Go native. Learn the plants that are native to your area and grow them.

Nothoscordum bivalve - False Garlic or Crowpoison

It's time to go native. But what does that mean? Maybe you heard someone at your local nursery mention native plants. It is a niche area when it comes to plants, most are hard or difficult to propagate, while others are better off left in the wild.

A Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic (indigenous) or naturalized to a given area in geologic time. Which can seem a bit ambiguous. Where's the cutoff? Well, in North America a plant is often deemed native if it was present before colonization. There, that's better. So if it was in your area naturally during Colonial times, then there's your native plant.

Cornus florida or Common flowering dogwood

We all know of at least one truly native plant where we live. Whether you are in the US or Canada, Europe or India, there are plants that you see every day, everywhere. Here in Virginia I had always known from childhood that the Cornus florida, or Flowering Dogwood was the Virginia state flower and tree. If you drive through the country on a bright spring day, you can spot all of the dogwoods growing wild in the woods, being comprimised by their bright white flowers, in an otherwise, still bleak landscape.

I just had no idea just how many plants were native until we started going to a small boutique nursery near our house. They have a small section carved out just for native plants. It's quite helpful and at least gets us looking or doing more research about plants in our area.

Stylophorum diphyllum - Wood Poppy, Celandine Poppy. A beautiful, yellow, early spring wildflower

A colleague of mine shared her sometimes out of control Wood Poppy with me a couple of years ago. Shade loving and a prolific spring bloomer, this plant is wonderful in my shade garden near the edge of the woods. Stylophorum diphyllum - Wood Poppy, Celandine Poppy.

One plant that I inherited when we purchased this property had me stumped for a few years. It has a beautiful flower, but it grows in thin leafed clumps and has white bulbs similar to onions or garlic, but has no smell. It has spread pretty well over the years and part of me doesn't mind, but I might have to start keeping it under control. It is Nothoscordum bivalve - False Garlic or Crowpoison.

I'm still researching to find out what this one is

I'm still researching to find out what this one is

 So what's my point? Find what is native to your area, find something you like and plant it. Keep these native going. Some are fast becoming extinct. The way we Americans build housing and businesses, by scraping off the top layer of earth, and cutting every tree in sight, building and then planting horrible trees like the Bradford Pear in droves, it's a wonder that we have any native plants left at all.

If you don't have a nursery like we do near you, at least get with your state forestry service or local co-op or farmers market and inquire about these plants.

Nothoscordum bivalve was formerly classified in the lily family, but has recently been moved to the Amaryllis family. It does not have the oniony-smell of true garlics and onions.

False Garlic

Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in.

Acer Palmatum "Orange Dream"

This last week I was a happy guy. I had some decent weather on my days off, but as luck would have it, the best weather was on the days I was working. Still, I was able to get some things done around the yard, plant some new specimens and even perform the first mowing.

Pear blossoms at sunset

Now this. Freeze warnings for tonight and the next couple of nights. Are you kidding me?! I thought, well, hoped, beyond all hope, that we were past this cold weather. You see, I hate cold weather. With a passion. I don't mind a cooler season necessarily, I just don't like freezing temps. Especially now. All of our Japanese maples are leafed out. Some leaves are still very young and tender. These, I am worried about. The hostas have just emerged. The tulips have been beautiful, but they are about spent. I'm mainly worried about the 16 unique specimen Japanese Maples we have around the yard.

Viburnum

We pride ourselves on finding the best version of each specimen and really look out for unique hybrids or new ones. Yesterday we picked up a real beauty called "Orange Dream". I'm not sure why it is called this as it is more yellow/chartreuse than orange, but its foliage is bright and different and will look nice as a trio of JMs, one red and the other with lacy green leaves.

But what is a gardener supposed to do? I guess I could go to the store, purchase massive amounts of plastic on rolls, wrap each tree and hope that that works. But then I have just created landfill waste that will last a millennia. I guess I'll just let ol' MN handle it. It is she, that is throwing us these curve balls by the way. The brutal winter we had, this late, late cold snap, and yes, I did find those damned Canker Worms on some of the trees last evening.

You've got to be kidding me.

Slumber is over. Spring awakens. Quickly!

