A luminous meadow

I spent some time this afternoon cleaning up and 'editing' the front meadow. 

It needed to be freed of the weedy annuals that had popped up in late summer, the remnants of vines that had clambered around (including the passionvine, Passiflora incarnata), and generally tidied up -- the Helianthus hirsutus (Rough-stemmed Sunflower) was downright ugly, even to a wildlife-friendly gardener, and I'm confident the goldfinches have long since eaten its seeds.  And the Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), which is such a great host for monarch caterpillars, is in decline as well, and most monarchs are well south at this point, too, and any stragglers are not going to be successful in reproducing here, before the first frost.

Front meadow in evening

It was satisfying work, even if driven by thinking I might have the Osher Lifelong Learning class come visit next after the Gardening for Nature class that I like doing for them.  I think I'll describe what our next projects are, and our real-life challenges as natural gardeners (hmm, full-time work, two gardens at the moment, we have other things to do, etc.)

Actually, our garden in the Upstate is a testament to the toughness of natives and well-adapted plants over a summer of brutal heat and no rain in the last third of the summer, with minimal 'care' on a couple of short visits and supplemental water only to recently planted things.

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Gardens, traveling, and challenges

Heading off to attend the Garden Writers Association annual conference in Dallas, I took a pre-conference detour to Austin, Texas, where I grew up. 

Austin is a great city, but not the place that I remember.  

My mom's house (our family home) was in Northwest Austin, but my dad (and his wife) and my sister (and her husband) now live well outside of anything that I'd call 'in Austin' today, outside the Highway 360 loop.

Lobelia cardinalis along Hill Country Stream

I mention this in talks; where I rambled as a young teenager, poking around in natural landscapes, is now completely developed.  From where our family home was, once open space, is filled with houses to where my sister lives, a considerable distance away.

But, I was encouraged by the sense of place that many residential and commercial landscapes had. 

Central Texas sees the convergence of the Edwards Plateau,  black land prairie and other ecosystems.  It makes a great mix, both for vegetation and wildlife.

And a visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center was an encouraging reminder of the power of native plants.  I've been a member for many years, but the last time I'd visited their site was about five years ago, on tour with a Botanical Society of America conference, as best as I remember.

 

an inspiring wildlife pond

It looks great now, and I was totally impressed.  I loved all of the landscapes around their historically appropriate buildings. And the plantings, mature now, are wonderful.

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Planting native perennials

The Botanical Gardens of Asheville Spring Plant Sale and the WNC Herb Festival were full of cool plants this weekend. We snagged all sorts of interesting natives, from Wild Quinine (Parthenium integrifolium), Goldenseal, American Ginseng, and ramps, along with Golden ragwort (Senecio aureus), Anise-scented Goldenrod (Solidago odora), Wild Yam, a Gaillardia cultivar, (Rough Blazing Star) Liatris aspera, and a lovely Carex spp.

Added to the Penstemons, Coreopsis, Centaurea, and Achillea that came as trial complimentary plants from Blooms of Bressingham (I'd signed up for them at the Garden Writer's Association annual conference), we had lots to plant in the front perennial bed at our small mountain house!

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Why shouldn't more parking lots look like this?

I'm weary of looking at uninteresting planting in parking lots (and elsewhere) that do nothing for the natural world. Why not include a diversity of shrubs and trees? Why not include grasses and perennials? Why not include rain gardens that help filter runoff and provide mini-wetlands that might support a few dragonflies?

I've bumbled across a few good examples lately. The photos above, of parking lot for a Portland bakery/coffee house were nice.

And the urban parking near UNC Asheville and the Botanical Garden of Asheville, planted in natives, gets my kudos for providing a sense of place.

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A giant tromboncino squash!

This big one was hiding near a old tree stump. (I normally harvest them at the size of the one next to it). Notice its size relative to the cutting board. Yikes!

Oops, one that got away!

Amazingly, it was still quite edible, roasted in slices with garlic and olive oil.

The yard-long bean vines in the satellite garden are starting to produce -- need to knock off some aphids (their one pest) with some water.

And, all of our tomatoes love the heat and dry weather that we've had, as long as we water. It's hard to imagine all the rain that folks up in the northeastern U.S. and Midwest have experienced this summer.

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A front entrance to the garden

Our front yard didn't always look this way. When we moved in, it was a long dull expanse of lawn, punctuated by a row of magnolias and dogwoods, in alternation with a single white pine. Beyond that was a dying red tip hedge, planted by the second owner (we're the third owners).

We've lived here almost fifteen years now, but it didn't take long for the young trees that my gardening companion planted to make a difference.

