Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden

Alison Gillespie, author of the "Sligo Naturalist" column in the Takoma and Silver Spring Voice, gave a terrific presentation to Friends of Sligo Creek on this hot-hot topic and here are some highlights:

THINGS KIDS LOVE

• Kids love butterfly nets, binoculars (she recommends the low-cost Viewmaster)

• Stuffed Audubon birds are adorable and make great bird sounds

• Bug jars cost nothing. Alison recommends Giant brand couscous jars with holes punched in the top. Then punch holes in the sides for a carrying strap - a bit of rope - and you have a great toy.

• Magnifying glass – Strosnider's Hardware has some for only $4 - it's made for reading, but works better than the magnifying glasses sold in toy stores.

• Alison also recommended an assortment of children's books about wildlife, especially those that show a real animals, not cartoon animals.

• Kids love zinnias, so for only 50 cents for a packet of seeds you can do at least one easy thing in the garden that will connect your kids with growing things. Their blooms delight all season long.(Fight Nature Deficit Disorder!)
  

RACHEL CARSON
Did you know, that Rachel Carson lived in Silver Spring and her adopted nephew went to school in Takoma Park? Actually, since Earth Day and all the mentions of Carson's one hundredth birthday, you probably DO know. Alison related a charming story of Carson convincing a neighbor's child to stop killing ants.

TIPS GALORE

• Don't let your cats outdoors. The Humane Society has lots to say on this subject from the point of view of cat health and you should hear what the Audubon Society has to say about the devastation wrought on the bird population by our lovable Garfields.-

• Don't deadhead your flowers. The drying seedheads of purple coneflowers, for example, are loved by our local finches. Spent flowers can also provide cover for wildlife all winter long. So wait until early spring to do garden clean-up.

• Provide water to attract birds, and beneficial insects. If you're worried about mosquitoes, they need at least three days of standing water, so refresh the water more frequently than that.

• Bug zappers? Don't use them. They had been proven to kill more beneficial insects than the ones we want to kill.

• Cover is required for backyard habitat certification, and Alison likes American holly trees because they provide not just cover, but also shade and food. They also do well in urban soil. A brush pile is also good for cover but guess what – old Christmas trees are not. So stop dumping them in the woods. They're actually a problem.
  

• Recommended sources for birdhouses are the Wild Bird Center in Wheaton and the Audubon Society headquarters in Chevy Chase. Staffers there will help you match the hole size to the bird you want to attract, and advise you on the birdhouse placement.

• Go organic in your gardening practices. It may take about three years for your garden to adapt, but you'll be glad you did it.

• Lose-the-lawn is a recommendation we're hearing more and more these days, but don't worry, you don't have to give it up altogether. Try shrinking your lawn by enlarging the area for shrubs and flowers.

• Hummingbird feeders work well, and the recipe is one part sugar in four parts boiling water. Don't use honey.

• For the benefit of wildlife and to create a sense of place in your garden, "go native."

Alison's favorite plants for wildlife:

PERENNIALS/ANNUALS: purple verbena, purple coneflowers, black-eyed Susan, milkweed, ironweed, Joe Pye weed, Mexican sunflower, red columbine, beebalm, trumpet honeysuckle, and cardinal flower.

SHRUBS and TREES: Winterberry holly, American cranberrybush, dogwood, wild cherry tree, spice bush.

Plant a Garden for Butterflies

WHY PLANT A BUTTERFLY GARDEN?
- To help preserve these beloved insects, whose habitat areas are fast disappearing.
-Watching them is fun and educational in a way that connects you and your kids to nature.
- It's a giant step toward getting your backyard certified under the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Habitat Program - and Takoma certified as Maryland's first Wildlife Habitat Community, a feather in our collective cap.

