The American toads in my yard are so loud I can hear them all the way down the block. Their chorus echoes between my brick house and the neighbors. I’m surprised no neighbors have complained of the noise, maybe it sounds like home to them also. The toads arrive because of my pond. In spring the pond is full of black masses of eggs and then tadpoles. I need to be careful to check on the pond regularly to maintain the water level, so the babies don’t dry out. I also have tree frogs which I don’t see so much in the pond but find them hiding in my pots or in the rainbarrel. Last summer I was entertained by having two tree frogs serenading each evening, one calling from either side of my deck. Every time I find a toad or frog in my garden, I feel is a special moment. I can’t help but to pick them up or at least give them a pat between the eyes. The amphibians need moist areas to live. They like the water of my pond and rain barrel. Keeping fish in a pond will discourage toads and frogs because the fish eat tadpoles. I also find them buried in the leaf mulch in winter or sheltering in a rotten log in summer. They also are very sensitive to chemicals used on the garden that they can absorb through their skin, so I keep my garden chemical free to protect my amphibians. I always top off the pond from the rain barrel because there are chemicals in the tap water that can kill amphibians. The amphibians may find our gardens naturally, traveling in from neighboring gardens or natural areas. They can also be introduced by taking a cup of egg masses from a friend’s pond and putting them in our own. Be sure to transport the eggs quickly, never leave them in a hot car. Acclimate the eggs slowly to the new pond. Don’t take eggs from the wild as it will harm natural amphibian populations. I have never found a salamander in my garden but hopefully someday I will be so lucky. My backyard garden also provides habitat for reptiles. I’m not sure if I have any permanent resident snakes but I find a few each year. Species I commonly find are the ring neck snake, rough green snake, midland brown snake, and the earth snake. They are all very tiny and usually curled up under a stone I am moving. I enjoy our chance encounters and wish them happy hunting before carefully replacing the stone. I hope some day to have a resident black rat snake that can help manage the rodents and maybe even terrorize the squirrels. Lizards have not found my yard yet. I have put out rock piles for them to bask on but I think that my island of native plants is just not big enough for a lizard territory. Gardens with more sun and rocks seem to be better at attracting lizards. I also do not have any resident turtles. The occasional turtle passes through, once a box turtle painted yellow passed through, someone’s escaped pet probably. Turtles should not be moved into our yards because they will try to return to their home territory. So I will have to wait for one to show up on its own and hope that it doesn’t get run over in the street on the way. When I’m moving mulch and compost I always check for eggs first since the snakes and turtles think these piles are good nest sites. Having reptiles and amphibians take up residence in our gardens is a good sign of creating a healthy habitat. They eat a lot of insects, worms, and rodents so need a complete food web in place. They can also be picky about their habitat, requiring fresh water, hiding rocks and logs, mulch piles, and protection from predators as well as poisonous chemicals. As gardeners we do our best to make everyone feel welcome and just hope that they come.

I think most gardeners get a little out of shape over winter. But spring is coming, and to prevent injuries and be able to get all of our spring chores done it is time to get back in shape. Gardening uses most of our muscles, so a good all-around exercise routine is best. Don’t neglect those core and back muscles. Squats are a great strengthening exercise to get ready for the times I need to get down on the ground and then back up again. Sometimes I feel like I do a million squats a day out in the garden and my body reminds me of it when I try to go up stairs. There are lots of variations on the basic squat to keep it interesting. Lunges are similar to squats with the added element of balance. Holding deep lunges can help with balance as well as quick lunges with extra kicks in between. Lunges and squats work different leg muscles that we need for weeding and planting. Taking large steps through the garden to avoid stepping on plants is a gardener’s lunge. Balance is very important to the gardener so that I’m not toppling over on my plants as I try to navigate around the garden. Balancing on one leg helps me to prepare myself for tip toeing through the garden around newly emerged plants. Steppingstones, roots, and pits in the ground make walking more challenging so it is good to be sure footed with good balance. The wood chopper exercise where I lift and twist helps strengthen muscles that protect my back. This is a good exercise to do when I’m getting ready for lots of digging, mulching, or any activity that involves moving around heavy stuff like plant pots. Planting trees can be very hard on my back as I twist while digging, hauling the heavy pots, and then mulching tree rings. I often forget to work on my hand strength over winter and then find I have a weak grip in the spring. I need to keep my fingers strong to pull out all those newly emerged silver maple trees in my garden. Grabbing trowel handles and squeezing pruners takes a lot of hand strength to do for extended periods. I ramp up my hand strength with a squeeze ball and by stretching rubber bands. In addition to starting early in spring to build up my muscles, I also need to listen to my body. Spring fever can present so many tasks to do and so little time to do them. It is easy to overwork myself on a nice day. However, gardening is a never-ending task so we need to pace ourselves. Stretch before and after gardening and when an ache begins it is time to take a break. Listening closely to our bodies will help us work at the pace that is best for us for long term health so we can keep gardening for years to come.

