I am not sure what type of birds these are, maybe Robins?. But they sure are enjoying these Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) berries. Only time I have ever seen birds this intense was by a Service Berry tree in Asheville last Spring. This is a great example of a native tree providing food to wildlife.
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- Design / Mismatched growth rates with neighboring plants: When first experimenting with sedges several years ago (before I was focused on native plants), the 2 that varieties that did the best were Texas Sedge (Carex texensis) and Ice Dance Sedge (Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’). I opted to use the Texas sedge as the main lawn replacement planting and used the ice dance sedge as a border along stepping stones. While the Texas sedge is considered to have a fast growth rate for native sedges, it was much slower than the ice dance sedge. This resulted in a constant battle between the ice dance sedge trying to invade the Texas sedge and me removing it from the Texas sedge. Last Fall, I finally gave in and removed the ice dance sedge from along the pathways bordering the Texas sedge.
- Lesson Learned: In nature, plants are constantly battling each other for survival (access to sunlight, water, nutrients, etc) with aggressive plants crowding out slower growing plants. In planning a garden bed, you absolutely need to take this into account…either accepting or planning that the more aggressive plant will eventually take over or using plants that have compatible growth rates next to each other.
- Practice / Too late removing summer vegetables: By the end of September, as the days were getting shorter, it was taking longer and longer for our tomatoes, peppers and eggplants to ripen. I considered removing the plants, but opted to leave them in the ground for a few weeks more to squeeze out the last few vine ripened summer veggies. At the same time, I had numerous fall vegetables growing among the summer vegetables. Weeks earlier, when it was hotter and the Fall vegetables were just getting started, the shade provided by the Summer vegetables made it easier for the Fall vegetables to get started. By the end of September, the shade provided by the summer veggies was slowing the growth of the Fall veggies, which weren’t receiving enough sun. I knew this deep down, but kept my summer veggies in place because of my irrational desire for one last round of fresh summer tomatoes.
- Lesson Learned: Be Ruthless with Moving to the Next Season’s Vegetables. This year, I will listen to my gut and pull up the older vegetable plants at the end of their season when they are no longer pulling their weight and are preventing their successors from reaching their full potential.
- Design / Mismatched growth rates with neighboring plants: When first experimenting with sedges several years ago (before I was focused on native plants), the 2 that varieties that did the best were Texas Sedge (Carex texensis) and Ice Dance Sedge (Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’). I opted to use the Texas sedge as the main lawn replacement planting and used the ice dance sedge as a border along stepping stones. While the Texas sedge is considered to have a fast growth rate for native sedges, it was much slower than the ice dance sedge. This resulted in a constant battle between the ice dance sedge trying to invade the Texas sedge and me removing it from the Texas sedge. Last Fall, I finally gave in and removed the ice dance sedge from along the pathways bordering the Texas sedge.
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At the end of every season, I always mentally note a few things that really worked or that I should do differently the next year. Like many of you, these ideas tend to stay in my head for a bit before drifting into the background as more immediate concerns arise. To start the blog, I’d like share a few things that worked and I want to do more of in 2024.
Plants: Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea): I had held off adding this for a few years in the belief that our yard was too dry in the summer. But this spring bloomer did fantastically. I planted it in mid-March in mostly clay soil in a location that is part sun. Although it likes moist soil, it held up well to our mid-summer heat and dry Fall. Besides toughness, what I like most about is the evergreen foliage, 4-6″ height and spreading habit which makes me think it could function as a well behaved ground cover within beds. For 2024, I’d like to expand its usage to a few other partial sun areas that are drier and/or have taller plants where it would serve as a ground cover.
Practice : Reduced mowing of sedge lawn: The biggest challenge with establishment of our Texas sedge (Carex texensis) lawn has been weed suppression. For the first few years, I varied mowing between 2 and 4x per year (Feb, June and a few times in the Fall to mulch leaves) with the goal of keeping the height more lawn-like. This past year, I reduced it to 1 mowing in February (at the start of its main period of growth) letting it remain taller (6-10” in a partial sun area with few tree roots and 3-6” in a partial shade area with significant maple tree roots). This significantly reduced the need for weeding from past years. I suspect this was due less light filtering through to the ground, resulting in less annual weed seed germination. As a side benefit, this should also reduce soil compaction (not rolling over it with heavy mower) and should keep the soil temperature slightly cooler in the summer.
Practice: Denser planting in the vegetable garden: In past years, I layed out our vegetable garden using inground rows with plants spaced the recommended distance apart in one dimension and ~3’ between rows (single row of peppers spaced 2’ apart with ~3’ on either side to the next row). Last year, I shifted to an inground square foot garden like layout with densely planted 4-5’ wide beds and 3’ between beds. This allowed me to plant more as the garden went from mostly rows to mostly vegetables. Additionally, it also allowed for increased weed suppression due to a higher planting density. For 2024, I’d like to expand the idea of denser planting to other beds….either planting more of the plants that are in the bed or adding sedges/other low growing ground covers to wind in between and underneath taller plants.