INVASIVE PLANTS

Welcome to  Senegal, Tanzania, Denmark, Macedonia (FYROM), Puerto Rico, Argentina, Finland, Cameroon, Algeria, Belize, Guyana, Afghanistan, Monaco, Iraq, Uganda, Botswana,  and Barbados.



106 countries now viewing my blog.  Bewildering to me.  On a more confusing note,  I found my Paw Paw blossom picture on a Chinese website with a Chinese watermark on the image.  Found it flattering that my picture was good enough to steal :)

I know it has been a long time since my last post.  I am a very busy woman, and I had to catch up with Downton Abbey.


I usually have a yearly rant about planting native plants.  I encourage people to plant natives for the insects and birds, but it is just as important to ask people NOT to plant invasive plants. And, to remove invasive plants from their yard. Over time I have removed most of the plants considered invasive in our area.  There  are two in my yard that will be taken out in the next season or two.  Invasive plants will crowd out native plants, leaving less food and habitat for our birds and pollinators.




In our area of the country, you drive down highways lined with green, lush, cooling trees and plants.  Very pretty.  But if you look very closely, you can see clumps of trees and plants that really don't belong there.  Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus),  Olive trees, Bradford Pear, Japanese Honeysuckle, Wild grape, and multiflora rosa (wild rose bushes) to name a few.

Ailanthus and Honeysuckle

More Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven)

Recently, the common orange day lily (which I have always loved)  was listed as an invasive plant for our area.  I have already started removing some of what I  had planted.  It is hard work.  I use a pitchfork and shovel to dig it out of the ground.  Then I cut the top leaves off to compost and then cut the tubers off and throw them into the trash.  I know if I compost the tubers, they will just come back to life.

daylily

Since it was a favorite, I have quite a bit. I will remove most of it this year.


The good thing in this situation is that I HAVE to plant something new!  In my front walkway I have planted Black and Blue Salvia. Not a native, but not invasive. I had this in my backyard last year.  It is very impressive and it will attract hummingbirds:)

Black and Blue Salvia

Daily Visitor

New on the watch list in our area is the butterfly bush, Buddleia.  I have one in my yard that I will have my husband chainsaw to the ground.  I know this one will take a few years.  I may have to resort to roundup for this job.


I bought the butterfly bush many years ago.  I wanted to attract butterflies to my yard.  Little did I know (Pre Master Gardener Training) that the pesticides and herbicides that the lawn service was applying  pretty much killed all bug activity in our yard.  The note they left with the bill stated that there was evidence of grubs in our lawn.  Lawn looked great.  Soon there wasn't a bug, fly, beetle, butterfly, caterpillar or bird visiting my yard.  If I looked deeper, I may have found no earthworms either.


The next note stated that they sprayed for weeds and I should expect to see them die in the next week or so.  Sure enough,  the next week every zucchini plant, tomato and pepper plant was wilted and obviously dying.  Oh well.  Discontinued the service and let mother nature take over.  It took a few years for our yard to come to life again.


In our yard now there is life.  Caterpillars, bees, bugs, butterflies, worms, and birds have returned.

At the farm:



We have a big job ahead of us.  It seems that the banks of our creek are mostly held together with Honeysuckle bushes.  Invasive.   We bought  a lot of native trees and shrubs to slowly replace them.  We cannot tear them out because we think the erosion would be detrimental to the creek and surrounding land.  So, our plan is to cut the bush to the ground and immediately paint the stump with brush killer.  Then, plant a native tree or shrub a few feet away.   Our thought is that the new roots will establish as the old roots decay, holding the creek banks in place.  A huge undertaking and not always safe.  Slippery banks with a chainsaw.  Hmmm

Lined up, ready to plant

Native plants supply food to our birds and insects.  Below is one of my very favorites: Winterberry

My "Mini Meadow"

Can't wait for summer

Winter Garden

Welcome to 6 more countries!   Dominica, Poland, Egypt, The United Arab Emirates, Greece and Japan.  That makes 31 countries and 6 continents.



The only good thing about January is that my grandson has a January birthday.  That is it.




I am a month shy of my one year anniversary of writing my blog.  New catalogs are arriving daily, so Alice and I will soon pull out the seed box to see what needs to be ordered.







I have been a little disappointed with the wildlife around here.  I have been blessed with the absence of deer damage at my home garden.  There is enough free space for them to avoid my garden.  I was shocked to see that my native bushes have been eaten by bunnies!  If I had not seen them munching away with my own eyes, I would have assumed that the deer had moved in.   When spring comes, I will be better able to assess the damage.