Plants may be very different than us because they are rooted in one place while we can move. However, plants still need to be aware of their surroundings. Plants don’t have brains but they are still able to react to changes in their environment to help them survive. There are many similarities between us and plants in the ways that we sense the word. Plants are aware of light. We have all witnessed how plants grow towards light. Plants shaded by trees may bend to the side to find a patch of light. Germinating plants must be put under artificial light when they are grown indoors. Plants can detect a broader light spectrum than us and can respond to far red light and ultraviolet light that is invisible to us. Plants are also very aware of the day and night cycle. Some species need certain lengths of dark or light to decide to bloom to make sure it is optimum conditions for pollination. Plants are aware of being touched. There are time lapse videos of young vines reaching outwards until they touch a fence and then it winds around the fence. Windblown plants grow short and stocky, in response to the constant movement in their upper branches, they put more energy into growing thick trunks and deep roots. Plants can also sense vibrations such as an insect walking on their stem. The leaves of Wild senna will curl up when touched to avoid damage. Plants can pick up pheromones and they can sense odors in the air and respond to them. Ripening fruit produces ethylene which other plants can sense through the air and begin fruit maturity. Coordinating the time to ripen helps more fruits be distributed by attracting big flocks of birds. A hot item in scientific research right now is how plants will release scents into the air when they are under insect attack. Other plants nearby will pick up the scent and start producing chemical compounds to make their leaves less tasty to insects. It is almost like an air raid siren but with scent instead of sound. Plant roots can also pick up chemical signals through the soil or passed to them through mycorrhizae. Plants sense gravity. They know to send their roots down and stem up. They do this in a very similar way to what we do. When we get vertigo it is because our crystal otoconia have moved into the wrong part of our ear and need to be moved back into position. Plants use statoliths that are sensitive to being tilted against gravity to tell which way is up. Plants can sense the temperature. Some seeds need certain lengths of cold winter days in order to germinate. We often mimic the seeds requirement for cold by putting it in the refrigerator for winter stratification. Heat is also sensed by plants. After the heat of a forest fire, pinecones will open to spread their seeds in the nutrient rich soil after the competition has been removed. Some plants need a certain daytime temperature to emerge in spring or need a certain number of cold winter nights before they reach maturity and bloom the next season. Because plants don’t have brains or eyes, ears, or tongues it is often hard for us humans to think about them as sensing their world. We could say that plants can see because they sense and respond to light even though they don’t have eyes. The biggest difference might be that plants do things so slowly we often don’t hang around long enough to notice.