Weeping Cherry blossoms are a sight for two of the senses

Ahhh. Spring has sprung. And with the work I was able to complete over the last few days, so has every muscle in my body. It is late in the season this year that I am completing this annual task, cleaning the beds from all of the winter detritus, raking out leaves blown in from yards afar, pulling early cool weather weeds and errant grasses.

While my body is protesting today, I am quite happy and satisfied. The days were warm and dry, allowing me two entire days of bending, picking, raking and hauling. I even broke a sweat a couple of times. Evenings have also been fruitful.

Snowbells soaking up the sun

This weather, being so pleasant, allowed me to also assess the damage done by ol' Ma Nature. It is not pretty. Upon further review, the Jasmine and two of the Gardenia have taken a huge hit, possibly even being visited by the Grim Reaper. I trimmed up the Jasmine, and the usual profuse "bleeding" of the white milky sap was not present. Sigh.

One of the early bloomers. Tulip.

But signs of life were evident elsewhere throughout the yard. Peonies are popping out of the ground, the tulips are starting to bud and a couple even managed to bloom. There are buds on all of the Japanese maples, which makes me very happy. The dappled willow was in full bud and this year, the squirrels have been snipping off the last 1-2 feet of each branch, leaving a disgusting pile at the base of the bush. My wife believes they are using them to build their nests, but I have seen them snip off these branches, only to nibble the very last couple of buds. Such a waste. We sprayed the bush with a fine mist of animal repellant, so we'll have to wait and see if that will work. They have never done this before and neither have I.

Peach blossoms

Over the years we have changed the ratio of grass to beds, and by doing this, have increased the need for mulch. Mulch is great stuff. I really does retain moisture in the ground under it. It biodegrades back into the soil, leaving nutrients over time. It does keep weeds at a minimum, and those that do manage to sprout, are easier to pull out. With that being said, I think that natural hardwood, cypress, pine bark or needles is the best. Stay away from the dyed variety. Chemically dyed mulch will only leech those chemicals back into your yard or garden. I've seen ads for ground up rubber mulch. Again, rubber from tires is extremely caustic over time and leeches horrible chemicals into the ground and will not look nice over the long haul.

Japanese Maple 'Shishigashira', or "Lions Mane" with new leaves.

Mulch can be expensive. It is cheaper by the yard when purchased in bulk, but it can be a large outlay all at once. The first year I was able to cover all my beds with just 20 bags of mulch. Two years ago we got a load of mulch delivered by dump truck, 9 cubic yards of it! And I was still shy, and since then we have added new planting beds in the back. This year I will be hitting the beds with small amounts of bagged mulch, here and there where needed. Make sure you get online and see when your local big box store is having a sale. Try to get them when they are 5 bags (2 cf each) for $10. The best deal all year. The Japanese Maples will be getting their dressings first.

The above images are the culmination of only 5 days of warm weather. It is amazing the resilience these plants have and the drive to reproduce and do it all over again after such a hard winter. We could all learn a lot from them.

Thoughts from March 20, 2014

March 20, 2014. Spring is almost here. Well, as of today, it is here, but someone didn’t tell the weather service. We have had winter storms, one right after another. And they are calling for one more that should hit us next Tuesday. Sigh. The ground is saturated. The plants are confused and frankly, so am I. Confused, not saturated.

March 17 Snowfall

I had commented on the state of some of my plants last time. Well, now some are not looking good at all. Evergreen plants tend to hide their stress and death throes long after they have had the crap kicked out of them. Now the Gardenias and the Jasmine are looking worse than I thought. We'll have to wait and see.

cropped Tulips thanks to the Deer

My yard and garden has not only had to cope with the weather, but four footed creatures. We came home the other night from having dinner out at a nice restaurant only to have burst in on an orgy in my garden. We were all in a good mood from good food and conversation when the headlights illuminated 4 large deer in my front yard.
I laid on the horn, pulled the car up in front of the house, came to an abrupt stop, put it in park, jumped out and proceeded to run through the yard, yelling and clapping my hands like a man possessed. I wanted to scare the crap out of them so maybe next time, they would think twice about indulging their vegan tendencies on my plants.

The next day, in the light, I was heart broken to find that they had sheared dozens of tulips down to the ground. Some of the bulbs had been pulled right out of the ground in their attempt to mock me and get their fix on. It was just the leaves, mind you, as it is still too early for the stalks and buds to have been formed, but disappointing just the same. I don’t know if they will have enough energy to grown new leaves in time to produce some blooms.