Wildlife in the Corner Garden

Pam, at Digging had a post about gardening with wildlife in mind that I enjoyed reading Friday.  She said the Garden Designers Roundtable had that for a theme this month, so I checked that post out as well.  One of the things they mentioned is that some of the posts will be about trying to acheive an ecological balance.  That is something I think about sometimes, wondering if one really can live in perfect harmony with the wildlife around them.  I do plant things with wildlife in mind, and try to keep fresh water down, but there are times I don't have positive feelings toward some of the critters.

Some people are afraid of anything not human.  Others just don't like them, and want to kill all insects and snakes on "their" property.  When I was out taking photos this morning, a neighbor boy said, "Aren't you afraid of bees?  Do they ever sting you when you get so close to them?"  I do get close to them, and wasps as well, and have never been stung.  I've been sort of charged at, and then back off, but have only been stung in my youth when I stepped on a bee while going barefoot.  If I was allergic to stings, I would probably keep my distance, though.  I am thankful to have garter snakes on the property.  They like all the cover here and there, including the compost piles.

As far as harmony and balance go, I plant extra lettuce for the rabbits each year, but they still eat other things, I don't want them to.  I am going to have to get some rabbit fencing in order to get home grown veggies.  I don't use pesticides, except once every few years, when the slugs are bad, I'll use a pet safe product once or twice that season.  (I found beer didn't work so well, and got really gross if I didn't take care of it often.)  I would rather not have rabbits around, but they are there, so I have to learn to deal with them better.  And then, there are the squirrels...

I don't grow squashes much because of the stem borers.   Beetles eat my cucumber vines and give them a disease, but at least I get a harvest of cucumbers before the plants die.  They also eat the bean plants that haven't been finished by the rabbits yet. 

I'll have to check more of the gardening for wildlife posts out after I catch up a bit on visiting the blogs of those who have left comments on my recent posts.  I want to achieve balance as best I can.  I decided to talk about some of the plants that attract insects and other wildlife to my yard and my garden across the street for my Camera Critters post.

This photo was taken August 22.  There are two walnut trees across the street, which are not good to grow vegetables around, but the squirrels spend a lot of time there.

On August 25, some insects had found the rough goldenrod blooms opening.  I grow several kinds of goldenrod, but not the wildest invasive kind.  They always have a variety of insects on the blooms.

The next door neighbor kids know I like butterflies and caterpillars.  They brought this over when I came home from work and a dentist appointment, hungry, and wanting to get right inside to eat.  They wanted to find a spot for it in my yard.  I told them they could put it in an empty pot on my driveway.  The put some things in there for it.  Do you know what that is?

When I first started growing this kind of agastache, which may be honey bee blue, it was sold as Mexican bee mint.  These are volunteers.  I think I had a couple different kinds, which may have crossed.  There are normally lots of bees and other insects on these blooms.

The heleniums are liked by insects as well.

I did go get my camera the day the kids brought the critter over when we saw these spiders.  They think the one on the right is a wolf spider.  I can't tell from the bottom.  I couldn't tell if the one on the left was alive.

Butterfly bushes are considered invasive in some areas, but not here.  I haven't seen as many butterflies at a time on this one as in the past, but it could be because I have more of them here and there now.

The rest of the photos were taken Friday.  I always let some verbena bonariensis grow in the vegetable garden because the butterflies like it.  I had a number of different kinds of skippers on it this day.  The dark colored swallowtail flew away as soon as I entered the scene.  I saw a silver-spotted skipper when I got home from work, but didn't get out right away with the camera.  These skippers let me get quite close.  There are 3 in this photo.  I think the open winged one may be a female common checkered-skipper.

I wonder if this is a fiery skipper.

I can't tell which this looks like in my book, but I'm thinking the Leonard's skipper may be what I've had in the past.

I can't remember if this one is one of those in the other photos.

The tithonia, Mexican sunflowers, are finally blooming in front of the vegetable garden across the street, and the monarchs have found the two blooms they have so far.  Last year, they bloomed much earlier, and I had more of them planted.  The monarchs love them, and last fall, there were days I counted more than 14 at a time on and around them.  It was awesome!

We have a variety of trees in the neighborhood.  This 4 foot locust tree is growing in the neighbor's side yard next to the flower bed by their house.  It's more their responsibility to cut down, but since I take care of the area right next to it, I'll probably take it down.  I couldn't find any flowers on it, but the monarch spent some time on it.

When we went to the zoo with our grandson last week, I noticed they had some pokeberries growing here and there.  I let this one grow across the street for the birds, but pulled the others.

I need to do a search for mulberry trees to decide if I want to leave this one (across the street) for the birds, and maybe try to get a few berries from it as well.

I have reduced the size of the brush pile I was intending for the butterflies to take shelter in.  The rabbits have taken it over for their nest.  Speaking of rabbits, their favorite foods here are the leaves of peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and romaine and buttercrunch lettuce.  They'll eat all kinds of lettuce and this year, included more leaves from flowers in their diet, which they eat to the ground.  Some of the flowers have recovered, and some of the sweet potatoes are trying to, but the peas and beans did not, and more of the lettuce than usual was eaten too far down to recover.  If I plant them, they will come!

When I learned that fennel blooms attract predatory wasps, they were already forming seeds, so I didn't cut them back.  I've seen a few swallowtail caterpillars on the fennels, dill, and parsley this year, not as many as some years.  I didn't make it out to the gardens as much as usual, though, either.

