Winter Sowing

 

Winter sowing with the milk jug technique

Renee has started some winter sowing. This photo shows the first set of three kinds of purchased seeds that she planted. She has two more jugs planted now with some seeds from her sister. While some folks use gallon jugs, we have half gallon jugs from 2% milk. Use what you have, I say. 

Here are what she has started:

• Asclepias syriaca, Common Milkweed: While we have a couple of Common Milkweed started in some overgrown turf/future prairie in front of the springhouse, we hope to add to those few to encourage the development of a  milkweed patch.
• Penstemon hirsutus, Hairy Beardtongue: While native to our county, we don't have any at this point. One advantage, once established, is that it blooms in early summer, a time when we don't have a lot blooming. It attracts a range of pollinators and is adaptable to a range of soils. 
• Agasache scrophulariifolia, Purple Giant Hyssop: I came back from the national NMRA convention in Novi last summer, raving about my friend's Hyssops. I stayed at Brad and Harriet's outside of Erie, and Harriet showed me around her native plants. Her Hyssops were in bloom, apparently hadn't been eaten by deer, and were covered by bees. They live outside Erie, but I was impressed that their deer had left the plants alone, so I talked Renee into trying them here. 
• Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed: These seeds were gathered by Renee's sister last fall. We have a few Swamp Milkweed plants along with some Queen of the Prairie in a ditch along our driveway. That area often fills up with water for a number of days, but some Swamp Milkweed has done well there. If we have more than just one or two starts from the seeds, we may try another spot for them also.
• Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Milkweed: More seeds from Renee's sister's garden. Above the ditch is a dry, sandy area where we have one Butterfly Milkweed. I think the plan is to add a few more, hoping that they get established. 

Harriet's Hyssops last July

Our largest Milkweed last summer with a Milkweed Bug

Backyard Native Garden

 

This native garden that we started in the spring of 2024 is doing well, with just a few exceptions, in its second year. In 2023, we put down cardboard and composted wood chips in a rough square along the edge of the backyard turf. It receives direct sun in the morning into the midday with filtered light through the rest of the day. A wet area at the edge of the woods that had started to be infiltrated by the Japanese knotweed lies behind and to the west of it. We planted three spicebush starts in that wet area behind this garden this past spring. Renee also planted five Canada anemones, Anemone canadensis, in this wet area behind this garden this summer. As it is a robust native spreading ground cover, we are hoping that it gets established and does its part to combat the return of the knotweed here in the west of our property.

The star of the "backyard native garden" so far is the false sunflower, Heliopsis helianthoides. It has an extended bloom time, from early summer until first frost. It is not fussy, and is thriving in this garden. It is often described as a short lived perennial, so we may want to collect seeds. Some birds like its seeds, so it is one to leave without cutting back in the fall.  Another feature is that the deer and groundhog population appear to leave it alone, unlike some other plants in this garden. In addition to being easy to grow and thriving in this location, it is pollinator friendly. In this photo, Renee recently caught a swallowtail visiting our false sunflower. 

Right now, in August, the bee balm, Monarda didyma, is also blooming. As a member of the mint family it is not that attractive to deer or rabbits, so I suspect that the groundhog was the culprit that chomped it down earlier. It has spread and is blooming despite being grazed on. 

Seen in the rear of the garden from a different perspective and a little earlier this summer, the figwort, Scrophularia marilandica, has been blooming for weeks now. It is a tall plant without picturesque blooms. However it is rich with nectar and draws many bees and wasps including different native bees. It is recommended by the Xerces Society. Renee grew some figworts from seed, and the ones here in this garden are thriving. In the center foreground in this shot, our bergamont, Monarda fistulosa, appears to be thriving, but still has not bloomed in late August. 

Several plants on this side of the backyard native garden have really struggled. Both the couple of black eyed Susans and the purple coneflower have been seriously browsed. Whether the culprit was the groundhog or the deer family, someone has repeatedly eaten these plants despite the use of deer repellent sprays. 

Loooking at this photo of the other (north) side of the garden, one can see some of our attempts to include flowering plants with a variety of bloom times. The plant in the foreground of this photo is eastern bluestar, Amsonia tabernaemontana. It appears to thrive here in this location, and as a member of the Dogbane family, it has not been browsed upon. It flowers in the spring. Another early bloomer is the columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, which got started in this garden after Renee tossed in some spent flower heads from another location last year. Barely visible behind the figwort and false sunflower is one of our couple of boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum. Now, in late August, it is not yet blooming, but it should soon.

