Category Archives: Native Plants

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!

Jump-starting Springtime

Last months crocus display was another doozy.

It’s the last day of winter here in the northern hemisphere today, and the season is hanging on firmly. We’ve had flurries the past few days, temps in the 20s, and quite blustery winds. Of course, living in Ohio, if you don’t like the weather here, just wait a few hours. The high tomorrow is going to be in the 50s, which is what’s expected at this time of year.

Not that I’d have started my outdoor gardening last month on the 70+ degree days (our last frost date isn’t until early May). However, it it has been interesting to watch all of the early growth outdoors grind to a halt. Trees had started budding out, and perennials were shooting up almost a month early. And then, in the past couple weeks, Mother Nature seems to have hit the pause switch.

Since I’m incapable of exhibiting any sort of patience, I haven’t paid this weather setback too much attention. I set up a greenhouse in our basement, and this years seed-starting has taken off with a flurry of planting. I spent this weekend transplanting seedlings that have already outgrown their first tiny pots. Heading down to check on the greenhouse has become a highlight of the day, and I’ve been obsessively monitoring the temperature and humidity as I watch all the little seeds sprout and grow. It will be awhile before anything moves outdoors, but what kind of gardener would I be if I didn’t test the limits of the greenhouse (and the laws of physics) by cramming in as many plants as possible?

The greenhouse is currently housing a collection of pothos, pineapples, a lemon tree, a few succulents, some madder root, a banana tree, and a crop of seedlings: basil, comfrey, cumin, oregano, sesame, cantaloupe, watermelon, leeks, lettuce, loofahs, bell peppers, poblano peppers, cayenne peppers, tomatillos, cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, petunias, blue false indigo, and swamp milkweed. Out on the deck, the cold frame is housing some spinach, and, creek sedge, yellow coneflowers, tall ironweed, blue false indigo, wild bergamot, and swamp milkweed are all basking away in recycled milk jugs until it’s warm enough for them to sprout.

The next few weeks should continue to be pretty busy. We’re having a new fence installed to replace the current one, which is beyond dilapidated. Once things warm up just a bit more, I’ll get the leeks transplanted outdoors, the carrots, onions, parsley, and snow peas planted, and the next round of seedlings will get planted in the greenhouse. Our asparagus crop should be springing up soon, a favorite of ours. And, I’m planning to mulch all of the beds around the garden with leaf compost.

Come April, I have a few shrubs to add to the yard. I’ll be nabbing a rain barrel and getting that set up. I’m also planning to rework one of our shade gardens by the wildlife pond. The compost bin that lives there may be moving around a bit, and I want to better design the space so things look a little more cohesive with the rest of the yard. It’s also entirely possible that I’ll be adding another raised bed so I have room for everything I’d like to grow this year (see aforementioned seed-starting mania).

So, that’s early springtime sorted around these parts. Hopefully your gardening plans are also coming together this year. If not, it’s only Mid-March. There’s plenty of time! Happy gardening!

One of the greenhouse shelves, packed full of lettuce and tomatoes.



Old Man Winter (ish)

Large, cream-colored flowers with five petals and deep-green spiky leaves
The hellebores started blooming last month, and are really in their prime now.

After a January that felt about seven years long, somehow, it’s already almost the end of February. The sun stays out just a little later in the evenings, and the garden is waking back up. The hellebores and crocuses have been blooming, and there’s a few other bulbs and perennials springing up out of the ground, like the peonies and tulips. Many of the trees around the house have buds already, and it would not surprise me to see daffodils blooming shortly.

Springtime doesn’t officially start for another month, and our last frost likely won’t be until early May, but our weather hasn’t really felt terribly wintery lately. We’ve had a fair amount of rain so far this year, and very little snowfall. The temperatures have been bouncing around a lot, from the 60s and 70s, to the 20s and 30s, and back again. We’ve had a few thunderstorms, and lots of very windy days, with the threat of severe weather looming. For Central Ohio, where my garden grows, these changing weather patterns are a little alarming.