Mosquito fogging in neighborhoods initially seems like a way to make gardening more enjoyable with less of these pests. However, fogging chemicals will drift in the air onto plants indiscriminately killing any insect that comes in contact. Pesticides commonly disrupt the nervous systems of insects so they can no longer fly or will suffocate them by clogging up their respiratory system. Pollinators are just as susceptible to pesticides as mosquitoes. Bees can pick up chemicals on their feet from walking on a plant and bring these poisons back to their hive, poisoning the entire colony. Fogging is often a decision made by a local municipality, so it is easy to contact the administrator and make our concerns heard. If a lawn company comes to take care of the lawn it is necessary to ask what fertilizers and chemicals they plan to use on the lawn, why each chemical needs to be applied, and if it is necessary. Do some research on whether those chemicals are safe and organic. Zero chemical, zero fertilizer lawns are the safest option for pollinators, ground water, and pets. When neighbors are spraying herbicides, pesticides, or applying any chemical to their yard it might have negative impacts on our gardens. Pollinators don’t know to stay within the borders of our garden and may become poisoned after straying over a fence. With aerial sprays, chemical drift from wind can bring poisons across borders. Water will also bring pollutants into the garden from any property upstream and all the oil and pollutants off road surfaces. We may need to educate or bargain with our neighbors to keep chemicals out of our yards. Salt is another common soil and water pollutant coming in from the driveway, or sidewalk. Many native plants are intolerant of salt and will slowly fade away or immediately yellow and die before spring. Salt levels build up in soil over time and are slowly leached into the ground water, contaminating a bigger and bigger area of the yard. Try to use alternatives to salt on paths and divert water from running off salted streets into the yard. Encourage the local authorities to use less road salt in winter and to explore alternatives to salt. Soil testing is a great idea when starting in a new space. Who know what the previous property owner did. Overuse of fertilizers, leaching limestone gravel, and heavy metals can all be left in soil and may need to be worked around. If certain spots in the garden just don’t seem to grow, soil testing might reveal the answer.

Reduce reuse recycle The three Rs don’t just apply inside the house, they can also be applied to the landscape. Landfills are such an eyesore. They also contribute to blowing trash that ends up in our cities, groundwater pollution, and methane in the atmosphere. Trash trucks cause wear and tear on our streets, contribute to auto emissions, and wake me up too early on every Monday when they stop in front of my house. I try to reduce the amount of trash I create any way that I can. This includes reducing the amount of packaging, junk mail, and fast food containers that come into my house as well as reusing all of my yard waste in the garden. It takes a conscious effort, creative thinking, and perseverance but I feel it is worth it. Reduce Lawn and mowing Use of sphagnum moss (non-renewable resource) Use less tap water by catching rainwater Reuse Clean pots and use them again Maintain garden tools and hoses Stumps and logs in the landscape Recycle Compost kitchen scraps Collect Stormwater runoff to water plants Fall leaves turn into leaf mulch Repurpose I’m not sure where the line is between having an interesting collection of artistically displayed garden art and having a yard full of junk. I suppose it is in the eye of the beholder. I have a collection of bent bike wheels that I have wired together in geometric patterns that look like sculptures of flowers but to some people they look like scrap metal. I tend to see the beauty in junk and don’t mind the look of a cluttered garden. So, my garden might contain a bit more repurposed junk than is the normal aesthetic. I love to find new purposes for waste. Every item I can repurpose is one less thing in the landfill. Repurposed items don’t have to only become art. Plastic cartons can become seed trays, an old skillet could be a bird bath, broken blinds make good plant tags, a bird will nest in an old boot, and the list goes on and on. Use your imagination when you look at trash and see what else you can come up with. The benefit of starting with trash in the first place is that if the project doesn’t work out, just put it back in the trash with no guilt.