HOW TO ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES
Nectar Plants are the sun-loving plants we see adult butterflies feeding on, sucking nectar through their long nose-like proboscis, and an assortment of nectar plants will attract dozens of butterflies to your garden. Eric Raun, a Silver Spring butterfly expert, recorded 32 species feeding on his butterfly bushes alone - the most of any plant. (If you're worried about your butterfly bushes spreading, just remove the dead flowers. That will prevent their reseeding and encourage reblooms.) Runners-up in Raun's garden were nonnatives verbena, marigold, zinnia, salvia, globe amaranth, and white clover and natives wild ageratum, milkweed, and blackeyed Susan.

Host Plants are used by butterflies as places to lay their eggs, and then as food by the emerging caterpillars, and including some in your garden will attract even more species. But butterflies are often very picky about which plants they use as hosts, unlike their more generic tastes in nectar plants. For example, the Monarch caterpillars will only eat the milkweed plant. Most host plants, like milkweed, are also weedier, less attractive and harder to find than nectar plants, so local butterfly expert Denise Gibbs often recommends simply adding fennel and dill to your garden as an easy way to provide host plants. And because host plants suffer the effects of heavy munching, you may want to put them in less visible spots. Some of the more ornamental host plants for our area are aster, sedums, and snapdragons.

All butterfly-attracting plants, whether nectar or host, should be massed in groups of three or more so they can be seen by these near-sighted insects, but be sure to provide a diversity of plants to attract lots of species. And because butterflies feed from spring to fall, select plants with a variety of booming times.

Other attractants. Many butterflies love to suck liquid from moist soil, an activity called puddling. You can create a puddle by burying a sand-filled container in the ground (a shallow saucer or birdbath will do) and periodically adding stale beer, sweet drinks or water. Some species feed on overripe fruit, but be warned that yellow jackets are equally attracted to them. Butterfly houses are more decorative than effective, generally attracting more wasps than their intended guests. And flat rocks or patches of dirt in protected spots provide places for butterflies to warm themselves in the morning.

Gardening Practices
- Avoid the use of insecticides. Populations of many species have been reduced by insecticides, especially sprays to control gypsy moths and mosquitoes.
-"Weeds" like clover, violets and dandelions are excellent food for butterflies, so consider relaxing your definition of the perfect lawn to include something for the insects. It'll help our threatened honeybee friends, too.
- Garden clean-up? Not so much. Some butterflies overwinter as larvae or pupae in leaf litter at the base of host plants, so leave at least a light leaf covering around them until early spring.

WATCHING
On sunny days it's fun to watch adult butterflies feeding and puddling, for which they'll stay in place long enough to offer some awesome photo ops. On cool sunny mornings they'll also hang out on those rocks you've provided for them, warming their muscles enough for flight. There are 239 known species of butterflies and moths in Maryland, so get yourself a pair of binoculars and a field guide, and start your list!

SOURCES
-The Washington Area Butterfly Club has field trips, a listserv for local sightings and news, and a Guide for Beginners. Their excellent site is your starting point for everything you need to know, including lists of species and the exact plants that will attract them to your garden.
- Eric Raun's Butterfly Gardening in Silver Spring website is a gem.
-The butterfly forum on GardenWeb also has cool postings of tagged butterflies sighted on their migration path back to Maryland in the spring.
-The Audubon Naturalist Society is another great resource.
-Wings and Wildflowers Nursery in Gaithersburg has a half-acre demonstration garden to help visitors select butterfly-attracting plants that fit into their garden schemes. Call owner Denise Gibbs at 301/253-6903 for an appointment.

EVENTS:
-April 26, 7:30 p.m., at Woodend, the Audubon Society's headquarters in Bethesda, "Butterfly Habitats on the East Coast" Free.
-June 2, 9-2, Butterfly Basics, an Audobon Naturalist event, also free.