A few weeks ago, I attended a conference, which included a presentation by Dr. Aaron Wilson, an atmospheric scientist and the Principal Investigator at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Dr. Wilson spoke to our group of Master Gardeners about the weather, and the shifts we’re experiencing in our climate. Did you know that, if you were born after February of 1985, you have never experienced a cooler than average month on our planet? The climate is heating up, and it’s having a huge impact on our weather.

A woman hugging a large sycamore tree in the winter
Making new sycamore friends at a local park.

While these changes are different depending on ones location, in my area, our changing climate mean more extremes. Our temperatures in the winter and spring will continue to bounce around a lot. Just this week, we went from 73 degrees to a high of 32 the next day. (The average high temperature is 41 at this time of year). This January was the third warmest in Ohio since 1880, when such records began being kept in a standardized fashion.

Another way to look at things is our number of growing degree days. GDD are a way to measure the development of plants and insects during the growing season. Basically, plants and insects won’t grow unless it’s a certain temperature outside. Plenty of different conditions factor in, but until it’s 50 degrees out, for the most part, things aren’t growing. Scientists know how many GDD it takes for different plants and trees to start blooming, and for insects to appear. This info is available in what’s called a phenology calendar. Anyway, at this point last year, we’d had 17 GDD. The year before, we’d had 2. Makes sense. Winter is typically cold, and there’s not too many signs of life outdoors in February. However, this year, we’re up to 64 GDD. Forsythia, maples, and dogwoods are all starting to bloom, which usually doesn’t happen for another month.

Just a few last note: this February will be the first on record for my area without measurable snowfall. The ground has not frozen yet this year, and we’re having higher than average rainfall totals.

So, a lot is changing, and we know things are only going to continue to warm up. Summers in Central Ohio will soon feel like they do now in Arkansas, and winter will be more like it is now in North Carolina. It’s overwhelming to think about- after all, the climate impacts everything we do, and in the garden, everything we are able to grow. It impacts which insects and animals reside here, the success of our farmers, our health and safety… it’s a lot to reckon with.

I’m trying to focus on what I can actually impact, and in my garden, that’s my allocation of resources and focus on native planting. Native plants require a lot less resources, and help out the food web. They often have deeper roots than their non-native counterparts, which helps with soil conditions and water runoff. By not using any pesticides in my garden, I’m not harming any of the pollinators or birds. And, just by growing plants, I’m helping to sequester carbon (really, I have little to do with that process- the plants do all of the work there). But, once again, native plants outshine their non-native counterparts, capturing more carbon since they have a better chance at thriving in the conditions.

This year, I plant to add a rain barrel, so the majority of my watering will utilize the rainfall. And I hope to add some drip irrigation in the raised beds. This will have a huge impact on how much watering I typically do during the summertime. I want to use the resources I do have in smarter and more sustainable ways. I know not everyone has access to these options, but since I do, I had better consider them.

So, that’s what’s been on my brain lately. I’ve started growing a few seeds indoors, and will likely be setting up the cold frame again soon to start the next batch of salad fixings. Hopefully, the sun is out where you are, and you’ve been able to start planning for the growing season ahead. Happy gardening!

Recycled milk jugs lined up outside on a deck
Once again this year, I did some winter sowing. Many native plants require at least 30 days of freezing temps to grow, and these recycled bottles house seeds and soil quite well out on our deck. The bottles help keep the seeds moist and allow in needed sunlight.

May June be Fruitful

Leave a reply
The snow peas have been enjoying all of our rain showers.

It feels like this gardening season just started, but somehow, we’re already a week into June. I’ve been harvesting strawberries each day (this years crop has been very delicious so far), and yesterday, I collected the garlic scapes. I’m excited to pull the bulbs in a couple weeks here, but the scapes have so much flavor. I don’t know where these awesome things were hiding my whole life, but since I started growing my own garlic, I’m hooked. I’ve also started harvesting the first of this years herb crop: some thyme, bay leaves, basil, chives, and chamomile. Hopefully the next few months bring just as much delicious food from the garden!