To disburse to new territory some plants use mammals to transport their seeds. The seeds that traditionally were catching rides in the fur of bison and wolves are now traveling by being stuck in our socks. Gardeners sometimes introduce these species to their yards by picking them out of their socks after coming home from exploring a trail in a woods or prairie. Wildlife can also move these seeds into the garden. Desmodium grows at knee height and has a nice form with a slender stem and then a whorl of leaf stalks and the flowers sticking out. The flowers are cute little legumes in pink. Seed pods start to form into rows of velcroy triangles in fall, turning from green to brown. Demodium is often found along the edge of trails through woodlands and forest edge. With many common names including beggars lice, sticktights, and tick trefoil, Demodium is the genus name of sever-al native species. Bidens are an attractive yellow flower that will trick you into allowing it to grow in the garden with their beauty. The genus Bidens can be called Spanish needles or beggar's ticks and has sev-eral native species in Missouri. I run into Bidens in my alley, along fence rows, and other ne-glected places. The seeds are long pointy barbs that weave into cloths, gloves, and fur so they can travel to new sites. Galium, also known as cleavers or bedstraw, is another native that likes to catch a ride. Galium seeds are not only sticky but the entire plant will stick to your clothes. The seeds are small balls that often coat my gardening gloves and must be carefully picked off to not spread them to other areas of the yard. There are many species of native Galium, the common garden pest is a vining mass that grows in shaded spots. In the woods more attractive delicate species of Galium can be found but they still stick in your socks when the seeds are ripe. Agrimonia has a few native species in our state. Common names include agrimony, groovebur, and sticklewort. Agrimonia is a common garden invader, but its natural habitat is in dry wood-lands. The seed is a small ball that the plant holds at about knee height, waiting for a victim. Each round seed has a fringe of hooks that catch your clothing as you walk by. Agrimonia has cute buttercup like yellow flowers that are easy to overlook amidst the dense green leaves. I often get the common names of these beggar stickle lice mixed up so I generally stick to using the genus name when trying to talk about them. These obnoxious plants all have their charms and can be used in the garden carefully. Seeds can be eaten by birds and other wildlife and the blooms provide food for pollinators. I generally try to keep them out of my garden because I’m not a fastidious gardener and things get out of hand pretty quickly. I do not like having seeds stuck in my socks, so I admire these plants out in nature or other patches of earth they find to inhabit.

My favorite insect wings are the lacewings. Lacewings have four wings that are transparent with large veins, so the wings look like lace. Lacewings are coordinated fliers but are also calm so that they can be easily observed on a leaf. I like to put them on my finger so I can look through their wings at the different reflections of light. Lacewings also have many other good qualities, like eating aphids. The middle section of an insect is the thorax, and the thorax is made of three segments. Each segment has a pair of legs, giving insects their characteristic six legs. The second and third segments can each have a pair of wings, so only four wings. I don’t know why they don’t have wings on each segment to match their legs, maybe six wings is hard to coordinate. Some insects have modified the first set of wings to be a hard shell to protect the hind set, the hard wing shell is called the elytra. June beetles have elytra which explains why they are so clumsy at flying since they only have one set of flying wings. The front set of wings can also be only partially hardened to become leathery and are then referred to as tagmata. Crickets have tagmata and rub their modified wings together to chirp. Other insects modified the back set of wings to become gyroscopic stalks for balancing, called halteres. Flies have halteres which can be observed in photos or even better, put a cranefly under a microscope. Halteres are more useful for graceful flight but are not useful for protection, so there is a tradeoff. The different insect orders have evolved wing modifications depending on their priorities. The aspects of pollinating various species of flower have different requirements. Milkweed flowers have heavy pollen sacks that require strong wing muscles to lift. Bumblebees vibrate their wing muscles to help the flower pollen loosen, this is called buzz pollination. Flowers growing in windy habitat need agile insects that have control enough to land on each flower. Bees that must push into tightly closed flowers like gentians must keep their wings folded out of the way, so they are not ripped off during the effort. Insect wings can be very flexible, and some insects can even contort their wings to control their flight. When not in use, many insects fold their wings up on their back. Wings can be folded like a fan or layered on the back like a stack of papers. Surprisingly, they can even be folded like origami and carefully hidden under the elytra to be spring loaded to pop out once the elytra are lifted. Insect wings have nerves and fluids which help with folding and also flight. Dragonflies and butterflies do not have foldable wings. Interestingly, butterflies lost their ability to fold their wings through evolution while dragonflies have never had folding wings. I wonder what types of wings I would choose if I could have them? I would want wings that folded up nicely out of the way so I wouldn’t be knocking stuff over all the time. I would also choose halteres over elytra since I don’t have much need for armor. My wings should also be beautiful like the butterfly’s with iridescent scales. Or maybe I want tagmata so I have an additional form of communication. It is fun to imagine.

