In case it’s helpful to anyone else, I highly recommend this book for anyone who is removing non-native plants and replacing with native plants.
I’ve have read, watched, and listened to a lot of information about planting natives. But most of the content that I have seen focuses on removing lawn and planting natives. My house came with no lawn, and lots of non-native herbaceous and woody plants. I think this book addresses my situation better than anything else I’ve seen. It has good technical information and good moral support. My favorite parts: “…but when invasive shrubs grow in thickets…the working conditions are trying” and “vines are exceptionally irksome.”
by Solidago312
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I need moral support for my thickets of bush honeysuckle 🤧🤧🤧🤧
It’s gonna be terrible at first bc it does provide good privacy.
Irksome! English ivy and bamboo, that’s what I have remaining after clearing 2/3 of our property. The only good news is the ivy seems to have suppressed almost everything else (there’s some bittersweet, multiflora rose, porcelain berry, and a little wild blackberry).
The “it’s so worth it moment” — where I cleared, a small colony of Erythonium americanum, yellow trout lilies, bloomed. Also seeing spring beauties and mayapple. And a lot of volunteer Circaea lutetiana, enchanter’s nightshade. Damp woodland shade, mid-Atlantic. Oh and Lindera benzoin, spicebush, volunteering from somewhere. It shouldn’t have persisted in the seed bank so guessing a neighbor + birds? I threw some seeds down a few years ago but these are in different places (or that’s just birds lol).