Out in the raised beds, the seedlings I started seem to (mostly) be doing well. The peas are flowering and I had to add on to the trellis I built for them, as they grew taller than expected. The peppers are looking good. We’re going to have a bumper crop of potatoes. The cut flower garden is coming in strong. However, the tomatoes are looking… really sad. We’ve had a lot more rain than they really enjoy, and it’s been very warm, very fast, since I planted them out. I’m hoping they bounce back here and we are able to harvest enough for my portion of the family salsa crop.

Up on the deck, the jungle is faring much better. Out lemon tree is flowering again. I have my fingers crossed that the local pollinator population works its magic and we end up with some fruit. Our cantaloupe are also flowering, and the burst of cucumber beetles I saw in the yard has already been taken care of by the birds, leaving the cantaloupe alone. I started the green beans and black-eyed peas in pots this past week, and in typical legume-fashion, they’ve already sprouted up.

This years strawberries have been very sweet!

Out in the rest of the yard, my beloved peonies and clematis are about finished flowering. The daisies, canadian anemones, blue flag irises, ohio spiderwort, coral honeysuckle, nepeta, lavender, roses, asiatic lilies, and day lilies are all flowering this week. Our milkweed should be starting here shortly, and I am really exited to see the swamp milkweed again! It’s name absolutely doesn’t do this amazing plant any favors, but it’s my favorite native plant. Not only does it support monarch caterpillars, but the plant blooms with gorgeous little pink and white flowers for a few weeks each year at the end of spring. The flowers are, hands down, my favorite smelling thing in the garden. They smell very sweet, without the perfume-scent of roses or lilacs. And in addition to supporting our endangered monarchs, bees and other pollinators flock to this beauty. I can’t recommend it enough for gardeners in the Midwest. In a container or out in a bed, swamp milkweed is a GEM.

Now that the bulk of the planting for the year is wrapped up, I still have to finish a few landscaping projects around the yard. The Great Pond Area Widening Project has been put on a slight hold, due to a lot of rainy days, followed by a string of days that have just been too blazing hot. I’m hoping to get the rest of the sod pulled out this week, so I can mulch the area and shift a bit of planting around to fill in the new space. I’ve been seeing a lot of bees on the spiderwort that lives there, as well as a few dragonflies and damselflies. It’s a pleasant way to spend some time, just pausing for a bit to watching all the pond residents buzz around the flowers.

Hope that you’ve had a chance to stop and enjoy all of the plants and flowers growing near you. Happy gardening!

The bees have really been enjoying the Ohio Spiderwort flowers this spring.

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

Leave a reply
This gardening season is off to a hot start!

It has been an intense few weeks in the garden. Everything always seems to happen at once at this time of year, and I waver between feeling completely overwhelmed and excited at all the activity. We’ve had a lot of rain this month, and some unseasonably warm temperatures, so all the plants have been growing like wild.

About everything is finally in the ground. I started an absurd number of plants from seed this year (after swearing to myself I’d be reasonable- ha!), and nearly everything has made its way outside and into the dirt. I still have some beans to find room for, but my seed stash is pretty sparse again. I’m looking forward to harvest time! I started a lot of new (to me) things this year.

Many plants are living in containers on the deck this year, since we don’t have quite enough room for everything out in the beds. I find that some days, it’s far easier to manage pots, both for watering and harvesting. Wrangling the hose around the yard and willing myself up and down the deck stairs to gather up everything out in the beds gets to be a bit much when I’m having flare days from my autoimmune disease. So, having things close to the kitchen really ups the odds that I’ll pay the plants their due attention!

The deck probably passed its Container Capacity (the amount of pots the husband has to wade through to get to the grill) about 20 plants ago, but I’m excited for everything to grow up and start blooming. I have quite a few different vining plants (cantaloupe, pie pumpkins, watermelons, loofahs, madder, morning glories, and coral honeysuckle) on the deck this year, and oodles of herbs, fruits, veggies, and flowers for the pollinators. I don’t plant annuals out in the beds in the full sun since they typically require watering almost daily, but on the deck, where there’s some shade, I can stretch my watering to just a few days a week.