Are you looking for new ways to help the monarch butterfly beyond planting milkweed in your yard? Monarch Watch’s butterfly tagging program could be the new opportunity you are looking for. Tagging migrating monarchs is a way to participate in citizen science to help researchers learn more about monarch populations and migration. It is also a great activity to do with children to increase their participation in the garden or to bring out your own inner child. My fifth-grade teacher, Gerald Axelbaum, now retired, was always looking for new ways to bring his students outside. In 1992, he heard about a new organization called Monarch Watch that was asking citizens to help tag monarch butterflies in order to track their flight to Mexico. Gerald’s class had participated in previous research projects studying acid rain and really enjoyed becoming part of an international project; this monarch project sounded like it would also be very interesting. Monarch Watch offered an opportunity to help with the research of tracking monarchs to Mexico, giving his students an opportunity to work with scientists in other countries, as well as learn about the lifecycle of an insect. After responding to Monarch Watch and requesting materials, Gerald set about incorporating monarch tagging into his fifth-grade curriculum. Using a sewing machine, the students made their own butterfly nets out of coat hangers and cloth. Gerald says the students “had pure fun building the nets.” Net building was also a lesson for students in sewing, measuring, and taking pride in their creation. Monarch Watch mailed the class a set of stickers to tag the monarchs with and asked them to record data on sex, date tagged, and if the butterfly was wild. Because he loves to teach science, Gerald encouraged his students to collect additional data like wind speed, temperature, and which direction the butterfly headed when it was released. The fifth-grade class visited a nearby nature reserve to catch and tag their monarchs. Gerald remembers that when the project first started in the 1990s, it was common to see monarchs crossing the road in front of the school bus on the way to the nature reserve. Some days they would catch up to 120 monarchs in a day and they would run out of tags. As the years passed, however, Gerald noticed a decline in the number of monarchs available for his students to tag. It was very disappointing to have a class of excited fifth graders ready to catch monarchs but no monarchs around. To increase the number of monarchs available for his students to tag and to learn more about their life cycle through a hands-on experience, Gerald ordered larva that could be reared in the classroom from Monarch Watch. Caterpillar eggs were also collected off milkweed leaves in the garden to be reared indoors. The students quickly became bonded with their caterpillars as they cared for them, fed them, and watch them molt five times as they grew bigger and bigger. The caterpillars must be fed fresh milkweed leaves, so Gerald spent each morning biking around the neighborhood harvesting milkweed from abandoned ditches and fence lines. However, a few years in to rearing larva in the classroom, tragedy struck, and all the larvae died from disease. Gerald learned there is a need to sanitize the caterpillars’ containers and the surrounding environment, which is hard to do in a classroom. “Sadly, there are so many ways for them to die before becoming adults, and the kids get bonded to their larva,” Gerald says, “it sometimes ends in tears.” But when things went well, students had the opportunity to witness their monarch finally eclose into an adult butterfly, making all the hard work delightfully worth it. Monarch tagging is a great activity to do with kids. It is captivating to let a monarch sit on the palm of your hand waiting for it to take flight after receiving a tag. This is also a wonderful time for photos. Speaking about his experience with his students over the years, Gerald says that “any touch of an insect makes them more familiar and comfortable” creating more kids have a lifelong connection to insects. The activity can be very exciting but is also a great responsibility, for the child must be gentle with each insect. Monarchs are not easy to catch, and when you do have one in your net, if you are not patient, it is likely to fly off before you get a chance to tag it. “There is a lovely freedom children experience as they run across the prairie with a net after a monarch,” says Gerald. They are hard to catch, and if you open the net without caution, they fly out and are gone. Catching a monarch takes skill. Gerald recommends a certain method to be the most successful at catching