Native plant landscapes often get advertised as low maintenance or even sometimes, maintenance free. This is not the case! Native plants do require less water and less fertilizer but still need all the rest of the care that traditional gardens require. The native plant garden also tends to appeal to gardeners who want less lawn, less chemicals, and more diversity which all require more maintenance then traditional landscaping. Common garden center plants have been selected to be lower maintenance, wild natives have not. A wild plant has evolved to fill it’s ecological role and that is not the same as being a well behaved garden plant. To keep the native plant garden lower maintenance start with a weed free garden bed, most common garden weeds are not native plants. Keep soil covered with living plant layers and dense root systems, competition will shoulder weeds out and not let new seedlings establish. Place plants in the conditions that are right for them, pay attention to soil moisture, texture, and sunlight, don’t force a plant to grow where it doesn’t want to. Select plants that will serve multiple functions in the garden beyond beauty, like erosion control, wildlife value, sweet smells, and movement in the wind. Keep your plant pallet simple while you learn your plants, big masses of plants are easier to care for as they fill in a space. Diligent maintenance early on will pay off in the long run while the native plants establish. Establish a new garden in phases, each year expanding a little more. Since native gardens require the most work in the first years, start off small. Another benefit to starting small is that once plants get established they can be divided to be planted in larger beds, saving costs. Native gardening is a learning experience. There will be many lessons learned early that can be applied to more successful gardening in coming years. Gardens will change over time, as trees grow and the canopy layer fills in, and as soil improves from all the organic content the plants add. Plants will migrate on their own over time or will need to be moved to areas where they are adapted and can be healthy. To be a native gardener is to work with nature in a never ending ecological project.

Plant combo; fragrant sumac beak grain garden phlox There is an ugly stream bank behind my garden. It is choked with honeysuckle, rose of Sharon, winter creeper, Japanese hops, poison ivy, and trash. This stream side is a highway for wildlife around the neighborhood. I have seen woodchucks, raccoon, skunks, and opossum use it and signs of their tracks and burrows. The invasive species, trash, and poison ivy must be removed but what to put in their place? A stream bank is a fragile place where soil must be protected so that it doesn’t erode. Chemicals and compost piles should be kept away from the water to keep pollutants out of the water and from harming any wildlife using the stream. I slowly removed the weeds being careful not to disturb too much soil in any area before replanting. In the holes where the honeysuckle came out I put in fragrant sumac. Fragrant sumac is a short bushy shrub that has winter berries for the birds and a beautiful red fall color. On the bare ground where the winter creeper was removed I threw out seeds of beak grain grass. Beak grain is an aggressive but graceful grass that requires part shade. In the summer beak grain is a vibrant green and sways delicately in the breeze. To finish off the restoration I also planted a few plugs of garden phlox. Garden phlox also likes part shade and can colonize a large area. The fragrant spring blooms attract many pollinators and make it very enjoyable to walk along the creek. These three aggressive, colonizing plants compliment each other well, providing interest throughout the seasons, and will completely fill in a shady creek bank. The shady creek bank at the end of my garden has been transformed from an eye sore to a haven for wildlife and a very pleasant place to be. I must keep up constant monitoring for baby invasives moving in from bird droppings or washing in from the water flow. I always bring a bag to pick up the trash that has floated in from the street storm sewer or the neighbors over flowing cans. Like all urban plantings, my work is never done. It brings me peace to look at this small piece of land and know that I am doing my best to make it a better place.

