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| Photo source: Dennis Jarvis, flickr.com |
Like many of you, I’ve got the planting bug right now. It’s still too early in my area to
begin planting any annual fruits or vegetables in my garden, and my seedlings
are still hanging out under the grow light in my basement doing their
thing. This past Saturday,
however, I decided that as it is several weeks prior to our last frost, it is
an optimal time to plant some wildflower seeds and to provide plants that will
attract those very important creatures to my yard and garden: birds, bees,
butterflies, and other pollinators.
As many of you may already be aware, many of our pollinators
are in major trouble right now. Due
to a number of issues, such as the loss of prairie habitat and the widespread
use of certain types of agricultural chemicals, populations of beneficial
insects have been plummeting in recent years. This is a huge problem for many reasons, but it is especially
a problem for our food system. Most
of the crops that we enjoy, including apples, onions, strawberries, beets,
broccoli, tomatoes, and cabbages are pollinated by helpful creatures such as the
honeybee.
Home gardeners can play a very important role in helping pollinators. Using organic and ecological gardening and
landscaping methods is a huge step in the right direction. By implementing such methods in your
yard and garden, you will be avoiding the harmful chemicals that are negatively
affecting pollinators, and you will also be attracting them to your garden, which
ultimately leads to a more productive harvest for you.
When you plant native plants and wildflowers in your garden,
you are also providing a refuge for pollinators and other creatures amongst
development, as much of our native prairie habitat in the United States has
been either plowed under for monocrop agricultural purposes or paved over for
development. In some cases, these
native plantings in our gardens are the only refuges that remain for certain birds
and pollinators.
Wildflowers provide insects and wildlife with important food
sources of seeds, nectar, pollen and fruits, as well as nesting sites, larval
food, forage and shelter. Native wildflowers
also attract many different types of insects that birds love to eat.
Many native wild flowers are very beautiful, and like the
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea), many are also useful to us as medicine.
Planting Guidelines
Admittedly, I am still in the process of learning about how
to plant wildflower and other native plant seeds. Based upon my research, many of the species of wildflowers
need to go through a cycle of freezing and thawing several times (the
temperature conditions that naturally occur during Spring) to break the seed’s
dormancy. This is to prevent their
germination during times that do not allow for optimal plant growth. To learn more about this process
called stratification, I wrote a
little bit about that during my
post about starting seeds (check out Item #7), or you can check out this page from
Hamilton Native Outpost or this
document from the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Prior to doing some wildflower and other native plantings, I
encourage you to do some research about which plants are native to your area. By focusing your planting efforts on
those plants that are native, they will be the most adapted to your area and
climate, and your local pollinators will also most recognize those particular
plant species. Whichever
species you choose to plant, be sure to do your research and follow the
directions on your seed packets.
Tolerance of frost among species varies, so to be sure of particular
species requirements, do a little bit of research.
Native wildflowers and most other native prairie plants need
to be planted in soil without weeds and grass present. This
is one of the few circumstances where I advocate implementing disturbance to
your soil. In this case, it is
appropriate to provide open ground so that your native plants can thrive and
won’t have to compete with weeds and grass. The difference between planting perennial native plants in
this manner and our annual vegetable gardens is that once your perennial native
plants are established, they will come back year after year, they will help to
build your soil and help to hold it in place by way of the very deep roots that
many of these plants have. You
provide the disturbance once, and then you are generally leaving the soil alone
and letting the plants do the work of soil building and maintenance.
When I planted my wildflower seeds last Saturday, I used a rake and raked up the majority of the grass and weeds that
were present in the area of my future wildflower garden to expose as much of
the bare ground as possible. I
then scattered and lightly raked in the seeds (the seed packets say to about a
¼” depth) to cover the seeds and to prevent birds from snacking on them.
I planted a variety of seed mixes into my wildflower garden
area: a general perennial wildflower mix, a “Songbird Delight” mix, and quite a
few Purple Coneflower seeds. In
the front of my house where there is mostly shade, I planted a “Shady Mix” of
wildflower seeds.
In the songbird seed mix, there were also some sunflower
seeds. Sunflowers are annuals that
don’t do well with frost, so I’ll probably need to scatter additional seeds
from the mix once there is no more chance of frost for the season. I did reserve a patch in my wildflower
garden to plant an additional mix of shorter varieties of sunflowers as well (the seed
packet says they will get to be 16”-24” tall vs. the more typical 5’-8’ tall that
most sunflowers will grow to be).
I plan to leave most of the sunflower seed heads standing in the winter
for the overwintering birds in my area (although our neighborhood squirrels
will probably destroy them first…).
I wasn’t able to get rid of all of the grass, but I think
that I got rid of enough of it to allow an opportunity for the wildflowers to
grow. I guess that time will tell. I also have a hill at the back of
my yard that I would like to do some perennial plantings on so that my husband
no longer needs to mow it and cause erosion, so I cleared away a portion of
ground on the hill and planted some seeds there as well. I’m hoping to plant some fruit-bearing
shrubs eventually that will cover the rest of the hill, but that will be a
later phase. For now, I worked
with what I knew that I could immediately implement.
I’ll give
updates in later posts about how everything is growing as the Spring
progresses.
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The future wildflower garden
in our backyard. Yes, the bricks will be straightened! Note that our hill,
prone to erosion, will receive additional perennial plantings as time goes by to help hold in the soil more
proficiently. The section in the wildflower garden covered with leaves is
where the sunflower seeds will be
planted once all chance of frost is gone for
the season.
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