Native Plants for the Yard

I was motivated by the lecture on native plants in the Master Naturalist class to augment the plantings around my house with some new additions. This past weekend was the perfect time to do it: there were native plants on sale and for free at the Howard County GreenFest on Saturday and the weather was good for planting on Sunday.

I replaced two bushes that had died in the front of our house with Ninebark. Hopefully they will fill in the space between the irises I planted last year to partially cover the void the old bushes had left.

Under the deck where there is too much shade for the grass to grow well, I planted two Christmas ferns. Both of the plants have old green fronds that made it through the winter and fiddleheads that are emerging now. It seems like they unfurled a bit over Saturday night while they were waiting in their pots on our deck to be planted in the ground. If these ferns do well, maybe they will propagate or maybe I’ll just plant a few more every year until I get some greenery under the deck again.

In the back of our yard where the grass is not growing well at the edge of the forest, I planted 4 understory trees: 2 spicebush, a sassafras, and a witch hazel. I will probably have to put a small fence around the area to keep the deer away from them for a few years. They are very small. The picture is of one of the spicebush plants; do you see the little green leaves?

Over the next few years, I’ll continue to extend the forest into our yard by a few feet every year. It is very easy to rake all the fall leaves to the part of the yard I want to ‘give back’ to the forest and then plant a small tree or bush in the area the next spring. I am still trying to decide if I want to plant winterberry somewhere in the yard this season or wait until next spring to plant it in the area reclaimed by the forest next fall.

Brookside Gardens Early Spring - March 2015

Last weekend was a pretty cold to be walking around Brookside Gardens but I did notice some harbingers of spring.

The witch hazel is the first tree to show colors in the spring. Brookside has yellow and red specimens. The color comes in the form of festive streamers around the red center of the flower.

There were a few skunk cabbage blooms. The area was thick with the plants last spring so I knew where to look off the boardwalk between Brookside Gardens and Brookside Nature Center. Next time I go - early next week probably - I’ll probably see a lot more of these plants. This is the first year I’ve thought to look for them early enough to see them emerge from the ground.

Of course there are buds and new cones everywhere…the two below were so large I didn’t need the loupe!

Plans for Spring

We had a first spring-like March day this past weekend: breezy, a little warmer, and sunny. I started thinking about our typical spring plans.

After being at home more than usual during the latter part of winter we are ready for some travel. We are planning a road trip to the coastal North Carolina wildlife refuges sometime in April. The rest will be day trips. I want to visit old favorites and some of places mentioned in the Master Naturalist Training:

• Brookside Gardens
• Longwood Gardens
• Washington DC cherry blossoms (picture from last year)
  
• Soldiers Delight State National Environmental Area
• Adkins Arboretum
• Cylburn Arboretum

Other plans fall into the spring cleaning:

• Pulling leaves and dried stems from flowerbeds, moving compost that is ‘ready’ to the beds and starting a new compost pile
• Cleaning all the windows in the house - inside and out
• Dispositioning the piles of ‘stuff’ that have not been moved since fall (most if it should probably be given away)
• Moving warm weather clothes to closest and deciding which winter clothes to keep/which will not be worn again and should be given away

Now that I’ve made the lists - it is enough to overlay on activities like Master Naturalist class and the subsequent volunteer work for the Howard County Conservancy. I am anticipating a busy - and fun - Spring 2015.

Is spring on the way?

Just 5 days ago we were in the grip of winter. We’d had a significant amount of snow and the temperatures were down in the single digits. The timing was good; the roads were bad during times I had plenty of food in the house and no need to get out. I put off shoveling the driveway.

The sun came out but was very cold. We managed to get out down the driveway but decided we would have to shovel since it was not going get warm enough to melt anytime soon. I was surprised that the snow was light and managed to shovel the driveway in one long session….with some soreness immediately afterward that was gone by the next morning (all that bouncing while working on the computer does keep my back muscles in shape!).

And now 5 days later - the snow in the sunny places of the yard has melted leaving it very soggy. The piles along the driveway from the shoveling over the past month will be the last to melt….although we have gotten snows in April in some previous years!

The maples buds are very red and I can see the enlarged buds on the cherry and oak….so the trees are readying for spring. The robins have been searching the soggy lawn for worms that are probably near the surface to avoid drowning. So - there are signs that spring is on the way...I’ll be optimistic and plan as if there is no more winter!