them. “Be like a batter; be cocked and ready to swing,” says Gerald. “Wait for a monarch to perch on a flower to sip nectar. Swing your net well past the flower the butterfly is perched on, to get the butterfly all the way to the back and center of the net, keep the net moving to keep the butterfly inside. Then flip your wrist to fold the net over, closing off the opening, and gently untangle from any plants. Then hold the net up to the sunlight to find the butterfly, and while gently squeezing the wings closed from the outside of the net with one hand, reach inside with your other hand to gently grasp it and remove it, always gently pinching the leading edge of the wings together so it cannot fly or hurt itself.” You can hold them safely by the wings, even though they will lose a few scales, but not a damaging amount. You only get one chance to catch them; if they escape, they are off, flying up into the sky. Gerald describes the 30 years he has spent with his students tagging monarchs as magical, thrilling, and exciting. This is a great growth opportunity for children. One of the great resources of the Monarch Watch program is that you can see if any of your tagged monarchs has been recovered in Mexico. Gerald is proud that, over the years, twenty or so of his students’ monarchs have been recovered in Mexico, completing their great migration. Whether you are a child or not, monarch tagging can be thrilling and engaging. If you plant milkweed in your garden, the monarchs will come. Be ready, and when you see the monarch butterflies traveling south in August and September, have your tags ready. You can preorder your tags from Monarch Watch in the spring, and they will be mailed to you in late summer. Order early because supplies sometimes run out. While we impatiently await the return of the monarchs, we can also watch their progress on the Journey North website and report any monarchs arriving in our gardens.

As soon as the heat breaks in September and October, fall planting season begins. Trees do great when planted in fall because they have all winter to get their roots established for an early spring start in their new home. Perennials that have begun dormancy early don’t mind being divided and moved this time of year. It is a good idea to plant or transplant as much as possible in fall months just to lessen the load of spring gardening chores. The one hazard of fall planting is that if a plant does not get its roots established quickly it can be popped out of the ground with the early frosts. In early winter scout new beds each morning to check for frost heaved plants. If a plant is exposed, simply replant it, and give it a little extra mulch to keep it in the ground. Well mulched fall planting beds experience less frost heave. Mulch, where needed, will also reduce weeding, and maintain moisture. The seed collecting season wraps up in the fall with an explosion of ripe seeds to gather and store. Fall is when I tend to get behind on my seed collecting and forget to label everything of misplace seeds in random places around my house. If you leave seeds in your pocket and run them through the washing machine they will probably not germinate. To spread plants by seed into a new area the easy way, take the seed heads with the ripe seeds and crush them above the ground in the area you want them to grow, then lightly rake the area to promote soil contact. Before the ground becomes hard with frost is the time to remove weeds and invasive species. Bush honeysuckle is easy to spot this time of year with it’s red berries and persistent leaves. Winter creeper and English ivy stay green all winter so once leaves come down, scout them out. Once the soil softens up from fall rains it is time to dig dandelions, clematis, clover, and small trees out of garden beds. In November the garden is finally settling down for winter and many tools and garden features need to be cleaned and winterized. Clean out the bluebird and other bird houses so they are ready for spring. Bring in the garden hoses so they don’t freeze. Winterize all the rain barrels and water features. Protect container garden pots by bringing them into a protected area or emptying them before the freeze. Some garden sculptures will crack in the winter, so protect them as needed. Clean all the fresh fallen leaves out of the gutters, swales, etc. so they don’t clog up the rainwater system. One thing you shouldn’t do in fall is to clean up the leaves and dormant plants. Fall is not the time to mow mulch the leaves, cut back all the flower stems, or burn the brush piles. Leave the leaves and stem in garden beds. Many overwintering beneficial garden critters are living in the leaves such