Here along the border between the wet edge of the existing woods and the turf of the backyard, this backyard native garden is doing pretty well despite our focus on reclaiming the knotweed expanse. (Frankly, now a burnweed expanse, the topic of a future post.) We plan to apply the cardboard and chip approach to an additional area to the south of this garden and expand it with more plantings next year. We may plant a couple of our mountain mint starts here on the border between the planned new section and this garden to jumpstart the expansion and protect the plants suffering from excessive browsing.

Native Shrubs in the Front Yard

A butterfly visiting as seen through the dining room window yesterday

We have planted several native shrubs over the past year or so in our front yard. We have started replacing some of our front lawn with what we are calling the "Shrub Garden." Also, last summer, before the house was painted, we removed a dead shrub that had been a part of the established foundation plantings which include several hybrid rhododendrons and ornamental evergreen shrubs.

Last fall after the painters were done, we planted a Virginia sweetspire, Itea virginica, to replace the  shrub that we had removed. It seems to be settling in. It gets full sun in the morning, but afternoon shade from the house. Yesterday, while in the dining room, we noticed a butterfly on it. At first I suspected that the butterfly was a swallowtail, but Renee identified it correctly as a red-spotted purple, Limenitis arthemis astyanax. They have evolved to mimic pipevine swallowtails since the swallowtails are not palatable to birds. The red-spotted purple caterpillars have also evolved to mimic, wait for it, bird poop. I guess another example of less than palatable food for birds. Black cherry trees are a host to the red-spotted purple, and we have one on our property and several in the woods surrounding us. 

Serviceberry in June 2025

We started our "Shrub Garden" when we planted this serviceberry, Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance,' in the fall of 2023. When we planted it, we used cardboard and wood chip mulch to start the garden. We also put a wire fence around it to protect it from the critters.  It has flowered each May since then, and this summer we have seen catbirds and goldfinches eating berries from it. 

The summersweet finally leafed out

Last fall, we expanded the mulched area and planted a summersweet, Clethra alnifolia. We left it in its pot for a long time after we bought it and let it get a bit dry, so we were worried when it didn't leaf out when the other shrubs did this spring. Now we realize that it just leafs out really late. It flowers later in the summer, but it is a long bloomer and very popular with the pollinators. 

Renee is planning on planting some golden alexanders and columbine here between the shrubs, but we have so much to do in the knotweed expanse that it might not happen this year. 

Common snowberry island in the lawn, 2025

The third shrub in the nascent shrub garden is the common snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus. We planted it last fall, and as can be seen in the photo, we haven't expanded the lasagna cardboard and mulch to it yet. Also, we need to be aware that it is susceptible to deer browse, and we don't have a cage around it. At the least it should be a target of spraying with a deer repellant. We have a lot of seedlings to plant now, but later this summer, I would like to complete the shaping and smothering of the lawn with cardboard and mulch for this garden bed with its native shrubs.

Less Lawn More Life Challenges

We finished our Less Lawn More Life challenge space, just a day or so ago, but it has only made a small dent in our south knotweed expanse. It is a start though! The Week 5 Challenge: Identify and Remove Non-native Invasive Species is our starting point with the ongoing fight with the knotweed, which here involved lots of shoot and rhizome removal. Earlier we planted a Betula nigra and Hamamelis virginiana, a river birch and witch hazel respectively which turned out to be the Week 4 Challenge of planting a tree or shrub. The river birch is a keystone tree for Atlantic Highlands, our Level II ecoregion, and the Hamamelis virginiana is a host to over 60 moths and butterflies. This tree and shrub layer is a backdrop for our native plant bed inspired by the Less Lawn More Life challenge. 

The area we planted to the north of the river birch is around 70 square feet and not so much an oval as a trapezoid with rounded corners. We planted eleven plugs from The Pollen Nation or Bagley Pond Perennials and three seedlings that Renee started from seeds.

• 3 New England aster, symphyotrichum novae-angliae, a late blooming nectar source into the fall. 
• 3 sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale, another fall blooming perennial native. 
• 3 short toothed mountain mint, Pycnanthemum muticum, another pollinator favorite, blooming starting in July with vigorous spreading characteristics and deer resistance. 
• 2 golden alexander, Zizia aurea, a spring blooming shorter perennial, host plant to Black Swallowtails.
• 3 basket flower, Centaura americana, an annual native to the American southwest and Mexico that Renee started from seeds. While the new perennials "sleep" or "creep," the basket flowers will show off and appeal to pollinators. 

