Stone border added along road
January 11, 2026
planting log, herbaceous | permalink
Following some advice on the fediverse after voicing frustration about people driving their vehicles through landscaping where I'd recently mulched and planted a bunch of native seeds, I added a border of large stones every six feet or so just inside the curb. The biggest probably weighs 100 lbs or more, but most were like 30 or 40, some less. I scavenged them from elsewhere on the property - some were along the edge of the patio, some I'd used to make a border around the herb garden, two I'd put in front of apple trees I planted on the eastern hillside, and the last was one I'd previously moved from the very back of the yard to the edge between the grass and the various shrubs behind the bird feeder on the terrace. It amounted to 11 of them in all. Around them I planted hemp dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum) seeds, which I'd collected from the back of the terrace in November.
Fall 2025
January 11, 2026
planting log, trees, herbaceous, seed collection, wildlife, seasonal review | permalink
Fall was busy, but that's starting to be a refrain. Every season is busy. I feel like there is a lot of work to do, and I want to get as much of it done as soon as possible so there's more time for things to grow. To get bigger, to spread, to produce fruit, to begin to crowd out the grass, to block the view of the road and the gigantic increase in traffic due to a stop sign being put at one end of it (seriously, somewhere between 50% and more than 100% increase, the exact number depending on getting some raw data from the township for a recent count they conducted). I wrote very little about my activities, so much to catch up on here. I may later go back and add posts for a few of these things, mainly so I can link back to them from future posts and the rough map I'm making.
The biggest project of the season was cutting down the Japanese Maple in the front and planting two Eastern Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) in its place.
I planted two additional trees, both of which came free of charge from the township's shade commission: a White Oak (Quercus ruba), in the southern woodland edge, and a Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), in the northern woodland edge.
A few existing trees have become tall enough that I'm no longer worried about the deer topping them, and so cages were removed. However, there's still the risk of rubbing. So I did some research on a way to do protect the trunks with natural materials (rather than, say, plastic guards), and found the suggestion of burlap. I bought a 35-foot roll of 3-foot-wide burlap from a local hardware store, then cut sections of about 3 or 4 feet long. I then placed these around the trunks, pushing open small holes between the threads to put limbs through where I could, and tied the ends together with some twine. It seems to have been a successful - only one showed a little rubbing, but no further after an adjustment. On the other hand, the serviceberry near the road that I planted either the first fall or spring after moving in needed more protection. Deer have been keeping it trimmed, so I finally put a taller cage around it.
Transplanted somewhere around 50 to 75 common blue violets from my vegetable garden, most to front meadow along road but also a few between the tulip tree sapling and elderberry in western woodland edge. I also collected a fair number of their seed pods and spread the seeds in the same area. American plantains and yellow wood sorrel were also moved from the vegetable garden to the same places, though not nearly as many.
Another big project (maybe 15 hours over a few weeks) was planting literally thousands of native seeds, mostly herbaceous but also some shrubs/small trees. I have no idea the exact number, but somewhere between three and five thousand. The vast majority were tiny tiny seeds that you just strew on the open surface (and hope for the best), but many others were ones that I planted into the soil (and hoped for the best). My plan is to do this every fall, for at least the next few years. Most of them I bought, but some I had collected from existing plants in my garden. Here are the species, with the collected ones indicated with an asterisk, along with location:
- Hickory - at end of driveway, in northern woodland edge; these were given to me by MH, via a friend of his
- Lupinus perennis subsp perennis (Sundial Lupines) - front meadow along road
- Antennaria plantaginifolia (Pussytoes) - western woodland edge, in wood chips between rock wall I built and bald cypress; on eastern hillside
- Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac), which first needed to be hot-water stratified and soaked - western woodland edge mostly, but also some by new white oak in southern woodland edge and some by new brushpile on terrace
- Conoclinium coelestinum (Mistflower) - front meadow, in mulched area in front of butterfly milkweeds
- Penstemon hirsutus (Hairy Beardtongue) - southern woodland edge
- *Apocynum cannabinum (Hemp Dogbane) - front meadow, right at edge of road; in front of blueberries on terrace; in front of blackberries and raspberries on terrace
- *Lepidium virginicum (Virginia pepperweed) - front meadow, along road
- *Plantago rugelii (American plaintain) - front meadow, along road
- Geranium maculatum (Wild Geranium) - front meadow, along road
- Iris versicolor (Northern Blue Flag) - front meadow, along road
- Amsonia tabernaemontana (Eastern Bluestar) - front meadow, along road
- Tradescantia ohiensis (Ohio Spiderwort) - front meadow, along road
- Solidago odora (Sweet Goldenrod) - front meadow, along road
- Cornus amomum subsp. obliqua (Silky Dogwood) - southern hillside
- Packera aurea (Golden Ragwort) - at corner of front of house
- Hibiscus moscheutos (Swamp Rose Mallow) - southern hillside, around existing red osier (that's a wet area and both like wet feet)
- Amorpha fruticosa (False Indigo) - I mistakenly bought a ton of these seeds so they went just about everyone in heavy doses: northern woodland edge, along border of brushpile on terrace, along the log border in middle of terrace, front meadow in grass next to roadside mulched area, at end of driveway, probably other places
- Viola pedata (Bird's Foot Violet) - around new white oak in southern woodland edge
- Clematis occidentalis var. occidentalis (Purple Clematis) - beneath red or black oak in western woodland edge
- Clematis Virginia (Virgin's Bower) - around lamppost in front meadow and pole on front porch
- *a tall goldenrod, either Solidago altissima or Solidago canadensis
- *asters - on terrace
- Carex eburnea (Ivory Sedge) - in backyard, beneath playset after desodding it
- Asclepias incarnata (Swamp or Rose Milkweed) - southern hillside, terrace
I also planted a few things in pots and put them in my fenced-in vegetable garden for some protection from being dug up, like the eastern redbuds I mentioned above:
- Hickories - ones from friend of MH and also ones given to me by a contractor that did work on our house
- Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England Aster)
- Physocarpus opulifolius (Prairie Ninebark)
- Staphylea trifolia (Bladdernut)
- Swamp Milkweed
- Sundial Lupines
- Silky Dogwood
- *Cornus Florida (Flowering Dogwood)
Stored some seeds I collected paper packets:
- Asters
- Goldenrod
- Eastern Redbud
- American Plantain
- Hemp Dogbane
I finished making the birdbath stump that I'd started in summer, or at least enough for now. Two-thirds of the top is chiseled out. Maybe I'll do the other third sometime. At first I thought it wasn't working, because the first time I filled it, it was empty about 30 minutes later. But it just needs to get water-logged and then it will hold water for a while - possibly a couple days (which is great, because I don't want stagnant water to be around for mosquitoes to lay eggs in, and perhaps it drying out is a good trap for them). Idea came from National Wildlife Federation, David Mizejewski, Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife, 2nd edition, 2019 (p. 73).
Other things:
- planted mountain laurel
- bought more elderberry cuttings that will be arriving later this month or early next. Of the dozen I'd planted last year, three or four did not survive.
- bought and put out a "leave the leaves" sign.
- split firewood
- harvested first apples - from the black arkansas tree - with my daughter.
- planted garlic
- put vegetable garden beds to bed
- read A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future by Benjamin Vogt