!

The Jacob’s Ladder are looking stunning this spring!