I want to attract owls to my garden. I think owls are so cool with their puffy bodies, round feather faces, and mysterious nocturnal habits. Sometimes visiting friends gardens I have seen owls. Usually half asleep in a tall tree peering down at me, judging me. I want that in my garden. I want to know that an owl has judged me and found that the garden I have provided is good enough. To pass this test I’m going to need habitat, places to perch, hunt, nest, and feel safe. Owls like big trees to perch in and surveil their territory. I have a few old sugar maple trees behind my house. I have planted a Kentucky coffee tree, red maple, and bur oak to take their place as the sugar maples grow old. Since large trees take so long to grow it is important I keep a constant flock of new trees growing up to replace the older ones. Older dying trees are also great places for owls to perch and nest in. A silver maple over my rain garden is almost dead and since it is not a danger to fall on anything important I will let it naturally decay. Right now it is home to woodpeckers and squirrels and many wood nesting insects, maybe an owl will move in some day. I haven’t put up any nest boxes for owls yet but that would be a good thing to work on soon. Great nest box plans are offered here https://www.worldbirdsanctuary.org/your-visit/nest-box-plans/ Owls hunt small mammals and birds. It is sad when a predatory bird kills one of my song birds but that is nature. When I see all the birds scatter off the feeder I know to look around for a predator and usually find a hawk nearby. To attract plenty of prey animals for owls to eat I provide food, water, and shelter for wildlife. The native plants provide seeds and insect habitat. I have a little pond with a bubbler that attracts birds during the day and mammals at night. Mammals and birds find shelter in my garden in the shrubs, brush piles, and dense vegetation of the garden. A healthy wildlife population needs to have some predators to keep the smaller animals in balance. My little patch of yard is not big enough alone for an owl to live on. I need to get my neighbors involved too. There are very few large trees in my neighborhood but many of my neighbors are willing to plant a tree once given information about the benefits. I also need to educate my neighbors about ways to protect owls. Don’t put out rodent poison. If a poisoned mouse is eaten by an owl the owl is also poisoned. Watch out for owls when driving at night, they swoop low over roads when hunting and don’t know to look both ways. To find out more about owls and see some in the urban wild check out http://forestparkowls.blogspot.com/

How do you know it is spring? Is it the smell of the witch hazel in the air, the sound of spring peepers, snow geese flying overhead in February. Or do we wait for march to see the catkins form on the maples, spring beauties popping out of the ground, rain hitting already formed puddles. Spring Garden Chores Cut down stems and seed heads when new growth begins. Plant and divide perennials and grasses March through May. Replace mulch which has been washed out with spring rains. Prune winter-damaged branches on shrubs or trees that have not begun to grow by May. Water new transplants and newly planted shrubs and trees unless rainfall is abundant. Weed out spring annuals. The best time to divide ferns and other early spring plants is on the day they first pop above the surface. Dig up clumps of plants and gently tease them apart. Some small pieces will break off but most will still regrow into hardy plants. Grass and sedge clumps can also be dug out and hacked apart. Get a sharp saw and cut the clump into quarters. Watch out for rocks in the soil that will ruin a good saw. Ground covers like ginger can have shovelfuls removed from throughout the area. Carefully pull apart the mass and replace a single plant back in the center of the disturbed area to fill in the hole. While teasing plants apart be careful to keep the roots covered with moist soil on the plants waiting to be dealt with so they don’t dry out. Replant plants as soon as possible for best results. Water the donating area thoroughly as well as the newly planted areas. Beautyberry bushes are very late to leaf out and usually have a few dead stems. Wait to see small leaves appear before pruning out the dead wood or you may accidentally cut away too many of the live branches. When pruning woody plants be sure to never damage the healthy bark. Follow these guidelines when pruning to make sure that the tree stays healthy. https://www.treesaregood.org/treeowner/pruningyourtrees Many seedlings are popping up all over the garden in spring and it can be difficult to tell if the plant is a weed or not. The Missouri Department of Conservation sells a prairie seedling ID guide with great photos. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/mopmcpu6313.pdf When seeding an area be sure to keep good records so that you don’t accidentally weed out all the desirable seedlings. Seeds tend to flow down hill so seedlings of plants like cardinal flower are often found down slope from the parent where the rainwater deposited them. Keeping the soil covered with a dense layer of vegetation or much will limit seedling growth. I always try to weed out all the spring annual weeds before they can go to seed but never succeed. Bird seed under feeders can also be a source of pesky weeds. It is tricky to determine when is the optimal time to clear away last years dead plant stems to make way for new growth. The insects overwintering in the stems need a few warm days to emerge. One method I use for clearing out the spring debris is to simply walk through the garden on a dry day waving a rake from side to side about a foot off the ground, knocking down stems. I leave the toppled stems in place to decompose on their own. New growth quickly covers over the debris. Plants that bloom in late summer and fall can be cut back to keep them from falling over or getting leggy. Good dates to remember to cut back plants is on memorial day and the forth of July. If buds or blooms have appeared by then it is too late to cut back the plant without compromising the bloom. Trim the plants low promotes a more bushy growth. Another way to keep taller plants from falling over is to surround them with shorter grasses to give them support, this also hides their naked legs. Spring usually brings lots of rain. Have rain barrels clean and ready to collect as much rain as possible for watering later. After each rain event I always patrol all storm ditches, gutters, and rain gardens to clean out debris and keep extra water heading in the right direction instead of washing out my paths. When soil is saturated try to stay off of it to avoid compaction. If saturated soil must me walked on put down boards to step on to help distribute the weight and protect the soil structure, this also makes me less muddy.

