Late summer into early autumn is a marvelous time of year to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, and vines in our garden. The decisions we make on what we plant in our gardens will play an important roll in how these plants will work into our natural environment.

Native plants should be our first choice because these plants have adapted to our local soils, to our climate, and the critters out in the woods prefer them too. Our next choice could be non-native species. These exotics from other parts of the planet can be worked into our gardens, but have little or no ecological value.

Some non-native species fall into the invasive category, and these plants should never be planted in our yards. What makes invasive plants so unique is their ability to reproduce at an alarming rate. For instance, one Purple Loosestrife plant, a plant choking out everything in our local swamps, can produce thousands of seeds in one season. Purple Loosestrife is altering our wetland ecosystem in a negative way.

Looking at a few other plants that have already altered our natural environment, Norway Maple is the king of the bad boys from a shade tree standpoint. It’s a fast growing densely canopied tree, and once it escapes into the wild, it colonizes so quickly that not much else can grow. More environmentally friendly choices in shade trees would be Sugar Maple, Tulip Poplar, Gum, Oak, Beech, and Hickory.

Callery Pear is another invasive species that I would not plant. Instead, try the American Plum, Redbud, Shadbush, or Flowering Dogwood. These natives will bring in migrating birds and create diversity in our yards.

Three shrubs I would avoid are Burning Bush, Russian Olive, and Barberry. Recent studies are telling us that forest floors heavily populated with Barberry have a higher density of ticks. Mice often carry these parasites. The White-Footed Mouse is the carrier of Lyme Disease and because predators cannot penetrate these sharp shrubs, the ticks carry the disease throughout the mouse population and tick-borne illnesses thrive here. Plant Winterberry, Blueberry, Viburnum, Spicebush, Pussywillow, St. Johnswort, Clethra, Chokeberry, and Itea instead.

Avoid and eradicate vines that are choking out many of our backyard forests. Bittersweet, Mile-A-Minute, and Japanese Wisteria are the top three culprits. Try instead wild Grapes, Trumpet Vine, native Honeysuckle, American Wisteria, and our native fall flowering Clematis in the garden.

By getting to the root of the plants and the problem, removing these invasives from our property and replacing them with natives will help balance our natural world.

by Pete | Permalink

Weather has been doing some funky stuff over the past six months. February and March brought us record rains. That’s part of the reason we had such a great show of flowers on our early spring bloomers. Dogwoods, Redbuds, and Rhododendrons never looked better. April and May were very cold months. So cold, in fact, that many tree and shrub leaves were very slow opening up. In many cases, once they did open by mid-May, some leaves frosted off and had to start growing again. June finally warmed up, but way too fast. The first two weeks of June were in the upper nineties, record heat for this time of year. The end of June turned very cool. May-type weather. I mention these fluctuations because plants hate extremes. Trees, shrubs, and perennials in our region prefer slow subtle changes, and when these extremes occur, it affects plant health. For instance, in June after the heat wave, the new leaves on some plants started to curl and look deformed. Many of us thought it was a bug problem, and started spraying pesticides. Wrong!

It’s very important to understand that as our local climate changes and goes through fluctuations, we’ll need to observe and learn how our plants are adapting to these extremes. Native plants, because they have acclimated to our soil and climate, have amazing ways of adjusting to these weather anomalies.

When a plant goes into stress because of quick weather changes, try watering first. Proper hydration helps build stronger stems and healthier leaves. Don’t fertilize plants under stress. Fertilizing a plant under stress is putting the plant under additional duress. Cut out any foliage that has been deformed or damaged because of weather stress. This will encourage healthier growth. If a plant does succumb to disease or other infestation due to weather extremes, use low-impact pesticides if necessary.

Getting to know your plants’ growing cycles and how to care for them and keep them in good health, in all types of weather conditions, can be a fun challenge.

by Pete | Permalink

If we take a good, hard look at most residential landscapes today we would find, in most cases, a sterile plant environment: a cultivated landscape filled with exotic plant species from other parts of the planet.

Recent studies are beginning to show us that many insects rely on native plants to survive. Insects require the plants that accompanied them on their evolutionary journey. Native insects cannot, for the most part, survive on alien plants. This high number of non-native plants in the landscape is creating an environment where many insects may be headed toward extinction. The recent decline in pollinating insects has fruit growers concerned.

For the first time in history, gardeners and the gardening decisions we make in our yards, can play a big part in managing and sustaining our local wildlife populations. To create a backyard ecosystem with a diversity of insect and animal species, we first have to establish a healthy diversity of plants. We should look at our yard as a “Habitat Island Sanctuary” where wildlife has a place to hide and eat. By planting a wide variety of native plants that have adapted to our backyard environment, we can create an ecosystem that will not only sustain itself, but a wide variety of insects and animals as well.

Here are a few additional tips to get you started:
- Create densely planted gardens rather than individual plants surrounded by islands of mulch.
- Don’t remove leaf litter. It’s free mulch, free fertilizer, free weed control, free soil amendment, and a great soil conditioner.
- Create plant communities by planting a wide variety of native trees, shrubs, and perennials that have adapted to our local environment.

If every one of us did our part and planted a “Habitat Island Sanctuary” in our yard, think about the possibilities of it connecting each yard and every community coast to coast. I dare you to give it a try!

by Pete | Permalink

Water is making headlines here at Native Landscapes because it’s become more of an issue on many of our properties and around our homes. Heavy rains over the winter are forcing many of us to make smarter landscape decisions by properly managing water sustainability around our home and garden.

Proper downspout and footing drains should be installed around the house during construction and renovation. Drainage patterns can become challenging, especially when working with steep grades where water gains momentum and can cause erosion problems.

Rain Gardening is a fairly new, exciting concept that is an environmentally friendly approach by managing surface runoff and, at the same time, creating a garden unlike any we have ever planted. Installation of Rain Gardens will regenerate cleaner ground water and introduce many of us to a wildlife-friendly group of plants that will open our senses to some interesting natives. These kettle areas are zones in our landscape that allow water to slowly and cleanly regenerate groundwater. This concept is so important, especially in the Pawling area, because we are the headwaters to the Croton Reservoir system which is a New York City water supply.

New rules and regulations on how we manage our storm water runoff are now new laws. Anything we can do in our yards to sustain cleaner water and to preserve the environment might just save us money in the future. I call this smart landscaping.

by Pete | Permalink