Living on the deck now, in addition to the vines, are: bay laurel, calla lilies, a chenille plant, begonias, petunias, parsley, two types of fennel, a lemon tree, basil, lettuce, spinach, cosmos, potatoes, mint, four types of thyme, chives, zinnias, oregano, aloe, four pineapples, cumin, indigo, nasturtiums, chamomile, a banana tree, swiss chard, ranunculus, tomatillos… I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Oh! The stairs! I made a “Stairway to Salsa,” on the deck steps, with more tomatillos, sweet peppers, and druzba tomatoes. So, clearly, a normal amount of plants.

Out in the raised beds, I’m impatiently waiting for the garlic scapes to show up. With our recent warm weather, I’m expecting to see them here by the end of the month. Once the garlic bulbs are able to be harvested, I’ll probably plant up some more lettuce. The rest of the beds are packed pretty full. Our first bed houses the permanent asparagus patch (which was delicious this year), and I added some potatoes. The next bed is hosting the paste tomatoes, marigolds, and more potatoes. (There are also four grow bags of potatoes on the deck- I think I could feed the entire Midwest with the number of potatoes I planted this year). Our third bed houses the aforementioned garlic, lettuce, cucumbers, parsley, basil, and a handful of poblano peppers. The final raised bed is mostly devoted to a cut flower garden this year, and in it lives a boatload of onions, carrots, leaks, bachelor buttons, love-in-a-mist, zinnias, calendulas, and a trellis of snow peas.

Out in the flower beds, I’ve added a lot more native plant seedlings. I grew several types of milkweed- common and swamp (my favorite- it’s so pretty and smells divine!), yellow coneflowers, ironweed, prairie dropseed, big bluestem, switchgrass, indiangrass, little bluestem, rudbeckia, broom sedge, violets, wild bergamot, and yarrow. Everything sprouted up nicely this spring and has since been moved out into the beds as I’ve been weeding, removing invasive creeping charlie and creeping jenny, and cleaning up the stalks left from last years perennials. I’ve also been tossing in sunflower seeds along the fenceline. They grow up quickly and bring me so much joy in the late summer while they bloom. Plus, the pollinators are always all over the flowers, and the birds eat the seeds in the autumn.

I’ve also been expanding the garden around the wildlife pond. It’s become one of my favorite spots in the whole yard. I love sitting next to the pond, listening to the water move, and watching the insects and frogs. I’m still not sure what species the frogs are, but they showed up a couple weeks ago and have been hanging out on the rocks and in the cover of the foliage around the pond. I’m so thrilled to see them back. I hope they have little froglettes and we end up with an army of mosquito eaters! But, back to expansion. I’ve been slowly removing more grass, and adding in extra native plants. I moved a bunch of the swamp milkweed seedlings (they loves the wet area there, and thrive in our obnoxious clay soil), as well as a few more smooth penstemon (another wet soil/clay lover), and an oak leaf hydrangea. I’ve wanted one of these hydrangeas for ages, and I’m so excited that I was able to plant this baby this year. They are native to our area, require almost zero maintenance (a must for plants in my garden), and they also grow just fine in our clay.

Thea area around the pond, mid-expansion

So, the pond garden is filling up! I added a water lily to the pond itself, and the canadian anemones and ohio spiderwort are in bloom now. Next, I hope to see the blue flag irises and our new buttonbush flowering.

Out in the front yard, the new pollinator garden we added by the street is growing in nicely! I added mostly native plants to this space as well, and every time I go get the mail, I see bees enjoying the flowers there. I’m hoping to add a few more plants this season since the terrible soil out there doesn’t seem to be slowing anything down. Closer to the house, around our locust tree, the bed we added two seasons ago is also filling in nicely. I stuck a few native prairie plants here, but there’s a lot more shade from the locust tree, so this bed houses mostly perennials that I’ve split from elsewhere in the garden. The final beds, around the house, are about to explode with day lilies, daisies, butterfly weed, and purple giant hyssop (a really lovely native alternative to salvias that are packed with butterflies, hummingbird moths, and bees all summer long). The purple bugleweed is also blooming now, which the bees seem to enjoy.