Back home, the veronica, 'Sunny Border Blue' has bloomed all season, with some deadheading, and always has bees and/or butterflies on it.

I cut a few springs of this winter savory in the curb bed to dry for cooking each season, then enjoy the blooms along with the bees and such.  There were at least 5 bees on this 12ish inch wide plant when I took this photo.

The Joe Pye weed, 'Gateway' seems to be drawing bees.  This is the first year for this plant.

I think it's a butterfly bush leaf this insect is on.  Do you know what it is?

If you haven't looked in your yard lately, see what kinds of critters you can find near you.  Visit Camera Critters, hosted by Misty Dawn by clicking the link in my sidebar.

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New England Wildflower Society

Two weekends ago I visited the New England Wildflower Society's Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts. I got there pretty late, maybe about 4:30pm, but they were open until 7 pm. It was nice to get out of the city, and I went on that rare type of day this summer -the cool kind, before the intense heat of last week. I stepped out of my van and I felt my blood pressure drop.

The Garden in the Woods actually contains a number of gardens, linked by trails that can be somewhat confusing to navigate -but we figured it out along the way (we had a map). There are also woodland trails not part of the garden proper, but connected to it. I saw many plants in flower, all quite beautiful, but it has taken much too long to put this post together, and so will give my best impression of brief.

Many of the plants were tagged, and there were different opportunities to learn what one is looking at. For instance, the "What's Blooming Now" sign board at the trail's beginning, but you can't take that with you, and the garden couldn't possibly tag every plant specimen, so it is that I have not identified many of the plants I found interesting. That said, I will try to find them on the internet. I should also point out that the NEWS website goes pretty deep, with a lot of information should you want to find information about particular native plants.

After parking, you approach the visitor center and nursery. There's plenty to buy, including sandwiches. I saw on their website that goldenrods were to be on sale ($5) the weekend I went, and, since I had killed my seaside goldenrod last year (moving it in fall), I thought this a perfect opportunity to buy a new one, or two. I bought a Bluestem, S. caesi, and a Showy, S. speciosa. These sit sadly, unplanted, in the side garden until I figure out where to put them or the heat breaks -whichever comes first.

The nursery had a lot of other plants -most are well-known garden perennials. They do sell some native perennials and shrubs that are hard to find at our common nurseries, like Threadleaf Ironweed,Vernonia lettermanii or New England Blazing Star, Liatris scariosa var. novae-angliae both of which I picked up because that's what plant people do in the face of plants new to them. If you are looking for rare native plants or those in quantity, look to their Nasami Farm -that's their major nursery operation.

The plant that was everywhere and eminently garden worthy is Black Cohosh, or Cimicfuga racemosa. Brilliant spires shooting above dark foliage.

One of the first gardens we stopped for was the 'idea garden.' Most of what we found here was this charming little garden shed with a planted roof. Notice the plant baskets on the fence line.

Pitcher plants in a basket.

On the other side, flowers.

As we walked downhill, we spotted this young deer prancing back and forth. I wondered how much deer damage there is in the Garden in the Woods.

The lily pond. Islands show different plant communities. Educational, but I didn't like the effect.

Along the pond trail, Slender Blue Flag, Iris prismatica.

I believe this is Cardinal Flower, or Lobelia cardinalis. This is one where I couldn't find a tag, but was well reminded of the plants from my Nissequogue canoe trip last summer.

The stems of the above are flattened, with ridges -not unlike celery.

Friend Steve in the meadow. Our timing landed us in between the two floriferous periods, and so it appears mostly green.

Although this plant is intriguing, I do not know what it is. Any ideas? *Desmodium paniculatum -thanks Steven Ziglar!

Nope, its not Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria. This specimen, however, was just a few feet from the former. Purple Loosestrife is listed as invasive by the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group which is a comprehensive body of interested parties. Like the cheshire cat, it appears when you least expect it, smiling as if to say that even here, amongst the native plants of the New England Wildflower Society native plant gardens, I will appear -deal with me. "The proper order of things is often a mystery to me. You, too?"

And as if to reinforce the cat's position, a jail pops up. Beyond the absurdity of plants being held in jail, it's the unfortunate, misplaced metaphors like this that allow certain nay-sayers to harp on what they suggest are Nazi sympathizing, anti-immigration purists amongst a community of invasive plant policy supporters. As far as I can tell, nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of comparison only works in the mind, on the internet, in print, on paper. In the field, amongst scientists, the comparison loses traction. So the 'Plant Jail' has to go because it is a stupid visual pun that underestimates our intelligence and gives ammunition to those who'd rather look the other way than pull a few plants from a palette of thousands.

Okay, back to the fun stuff. Field of Asclepias tuberosa, or butterfly weed.

The large leaves and berried umbels of Umbrella Leaf, Diphylleia cymosa.

Have no idea, but was near the education center and rain garden. *Spigelia marilandica -thanks Ellen and Steven!

I believe this is a cultivated aster, Stokes Aster, Stokesia laevis.*Nope, sorry Frank, that's Barbara's Buttons or Marshallia grandiflora -thanks again Steven!

If you're ever in eastern Mass or anywhere near Boston, it's worth a trip. I wouldn't look to the Garden in the Woods as an example of great garden design, but more as a palette of plant choices that can inspire design. It's worth mentioning that the staff were very helpful and friendly even though I was purchasing plants at the last minute, never letting me sense that they were itching to go home. They even watered my plants with compost tea before I loaded them into the van. Now to get those in the ground.

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