Winter is not my favorite season around here.  So we left.  Took a cruise to the Caribbean. I made a point of taking tours of the Islands we went to to learn about their life and work.  In La Romana in the Dominican Republic,  We went to a sugar cane plantation.  This one was 250 square miles large.  They don't use a lot of equipment that requires fuel.  We saw carts (looked a lot like our hay wagons) being pulled by a team of oxen.  The trains then come right into the fields so the sugar cane can be loaded onto the train cars.  Very labor intensive.  All the cane is cut by hand - machete.

Went to a nursery that grew orchids, cacti and all those beautiful indoor plants you see in our nurseries and Lowes, Wal Mart and Home depot.

Orchids

Also  took a tour of a cigar factory.  All cigars rolled by hand.  This factory employed 4,000 people.  It was good to see people employed, but tobacco does so much harm to our country.

Hands in constant motion.  They are paid by the piece - a minimum of 300 cigars a day.

Another island I really enjoyed was Curacao.  The northern part of the island was more agrarian.  Saw an interesting way to keep goats out of your yard - a cactus fence.  This island is just beautiful.

Willemstad

Just a pretty wall

On the home front, broccoli still going strong!  Seeds being spread by the native plants.  And of course, one of our inconvenient snowfalls.  Just enough to slow us down a little.

Really!  This picture taken Jan 7 2012.

Winter berries - good food source for wildlife.  A wonderful native shrub.

Butterflyweed pod with more seeds to spread

This is how I feel in January!

Bye for now.  Next Blog post will be on my indoor herb garden.  Have to spruce it up a little first:)

NATIVE SHRUBS AND TREES

Our backyard neighbor decided to replace a pretty wooden fence with a 6 foot plastic wall.  Really?

example of old fence   5 feet high

white plastic - 6 feet high

Listening to a fellow Master Gardener, I took some wise advice.   Betsy (our native plant go to person)  told me that she gardens for herself.  If she looks out her window, she wants to see a beautiful garden.  It doesn't matter if anyone else  (neighbors) sees  it.  Even the part everyone else sees is beautiful,  of course!

     
This fence was the view from my kitchen window for the last 4 or 5 months.





After staring at this plastic wall all summer, my husband and I started talking about ways to cover it up.  I of course wanted mostly native plants.  Maybe a fig tree?  (not native)    A Paw Paw?  Growing fun fruit sounded good too.





Took a ride over to a local nursery that also carries a nice selection of native plants.  Stadler Nursery.  When we pulled up, there it was, a sign that said "50% off everything!"  They meant EVERYTHING!  Walking back, we saw large groupings of plants and trees that had already been sold to landscapers.  I think this is a yearly sale that people in the business know about.  Luckily my husband was with me,  he is the money person in our family. He gave me a limit and off we went.  Here is a list of what we bought:
(Again, don't be bored, this is for MY record keeping.)






2  Dogwood trees   "Cherokee Princess"   Cornus florida     2" diameter trunks.  Good size - very heavy!
1  Oakleaf hydrangea        "Snowqueen"
1 Winterberry         Ilex verticillata      "Sparkle"
1 Winterberry   Ilex verticillata      "Winter red"
1 Winterberry  Ilex verticillata    "Apollo"     male  - need this shrub for female to have berries             
1 Viburnum   "Winterthur"      Viburnum  nudum    white flowers in spring and blue berries for birds in fall - this will also need a pollinator to set fruit (berries)  I will add one in the future if needed.


Spent only half of my budget.  Not to worry, perennials will be planted in the spring.


In time, this wall will be gone.  The dogwoods are already large enough to tower over the wall.  The hydrangea will top out at 8 feet, the Viburnum 6 feet, winterberries  6-12 feet.

We bought large plants because we don't think we will be here 10 or 20 more years to see everything mature. In the spring I will add perennials to fill in the open areas.  I already put in New England aster.  This is a late blooming perennial.  I want constant color, so I will be growing most of my perennials from seed over the winter.

New England aster.  Very important for monarch butterflies in fall.  They need a food source for their journey to Mexico.  Bees love them too.

Also, earlier this fall I planted smaller natives around the yard that were purchased at a native plant sale.