JOIN THE SAVE-THE-MONARCH MOVEMENT
My visit to Monarchwatch.org left me impressed by the organization but curious to know why all the attention to Monarchs. Eric Raun kindly explained that they're big, easily identifiable, and their migration habits are cool. Not to mention the very real threat to their existence from decreasing winter habitat areas in Mexico and the use of pesticides by farmers in the U.S. In fact, 90 percent of Monarch habitats are agricultural and disappearing at the rate of 3,000 acres/day, and their roadside habitats are destroyed by herbicides and frequent mowing. Gee, it sure would help - and save oodles of tax dollars - if we just let our roadsides go au natural!

Originally published in the Takoma Voice Newspaper

Native Plant Sale in Parkfairfax, Virginia

Don't miss the the 8th Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale - Saturday, April 28, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The new flyer for the sale has been posted to the Parkfairfax native plant sale website. (The website is still in the process of being updated, and additional information will be posted to it in advance of the April sale.)

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS! For each of these sales, about eight volunteers are needed to help the sale run smoothly. If you would like to help out for a few hours, either at the start of the sale, from 8:30am to 11:30am, or at the end, from 11:30am to 2:30pm, please call me at 703-671-8416 or send an email to sknudsen@eathlink.

Here's more about the sale:

PARKFAIRFAX NATIVE PLANT SALE
Saturday, April 28, 2006 -- 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
3601 Valley Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22302

Twelve vendors will be at the Parkfairfax sale! Several of the vendors carry native trees and shrubs as well as perennials, and several vendors specialize in some aspect of native plants, such as fruiting shrubs, wetland plants, or native azaleas. A few do not come to our local area for any other plant sale. The full list of vendors will be available as a downloadable list on the sale website soon.

Parkfairfax is located in the Washington DC metro area within the I-495 Beltway, in northwest Alexandria directly across I-395 from Shirlington. From I-395, exit Shirlington/Quaker onto Quaker Lane. At the first light on Quaker, turn left onto Preston. Follow
Preston to Valley and continue past Gunston Road. The sale will be in the long parking lot on the right. Maps and directions are available on the sale website.

(Thanks to Scott Knudsen, sale organizer, for sending us this message.)

"I Pledge Allegiance to the Earth"

Thanks to the National Wildlife Federation Magazine for this story, about Hawaii's first certified schoolyard wildlife habitat - at the Kawaiaha'o Church School on Oahu. Students there recite this oath daily: "I pledge allegiance to the earth, and to all life that it nourishes." They continue, promising to "protect life on our plant, to live in harmony with nature and to share our resources justly, so that all people can live with dignity, in good health and in peace." NICE!!!!

And get this - the NWF president actually traveled to Oahu to award the certification to the school and praise them for putting these words into practice and "creating a wildlife-friendly space that kids can be a part of." Hey, shouldn't the City of Takoma Park send its Community Wildlife Habitat Team to Oahu on a fact-finding mission? Just an thought.

Each class at the school is responsible for tending a portion of the outdoor garden, which hosts a variety of native Hawaiian and Polynesian plants. Oh, yeah, we definitely need to see this in person, especially during winter.

Takoma Park Goes Wild - Join Us March 13th, 7:30

Submitted by Bruce Sidwell, President of Friends of Sligo Creek

A program will be held on March 13th to help residents make their yards and community more wildlife friendly. The event will be held in the Azalea room of the Community Center at 7:30 pm (come early for refreshments). The main speaker, Alison Gillespie, is author of the Sligo Naturalist column in the Takoma Voice. She will share her long experience in developing yards that not only attract birds and butterflies, but are also friendly to humans. One of her specialties is to reduce "nature- deficiency" in kids and grown-ups. There will be handouts covering recommended plants and sources of information.

The meeting is part of an effort to improve prospects for preserving and enhancing the natural parts of our environment. Last December, the City Council passed a resolution supporting certification of Takoma Park as a National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat Community. This charge has been led by the Committee on the Environment, the Takoma Park Horticulture Club, the Takoma Voice, and the Friends of Sligo Creek, in cooperation with the Public Works Department.

