Turf to Trees – Reclaiming Space for Nature

 

The concept of reworking America’s big lawn spaces to more nature-productive vegetation is not a new concept, but we certainly can use not just reminders but good resources to do it. A friend in Georgia has recently put together a new website to help provide those resources. I contributed some of my photos to help. The goal of the website is to convince people to do it and give them the help they need to implement changes.

The website TurftoTrees goes into detail about the importance of creating more diverse landscapes (lawn is a monoculture of a single plant, of course, the very opposite of diverse) by replacing lawn with native plants. The concept isn’t limited to using only trees, adding shrubs and perennials helps build a better plant community. Turf grass contributes very little to native insects and birds and when chemicals are used to maintain it, the net effect is even more negative when chemicals get into groundwater and damage soil organisms.

Sections on the website include “What” to provide ideas and links about what plants are right for your plant community; “How” for tips on making it happen (including how to remove turf); and “Management” for dealing with competing invasive plants in various ways.

After you’ve explored the resources, send any feedback on how to make this site more useful to the email found on the Community page. I hope it inspires you to reduce some of your lawn and add some productive native plants. Once you do that, you should see more of these in your own landscape:

From my confusing Dark Swallowtails post

A Moment in Nature for February

 

Trout lilies at 28 degrees 

Following on the post I shared for January, #amomentinnature for February is the appearance of blooms on the dimpled trout lily (Erythronium umbilicatum). This spring ephemeral is always one of my first to bloom and this particular patch is always the first of them.  Even though we had cold temperatures into the 20’s, I watched the leaves bravely emerge and the bloom stalks rise up. Each pair of leaves has one flower; plants with a single leaf are too immature to bloom.

Trout lilies, same patch, around 46 degrees

I’ve written about this plant many times before so if you’d like to take a trip down memory lane with some old February posts, here are the links:

After snow covered it up in 2020, it kept right on going. 

After the death of a friend in 2019, I remembered it was always one her favorites too.

A trip to south  Georgia in 2018 to see a most amazing display of plants at Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve in Grady County (just starting to happen now and trips this year are self-guided).

Spring photo post  in 2013.

Native ephemeral post in 2011.

Hike Local: Old Mill Park

The mill dam as viewed from the upper trail

Winter days can be mild and rainy and those are perfect conditions for small outings with waterfalls. In our ongoing efforts to entertain our young grandson, we visited a fairly local waterfall this week. Old Mill Park in historic Roswell is a favorite local park for its easy trails and scenic views.

Our mid-morning arrival found plenty of parking and few visitors, allowing us to ramble mask-free along the trails on both sides of Vickery Creek. We crossed over the covered bridge and hiked up the steps to the Vickery Creek Trail, part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. You can also reach this trail from their parking lot off Riverside Road.

That side of the creek has amazing native vegetation: as we walked high above the creek, the path was lined on both sides with a mixture of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and Piedmont rhododendron (Rhododendron minus). In fact, these two evergreen shrubs were so unusually abundant that the view reminded me of the more familiar, but invasive, privet. I can’t wait to go back in May and see these in bloom! In the meantime, there was plenty of Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), evergreen ginger (Hexastylis arifolia), glowing moss, and rosettes of native asters and goldenrods.

Vickery Creek Trail with Rhododendron

Rhododendron minus buds

On the Old Mill Park side of the creek, there are more facilities: restrooms, concrete paths, restful spots, and trash cans. It was the perfect place to enjoy a snack next to the roaring waterfall and answer questions like “Does the water ever stop?” Think about that … all night long, water is pouring over that dam! We also talked about the many birds we could hear around us. Sandy ‘beaches’ next to the creek keep a lot children entertained, I’m sure, and ours was one.

That side of the creek is also the place where you’ll see weedy and invasive plants; the bright fruits of the non-native Nandina domestica were showing in several places. Local parks need volunteers to help manage invasive plants as well as landscape crews educated in the plants of the area. If you’d like to help manage invasive plants at your local park, call the managing entity (city, county) and volunteer. Balmy winter days are also perfect for pulling weeds!

Ginger and Christmas next to the path

Remote Education: Yea or Nay?