as morning cloke butterfly, praying mantis egg cases, luna moths, toads, and salamanders. Thick piles of leaves call kill lawn, however, do not pile the leaves up against woody trunks or under evergreen shrubs because they can cause mold. If an area of lawn is being smothered by leaves it might be a sign that the area should be converted to garden bed. Thick piles of leaves also prevent spring annuals like blue eyed Mary so those areas will need some leaf removal. Flower stems can be left standing in the garden to provide egg laying spots of bees, beetles, and other pollinators. Brush piles and grass clumps are necessary hiding spots for birds during winter storms. Find out more about why you should leave the leaves at https://xerces.org/blog/leave-leaves-these-invertebrates-depend-on-it

When I was new to gardening I learned that fall is the time to put the garden to bed for the winter. This meant that all yard debris should be removed from the garden, leaving the garden bare for the winter and ready for a fresh start come spring. Gardens were supposed to have leaves removed, dead stalks cut to the ground, grasses nicely trimmed, and dead wood removed. However, none of that is good for a habitat garden. Leaving a garden bare through winter is unhealthy for the plants, soil, and the wildlife that use the garden. Also, it is boring to look at in a season when we desperately need something beautiful out our windows. That was the old way of gardening, it is time for a new definition of putting the garden to bed for the winter. Our gardens should be a bed, a place of refuge, warmth, and safety through the cold months of winter. Wildlife needs safe places for hibernation, and to overwinter young to begin the spring generations. Garden soil needs a fluffy blanket of leaves to protect the life that will burst out come spring. Dead branches in trees provide a winter nest for hibernating mammals as well as chambers filled with the eggs of bees and many other beneficial insects. Dead leaves on trees hold chrysalises of moths and butterflies as well as hibernating bats. As the leaves fall they bring their sleeping beauties to the ground where they keep warm in the leaf litter. Plant stems will also provide overwintering chambers for bees, beetles, and wasps. Rotting logs, in addition to hosting many insects, will also hold salamanders and frogs. Clumps of shrubs and grasses protect birds, small mammals, butterflies, and many other creatures trying to find a place out of the wind. Beneath the layer of leaves burrows have been dug into the soil by mammals, bees, and ants. Wildlife that is not equipped to dig its own borrow will find an abandoned borrow to spend the winter in. Step lightly in the garden in winter to avoid crushing the hibernating life below. Not everyone sleeps away the entire season so the winter garden should also provide food and water. Leaving seed heads on flower stalks provides food for birds. Birds will also find food by eating over wintering bugs. Hosting a plentiful supply of insects will mean that there is plenty for the birds over winter as well as spring chick rearing, and still enough insects to pollinate the garden next year. Fruits that hang on through the winter nourish birds, wildlife, and insects. Late fall and early spring blooming flowers provide nectar on warm days when bees wake up as the ground warms. To provide water keep birdbaths filled regularly. Birds still like to bath in the winter and will flock to any source of unfrozen water. Leaf litter and last years plant roots protect soil from frost, dry winter winds, and erosion from snow melt and spring rains. Plant stalks and rotting logs slow cold winds near the soil surface, collect snow drifts, and radiate heat. Decomposing plant matter enriches the soil. Helpful decomposers like beetles and fungi transform last years debris into fresh soil, even adding their own bodies to the decomposition eventually. Perennial plants are constantly growing new roots and loosing old ones. Decaying roots provide tunnels of organic matter deep into the ground creating pathways for decomposers into deeper layers of soil. Today we understand how important our gardens can be to providing habitat for wildlife. Old methods of garden practices did not know about these connections and started in a time period when insect and bird populations were still robust. Now we have documented how wildlife populations are collapsing but home gardens can make a difference if they are managed with habitat in mind. We understand our responsibility and just need to create new habits to protect birds and insects. So this fall we can all put our gardens to bed with promoting habitat as the priority.