Five elements are required for good habitat: food, water, cover, places to raise young, and sustainable gardening practices. At least 100 backyards, four common areas (e.g., parks), and three schools need to be certified. At last count more than 40 backyards are already certified. We're on our way!

The Birth of a Habitat Gardener

In a recent New York Times article, their garden writer Anne Raver tells about the return of Eastern bluebirds to her Central Maryland garden, thanks to reduced pesticide use by local farmers and the return of chunks of farmland to natural habitat (thanks to federal subsidies).

And now that they're in the area, here's what brought them to her property.

And the article goes on, as Raver describes finding pileated woodpeckers and Carolina wrens on her property, too. Then she recommends a great source for bird info: the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Raver says to click on "All About Birds" and then "Bird Guide," and select the name from the drop-down list. You can even click "Listen to the song of this species" - waay cool! But there's more - the site has videos of birds in action, and "cover-girl images of must-have shrubs for birds". Sounds like a winner.

Finally, we're warned:
"So be careful if you pick up a pair of binoculars and focus them clumsily on some blurry thing you think you see on a branch. You may lose yourself in a very different kind of garden from the one you thought you were making."

[Wish we could show you the whole article but copyright law applies even here on the web.]

Wildlife Certification Plan Presented to City Council

The project to have Takoma Park certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a community wildlife habitat was presented to the City Council at its November 13 meeting. Urging the Council’s endorsement of the project were Bruce Sidwell on behalf of Friends of Sligo Park, Lori Radloff representing the Takoma Horticultural Club, Tim Male speaking for the Committee on the Environment, and Susan Harris for the Voice Newspaper. Mike Welsh, city gardener, was also on hand to answer questions and express support. Mayor Porter and several Councilmembers, while asking the right questions about attracting the wrong kinds of wildlife, voiced enthusiasm for the program and encouraged the team to present a formal resolution of support for their adoption.

Progress toward certification has also been made on the home front, with 38 Takoma Park residents having certified their backyards as wildlife habitats, so we’re well on our way to the 100 needed for community certification. Other requirements include the certification of two schools and three common areas, and the team is currently working with Mike Welsh to identify the best sites in those categories. Project activities planned for spring of 2007 include an information table at the Sunday Farmers Market, and formal kick-off as part our Arbor Day celebration. Councilmember Austin-Lane suggested participation in Rachel Carson Day, as well.

GET YOUR YARD CERTIFIED Applications are available on line at www.nwf.org. For the $15 application fee, your family will become National Wildlife Federation members for a year and receive their excellent publications.

Sustainable Plants for your Garden

[From the Takoma Voice Gardening Coach Column, November 2006.]

Okay, a quick refresher in case you didn't memorize the last column. Sustainable gardening practices are those that don’t damage the earth or waste resources. Definitions vary across the board but that one has broad support. And for eco-conscious local gardeners I’ve looked far and wide for plants that are:

• Drought-tolerant. Now if your site is a consistently soggy one, drought-tolerant plants won’t work and I suggest Googling "wet plants." But for most situations and increasingly with global warming, drought-tolerance is key to sustainability.
• Resistant to disease and severe insect damage. Minor insect damage? Get over it.

GOTTA BE NATIVE?
Now some sources, including the National Wildlife Federation in their advice about sustainable gardening, say the plants used should be native, a word I always interpret to mean locally native. (Why? Because no other definition makes any sense. Plants don’t behave according to political boundaries like "native to the U.S.," and the U.S. includes waaay too many different ecosystems for the label to mean anything in horticultural or ecological terms.) Here in the Mid-Atlantic where the natural condition is deciduous forest, most native plants are woodland, shade-loving ones, not the desert or Plains plants that tolerate sun and drought. So I’ve included as many locally native garden plants as I could find but realistically, most gardeners need more choices and I’m happy to recommend some excellent plants native to somewhere else for your consideration.