I was first introduced to Aldo Leopold’s, A Sand County Almanac, in an environmental ethics class. Leopold is considered the father of the conservation movement and is responsible for many of the policies that govern conservation now. Leopold considered protection of the natural world to be a matter of ethics and lays out his argument for a land ethic gracefully in his book. “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively the land.” The Land Ethic, A Sand County Almanac. Leopold put his ethic into practice by buying a horribly degraded piece of land in sand county Wisconsin and gradually restoring it by planting pines until his beloved sandhill cranes returned. Even after his early death, his family and students continue to restore this little piece of land and it is open to the public to visit now. I have been twice to visit and see the sandhill cranes. Visiting Leopold’s shack is almost like a pilgrimage for conservationists. “Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel.” Pines Above the Snow, A Sand County Almanac. As native plant gardeners we can incorporate the land ethic into our everyday lives. We each have a small piece of land to protect and heal. Bring back the wildlife that depends on that patch of land by creating and protecting the habitat they need. Each bird or butterfly that visits our garden is a living creature that we have helped to find a place in this degraded world. “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” Foreword, A Sand County Almanac. Leopold’s land ethic is a way of seeing the world differently. We are part of this big living community that we must protect and nurture. Healing the earth one garden at a time as the Wild Ones motto says. We need the land as much as the land needs us, we can save each other. I recommend getting a copy of A Sand County Almanac. Pick a nice spot outside to read it. Imagine you are with Leopold as he watches the sky dance of the woodcock, counting each tree ring through time, and watching the green fire in the wolf’s eye. It is a beautifully written book. Learn more at https://www.aldoleopold.org/

February plant of the month, Ozark witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) On sunny winter days watch for witch hazel in bloom. The flowers are tiny but are easy to track down by following your nose. Any awake insect, small flies and bees, is also following the sweet aroma to the only flower blooming this time of year. Ozark witch hazel blooms January through April on any sunny day with the same shrub blooming multiple times for months. The long thin yellow petals curl back in on cold days but then reopen when the sun comes out. The seed capsules created from pollinated flowers ripen in fall and explode open, shooting their seeds up to 30 feet. Yellow is also the trees fall color. Ozark witch hazels like average to well drained soil and can tolerate heavy clay. Moist, acidic, organically rich soils are of preference. It grows in full to partial sun but blooms best with more sun. Watch hazel shrubs can grow to about 10 feet tall and wide. The base tends to send up suckers which can be pruned in spring after flowering to give the shrub a more tree like appearance. This shrub makes a nice living hedge or privacy screen. Including witch hazel in the home landscape is a great way to provide an important energy source to overwintering insects. Witch hazel has been used for it’s medicinal properties by early native Americans and still is today. Today an extract is used in shaving lotions and ointments for treating bruises sprains and inflammations. To make witch hazel tonics and tinctures at home dry harvested leaves and twigs. The dried bark and leaves are ground up and mixed with water and alcohol to make witch hazel tonic. The tonic can be used externally for bruising, sores and swellings. Check with your doctor before using witch hazel or any medicinal plant because we are all different. The witch hazel pictured might actually be a non native sold mistakenly as the native. This happens often in the native plant trade and we need to stay open to questioning if our garden plants were correctly identified.

