What's it good for? Ragwort

When the landscaper selected Golden ragwort (Packera aurea) as one of the primary plants for the front yard, waxing rapturously about what it looks like in bloom, I shrugged because I had never heard of it. He is right about the blooming, but before and after, the stems look kind of weedy. In previous years, I cut back the stems, but this year let them go. Then I observed one use for this plant: food for goldfinch.

The plant is a natural for my yard, as it tolerates wet soil and both sun and partial shade. It spreads by rhizomes and by seed, already showing up in other parts of the yard with no assistance from me. When not distracting me with its yellow flowers (which attract pollinators), it makes a great ground cover. And the foliage is one of the few larval food sources for the northern metalmark butterfly (which I've never seen around these parts). So I guess I'll keep it.

(Most of my ragwort information is from this site.)

Meanwhile, around the yard....

The ninebark is blooming, something I had not really considered when selecting it, as I was primarily concerned with the foliage. A nice surprise, though.

I do believe this miniature forest is volunteer asparagus, something I have never observed before. I love asparagus, but let the patch go except for a few hardy plants. Now it looks like I will have plenty in the future. My neighbor says it is good frozen, which is something to consider.

All four of the green bean seeds germinated, but two of them never formed primary leaves. I will replant them and have a staggered harvest, completely by accident.

Every year I say I am going to remove the climbing rose, but then it blooms. Red is my favorite color.

The hairy beardtongue is the primary bloomer in the front yard now. Ordinarily, it would be attracting fat bees, but the weather has been so erratic lately that there are few insects out and about, even on sunny days.

It hardly feels like summer, as highs have been stuck in the 60's. But Monday and Tuesday promise to be HOT. The neighbors had their pool filled with water today, so it must be true.

First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap

This is the third summer for my landscape redo. Last year I wasn't very happy with how it looked, but now it is coming into its own. The perennials are denser and taller, the shrubs bigger and bushier, the trees leafier and branchier. I'm glad I didn't do anything drastic to change things up.

But there are some changes. I moved a few clumps of hairy beardtongue from under the reach of the Japanese maple to the backyard, around the ninebark. Some clumps of nodding onion are now near the serviceberry. The heuchera 'Electra' I purchased is filling the new gaps in the front bed; hope it will be able to compete with its wilder cousins. It's all an experiment.

Another experiment is to try to control the aromatic aster by cutting it back by half. The idea is to keep it from flopping. The seedlings are fairly easy to manage by pulling. (I wish the landscaper had provided me with instructions for caring for the new plants beyond "water them".)

The sand and topsoil that I purchased to fill in the wet areas in the back lawn got rained on before I could mix and spread it, so it was rather clumpy when I finally did so. More is needed, but next time I will keep it dry beforehand. I threw some clover seed over the clumps.

Then there is the neverending weeding. The front beds are getting dense enough to discourage weeds, so not so bad. Clover, dandelions, and quackgrass are creeping into the rain garden, though. Boo. Removing suckers from around trees makes things look tidier.

I'm not a fan of iris (other than to admire it in other people's yards), but some came with the house. I've given a lot of it away over the years, but there is still a colony on the north side of the garage where it always flops and rarely blooms. This year is an exception.

A catbird has been hanging around the nearly-empty sunflower feeder, chasing away the sparrows. And the other day I spotted a cedar waxwing in the (dead) tulip tree, a rare sighting.

While checking the plant list I keep on this blog, I searched on the variety of chokeberry bushes I have, Aronia melanocarpa 'UCONNAM166'. They have borne no fruit, and apparently they never will. I'm sure the landscaper selected this variety because it stays compact, but I'm disappointed there will be no berries. It also looks like they are trying to spread. That's two strikes against it.

A maple is a maple is a maple... or not

Good news and bad news.

The good news (at least, for me) is Norway maple leaves can be used to dye yarn (which I will do sometime, using leaves from the 'Crimson King' in my front yard). The bad news is Norway maple trees (which includes 'Crimson King') are a non-native invasive species.

(Commentary: It is difficult for me to imagine 'Crimson King' outcompeting other maples as it is the s-l-o-w-e-s-t growing tree I have ever owned. Also, no seeds I've ever noticed, an observation supported by this site. The roots don't seem to be invasive, either. But some experts disagree with me on all three counts.)

If you are looking for native maples, choose black maples and/or sugar maples. Red maples are also native. (Silver maples are native, but I hate them. The trunks split, which makes them dangerous in high winds. The roots are shallow and can be invasive. Also, the 'helicoptor' seeds (samaras) clogging my gutters. Thanks, neighbors.)

To read about the differences between Norway maples, black maples, and sugar maples, go here.

But after perusing this site, I'm not sure I would ever choose to plant a maple of any kind in my yard. They all seem problematic in one way or another, at least for homeowners. It's another thing if one wants to develop a sugarbush.

My 'Crimson King' came with the house. Trees take a long time to grow, and this one is finally throwing some shade (after more than 35 years of growing). If it were to die, though, I would replace it with a native, but probably not a maple of any kind.