 

Knotweed and Less Lawn Updates

 

The knotweed, whether it is Japanese knotweed, Fallopia Japanica, or the hybrid discussed in Joan Jubela's article mentioned earlier, is unrelenting. Elimination has not and will not be achieved this year (ever?). We have to be satisfied with some combination of controlling, managing, or reducing the spread of the zombie-like plant for now.  I did come across a helpful video for controlling invasive knotweed. Yes, it is from a commercial company, but it pulls together ideas that are supported by other recognized and legitimate sources. This video supports the steps we are taking, but we still need to try to not be demoralized by the numbers of shoots emerging from what had appeared as a knotweed cemetery earlier this spring. 

The knotweed appears most unfazed by the past two year's treatment trying to eliminate it in the wet areas over the property line and on the borders of the "expanse" on our property. As we are not prepared to use herbicides ourselves, we may need to contact the service we used in 2023 and 2024. 

We are making some headway on the area that I refer to as the "knotweed expanse" most of which is seen in the background of the photo of the river birch, Betula nigra, taken after it had started to leaf out below. 

While not that attractive, we are fencing or caging the woody plants as we go to protect them from browsing by the deer or other critters while the plants are still young and susceptible. While investigating about a week or so ago, we found an oak seedling that was growing along the property line between the river birch and the springhouse overflow bog. I crafted a cloche to protect it from the browsers, the edge of which can be seen in this photo:

We also planted and caged the witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, that we had purchased at Edge of the Woods. We planted it just to the east and fairly close to the birch tree. As they mature, we hope their roots will intertwine and cooperate rather than compete for water while these two plants provide layers between canopy and understory. The witch hazel is native and pollinator friendly, flowering in the fall. 

Before the storms at the end of last week, we also planted the last two purchases from Edge of the Woods, the Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica. Renee took the lead with these, planting them in the area under our red oak. These pretty spring ephemerals are native and should thrive in this area. This area under the tree has been lawn, but our plan is to work towards this to be an area to shrink the lawn and be friendlier to caterpillars. Leaves that we left last fall under sticks never blew away. Spring ephemerals, leaf litter, and perhaps a large rock or tree branch will provide better pupation sites than lawn would.

We have joined the Less Lawn More Life challenge and the week two challenge was to choose a site for the challenge. We chose an area between where we planted the river birch and witch hazel and the driveway.  This site is in a direct line of sight from our three-season room seen in the photo above and will be a focus area for the challenge as we move forward with other plantings and locations. We have a number of seedlings to plant, and we are approaching the last frost date. Our next post will discuss planning and planting. 

Small Successes and Dealing With our Biggest Obstacle

I signed us up on the Homegrown National Park map a few days ago, and I plan to continue adding new as well as existing native plantings. As I mentioned in my last post, celebrating small successes helps to keep us from being overwhelmed with our ongoing knotweed issue. 

Here is a photo from just a few days ago of the serviceberry, Amelanchier x grandiflora, that we planted in the fall of 2023. We have taken photos of it in full bloom on May third both this year and last. This is in front of our house, in an area of the turf where we have put down cardboard and then covered it with composted wood chips from our township's maintenance yard. We also have a white snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus, that we planted last year leafing out in this area. This is one of several garden areas or beds that we have started this way amongst or on the edge of the turf yard. This one we are referring to as "the shrub garden," but we also plan to include other plantings here.  

Over in the south knotweed expanse, we installed a cage around the newly planted birch which has been leafing out, to protect it from browsing. Sadly, a fair number of young knotweed shoots have emerged as well. The shoots emerging such as the one in the photo can be dug up to be "properly disposed of" after they dry up in the sun. The ones emerging from large clumps from past years are more worrying. 

Yesterday, I came across an article here about trying to eliminate knotweed and instead resolving to manage it. I think that the author of the PennState Extension article is dealing with a larger expanse, but her article makes me think about a couple of issues. One is the site and why the knotweed thrives there. Just past our property line a mini bog is formed from the overflow from our spring house. This feature of the area needs to stay. Mini bogs and vernal pools are precious features. We might start thinking of other plantings that will compete with the knotweed. The portion of the knotweed expanse on our property is in full sun. Whether we eliminate or only "manage" the knotweed, we will need to be very aware of a plan to "revegetate" the site which is a major point of Joan Jubela's article. Outcompeting the knotweed and planting keystone natives will need to combine as goals as we move forward in this area.