Many of us are getting requests from the organizations we associate with to create a wildflower or butterfly garden or to fix a neglected one. It would be wonderful if every church, school yard, and corner park had a native plant garden. However, gardens take work, not only for the installation but even more so for upkeep. Who is going to maintain that garden for the rest of time? When I am asked to build someone a garden, my first question is, “who is going to take care of it?”. I don't have time to commit to maintain every garden I put my hands on, and if I'm weeding, I wont have time left to build more gardens. Many people have no idea how much care a wildflower garden needs. We can't install it and walk away. Weeds have to be managed, and managed intensively the first few years during establishment. There is no point in spending your time and their money on a garden that is going to look like a weed patch and be ripped out next year. We are not doing the native gardening community any favors by planting future weed patches in public spaces. If an organization wants a garden it should be willing to commit a volunteer or staff to the gardens upkeep for the rest of the life of that garden. We should offer to train the person who will be managing the garden by having them assist in planting the garden and then work side by side with them until we are confident they clearly understand their maintenance duties. When designing a garden to be managed by native plant novices it is best to limit the number of species used in the garden and plant like species in groups. It is easier to weed when you can pull everything except for the one plant you know. Also avoid using native plants that look similar to the local weeds. Mulch is another positive addition to the garden as it preserves soil moisture which reduces watering, and smothers weed seeds which reduces weeding. Creating a map of the garden with photos of the plants in it also makes a great tool for volunteers. The volunteer you train will gain knowledge of native plants and can add more diversity every year as their confidence grows. They may even start designing their own native gardens to be carefully tended by other volunteers just beginning their own life long education in native plants. I dream of the day when every vacant space is filled with native flowers and hordes of butterflies, tended by loving and experienced gardeners.

This spring I will be heading back to Millstream Gardens Conservation Area in Madison County to see the spring flowers. Millstream Gardens is a 697-acre tract of land best known for hosting the whitewater kayak championships on the St Francis river. There is also a roughly 10 mile out and back trail starting at the millstream picnic pavilion and turning around at the silver mines dam. The trail wanders through riverside forest and up to rocky glades and has many lovely views of the river. The spring flowers grow in drifts along the path and sprout from crevices in the rocks. Along the trail is Allium, Phlox, Dodecatheon, Tradescantia, Silene, Trillium, etc. bloom in late April. While we hiked we enjoyed watching kayakers down below playing in the shut-ins along the river. At the silver mines dam we stop to have lunch and a lazy nap out on the sun warmed rocks. We saw several snakes and skinks out sunning themselves also. Spring is not the only time that I enjoy Millstream Gardens, in the summer, the river is a nice retreat from the heat. On fall hikes the asters, goldenrods, and Cunila are blooming. There is a lot of red from the sumac, Ludwigia, and wahoo in early October. Icicles and other ice formations are beautiful along the river for those brave enough to visit in those conditions. If my timing is perfect I even see frost flowers on the Verbesina, but it is rare that I’m up early enough before they melt. To enjoy all the sights at a leisurely pace there is nearby camping at Silver Mines Recreation Area. Millstream Gardens Conservation Area is a must see place for the wildflower enthusiast.