 

This week I attended a Zoom presentation with Doug Tallamy, a free event sponsored by the Cherokee Library Garden which is part of the Atlanta History Center. Many years ago, I attended a presentation by him sponsored by the Georgia Perennial Plant Association held at the Atlanta History Center. Both presentations were just as effective but a huge difference was not having to drive 90-minutes each way to be there. Of course, I missed out on seeing friends in person but the glass of wine I enjoyed during the talk smoothed that out.

While the pandemic restrictions will continue for many more months, I think that the availability of remote education will greatly outlast it. There are too many advantages of remote education to ignore.  First of all, people who can’t travel or don’t like to travel at night will now be able to attend events they could not before. This means that education can now reach more people than before.

Second, events that were limited in attendance due to physical space can now serve more people. In fact, the ability to have some folks in person and a separate feed via Zoom (or another tool) is more likely than ever. Most of us were too inexperienced with streaming to consider that before.

Third, using tools like Zoom also brings us closer (if not entirely there) to recording sessions for people to watch later.

Fourth, savings associated with remote education (lower speaker fees, zero location costs, digital handouts) should allow more groups to be able to host more education events than before as they can stretch their budgets further.

And finally, the ability to provide remote presentations means that even small remote groups can tap into speakers that might have been unable to travel for an in-person meeting.

So, if you haven't tried an online presentation, take the plunge. As I said earlier, I think they are here to stay, at least part of the time. There are many free ones to test drive how you like the experience. The photo at the top is for a presentation by the Cobb County Master Gardeners. Upcoming for me is the co-sponsored symposium by the Georgia Native Plant Society and Georgia Audubon on Feb 27-28 (2 sessions).

P. S. I also like the ability to take a quick screen shot to remind me of things to follow up on, like the recommendation by Dr. Tallamy to register my property at the Homegrown National Park's website (which only has 61 properties registered in all of Georgia - let's get to it, Georgians, it only takes a few minutes):

 

Take a Hike!

 

Georgia is fortunate to have rather mild winter weather even in the northern areas. While we have occasional snow, more often there are several warm days when we can get out and take a hike (or a walk) on well-managed paths. One day this past week we had a high of 68 degrees!

I like to encourage people to get out because I feel that time spent in nature brings us a little closer to appreciating nature (and native plants) each time that we do. I heard recently that some flowers are already blooming at The Pocket’s Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail in Walker County (you can’t get more northern than that). I’ve written several times about the flowers there; here’s a link to my blog about a February visit in 2017. I did a follow up post in March 2017.

I’m going to list some other ideas, most of which I’ve covered before. Another good North Georgia hike is Amicalola Falls State Park (this post is from a workday there). It has good trails and its steps make for good exercise; less energetic folks might opt for the West Falls Trail which is perfect for older folks and families with strollers. It can get crowded on weekends, so go early.

Sharp-lobed hepatica is always one of the first to bloom at the Pocket

In metro Atlanta, try Big Trees Forest Preserve in Sandy Springs, Chattahoochee NRA in Cobb County, or Cascade Springs Nature Preserve in Atlanta. A little south of Atlanta, I recommend Chattahoochee Bend State Park in Coweta County and Newman Wetlands Center in Clayton County.

Further south is a park that I hear wonderful things about: George L. Smith State Park in Emanuel County. It’s on my list of places to go. I have visited High Falls State Park in Monroe County and enjoyed it very much. The falls are really beautiful. FDR State Park is another excellent one in middle Georgia (here is another blog about the Pine Mountain Trail in FDR State Park from a June visit).

Providence Canyon State Park offers incredible views

South and on the west side of the state is a great winter destination: Providence Canyon State Park in Stewart County. Adults and kids alike will enjoy learning about the little grand canyon of Georgia as well as hiking the good trails and discovering native plants. In Grady County in February, Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve is a breathtaking sight. Visit them on Facebook for weekly updates on the bloom cycle.

Look for tiny carnivorous sundews plant in wet edges at Okefenokee

In the southeastern part of the state, visit Stephen C. Foster State Park in Charlton County. It is the primary entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp. The kids will love learning about the many types of carnivorous plants found there. Winter can also be a fun time to visit Georgia’s Golden Isles without so many other tourists; I have enjoyed several trips to Jekyll Island.

