Help Turning Cleared Red Spruce Forest Into Native Pollinator Garden
wildingout
4 years ago
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wildingout
4 years agowildingout
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Have you been hunting for natives?
Comments (15)Its a big world and everybody on it has a different viewpoint - all of them valid. When I take a deep view of the issue it has parallels to other nature/environmental conflicts and the ethics of ownership of art and artifacts. When I was younger I collected a lot in the wild, both plants and animals. Over time my poor track record for success calmed down my wish to grow everything. Now I only collect something that I really think I can grow. I prefer to take cuttings and whereas in the past I would take an obscene amount of cuttings, now I only take a few (you could call this pruning!). I try not to tell other people what they should do or not do, because I believe they will eventually slow down on the collecting. It is rare for a person to be a rabid collector for years on years. Another aspect of it to consider - the only people that will care enough to step in and do the work involved with saving an endagered species of plant will be gardeners. Those gardeners will have to gain those skills somewhere. When disaster is looming, it will be a gardener that saves the rare plants in his/her neighborhood - other people will be busy saving something else. Way back when I worked at the zoo I used to work in the bird department taking care of a large walk through aviary filled with South American birds. One day while out at lunch with some ex-staff I ran across my old highschool biology teacher who told me about her teenage son's pet parrot that he had recieved from the zoo. Immediately my group figured out that the kid had stolen the parrot but I kept my cool and let her tell me the false story he had told her. Later they were furious that I did nothing or said nothing to her but in my mind that parrot was in a much better place being cared for by this kid. Everyone thinks that because its the "zoo" that all the animals are expertly cared for but this was an orphaned bird that lived in isolation and neglect in windowless shed for years before someone stepped forward and suggested we re-introduce it to the parent flock. By then it was heavily imprinted on people and would fly up to anyone walking through the aviary. The flock treated it poorly, it was never going to fit in. The zoo didn't have the time to take adequate care of it. Allowing it to be kept by the teenager was actually better for the bird - even though the kid was a thief. So it all depends on how you want to look at it....See MoreDesign my (Small) Native Garden
Comments (12)Thank you for all of the suggestions! I'm located in the far southwest corner of Ohio; west of Cincinnati. Since the area has been clear-cut and re-vegetated numerous times, it was hard to gather information on what is actually "native" vs. what grows in nearby regions. Pre-European settlement, the area was a beech-maple forest and according to stories, had some of the last giant beech trees before being logged for timber. Not that I'm going to make any meaningful impact on my 0.14 acre plot; but the romanticized idea of restoring a small portion of the area to its former glory is too nagging to pass on. I don't have room to plant a beech tree, but I have a hickory and a serviceberry and would like to restore some of the historic understory offerings to birds and pollinators. PS - I did move my Joe Pye weed to occupy a small portion of the spot in question. This post was edited by NKUSigEp on Wed, Oct 9, 13 at 16:35...See MoreWanting to sow a "forest"
Comments (56)I'm with you, +oM. It's a huge pleasure to watch a woods fill in and change over the years. Our woods burnt in '45, and 10 years later, my dad took me planting acorns. At that time, there was a lot of assorted popple, white spruce and balsam fir (Var, my Dad called it). Over time the dog berries (mountain ash), red spruce and white birch came in. The tamarack had survived in the wet spots the fire had not burned. Wasn't long till some of the tiny red maples started to get big enough to be noticeable, and the acorns had become trees big enough to mast. The squirrels planted oaks all over the place. Bog birch showed up recently. Beech came in, probably via the squirrels and jays, from the seed source across the road. I mouse guard them when I find them. The elms lining the brook caught the DED, and most died...not all though. I am planting more elms too, from local survivor elms that have either not been exposed to the dutch elm disease, or survived it. I have planted american chestnut, and soon they will be old enough to mast too, and the wildlife will spread them too. One year I dumped a bucket of acorns in the path, and the squirrels had a planting party. There are red oaks all along the paths, none more than 50 or 100 feet from the paths. Some of those are over 20 feet now. The grouse have come back, and the eagles. It's a lot of fun....See MoreGardening for pollinators and wildlife.
Comments (790)He covers the seeds with chicken grit gravel, to keep the soil, less compacted. If he's not sure how viable seeds are, he sows them very heavily, and covers them with gravel. Joe also likes to use grit on pots that need 2 years. I have real stone gravel and not oyster shell gravel, like I've used before. I like this stone grit a lot better. I have good feelings about it. I didn't top off all my pots with gravel. I sowed Hepatica seeds of both species, acutiloba and americanum. I saw a photo of some hepatica seedlings emerging from gravel and they looked great. They need double dormancy. I forgot about the Hydrangea arborescens. I'd like to get a couple of them from Possibility Place. I'm pretty sure they sell prairie willow. It grows at the sand prairie. I could take some cuttings, and root them. Native willows are great host plants for so many different creatures. I could plant one in my easement? That's where I want to plant the Zanthoxylum and Cepholanthus too. They can duke it out back there. Much better for wildlife, than White Mulberry, Buckthorn, and Ulmus parviflora. Years ago I grew an arctic willow in back, and it also made a thick trunk. When I proofread and edit, every time I use the space bare the whole thing scrolls down, and I lose my place where I'm writing. It's so annoying! Does that happen to you?? I plan on putting a bunch of shrubs, flowers, grasses,and sedges in my front yard. I have an idea for the design, but I don't have any designated placements written in stone. I'm working my way down the hill, and sticking plants in along the way. I try to consider their needs, so I put them where they have the right conditions. I'm sure once I get to know all these new species, I'll want to tweak everything and move stuff around, and I'm looking forward to it, we'll mentally anyways. Won't need to join a gym....See Morewildingout
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