Winter is a needed break from trying to keep up with the crazy speed of the summer garden. It is a good time to stop and reflect. It might be helpful to keep a garden journal and record successes and failures, take notes on books read and webinars attended, and maul over ambitious ideas for the future. Check plants during winter drought periods and spot water as necessary. Check for erosion and fix problems as they appear. November 15 to March 15 is the best time to prune most trees and shrubs. Most bare-rooted trees and shrubs should be planted in February or early March. Burn where appropriate. Mulch where needed to reduce weeding and maintain moisture. Scout out evergreen invasives like euonymus for removal. Start plants indoors or in cold frames Make improvements and repairs to hardscapes When the weather is pleasant and it is too nice to stay inside there are plenty of garden chores to do outside. Winter is good time to repair paths, add more wood chips to a muddy spot, dig trenches to divert water, make the stepping stones level. When the ground is bare is an opportunity to rethink the garden layout, add or move paths, create intimate places to sit, and expand beds. As my trees get bigger I’m constantly moving paths away from intruding branches or picking a branch to trim back. In the fall my sculptures and attractive rocks tend to get buried so winter is a time to find them and give them a spot to be better seen. Interesting logs make a nice garden focal point but they gradually decay and must be replaced, a good wintertime project. On the days that are not so nice I like to critically access the views out my windows. With the bare bones of the garden showing I can judge if a branch is blocking the view or maybe a tall plant should be moved to the back. Maybe a screen can be added to hide an old fence or electric box. Keeping the window views attractive makes being indoors much more bearable. I like to watch the birds perch out on the tree branches waiting their turn at the feeder or bathing in the bubbler. All winter long is a time to work on seeds. First they must be cleaned. Pick out which sees are needed for the spring garden and get them stratified. All other seeds can be packaged up and given away to friends or at swaps. Order the plants needed early before nurseries sell out. Another winter project is to maintain all the bird houses. Invasive birds should be evicted. Entrances may need to be repaired if a squirrel or woodpecker damaged them. Build more bird houses, bat house, raptor boxes. This is also a good time to thoroughly clean all bird feeders and replace the damaged ones. When it is above freezing I look for maintenance of the rain barrels and watering systems. The squirrels like to chew on my rain barrels so there are always holes to patch up. All the filters and screens and overflows need to be cleaned out. Time to clean the gutters too. Hopefully, all the hoses were put away before winter but if not do it now. Gardening tools can be cleaned, oiled, and sharpened now. Throw out all the irreparable broken tools and give away the ones that haven't been used in awhile. Repair the tools you can or send them off to be repaired at the hardware store or their manufacturer. Look through all the old pots in storage and get rid of the ugly ones. Order potting soil, mulch, woodchips, straw, or whatever other materials needed. Notice that I have not mentioned anything about cutting down dead plant stems or raking leaves. Save these tasks for the spring. In the winter the cover is needed by the birds and insects to survive the winter. Removing winter yard waste kills many insects like butterflies and deprives birds of places to hide from the cold and forage for seeds. The best cure for cabin fever is to get out and start working on the spring garden. By the time all the winter maintenance chores are done spring will already be here. While out there keep an eye out for the winter blooming witchhazel and it’s tiny pollinators. Some butterflies like the morning cloak overwinter as adults and can be seen flying on sunny days.

Ecotype is defined as “a subspecies or race that is especially adapted to a particular set of environmental conditions.” Native plants that grow in a particular glade or other habitat and have adapted to that place are considered to be an ecotype. A different individual coneflower transplanted to that glade may not preform as well as the other coneflowers because it is not evolved to that space, it is not the local ecotype. Reputable native plant nurseries will always sell only local ecotype plants. How a nursery defines local ecotype can vary generally to reflect the distance that customers are spread from the store. If a plant is local ecotype to Cole County Missouri because the nursery is located there and the homeowner picks those plants to grow in a St Louis county garden they may not as well as a plant from a nursery that has plants that are local ecotype of St Louis County. Nurseries that sell at farmers markets across the state will have plants that are also from across the state using a broad definition of local ecotype. The narrower your definition is of ecotype the more truly local your landscape will be. However, most gardeners in St Louis aim for plants that are local ecotype to the bistate area. "Wild Ones Natural Landscapers advocates the selection of plants and seeds derived, insofar as is possible, from local or regional sources at sites having the same or similar environmental conditions as the site of planting. Such plant materials are often termed the local ecotype." A homeowner that strives to make their garden as nature friendly as possible tries to mimic the plant community that would be there naturally. Finding local ecotype plants for the garden can be almost impossible, especially if near by wild areas are not available for seed collecting. Sourcing plants for the native garden is an exercise in contacting the local nurseries and figuring out which plants are closest to the local ecotype. Usually choices are limited by what is available and may vary from year to year. A very difficult landscape project that I worked on recently had requirements that all plants used in the landscape must be local ecotype within 10 miles of the site. Since there were no native plant nurseries within that radius I had to collect seeds at surrounding natural areas and grow them in a greenhouse for the project. This really limited my species options for the garden. The plants available determined how I designed the landscape. Plants from a local ecotype will preform better. They are adapted to the site through many years of evolution. Flowers of the same species will bloom at slightly different times throughout their range with more southern flowers blooming first. If a flower from the southern range is transplanted to a garden in the north of the range it will bloom too early. A flower that blooms too early may miss blooming in sync with it’s pollinators and therefore can not produce seeds. Plants have many other slight variations throughout their range and moving species around can mess with many different dependencies in a natural balance.

