Inspirations
Right Plant, Right Place
Thought I’d share a bit of my first native plant pollinator garden journey as I admire the transition from summer’s last blooms to the first hints of fall…
Note: this was originally shared in the Virginia Native Plant Society’s Facebook Discussion Group, and was written about a garden installation in Fairfax County.
Thought I’d share a bit of my first native plant pollinator garden journey as I admire the transition from summer’s last blooms to the first hints of fall. I made nearly every possible mistake along the way, and figured some of you might enjoy laughing along with me as I learn.
Back in the spring, this began as a small effort to remove invasive Wintercreeper vines on either side of the driveway entrance. After losing three trees in this area to this horrible killer last year, I decided to yank out as much as I could after a good rain. I wasn’t planning to do anything else. But after a year of battling invasives on this property, I quickly realized that nature abhors a vacuum, and invasives love disturbance, so my best bet was to plant something.
Tangled mess of invasive Wintercreeper, Vinca, and English Ivy.
I was determined for it to be native, and to focus on plants benefiting pollinators. I didn’t have a big budget, and figured I’d spend about $100. (You can start laughing now.) The total area is about 270 square feet.
Problem #2, after the invasives, is that we’re overrun with deer, as the rest of the property is wooded and part of a wildlife corridor. So I had to choose things that were deer resistant. Across the street we have a neighbor with a beautiful native garden and certified wildlife habitat, so I carefully studied their plants while walking by and paid attention to what the deer were (I thought) leaving alone.
On any given day, six to eight deer browse the property.
The driveway faces east and is lined by trees on both sides, so I carefully planned my pollinator-friendly plant list for the shady side and the sunny side. I planned to supplement my purchases with a few of some abundant natives transplanted from our woods. In late April, I eagerly went to the big Alexandria native plant sale and came back with almost everything on my list, purchasing only one of each, even though I had heard not to do this, because of my tiny budget. Spent more than I had planned, of course. But not too much more. Then realized I’d need to mulch to help keep more invasives from moving in. So off to the hardware store, and now I’m 50% over budget.
Started planting my new treasures, only to discover that there was virtually nothing to plant into — the ground alongside the drive was 50+ years of compacted gravel, with almost no soil to speak of. Undeterred, I planted the tiny new plants anyway. Then mulched. It looked very tidy…and, pretty pathetic, to be honest. Far too few plants for such a large area. For all my work and planning and eager anticipation, I felt very little satisfaction.
April 2022. First attempt — tidy, but unsatisfying. (Yes, I kept the daffodils.)
To make matters worse, within the first week, the deer came along and ate ALL of my newly purchased plants. Chewed them right to the mulch. Even Rudbeckia, which people swore deer didn’t eat. And the only thing they didn’t eat, the tiny twig of Asclepia tuberosa, began to yellow and die.
The deer ate everything down to nubs.
Needless to say, I was feeling more than a little defeated. The old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished” was running around in my head, and I confess I briefly contemplated going out and getting some azaleas and being done with it.
But I was more than just a little bit jealous of all the lovely photos shared in this group, and determined not to have this native garden be one big failure…
Somewhere around this time, the Virginia Native Plant Swap group crossed my radar. I was assured that, with patience, the chewed plants would grow back. I began swapping and gratefully receiving to gather multiples of the singlets that I had purchased, so I could fill in and create a mass of each species. I’ve met the most wonderful people and quickly realized that this is my tribe — and I’m so glad I didn’t give up, or I’d never have met all of you.
I still had to worry about the deer, though, so I thought about netting or fencing but learned they can be problematic for birds and other wildlife. And then l learned about Liquid Fence. What a godsend!! Off to the hardware store again! And lo and behold, it works. Highly recommend!
So, things started to grow. Spring turned into summer, and every morning as I walked my dog down the drive, I looked forward to what might be new in the garden. I couldn’t wait for the first flowers and the arrival of the pollinators, big and small. And then I realized mistake #57…I had mis-estimated the northward path of the summer sun. “Sunny side” plants weren’t getting enough sun, and “Shady side” plants were withering. So yes, things were growing…but very little was thriving. It turns out I don’t have a sunny side and a shady side, I have a sunny front half and a shady back half, on both sides. As Charlie Brown would say, “Oh, brother!”
Yes, I can hear you now…”Right plant, right place.”
So now I knew I needed to dig almost everything up and switch sides. UGH. But — the gravel! I decided that if I was going to go to all that effort, I wanted to do it right. I wanted something that would endure, something to be proud of, something that was truly going to provide the ecosystem services that I dreamed of creating.
I was going to have to bring in a truckload of soil, and a truckload of mulch.
And it was just going to cost what it was going to cost. No swapping my way into this fix.