A FEW DISCLAIMERS

• Even the most drought-tolerant plants for our area require careful watering during their first year, sometimes longer. So don’t assume a plant is drought-tolerant until at least its second full season. This is especially true of any plant installed in the spring (which is why fall planting is usually best.)
• Many drought-tolerant plants are Mediterranean and need good drainage if they’re to survive our winter and our wet springs. So berms are helpful and well-draining soil a must. That means that if your soil is mostly clay, remove some and replace it with garden soil, or improve the clay with organic matter and coarse sand.
• I found contradictory information about some plants, with the literature saying one thing and local gardeners another, so I’ve noted them as "possibly" sustainable.
• Some of these plants are on watch lists for possible invasive behavior because of reports from other parts of the country (nandina, liriope, ornamental grasses, butterfly bush, and daylilies) but no locally listed invasive plants have been included.
• I’ve used primarily common names for reasons of space and public recognition.
  

LOCALLY NATIVE SUSTAINABLE PLANTS
Grasses: Big and Little Bluestems.
Perennials: Threadleaf coreopsis, Liatris, Rudbeckias (including black-eyed Susan), goldenrod, common evening primrose, butterfly milkweed, wild columbine, New England Aster, wild bleeding heart and possibly Amsonia, bee balm and Joe Pye weed.
Shrubs/small trees: Flame azalea, American beautyberry, serviceberry, several sumacs, Witch Hazel and pasture rose.

NONNATIVE SUSTAINABLE PLANTS
Grasses: Carex, dwarf Mondo grass, Liriope, and most large ornamental grasses.
Perennials: Agastaches, Asters, Baptisia, Chinese Fringe Flower, daylilies, Dianthus, Epimedium, Hellebores, Heucheras, Hostas, Mazus, purple coneflower, Rudbeckias, Sedums,
Penstemon digitalis, Russian sage, Salvias, Sempervivums, and Sweet Autumn clematis.
Shrubs/small trees: Abelias, Aucuba, azaleas, Beautybush, butterfly bush, Caryopteris, Cotoneasters, Crapemyrtles (especially those with Indian names), Deutzia, Forsythias, Fothergilla, several Hydrangea paniculatas, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Asian and hybrid dogwoods, Junipers, Lespedeza, Mahonias, Nandina, Photinia, Rugosa roses, Sarcococca, Spiraeas, Viburnums, Witch Hazel, Weigelia, Winter jasmine, Yaupon holly, and Yucca.

PARTING SHOTS

• The following popular plants in our area really don’t like drought: Japanese maples, snowbells, rhododendrums, big-leaf hydrangea, boxwoods, and our native dogwoods (Cornus florida). Sadly, dogwoods flunk again when it comes to disease because they’re vulnerable to anthracnose.
• Some drought-tolerant plants (like artemesia) have been excluded here because they hate our humidity, so that’s another good question to ask the nursery staff. (Don’t even try asking sales clerks at the big box stores.)
• Got some plants that always look sickly or that require constant vigilance during even moderate droughts? Consider getting rid of it. You’ll be glad you did.

Thanks to my contributors: Larry Hurley, Behnkes Nursery; Peggy Bowers, American Horticultural Society; Jim Adams, British Embassy; Pat Howell, Deephaven Landscapers; Mike Welsh, Takoma Park City Gardener; Donna Shipp, American Plant Food; Joel Lerner via the Washington Post; Derek Thomas, local landscaper; Carole Bergman, Paul Carlson and Karen Molines, Maryland Native Plant Society; the NC State Cooperative Extension Service website and many other sites. None have seen the final column and shouldn’t be blamed for a word of it.

Photos by Julie Wiatt, Takoma Voice

What's all this about Sustainable Gardening?

[Originally published in the Takoma Voice Newspaper as the Gardening Coach Column.]