What is the role of nativars (cultivars of native plants) in pollinator habitat creation? Like most plants, Missouri native plants have been subjected to selection for specific features that make them more desirable to humans such as bigger flowers, longer bloom time, compact growth, showy colors, pest resistance, etc. It is obvious to see how plants that are pest resistant would be undesirable to insects but other changes to the true native can also be undesirable and it is hard to tell exactly what type of manipulation is acceptable since the insects don’t talk, they just slowly disappear. Since most of us are making these gardens to save the pollinators it is counter productive to plant a cultivar that does not provide optimum nutrition for the insect. Buying plants at a garden center it is often difficult to avoid the nativars and many gardeners unknowingly buy them. Look for clear labeling that does not have any extra words after the genus and species. While we are talking about garden centers, I can not stress enough, the importance of avoiding plants treated with neonicotinoids. Neonics are a poison incorporated into the plant tissue that can kill large amounts of insects visiting the flower. Always check that your plant is neonicotinoids free and ask your garden center to stop selling treated plants. The usefulness of a nativar depends on which structure of plant is manipulated. In general changes to plant structure are easier on pollinators then changes to flower structure. There is a cultivar of echinacea where the bloom has been manipulated to be only petals with no nectar production, obviously not great from the pollinators point of view. Hydrangea is another flower that has been changed to have more showy flowers with less nectar and pollen. There are also changes that we can not see that insects may be missing like loss of UV markings as nectar guides and changes in scent. When bloom time is changed it may no longer be in sync with pollinators. Some insects are very dependent on their host plant and an interruption in any stage of their life cycle means collapse of the species. Many nativars suffer from inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity as they have been selected for a specific trait. Nativars cross pollinating with true natives could lead to the diluting and contaminating of the true native gene pool. Gardens that feature nativars and natives can produce seeds that are not true natives and should not be released back into the wild. When collecting seeds in a backyard garden the chance of genetic contamination is high so these seeds should not be used for reestablishing natural populations. So much is still unknown about what exactly insects need from plants to be successful. More research needs to be done on nativars and their ability to provide for pollinators. Several institutions are working on this question now as insect populations collapse around the globe. I once had a tour of Mt Cuba center to see their trails of performance of natives and nativars. For more information on Mt. Cuba’s trials check out https://mtcubacenter.org/research/trial-garden/ There is good news, we can help with the research. Scientists are asking for native plant gardeners to submit observation of pollinators on natives and nativars as part of project budburst. So far project budburst data for the Midwest plants indicate that mean pollinator visits per minute are higher for true native plants than for their cultivars, however, they also see considerable variation among cultivars. Join in this citizen science project at https://budburst.org/projects/nativars#where

Celtis occidentalis Hackberry is a common street tree because it tolerates wet soil, drought, clay soil, road salt, and air pollution. It commonly grows to a height and width of 30-60 feet but sometimes taller if the conditions are right. Hackberry prefers full sun to part shade and soil that is medium to wet moisture but are very tolerant of a variety of conditions. This tree can be grown in a rain garden and helps prevent erosion. It is in the family Cannabaceae along with Hops and Cannabis for which the family gets it's name. I would have never guessed hackberry to have such notorious relatives just by looking at it. Many scientist misclassified Hackberry in the family with Elm until recently when it was moved the correct family. The hackberry forms an inconspicuous small green bloom in April and May that is wind pollinated. The red/purple fruit is a delight to the birds which will spread the seeds and their purple poop along their flight path as they visit the tree. The fleshy parts of the fruit are edible to humans and somewhat sweet giving this tree an alternate name, sugarberry. The hackberry is the host plant to several butterflies. The Mourning Cloak, Question Mark, Hackberry Emperor, Comma, Snout, and Tawny Emperor butterflies all look for this tree. Some of these butterflies over winter as adults in the leaf litter and can be seen flying on warm winter days. Treat the fallen leaves of hackberry gently to be rewarded with more butterflies. My favorite feature of the hackberry is the bark, that is easy to notice in the winter months. The bark forms wart like bumps on the trunk sometimes protruding enough to look like a relief map of canyon lands. The feel of the ridges and warts of the corky bark is memorable and should be enjoyed at every opportunity.