Indoor plants aside, that’s the garden for 2022! (I keep a few plants inside year-round, since they either require more shade than I can offer, or less water than we receive). Now that most of the clean up and the first round of weeding is done, I really won’t have too much more to do, maintenance-wise. I have a few more project ideas for the year… we’ll see how far I get. And, the pond bed expansion is ongoing. But, things seem to really be shaping up in the ole Happy Rabbit Garden. Despite my fretting, the plants seem happy. There’s oodles of birds around, enjoying the bug buffet. I’ve yet to be bitten by a mosquito (I will now that I’ve acknowledged that fact). I see bees out working hard and enjoying the spring flowers. It’s not always the space I have in mind, but the garden really is beautiful. Hope that you are enjoying a lovely spring with your plants as well. Happy gardening!

Small Fish in a Big Pond

Leave a reply
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

Leave a reply
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!

April, Come She Will

Leave a reply
Nothing says “Spring in the Midwest” like pansies on the front porch!

Springtime continues, as does our wild weather. In the past week, we’ve seen temps in the teens, and the 70s. It’s snowed, sleeted, thunderstormed, and we’ve had high wind warnings and red flag advisories. Things are supposed to be a little calmer this week, with temps in the 50s and 60s, which is the average for this time of year.

I’ve been focusing my gardening efforts indoors lately (mostly so I don’t blow away). This past week, I started up the next round of annuals: calendula, cornflowers, cosmos, love-in-a-mist, nasturtiums, marigolds, and zinnias for the pollinators and a cut flower garden. I also planted some creeping thyme, basil, and cumin. By the time these start growing up, I’ll be able to move them outdoors, into the cold frame. I don’t have enough grow lights to keep too many seedlings growing indoors, so having the cold frame is a lifesaver.

A few weeks ago, I planted up leeks, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, indigo, rudbeckia, and yarrow, and all of these have sprouted under the grow lights. It’s such a joy when your seeds sprout. The whole process feels a bit like magic to me and I’m so relived that everything is coming up.

Our hellebores are blooming up a storm lately.

Outside, in the milk jugs on the porch, the common blue violets, spring beauties, common milkweed, swamp milkweed, ironweed, purple prairie clover, wild bergamot, and prairie blazing star have sprouted. As excited as I was to see the cantaloupes sprout this past week, I was really over the moon to spy these native seedlings sprouting. Most importantly, they will help the pollinators in the garden this year, but they will also help the garden borders to fill in and look better. One of my goals for this gardening season is to move like plants things into groups, rather than just one of a species planted randomly around the borders.

This week, I’m hoping to get outdoors for a bit of cleanup. I won’t cut any of the perennials back quite yet- that will have to wait just a few more weeks until temps are warm enough that any nesting bees and bugs inside the stalks of these plants have woken up and flown away. But there’s work I can do in the raised beds. They need some more compost and dirt this year before I can start my cool season crops. I want to haul the cold frame up from the basement as well. I have a few long, narrow pots that I’ll plant up with spinach and lettuce here shortly.

I’m excited for these weeks of April. The spring ephemerals that I love will be blooming soon as the weather warms up, and the perennials are starting to pop up for the season. It seems like every day, new green shoots appear. On Sunday, the husband and I headed to our local metro park to check out which wildflowers were flowering.

I absolutely love wildflower walks. Every week, the whole landscape looks different, and spotting tiny little flowers poking up through the fallen leaves in the woods feels like searching for treasure. Sunday, the spring beauties (Claytonia virginica), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa) were flowering. The toadshade (Trillium sessile) and virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) were budding, and should be flowering here soon. I’ve started growing a lot of these in the garden for myself and the pollinators to enjoy, and I cannot wait to see them all pop up in the flower beds!

Hope the weather is warming up wherever you are, and that your garden is also waking from a long winter. Happy gardening!

Bloodroot, spotted at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park