With Georgia’s plentiful winter rains, waterfalls make for good trips as well. Here is a blog post I did that listed several places in North Georgia.

All state parks require a daily fee ($5) or use of the annual pass ($50). Your fee helps pay for good parking, bathrooms, and maintained trails (you can download maps from their website). They also often have nice visitor centers during certain hours.

And don't forget your local parks. Here is my grandson on the kid-friendly trails at Autrey Mill Nature Preserve.

How to Get the Most from This Native Plant Blog

 

I’ve been writing this blog every week for over ten years; the first post was in October 2010 and today’s post is #539. The reason I started it was to provide more content for search engines to find when people were looking for information on native plants, specifically about using them in their landscapes (hence the name “using” native plants). Since I live in Georgia, my focus is on plants that are native to Georgia.

In the beginning, I wrote about some of my favorites (the first post was about a favorite shrub: maple-leaf viburnum) and places like roadsides, unique environments and the native plants they harbor. Some posts are educational (like my first winter twigs post). Later I wrote about places that I visited; new plants that I found; and a favorite theme has been the relationship between plants and insects/birds. Occasionally, a rant would pop up, and I’ve also done a lot of book reviews and suggestions for reading.

I’m not planning to stop blogging, but it is getting harder to find weekly topics (especially since I’m not going on many outings this past year). I feel that most of the content here can help people for years to come (plants don’t really change, although their names do sometimes). One of my guiding principles in choosing topics for the blog was that they were seasonal. So here is tip #1, reading the archives:

On the right side of the blog (using the desktop/laptop/web view), you can go to the archive arrows (the symbol that lets you expand a list to more detail). If you’re using a mobile device (phone, tablet, iPad), you’ll have to scroll to the bottom (select a post first, then scroll) and find the “View web version” link to get to it. 

For example, you can go to any February and read topics that are relevant to February: what’s visible, what’s blooming, good places to go. Sprinkled in there might be a topic that is timeless, like my February 2020 post on cultivated native plants or February 2016’s post on native shrubs for small gardens.

The second tip has to do with the search box provided by blogspot (the software that I use for this blog). On a desktop/laptop/web view, you can find the search box in the upper left corner. While this search box is very useful, it does occasionally vex me when it doesn’t find something that I know is there. For example, the post “Native Plants for Butterfly and Pollinator Gardens” from 2014 is one of my favorite posts, but searching for “butterfly” doesn’t find it!? So, try several ways to find things.

Use the box in the upper left corner

A list of entries will be returned from the search

The third tip for using this blog going forward is to have new posts sent you in a reader or via email by using the Feedburner service (no charge). Use the hotlink I just provided or you can find this in the upper right section of the desktop/laptop/web view. This is not managed by me but I use it to get a copy sent to me every week and it still works great.

Click on the orange box to go to Feedburner site

At the Feedburner site, the choice at the bottom is email

Thanks for visiting and I hope you learn something. I’ll keep writing as long as I have ideas. Thanks to my husband for his support over the years. Notably, he helps me with graphics; here are some of the posts with his creative contributions:

Native Plant Pyramid

I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Native

Native Plants for Native Bees

A Moment in Nature for January

Winter is not always the most cheerful of seasons, but there are moments to appreciate. A friend of mine, Ginny Stibolt in Florida (visit her webpage here), always takes time to appreciate #amomentinnature and I’d like to adopt that as a monthly feature here.

When she shares these moments, I like the feeling it gives me. It is a call to slow down our busy day and appreciate these moments of nature. It is also a reminder that these things are fleeting and should be cherished. Her most recent one was about mushrooms growing from a sweetgum ball, tiny fungi that will be gone in a day or so.

So here is my moment in nature for January: morning sun lighting up a patch of Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) on the back of my property with a glimpse of an old lake in the background and fading American beech leaves (Fagus grandifolia). It is a simple vignette that lasts only as long as the sun is rising.

I hope posts like these (and Ginny’s) will help you notice your moment in nature from time to time. I captured this one with my phone, so easy to do these days and save the moment.