Around the yard:

'Marguerite' sweet potato vine and 'Hells Heat' petunia:

Leafing out of hickory tree - I didn't see how the tips formed, so not sure what we're looking at here:

The honeysuckle vine that ate New York:

Up close:

Latest yard art, a gift from my son and his girl friend:

'Amethyst Kiss' spiderwort:

The forecast for the coming week is cool temps, perfect for transplanting. I moved an aromatic aster today, from the front bed to an area in the backyard. They spread via seeds, so if I want to control them, I need to deadhead them in the fall, before the blossoms form seeds. That sounds like a lot of work. I also transplanted a coneflower from the front to the back. And then I sprayed some weeds and mowed.

I was hoping the yard would become easier to take care of, and in some ways, it is. BUT my energy is not keeping up. "They" say we age in stages, and I think I have reached the afternoon-nap stage.

What's it good for? Northern sea oats

Once upon a time, ornamental grasses were a new thing, or at least they were new to me. I believe that is when I first purchased northern sea oats (although I could be wrong about that). At any rate, they became a problem - spreading everywhere - so I moved some to the south side of the house where they can run rampant and eliminated the rest (mostly - an errant one pops up here and there in the front beds).

While whacking back the tops of the northern sea oats during my "fall cleanup" this spring, I got to wondering just what they are good for. Are they useless beauties or do they serve a function in the landscape?

According to this Missouri Botanical Garden post, northern sea oats attract birds, but which ones? The Avian Report says sparrows, juncos, chickadees, goldfinches, and mourning doves.

This Morton Arboretum post doesn't identify any uses for this plant.

The plant's Wiki page claims it is a "larval host plant for the Northern Pearly-Eye, and its seeds are food for birds and mammals. It is also eaten by the caterpillars of the pepper and salt skipper, Bell's roadside skipper, and bronzed roadside skipper butterflies.".

The entry at the Grow Native! website echoes its use as a host plant for the above insects and food source for birds and small mammals.

I've never noticed any caterpillars on my plants, nor have I observed birds or small mammels eating the seeds, but then I haven't really looked. Maybe I should pay more attention. At any rate, I'll keep them for now.

I *did* happen to notice this Gem moth the other day, across from the northern sea oats, on what is probably a rudbeckia. Initially, I didn't think I would be able to identify it, but upon closer inspection, saw the "eyes" on its wings.

Spring chores continue. I attacked the suckers at the base of backyard trees (have yet to tackle those in the front yard), pruned back the viburnum that were overtaking the witch hazel, and planted annuals and perennials. The only online purchases that remain to find a home are the heucheras, as I need to remove a couple of the aromatic asters first.

Installing a butterfly bush was on my list of goals for this year, but I have since reconsidered. It turns out that they are invasive. :-( Never mind that I can't seem to keep one alive. There are so-called "sterile" cultivars out there, but even those can still produce some viable seeds, up to 2% of 40,000 seeds per seed head. So scratch that item.

For Mother's Day, my daughter and I went kayaking at Chain O' Lakes State Park. The weather was perfect, it wasn't crowded, the water was high enough through the channels between the kettle lakes, there were no bugs, just turtles sunning on logs. We finished the excursion with dessert at the Magic Wand in Churubusco - I highly recommend the cherry cobbler with ice cream.

Creeping Charlie and his cousins

I complain a lot about the Creeping Charlie in my yard, but some plants I've been referring to as CC are actually something else.

Borrowed photo (can't recall from where)

Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea), a member of the mint family, is known by several other names: Ground Ivy, Creeping Jenny, Field Balm, Alehoof, and more. While eschewed by most gardeners, it does have its uses: provides nectar to some pollinators in early spring, is edible, has medicinal uses, was used in place of hops when brewing beer, etc. Some no-mow lawns include it in their seed mix.

Last summer I let it run rampant on the south side of the house while trying to keep it out of the garden beds there (it may have allelopathic qualities that cause it to compete with other plants). I thought it might be a natural (if non-native and invasive) no-mow alternative to lawn, but it doesn't withstand light traffic very well, so that area is a bit muddy now. Elsewhere in the yard, it gets treated with a broadleaf herbicide. For more info, see this post.

Purple Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) is also a member of the mint family. It may be known as Red Deadnettle or Purple Archangel. It too provides forage in early spring, is edible, and has medicinal uses (as described here). I have it in my yard, but being a winter annual, it dies when the weather gets hot and isn't that much of a problem, or where it does pop up, it is easy to pull.

Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is yet another mint relative that is very similar to Purple Deadnettle. I probably have this in my yard, but I have not noticed it or assumed it was Deadnettle. To read a comparison between Purple Deadnettle with Henbit, visit this site.

What *is* growing in my yard is Bleeding Heart. They seem particularly prolific this year. I love them, wish they hung around longer.

While I whine about the lack of bugs in my yard, this year I've noticed a lot of ants. These busy little critters were trying to drag something much larger than themselves into their nest.

We have been having a LOT of rain recently - everything is so *green*. The lawn has needed twice-weekly mowing, and I've already cleaned out the gutters twice as well. The chokeberry shrubs are blooming, so maybe they will produce fruit this year. The ragwort is in its yellow glory, the wild geranium and blue star are doing their thing, and the columbine is just starting to bloom.

On the edible front, the strawberry plants are taking root, the garlic poking up, and the rhubarb heading toward first harvest. Even a remnant of my asparagus patch is providing me with a few spears here and there, enough for an omelette now and then.