"Sustainable" is a word we're seeing everywhere lately and it’s high time. Broadly speaking, it applies to activities that can be continued indefinitely ‑ be they energy generation, logging, or agriculture. And today we’re looking at sustainable gardening techniques because A, they’re the right way to garden, and B, the National Wildlife Federation requires them to be used in the backyards they certify as habitats (and you’re all getting your yards certified, right?) So kudos to the NWF for recently adding them to their traditional requirements of food, water and shelter for wildlife. It's a great opportunity to educate the public, especially nongardeners, about gardening practices that are better for the environment and not coincidentally, easier on the gardener.

WHAT IS IT? Most sources define sustainable gardening as the creation of a healthy plant‑and‑soil system that doesn't need added resources like supplemental watering or toxic inputs like pesticides. Beyond the basic principles there's disagreement depending on who’s talking, so I'll start with these areas of general agreement.

Organic Gardening Methods

‑Mulching all uncovered soil for water retention, weed control, and to improve the soil's structure. (Best are leaf compost, pine bark chips, and where dogs can’t get to them, cocoa hulls.)

‑Composting garden and kitchen waste. If more fertilizer is needed, using organic sources only, like aged manure, compost tea, and those that are fish‑ or seaweed‑based.

‑Choosing pest‑resistant plants.

‑For disease and insect problems, using preventive practices first (like ensuring good air circulation) and taking action only when a plant has been observed and found to be endangered. Then using the least toxic methods first, like horticultural oil for scale and mites, Bt for caterpillars, beetles and mosquitoes, baking soda for black spot and powdery mildew, SAFER brand soap for many problem insects, and biological or physical barrier controls like bait traps, hard sprays of water to remove aphids, removal by hand, and diatomaceous earth for slugs. Steering clear of broad spectrum insecticides like Sevin.

‑Weeding by hand or using a 10 percent vinegar solution. In lawns, using a high mower setting, applying an organic fertilizer in the fall, and spreading lime as needed.

Techniques for Water Quality and Conservation

‑Using deciduous trees south of the home to create shade, evergreens on the north to stop winter winds.

‑ Watering smart - directly to the root zone by hand or using soaker or drip irrigation, and preferably in the morning. Avoiding sprinklers. Watering according to plant needs, not a rigid schedule. Watering infrequently but deeply, saving fine mists for newly planted seed only.

‑Grouping plants with similar water needs

‑Reducing stormwater run-off using rain barrels and rain garden techniques. (Rain gardens are depressions in the soil that are planted with water‑loving plants. For help in creating one, just Google the term.)

‑Stabilizing stream banks using water‑loving plants that reduce soil erosion.

‑Minimizing bare soil and stabilizing slopes by planting ground covers.

‑Replacing or eliminating lawns. (See last month's column.)

‑Minimizing the use of impervious surfaces so rainwater can be filtered before reaching the stormwater system.

‑Keeping trash, yard waste, fertilizers and de‑icers off paved surfaces.

‑Choosing drought‑tolerant plants, except in wet spots.

‑Weeding regularly (because weeds compete for water with the plants we want).

‑ Letting lawns go dormant in the summer.

LET'S NOT FORGET TO SUSTAIN THE GARDENER

When gardeners themselves talk about sustainable gardening, we sometimes add an often‑forgotten element - the human being, the species responsible for the care of this most unnatural of spots that is the suburban lot. That means considering how much time the homeowner is willing to spend taking care of all this. Fortunately, the techniques outlined above greatly reduce the maintenance burden on the homeowner, especially mulching and choosing easy‑care plants. Further reductions in required maintenance are achieved by relying primarily on trees and shrubs (rather than perennials, annuals or vines), by planting in sweeps and masses (which looks better, too), and using simple curves around lawn or mowing strips.

Sustaining the gardener also means growing what we like and enjoy so that we’ll continue to garden. After all, as we eco‑friendly gardeners are filling up our yards with plants, we’re creating far more plant diversity, so gardening is a good thing. Finally, it means gardening economically, or at least within our budgets, again so we’ll keep it up!

Next month I'll provide as many recommendations for sustainable plants as I can wrangle from local gardening experts. Wish me luck.

Photos by Julie Wiatt, Takoma Voice