As things start to thaw around here and I keep checking my winter sowing jugs, I was wondering what everyone else is planning for the upcoming season. We'll be sharing our plans at tonight's friendly and welcoming Zoom native gardening club. If you'd like to join us, register here for the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/qCTK5Fy8pW3ghk4n7
As for me, I'm looking to nurture two new beds from last year into more fullness. One is a highly visible front-yard spot where I took out about 10 Japanese barberry. I'm particularly hopeful for some native thistles there — I want to redeem the thistle experience from the invasives!
I've also only had limited success so far in my shady woodland area, so I've wintersown a bunch of shade plants. I need to keep attacking the yellow archangel and ivy that loves that area, while not damaging the love mayapples and trillium that have emerged.
Finally, I've got one more jungly area that needs taming. There's a 4" caliper Norway maple that's skyrocketing and other trees that really have no business being there. I'm going to at least clear out the understory and the Norway, and build up the energy and budget to get the bigger things out.
Oh one more thing: I want to establish an oak in our front yard as the start of a 250-year project. I'm trying a variety of sapling transplants and acorns, but I may need to break down and buy one.
How about everyone else?
by fumanchu314159265
11 Comments
I’m having a landscaper rip out 40′ of privet hedge and that will get replaced with a flat of native flower plugs (and some cosmos and zinnias). I’m also going to be continuing my battle against creeping Charlie and black swallowwort on the property.
I really wanna get a pond in somewhere, even if its a tiny water feature/water source. Something!
Kinda nervous tho, feel like I’d fuck something like that up
Besides things that are already underway, such as stratifying seeds and pre-ordered plants, my current plan is to kill invasives.
I got a wall of burning bushes on the edge of my property, and I plan on removing them. Was seeing if I can get my property surveyed, so I can get those lil’ flags put on the edge to identify where I can remove the invasive shrubs.
I was using a spray last year that gets applied to their leaves, but they shrugged it off. Now I’m looking for more drastic measures. The problem is I have a 30′ oak in the area, and I hate to hurt it.
The weather is turning again but I’m partly through removing some grasses. I just had too many of them and as I learned more I think the ecological benefit to something like 50% grasses just doesn’t really apply to a garden in an urban environment. In an L shaped spot about 3’x5’ I removed 2 little bluestem, 2 big bluestem and a wild rye. In their place I put about 30 liatris spicata bulbs. The result in just this spot will be thousands of small flowers in place of the grass. I’m definitely not removing all the grasses or anything but cutting down from about 50% to probably around 25-30%. I do have a healthy red legged grasshopper population I don’t want to hurt.
I’m also fixing some other mistakes where plants were separated from each other. I learned the lesson first hand about how a massing is much better. It’s one thing to read about it but another to really see it. I had some brown eyed Susan’s in my gardens first few years and now random plants pop up all over. However last year I seeded a new garden in the front that had mountain mint on the edges and then a 4’x2.5’ area of just brown eyed Susan. Now, the mint obviously did a lot to bring in pollinators but I was shocked at how much attention the rudbeckia was getting as well. Previously, when at most I had 3 of them growing together, I never saw much action. I’m also removing so purple flowered raspberry as that plant does not play games and I already have a healthy stand. Oh and adding more spring ephemerals.
Edit: to make up for loss of the fibrous root system of the grasses being replaced by bulbs I’m also going to plant some stout blue eyed grasses that can grow among the liatris and hold the soil/repel weeds.
Keep the japanese climbing fern from the easement and neighbor’s yard out 😭
But more happily, adding more height to my garden. I have a lot of shrubs and low bloomers, but need some height. So have walter’s viburnum and inkberry going in soon. North FL.
I have a strip of land between myself and my neighbor full of 20+ Norway maples all in a straight line. They offer privacy in the summer, but I still dream of making a native screening area there with some “food forest” options. I want to tackle the area in small sections, a little each year.
This spring, I plan to cut down all the small saplings I can in one area that are shading out a nice evergreen tree and replace with a summer sweet bush and some wild geranium & two American hazelnuts. In a few years, I hope the hazelnuts and summer sweet will provide some privacy. I was thinking of planting a blue spruce or Canaan fir placed to block my neighbor’s back porch light during the winter too.
I also plan to dig up these invasive lily of the valley bulbs in a partial shade spot by a wood fence. I’m going to put a trumpet honeysuckle to grow on the fence and then put an oakleaf hydrangea or vibranium shrub next to it. I already planted a blackberry bush in the fall that will be on the other side of the oakleaf.
Next year I’ll plant some raspberries in between the hazelnuts and add a New Jersey tea, a pear tree and another peach tree.
I also am considering some liatris (edible, carrot like roots) and a second blurry bush for this year… I just have to make sure I don’t bite off more than I can chew!
Fixing some questionable choices made by the landscapers design person, mostly. And trying to fix the soil they put in. Adding some clumping grasses, and swapping out some stuff for more true native options that [hopefully] won’t die of dehydration in my yard.
Year 6. Redoing some of the work I did in year 1. I’ve decided to make my front yard more of a low growing sedge meadow. I’ll be transplanting and giving away some of the taller grasses and forbs.
I have a bunch of sedges in flats already and I’ll be doing some palm sedge this spring.
Also will be transplanting some prairie climbing roses to a shadier spot to try and reign them in a bit. They’re super aggressive in sun.
I have so much planned its not even funny.
Foundation border: rose creek abelia as hedge. In front will be autumn sage, and then most likely some purple verbena.
side of house: put up some 12 foot trellis’s and will have passion flower vine.
New bed in yard: roses, turks cap, milkweed, gregs blue mistflower, zexmenia, flame acanthus, azalea. and who knows what else!
I’m almost done clearing out the current clay soil and will go bring in bulk soil.
A) Fill in gaps in the flowerbeds in the front and back of house
B) remove trees/branches shading flowerbeds to create more lit niches
C) continue attempts to start plants from seed
This is gonna be my first year truly attempting this so we’ll see.
Continuing the Japanese knot weed and mugwort battle.
Ripping out all but one of the rose bushes the previous owners planted, hoping to replace them with smooth hydrangeas which I am pleased to learn are native.
Choking out some swaths of grass with silage tarp. Definitely around my raised bed fences. Not sure what I’ll put there, I kind of just want to amend the soil so may put some cover crops there and keep chopping/integrating but not sure how realistic this is. My property has clumps of golden rod in several places so I’m going to lean into that
I want to get an estimate for a rainwater garden as we have lots of areas of standing water that’s especially bad after all this snow