How do we tell which part is the seed? When collecting seeds from a new species it is a good idea to look at the parts of the seed head under a magnification. The seed will have a look of plumpness. Some of the seeds may look flattened or desiccated and these will probably not germinate. Healthy seed will often be the heaviest part of the flower head. If the flower is broken up and gently separated by stirring or blowing on it, the seeds will gather in the closest pile. Compass plant and others in the Silphium genus are composite flowers. The seeds are found along the edge of the flower disk near the base of the petals. Seeds will become plumper and darker as they mature and will not mature fully if they are plucked too early. Finches and other seed eaters work their bills around the edge of the flower head to pluck the seeds out. Watching birds probe flower heads for seeds can give us an idea of where the seeds are and if they are ripe. Seeds can be separated from the chaff by breaking the seed head up and sifting out the larger seeds or picking the seeds directly off the flower head. Some parts of flower heads, especially fleshy berries, contain germination inhibitors and should be completely separated from the seed for best germination. Using a kitchen colander to rub berries under a stream of water will wash away the pulp leaving just the skin and seed to be separated. Berries should be processed and planted immediately. In nature the fruit is eaten when ripe, digested, and then deposited in a nice fertile package of poop on the ground. Mimic natural processes as much as possible but perhaps fall short of sifting through animal scat to pick out the seeds. However, racoon poop is an excellent place to find ready to plant pawpaw seeds. Blue lobelia, cardinal flower, and seedbox have seed that looks like dust. As the seed capsule tips in the wind or is brushed by an animal, the seeds spill out on the ground. These species grow in wet areas where the seed will be washed down hill to start new populations. These plants are often found in drifts that show where the water flows. In a garden the plants seem to be constantly moving downhill, so the gardener must scatter seeds uphill from the population to keep the plants from running away. I check if these seeds are ripe by gently tipping the seed head over in my palm to seed if any dust falls out. When the seeds are ready to be disbursed, I cut off the flowering stems to collect these seeds. While cutting, be very careful to keep them still and upright, then tip them upside down into a bucket. I let the plant stalks dry for a few days in the bucket, giving them a gentle shake every once and a while. A collection of dust will form in the bottom of the bucket; that is the seeds. Spiderwort is a surprise for the novice seed collector as the seeds explode off the plant when they are ready. To collect spiderwort seeds, gather the flower heads after they finish blooming and just as they start to have explosions. Lay your plant stalks out on a tarp on the floor with a screen or cardboard lid over the top. As the plants dry you will hear the seeds popping off the cover. When the seeds all seem to have popped, remove the flower stalks and sweep up the seeds on the tarp. For many species it is more bother than it is worth to separate the seed from the chaff. Flower heads can be broken up and the whole mess can be sprinkled in the new bed or stratified. This lazy method makes it harder to know how many seeds you actually have but for the home gardener that may not matter. Often when I’m collecting seeds I save the easiest to separate seeds for trading with friends or germinating indoors, the seeds that didn’t easily fall off and the rest of the chaff are all thrown into a flower bed where I hope they will establish.

St louis has a unique program that helps homeowners pay for the costs of adding native landscapes and other rainscaping features to their yard. Project clear grant money can pay for native plants, mulch, and rainbarrels, as well as hiring a professional to do the work. Rainscaping consists of several gardening techniques including raingardens, swales, lawn alternatives, woodland restoration, invasive plant removal, native plant gardens, and vegetative buffers along creeks. https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/sustainability/sustainability/sustainable-living/at-home/rainscaping-guide When applying for a grant I suggest getting your application in about 6 months in advance of when you plan to plant. After submitting your proposal, it takes a couple months to hear back if your project is approved. This will still allow some time for ordering plants and preparing the planting area. Order plants as soon as possible to make sure you get the best selection. This grant is a reimbursement program so the homeowner will need to pay all costs upfront and then is reimbursed when the project is complete. Take photos of your project before and after and during all stages in between. Also, keep all of your receipts! Project clear is designed to ease the amount of stormwater runoff entering city creeks and causing flooding of buildings and street. Absorbing rainwater where it falls also prevents pollution from being washed into our creeks and rivers by filtering water through the soil. Holding more rainwater in your garden soil means healthier plants and less need for watering. Project clear benefits gardeners, keeps the city from flooding, prevents pollution, and is better for biodiversity. https://msdprojectclear.org/what-we-do/rainscaping/small-grants/