I measured the beds, and using an online calculator I figured out how many cubic yards of each I needed to do the job right. One side had a drop off I needed to fill in, so I added more for that. From this group I learned that Virginia Fines Mulch was what would best suit my young plantings. I called around, researched quality online, stressed over conflicting reviews, and finally ended up finding what I needed. Off to Merrifield’s I went. Not the cheapest, but reputable quality topsoil and mulch. I brought with me a list of plants that if they had the straight species, I was going to add to begin creating density.
I will say that, despite the original budget being blown by a factor of 20, things got decidedly better from here.
The trucks came the weekend of July 4th. I had a narrow window between stormy days to dig up the plants, move 3.5 cubic yards of soil by wheelbarrow, replant the plants and plant all the new plants, water them in, and move 2.5 cubic yards of Virginia Fines mulch by wheelbarrow and spread by hand. I asked the consultant at Merrifield what would happen if my load of topsoil got wet before I moved it. She looked at me with a very serious face and said, “That would be bad.”
Although moving the soil was a beast, planting into nice, fluffy topsoil was a dream. No more prying out enough pieces of gravel with my Hori Hori knife to make a hole barely big enough for a tiny root ball. This part was actually starting to feel fun! And the Virginia Fines mulch was absolutely beautiful stuff — light and easy to load and spread, and SO much nicer than the shredded hardwood we’ve been using for years.
July 2022. Much better!
When it was all done, I finally felt the sense of accomplishment I had hoped for. And because several of the newly purchased plants were blooming, the pollinators began showing up immediately! Over the next few weeks I saw so many kinds of bees!! From the biggest, fattest bumblebees to the teeniest, tiniest little bees that are so small you only see them when the sunlight glances off their wings as they move from flower to flower. I had heard that there were thousands of native bee species in Virginia, but I had never been blessed to see so many. It made me so, SO happy!!!
Each day as I stood out there watering the new plantings — I knew I needed to baby them as I got a late start in the season — neighbors walking by would all stop to compliment the new garden space. I explained to each one that this was a native pollinator garden and a monarch waystation, and that all the plants are native to our part of Virginia (Fairfax County). Figured it couldn’t hurt to plant a few seeds of inspiration.
October 2022. Officially certified!
And, despite my new additions, I still had a fairly large empty area right by the street. So, more swapping, gifting, and gratefully receiving. And rather than spending time weeding the gravel drive, I’ve been allowing things to grow until I can ID them — and I’ve joyously discovered some amazing volunteers. Who knew?!? Asters, goldenrods, wingstem, white avens, Indian tobacco, and even American beautyberry seedlings have been showing up, and I’ve been carefully transplanting them into the pollinator garden. And the sedges — oh my, I have fallen in love with sedges!! I so delight in discovering a new one and confirming it is native. Like the lovely Cyperus compressus I discovered just last week! (Yes, we have a ton of aggressive non-native ones here as well, so I have to be careful.)
October 2022. It was all worth it!
Things are finally filling in, and it’s time to just watch and keep learning. Undoubtedly next spring will bring moves, thinning, and a few new additions. Like painting a never ending work of art.
The payoff.
My first monarch caterpillars brought me more giddy joy than I can remember feeling in a long time, especially during these challenging last two years. I would do it all over again (though hopefully with fewer trials and errors!) just to see them, and to feel like I’m making a small difference with this space. Happy planting!!
Newly hatched, wings still unfolding. Such beauty!
On Gratitude
A gift from the Haudenosaunee to the world. Imagine if every morning, we were to say out loud these words…
A gift from the Haudenosaunee to the world. Imagine if every morning, we were to say out loud these words…
Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
Greetings to the Natural World
(known more accurately in the Onondaga language as the Words That Come Before All Else)
Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one.
We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect. Now our minds are one.
We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst, for providing us with strength and nurturing life for all beings. We know its power in many forms — waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans, snow and ice. We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to the rest of Creation. Can we agree that water is important to our lives and bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to the Water? Now our minds are one.
We turn our thoughts to the all of the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that they continue to do their duties and we send to the Fish our greetings and our thanks. Now our minds are one.
Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come. Now our minds are one.
When we look about us, we see that the berries are still here, providing us with delicious foods. The leader of the berries is the strawberry, the first to ripen in the spring. Can we agree that we are grateful that the berries are with us in the world and send our thanksgiving, love, and respect to the berries? Now our minds are one.
With one mind, we honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden, especially the Three Sisters who feed the people with such abundance. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans, and fruit have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them as well. We gather together in our minds all the plant foods and send them a greeting and thanks. Now our minds are one.