Now, it's like a natural woodland, with a variety of native hardwoods developing the canopy, with an understory of small native trees and shrubs. All that we did was try to recreate (and speed up) what nature might do in a open field, if there were ample seed sources nearby.

We had to provide our own saplings; but the regenerative power of planting is as simple as digging a hole, amending the soil a bit, and keeping a young tree or shrub watered through its first seasons (and maybe a bit during exceptional droughty times like now.)

An nice comment from a fellow blogger on another post got me thinking about this again -- we're not 'experienced gardeners'-- we do know about plants, but that doesn't mean we knew how to grow things very well when we bought a old house that we fell in love with. My parents certainly weren't gardeners.

And since we transformed our lawn expanses into a wildlife-friendly garden, simply by planting a diversity of native (mostly) shrubs and trees (and we're still working on it) -- I'd like to think encouragingly that all it takes is a shovel and a plant. And repeating that. And then doing it again. And replacing plants that don't do well. And there's great joy in the results.

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Learning more about native plants

Adding native plants to your garden sometimes feels a bit serendipitous. Commonly used natives may be widely available in nurseries, but many are little known as garden plants, and so much harder to find. It's also important (just as it is with all plants) to choose the right plant for the right place. So, selecting natives of your region, or that those that are adapted to it, are the ones to try.

Some natives are fussy, and not easy to grow, but many, when planted in appropriate sites, are relatively pest-and problem-free, being adapted to the regional environment.

One of the first steps to adding natives is to learn more about what’s available and what’s recommended for landscape use. Some species that are hard to propagate or that are slow-growing, or don’t take well to containers may be impossible to find; similarly, herbaceous species with a limited market are the venue of specialty mail-order nurseries.

Here are some of my favorite references about using native plants in the landscape (for the Southeast, where I live.) This post is for SE gardeners, but other parts of the country have equally good references.

Wasowski, Sally and Andy Wasowski. 1994. Gardening with Native Plants of the South. Taylor Publishing Co.: Dallas. 196 pp.

This book is an outstanding guide to native plant choices, combining plants, where to plant, complete with planting suggestions. It’s been tremendously successful, and is probably the book I reach for first.

Jones, S.B. and L.E. Foote. 1990. Gardening with Native Wild Flowers. Timber Press: Portland, Oregon. 195 pp.

This is a classic, much reprinted, and just as useful today. It includes much more information than a standard wildflower guide.

Cullina. William. 2000. The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Cullina. William. 2002. Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines: A Guide to Using, Growing, and Propagating North American Woody Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company.


Bill Cullina’s thorough descriptions of landscape-worthy natives are accompanied by excellent photographs, making these books an easy way to learn more about native plants to consider in your own landscape.

Bir, Richard E. 1992. Growing and Propagating Showy Native Woody Plants. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, NC.

An expert horticulturist, Dick Bir provides hands-on advice for propagating our showy woodies, based on his experiences in the Fletcher Mt. Research Station in Western North Carolina.

To help learn and identify native trees, shrubs, and herbs in natural plant communities, here are a few reference suggestions. There are also many good field guides that include native plants.

Brown, Claud L. and L. Katherine Kirkman. 1990. Trees of Georgia and Adjacent States. Timber Press.

Duncan, Wilbur H. and Marion B. Duncan. 2000. Trees of the Southeastern United States. University of Georgia Press,

Porcher, Richard D. and Douglas A. Rayner. 2002. A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina. University of South Carolina Press.

Foote, Leonard E. and Samuel B. Jones, Jr. 1989. Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast: Landscaping Uses and Identification. Timber Press.

Finally, there are a number of excellent organizations that promote interest in native plants and have both comprehensive programs and informative websites, which include plant suggestions, and numerous other resources.

Visit the websites of these regional organizations to find out more about the organizations and the resources that they offer.

South Carolina Native Plant Society
http://www.scnps.org/

North Carolina Native Plant Society
http://www.ncwildflower.org/

North Carolina Botanical Garden (focused on native plants)
http://ncbg.unc.edu/plants-and-gardening/

South Carolina Botanical Garden (many native plants in the landscape and offered in our spring and fall plant sales)
http://www.clemson.edu/scbg

Georgia Wildlife Federation
http://www.gwf.org/habitats.htm

And, here are a couple of national organizations, among many good ones, to learn about native plants and how to use them in the landscape.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (focused on native plants of the U.S.)
http://www.wildflower.org/

National Wildlife Federation (their backyard wildlife habitat program focuses on native plants)
www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/

Learning about native plants of our region and where they grow will help give you insights into how you might include them in your landscape.

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