Gaultheria procumbens      winter green  a ground cover
bayberry
hydrangea                          pee wee
Asimina triloba                  paw paw
Cercis canadensis              red bud
winterberry
Calycanthus floridus          carolina allspice  (native further south but too pretty not to have)
Lindera benzoin                 spicebush
Chlethra alnifolia               summersweet
Comptonia peregrina         sweetfern
Itea virginica                     virginia sweetspire
Celastrus scandens            American bittersweet - a vine




Most of these are in the front yard.  We have mature White pine trees that make growing grass difficult because of the shade.  I have chosen not to fight this. Where the grass has stopped growing well, I am converting these areas into woodlands.  Understory plants and trees and mulch.  This also means no more raking or mowing leaves and pine needles.  I have planted lots of ferns this year (2 not native, japanese painted fern.)  I already have hostas established there.




I haven't made a decision about edging yet.  I have different hardscapes I laid out to see which I prefer.  The bricks have been in our yard for about 25 years.  The stone about 12 years.  I also have dead logs from trimming trees.   I hate plastic and metal edging.  I may end up just having mulch against grass - we'll see.

stone 

old log in front of Viburnum nudum

brick in front of winter berries

Now I have a prettier  view from my kitchen window.  Anyone who lives knows they spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink.  Here is my view now.

starting to get dark

Now to keep Bear out of the new mulch bed.  I have seen his face almost black from digging in the dirt!

So!!!   9 years later here is my cover up the ugly fence garden.  The pin oak tree is a volunteer, I was happy to keep it there.

New dog now. Henry is his name, also a samoyed, also a garden pest,  

More native plants

Welcome Brazil and Croatia!  Up to 23 countries now.












Well, my daughter brought attention to my recent absence in the garden to all our friends on Facebook.  She comes by the guilt gene on both sides.  An Irish Catholic mother and a Jewish father. Double whammy!








I have been unavailable for a few weekends. And there was an earthquake and then a hurricane.  Still, no mercy.   The good thing is, I am taking a solid 2 weeks off later this month.  I will be at the Frederick County Fair for a few hours volunteering at the UME (University of Maryland Extension)   Master Gardener booth.  Then, I plan to get my gardens in shape for the fall crops, and probably plant more native plants.

Hurricane damage

We were very lucky. Only a few inches of rain, no flooding and no power loss.  Most of our power lines are underground.  Now the earthquake - our plan of action was to stare stupidly at our coworkers for the 30 seconds or so the building was shaking.  We followed the plan perfectly!!!

Washington Monument Damage

I just have to tell you a short story.  I am a DC native, so is my Dad.  When I was a child, I asked him why the stones were different colors.  With a straight face, he told me there was a big flood when he was a kid.  Nothing like striking fear in a young child!







I decided to tackle the native plant area first, as this is what is seen from the road.  Luckily, the ground is soft enough that the weeds came out rather easily.  I think though that I am going to add bermuda grass to my short list of things to kill with Roundup.  If you leave one little rhizome, it will come back.

oops!

I took a break and walked around the marshy part of our farm.  Now that I can identify some plants, I wanted to see what is on our property.

hickory

stream with very slippery rocks

jewelweed - believed to counteract poison ivy

no idea, thought it was pretty

Lots of jewelweed

A surprising flat, quiet, private  area.  Would make a great "secret garden"

Swamp Milkweed.  A monarch butterfly host plant

pods getting ready to reseed

teasel weed - a weed

cattails

Some late season bloomers.  The idea is to have a variety of plants so something is always blooming.

Obedient Plant is just starting to bloom  (Physostegia)

Ironweed just starting also   (Vernonia lettermanii ' Iron Butterfly')

Much better

Lots more vegetables coming

During my walk around the farm,  I was busy watching for snakes, groundhog holes, and trying really hard not to touch the electric fencing.  All this while I was swatting mosquitoes and gnats.  And thinking I have to do a serious tick check.  I crossed the stream without slipping on the rocks and dropping my camera.  On top of all of this, since the president is on the mountain, there are lots of helicopters and fighter jets in the sky making lots of noise and making the houses shake. This feels a little more busy than other visits to the area.  Maybe the anniversary coming up?



Also on the farm,  Mike, Wes, Ben and friends are busy picking up the largest stones that came up the last time they plowed.  They want to plant hay and want to lessen the chance of damage to equipment when it is time to cut and bale.

Mike is in the driver's seat

On the home front, I planted some Winterberry bushes.  They are native and deciduous.  When the leaves drop, red berries are available for the birds during the winter.

I added compost from our kitchen waste

Slowly reducing my lawn size

Now that things are starting to cool off, I have lots of stuff to do.  I will be trimming trees, fertilizing the lawn, planting and mulching more perennials and possibly a tree or two.  I have my eye on a Paw Paw........