Now we turn to the Medicine Herbs of the world. From the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are so happy that there are still among us those special few who remember how to use the plants for healing. With one mind, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect to the Medicines and the keepers of the Medicines. Now our minds are one.
Standing around us we see all the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who each have their own instructions and uses. Some provide shelter and shade, others fruit and beauty and many useful things. The Maple is the leader of the trees, to recognize its gift of sugar when the People need it most. Many people of the world recognize a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind we greet and thank the Tree life. Now our minds are one.
We gather our minds together to send our greetings and thanks to all the beautiful animal life of the world, who walk about with us. They have many things to teach us as people. We are grateful that they continue to share our lives with us and hope that it will always be so. Let us put our minds together as one and send our thanks to the Animals. Now our minds are one.
We put our minds together as one and thank all the birds who move and fly about over our heads. The Creator gave them the gift of beautiful songs. Each morning they greet the day and with their songs remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their leader and to watch over the world. To all the Birds, from the smallest to the largest, we send our joyful greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.
We are all thankful for the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help us to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds. Now our minds are one.
Now we turn to the west where our grandfathers the Thunder Beings live. With lightning and thundering voices they bring with them the water that renews life. We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our Grandfathers, the Thunderers. Now our minds are one.
We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother the Sun. Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Brother, the Sun. Now our minds are one.
We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest Grandmother, the Moon, who lights the nighttime sky. She is the leader of women all over the world and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face we measure time and it is the Moon who watches over the arrival of children here on Earth. Let us gather our thanks for Grandmother Moon together in a pile, layer upon layer of gratitude, and then joyfully fling that pile of thanks high into the night sky that she will know. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Grandmother, the Moon.
We give thanks to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see them in the night, helping the Moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night, they guide us home. With our minds gathered together as one, we send greetings and thanks to the Stars. Now our minds are one.
We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring teachers. Now our minds are one.
We now turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on this Mother Earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator. Now our minds are one.
We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way. And now our minds are one.
Imagine…how full and rich our lives would feel. Imagine how differently we would go about our day. Imagine what a different world we would live in.
With deepest gratitude, thanks, and respect for Robin Wall Kimmerer, who introduced me to this message in her magnificent book, Braiding Sweetgrass.
Note: The wording of the Thanksgiving Address varies with the speaker. This text is the widely-published version of John Stokes and Kanawahientun, 1993.
Full Circle
I realized recently that what felt like the next step in my adventure was actually my life coming full circle…
I realized recently that what felt like the next step in my adventure was actually my life coming full circle. Back to my roots, to my earliest warm and fuzzy memories of joy and bliss and a wonder-filled childhood spent outdoors, wrapped in the comfort and peace of rural Virginia.
You see, I’m no stranger to native plants. I may have come into propagating them through a long and winding journey — the details of which I’ll spare you, for now, or at least until we are better friends — but I’ve been a student of them since I can remember.
We were a camping and canoeing family. I jokingly called us “the Coleman family.” I think we had every piece of gear that Coleman made…Coleman lantern, Coleman stove, Coleman cooler, Coleman coffee percolator, Coleman sleeping bags, the latter laid out on a tarp under the stars with my father shining a flashlight up into the heavens and teaching me the constellations…I can still see the majestic bucks on the soft, flannel lining that soothed us to sleep. We would time our camping trips to nearby Shenandoah with meteor showers and other grand and spectacular celestial events…but I digress…
The point of this was that we spent our days hiking. My mother studied botany in college, and every national park we camped in, she would stop at the visitor center and buy whatever books they had on local wildflowers. We would wander the trails slowly and seemingly aimlessly, looking at flowers and fungi and trees and calling them by their name.
It makes things real, you know, when you call them by their name.
And memorable.
Back home, in the days when we lived outside from morning til dinner and lived to tell about it, when we had no screens to distract us, we had to make up our own fun. So I played with plants.
I remember sitting near the ditch out by the road and savoring the sweet sour leaves of sorrel. The cheerful yellow flowers called to me, and I didn’t hesitate to taste them. We nibbled the nectar out of clover (red tastes better than white), and drank little dewdrops pulled delicately through the honeysuckle — that was like nectar of the gods, to me. We braved the thickets for wild blackberries and prayed there’d be enough for my mom to bake a pie.
And the things we knew better than to eat, we still found ways to play with. I LOVED to gather seeds. Birch seeds, foxtail seeds, sumac seeds, switchgrass seeds…I was constantly tromping through the fields, running my hands over seed plumes and seed pods and petting — did you know Staghorn sumac seeds are soft like velvet and smell like raspberries? — and pulling and tugging and opening and peeking and collecting.
And making “cereal.”
Yes, cereal. Well, at least that’s what I called it. I would dump all the seeds into a bowl and stir them around and pretend they were cereal, and pretend to eat them.
