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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

A Zoo Prairie Ups!

7/28/2023

 
Here's a super cool story by gardener Asa Wood who used Prairie Up to create a cool landscape at the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana. A lot of lessons here of the ups and downs that should inspire us all. Enjoy!

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In January of 2022 I was presented with an opportunity to design and plant a large native plant garden at our local zoo. The zoo director, who is a good friend of mine, was telling me about the exorbitant prices landscape companies had quoted him for the area surrounding the zoo's new giraffe exhibit. Before I could stop myself, I offered to landscape the entire area for the price of the plants but only if I could do it with all native plants. Josh agreed and I was suddenly in charge of the largest garden project of my life! I am a hobbyist gardener and had been working on my own native plant garden for roughly 3 years, but I had no formal training and had never designed such a large and public garden. I was completely overwhelmed at the thought!

As luck would have it, this was right around the time I ordered a copy of Prairie Up. I had read other garden design books that focused on a "natural" look, but many of them relied on exotics and cultivars for their completed compositions. Prairie Up focuses almost exclusively on native plants and how to put together a cohesive plant community. The lists of plant combinations and tips on matrix planting were especially helpful. The lessons of "right plant, right place" started to make sense and I began to formulate my own list of plant combinations.  Plants were considered for their light, water, and soil requirements, bloom period, structural elements, and years to maturity. In some areas, I purposely used plants, such as lanceleaf coreopsis, that would put on a show in their second year while other slower maturing plants, such as prairie dock and royal catchfly, get established. This strategy has worked very well so far. 

After figuring out my total square footage, I realized that I would need upwards of 4,000 plants to complete the garden. As suggested in the book, I created drawings that were to scale so I could start to visualize the final planted space. It was then time to contact a wholesale native plant nursery and start the process of placing a large order and setting delivery dates. I am a member of our local Wild Ones chapter and was able to organize a group of Wild Ones volunteers for three planting days at the zoo. I arrived early in the morning to lay out my plugs and the volunteers came in behind me and planted. It was a community effort and I could not have finished this garden without the help of so many  dedicated volunteers. 

The area to be planted was largely backfill from the construction of the giraffe enclosure. Though I had chosen plants that can handle some pretty rough conditions, I decided to amend the soil with some compost supplied by out city's organic resources department. This turned out to be a mistake in the long run. The compost carried a heavy weed seed load and weed control has been by far the biggest thorn in my side ever since. I can not over emphasize the importance of vigilant weed control in the first year of planting. Hand pulling weeds and clipping off seed heads of annual weeds has slowly started to turn the tide in favor of the natives. Prairie Up had a suggestion of using a cover crop which I decided to try this year. I spread a half pound of plains coreopsis seeds throughout the garden and have been very pleased with the results. The coreopsis is not only pretty, it has helped to suppress weeds and still allows enough light to reach the perennials. In retrospect, I underestimated the hardiness of our native plants and I should have skipped amending the soil all together. 

Overall, the response to this garden has been overwhelmingly positive. The zoo director commented that he thinks more animals live in the native plant garden that all the rest of the zoo combined. Every time I stop by to do a little weed control, the place is buzzing and twittering with bees, butterflies, and birds. The butterfly weed (all 200 of them) was loaded with monarch caterpillars this spring and flocks of gold finches visit the coreopsis seed heads daily. The swells of color change every week as a new species reaches its peak and another fades. I am anticipating the blooming of 100 rough blazing stars blooming against a stand of showy goldenrod in the coming weeks. I see visitors stop and take pictures against backdrop of blooming natives. Native plants are now a part of the memories these families are making together at the zoo. I really could not be happier with the progress of this garden. 

Plant list:

Prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)
Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi)
Grey-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)
Hoary vervain (Verbena stricta)
Rough blazing star (Liatris aspera)
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurwa)
Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
Black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Calico penstemon (Penstemon calycosus)
Dense blazing star (Liatris spicata)
Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)
Western sunflower (Helianthus occidentalis)
Side oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) 
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) 
Showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa)
Pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) 
Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea)
Prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) 
Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium)
Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
Royal catchfly (Silene regia)
False sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides)
Tall coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris)
Hollow Joe Pye (Eutrochium fistulosum)
Wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
Plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)
Wild petunia (Ruellia humilis)
Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Eastern prickly pear (Opuntia humifusa)

Site Prep -- Solarizing With Plastic Pollution

7/19/2023

 
This a post I've been thinking about for a while but for which I didn't want to spend time moderating comments. It's a topic I address in classes and webinars and certainly in Prairie Up.

I know people are super adverse to using glyphosate to prep an area for a native plant garden. Of course. I certainly don't love using the stuff, however, it has its benefits -- especially in the garden install world (time, efficacy), invasive weed control world, habitat restoration world. Anyway, I've discussed these points in detail on the blog and in the book -- including the fact that horticulture vinegar is more toxic, since I know some use it as a targeted weed killer. (NB: we don't use any product to weed in our gardens, it's all done by hand and by helping the good stuff out compete through various design and management methods.)


But the point I want to make today is about solarizing using plastic sheets to prep a site. We are, of course, all free to do as we choose and what fits our ideology and ability and timeframe and goals, but here are my thoughts on solarizing:

1) Solarizing fries soil life. And it does so over a long period of time. It sterilizes.