Did I say we had to make up our own entertainment?
But I never tried to grow them. Not until recently.
Instead, I grew the seeds my mother bought for me. I remember my first seed starter kit — Garden Balsam — with which I had spectacular success. I was so proud! And the seed pods were SO much fun to pop, watching them explode and scatter into their hiding places, only to reveal themselves the following spring.
And tomato seeds, pumpkin seeds, avocado seeds, bean sprouts…I was always growing something.
In later years, after the divorce, we moved to California and my mother ran a flower cart in La Jolla. I would meet her after school and tend the cart for her, and on weekends I’d accompany her to the wholesale warehouses that were like vast, dark tombs of soon to be dead cut blooms. She opened a plant store and became a florist, and soon our house was overflowing with opulent displays of exotics, every square inch of the covered patio was a bucket of beauty or a potted plant…and just like the scene in Mystic Pizza, the fridge was full of — you guessed it — flowers.
Fast forward many, many years, and many cities and many miles…with stints in Charlottesville and Fincastle and Roanoke and Meadows of Dan, with countless gardens in between…and the mountains were calling me home.
For the last five years, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the shadow of Shenandoah National Park, has been tugging at my heartstrings. And so in February, I packed up once more and came to Greene County.
To say that I have fallen in love is an understatement unworthy of the depth of my emotions, now that I am here. With each morning meditation, I sit with my coffee and my heart is so full, it feels like it could burst. The best way to describe it is complete and utter bliss.
I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got here. I brought with me some winter-sown seedling trays of native plants…and as I potted them up and watched them grow I reconnected with something deep inside, profoundly resonant with who I am at my core, what I value, and what means the most to me.
And suddenly, my path became clear. Only it wasn’t a path ahead, it was a path bending full circle to that little girl whose fondest memories were of blissfully meandering through meadows and wandering the woodlands of Virginia, naming native plants and appreciating them. Whose dream was to work in conservation, and help protect and preserve the web of life for future generations of all of us, rooted and unrooted.
I always knew my purpose. Now I have found my place. This is my contribution to that end.
Inspired
Look how quickly you can convert lawn to a gorgeous native plants garden! My dear friend very generously allowed me to share these pics and details of her project with you…
May 2023
Look how quickly you can convert lawn to a gorgeous native plants garden! My dear friend very generously allowed me to share these pics and details of her project with you. I know this would have helped me tremendously to have faith in taking the leap and spending what seemed like a high price for teeny tiny native plants at the regional native plant sales (compared to lush non-native plants for less money at typical garden centers). If I had seen these progression photos of what can happen in just one year, I never would have hesitated — it’s truly amazing!!
Planting day, May 2022
Planting date: May 2, 2022
Location: Fairfax County
Dimensions: 29’ x 15’
Total plants: 52
Total species: 23
Size plants: 4” pots
Nursery: Earth Sangha
Process:
"I printed and went through the list from Audubon NoVa for creating a meadow. I looked up and wrote a description of every plant and grass (color, height, spread, bloom time, light and water needs). Then I made my plant selections from the list and got a couple packages of shims to represent each plant. Then I wrote the name, height, bloom time and color of each plant on a shim and arranged them around the bed (hoping I would be able to create a space that changed during the season)."
Plant list:
Solidago rugosa Rough-stemmed Goldenrod × 2
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum Calico Aster × 2
Aquilegia canadensis Wild Columbine × 3
Vernonia noveboracensis New York Ironweed × 2
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae New England Aster × 2
Geranium maculatum Wild Geranium × 5
Elymus virginicus Virginia Wild Rye × 2
Packera aurea Golden Ragwort × 2
Silphium asteriscus Whorled Rosin Weed × 2
Schizachyrium scoparium Little Bluestem × 3
Monarda fistulosa Wild Bergamot × 2
Rudbeckia hirta Black-eyed Susan × 2
Baptisia tinctoria Yellow Wild Indigo × 1
Oenothera fruticosa Sundrops × 5
Lonicera sempervirens Coral honeysuckle × 1
Eutrochium fistulosa Hollow Joe-Pye Weed x 2
Asclepias incarnata Swamp Milkweed x 2
Asclepias syriaca Common Milkweed x 2
Chamaecrista fasciculata Common Partridge Pea x 2
Asclepias tuberosa Butterfly Weed x 2
Liatris spicata Dense Blazing Star x 2
Conoclinium coelestinum Bluemist Flower x 2
Coreopsis verticilata Threadleaf Coreopsis x 2
Amazing!
With native plants, the saying goes, “First they sleep, then they creep, then they leap.” Plant well and you may find they leap in just one year!
Her “postage stamp prairie” at press time, one year and two months after planting