2) The best method to solarizing -- especially on a weedy site -- is to put plastic on for 4 weeks, take it off for two weeks to let weed seeds germinate, put it back on for 4 weeks to kill new weeds, take it off for two weeks, etc all through one entire growing season in order to exhaust the weed seed bank. I can guarantee you that if you do this in a suburban front yard you will face headwinds from neighbors -- and then again when, you know, you actually plant a garden and don't have lawn. Double trouble. And the larger the space you have to do (1,000-10,000 feet) the more problematic the entire, long process becomes.

3) All of the plastic sitting out in the sun for weeks and months is going to start breaking down. You may or may not notice -- fading, tearing, fraying, or nothing perceptible at all. In that process the plastic will likely release thousand and millions of little bits of microplastics we can't see, but it's there, just as it is from our washing clothes, walking on carpet, scraping a plastic food container with a fork, on and on. We have a MAJOR micro plastic problem and we don't fully understand what it's going to do to us. Those little bits will find their way into the ecosystem -- groundwater and air -- filtering and collecting up the trophic level from plants to insects to mice to birds and fish to people. That plastic will be around a heckuva lot longer, way way way longer than any residual from 1-2 applications of glyphosate, which breaks down in the soil quickly (of course, using it on a cornfield decade after decade DOES kill soil life and it then DOES runoff into streams etc because there's no soil life left to break it down).

There is no perfect solution to prepping a site for conversion to a meadow or other native plant garden. Again, I discuss the pros and cons of each in the book and on the website and in the online classes -- and have done so here before -- so won't reiterate in this small space. Do the ends justify the means, no matter what those means are? That's for all of us to carefully weigh.

I strongly believe it's important that we fully reconsider solarization, from the soil life being cooked to the microplastics to the obvious plastic waste of that sheet when you're done using it (do you just trash it, either now or a decade after sitting in the garage?). Hopefully, we can reflect on the complex issues without being angry or defensive, and if this post doesn't move the needle that's fine, too; this post exists to try and provide a more well-rounded response to the many posts I see regarding how awesome solarizing is, how benign it is, how green it is, and how natural it is. If anything, solarizing is as problematic as any other method, including renting a gas-powered sod cutter.

As always, if you comment please do so respectfully of one another. And I hope the above helps us think more critically, no matter what way we all ultimately decide to go in site prep. We're all in this together. Prairie up!

On Rabbits And Salad Bars in Suburbia

7/18/2023

 
Do you have rabbit damage in your garden?

Ready for a radical thought? It's not damage. It's nature. It's an animal using a plant to survive, and the plant was designed to be eaten.

Yes, it stinks when herbivores eat what cost money and then curtail our garden dreams, to the point where we have to pivot / alter our dreams to fit the reality -- which can be hard and frustrating, like marriage (we ARE married to our gardens, folks).

But maybe the problem with rabbits eating plants is that we see it as a problem. Also, we tend to plant this way: one specimen marooned in wood mulch (or icky rock!) not allowed to touch other plants. First off, this is like putting spotlights on the plant with flashy neon lights that say "eats -- open all night."

Just HAVING a garden is sort of the same, especially if you live in a place with few other resources -- food, shelter, general habitat -- like most urban and suburban areas.

You've put out a bunny buffet. They are thankful. Wouldn't you be? Especially when there's only lawn and concrete to choose from?
Now, if you want to see less plant eating, here are some tricks that use principles found in nature vs trying to force a square peg in a round hole (hello foliage spray of cayenne and garlic, or chicken wire, or sleeping with your plants). Still, nothing in life is guaranteed:

1) Herbivores tend to avoid plants with aromatic, waxy, or spiky foliage. Not a hard and fast rule as sometimes you gotta eat what you gotta eat, especially if not much else is available. So plants on this list we use include: Eryngium yuccifolium, Monarda spp, Blephilia spp, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, etc.

2) Bodyguard plants. In nature plants tend to be close together and layered up, so it's a bit harder to find a tasty Dalea purpurea for example. Surrounding the really choice Pringles of the plant world with grasses and sedges can help -- because those plants tend to not be browsed. So if you're planting a shade or sun meadow using a matrix of bunchgrasses or sedge, you're already ahead of the game.

3) More plants. The more plants you have, the less you'll notice if one is topped or missing. It's pretty cool. Plus you have justification to buy more plants (also, select plants that self propagate).

4) Time and patience. As plants root out and are able to store more resources by getting larger, a little pecking here and there won't affect them too much -- in fact, it may be more traumatic to you if you tend to helicopter parent your garden.

Maybe rabbit damage is good since they are lower on the food chain and support so many other species, like predators we definitely need more of (hawks, owls, coyotes, wolves, foxes, etc) but whose habitat we've taken away. Those top predators also help keep mice, vole, and bubonic plague rats under control. And we do want to see our plants being eaten, especially if it's moth and caterpillar larvae, or leafcutter bees, or various beetles, etc -- because more pollinators AND baby bird food. We are trying to create an ecosystem, after all, to try and restore some balance up and down trophic levels, and provide a bit of habitat. We're going to have rabbits, and snakes, and mice, and spiders, and wasps -- and this is a good thing. It really is.

    About

    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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prairie inspired  design

Lincoln & Omaha, Nebraska

Monarch Gardens is a prairie-inspired design firm. We specialize in lawn to meadow conversions as well as urban shade gardens.

Employing 95% native plants, our designs are climate resilient, adaptable, and provide numerous ecological benefits while artistically reflecting wilder landscapes.
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