Wildlife Sanctuary Help!

I have 3 acres that I'm going to turn into a Wildlife Sanctuary. I know most of the plants that I'll be growing for host & food. It's just the design part that has me questioning my layout. The natural native look in the design. Hoping to use it for an outdoor classroom. Got any ideas or resources of a design's? Pictures would be most helpful.

This 3 acres has 300' frontage on a high traffic road. (post picture's later) Wish I had the time to visit other gardens for ideas. If you have a favorite website, please post it!

Thanks for your in put,
Donna

Hi gapeahen,
What a wonderful project you have planned. We planted a large butterfly garden and a native plant garden at one of the local schools only to have the new PTA remove all the plantings 4yrs later because it didn't meet their requirements of a manicured garden. So, from my limited experience, I would approach the road side planting with the same design sense you would use for a traditional garden design. The only reference I could find for a "designed " native garden was in a book by Viki Ferreniea called "Wildflowers in your Garden a Gardeners Guide". It does contain layouts for plantings I'm sure you could adapt.
I have a small suburban lot but I planted a small streetside garden to be mosly native and wildlife friendly. It certainly isn't on the scale your planning but I can show you what I did to make it appear planned and acceptable to the community.
My space is narrow also just 3' at the widest with a side walk then another narrow front garden. I used grasses (switch grass) as a backdrop unifying plant. In the spring before the grasses are up moss phlox and lots of Penstemon Husker Red carry the front.

Here is the same area in July. The Black-eyed Susans and grasses dominate.

Gardens for wildlife are far and few between but there are a growing number of people who are conscientiously choosing to go the route of using native plants almost exclusively in their landscapes to create a North American wildlife haven.

I can't think of any one website that might help you but I can think of a few books. Would books be of interest to you?

I'll go poking around the Internet for you to see what websites I can find.

Here is September with the grasses and asters prominent.

These are the elements that should be present in your design-
http://www.gwf.org/resources/wildlifehabitats/thebasics.html

These people would be worth contacting-
http://georgiawildlife.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=87

Natural community information here-
http://georgiawildlife.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=89

Outdoor classroom information here-
http://www.gwf.org/resources/habitats.html

You mentioned 3 acres... that's a healthy chunk. Would you be able to draw a diagram of your property showing the driveway, house, out buildings, and any water currently on the property? If you have any trees currently on the property, please indicate what species and where they are located. If you take a picture of the drawing of your property, it will give people something more to work with.

Hi Equil, we were typing at the same time. No one was responding to this question so I just jumped in until you guys with more experience had a chance to respond. It thrills me to hear of another wildlife friendly area being created.
gapeahen, I use non native noninvasive plants in this planting for color because of the lawn police. You probably won't need to do that. Please post photos of your progress.
Here is what it looks like in the winter.

I really need to get in the habit of previewing before I post because I would see other posts. Yes, I'm thrilled to death too. Need a diagram from her though if at all possible because I already sent off her first post to a few friends who aren't members here at DG who are really into this. Right now I'm playing with the Internet to try to find some links for her per her request. It's hard. Photos of my property wouldn't help her because I'm a remnant oak/hickory savanna-wetlands combo but I've worked with other properties that don't have rare ecosystems on them. I think the properties that don't contain these elements are even more exciting to work with because you don't have to tippy toe around. One of the best things anyone did for me was to nudge me to read Sara Stein's book "Noah's Garden".

I'm sure it's no secret I have children's groups over here regularly so I have a general idea how to meet that need.

Lost track of which site I found the above excerpt at but habitat brush piles and planting dead trees are good sound advice. I don't plant dead trees here only because I am in a position to leave the vast majority of trees that die standing. Critters use the dead trees until they fall over and then the dead trees continue to provide by creating much needed biomass for the soil. Dead trees are so undervalued and are therefore underused in "sanctuaries".

Here's something of interest I found for you-
Georgia Experiment Station
P.O. Box 645
Experiment, GA 30212
(770) 229-3367
They offer a Butterfly Starter Kit/Curriculum. Contact station in March for details concerning price and ordering information. Includes specifics on all plants included in kit and common butterflies that the plants will attract.

When reviewing information, one of the things I look for to knock a source out of the ball park as being legitimate or not is whether they are recommending the use of butterfly bushes or not. Nobody I know or that any of my friends know who actually provides habitat utilizes a butterfly bush in their landscape design unless… they have connections to the green industry which sells these plants by the boatload touting their “wildlife value”.

gapeahen- What you’re doing is way cool and is very similar to what sempervirens has been doing and what I've been doing. We’re creating urban corridors. Little bit of information on corridors below.
http://www.physorg.com/news76329307.html
Now that I have two neighbors who have canceled their lawn services (no more chemicals on their lawns) and begun to garden for wildlife (actively eliminating all invasives and potentially harmful exotics while replacing them species that are native to our county and the adjoining counties), their yards are linking to mine and this was the first year I actually began seeing the benefits of “linking” with others who are gardening for wildlife. I’ve got butterflies, moths, and birds coming to my property that I can’t even identify even if I sat here with a book and did nothing else for hours on end.

Ran across this on niches but didn’t have time to take a close look-
http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/

Great worksheet for you here from South Carolina Native Plant Society-
http://www.scnps.org/articles.html
One of the best things I ever did was to begin compiling a list of the native plant communities that used to exist on my property. I used Northeastern University’s library, a research station, photos from several historical societies, Swink & Wilhelm’s book (specifically for my county and the surrounding counties), an out of print publication of the plants of Lake County from the Chicago Botanical Garden, as well as anything I could get my hands on from land stewards. From there, I began creating an inventory (had professional help) of native plants that were currently on the property. Once I had these two basic lists, I began identifying the topography and the soils. I already had a FREE basic working geological survey from a person I had met shortly after I joined a native plant group called Wild Ones which is out my way. Just as I have found resources "tailored" to where I garden for wildlife, you will too.

Although geared toward HS students, you might be able to order packets of information from this organization, just knock off everything after the word org and that will get you to their main site-
http://www.georgiaenvirothon.org/documents/wildlife.pdf

The Georgia Wildlife Federation is going to have some kick-rear materials for you-
http://eeingeorgia.org/core/item/page.aspx?s=5709.0.68.4863&siteid=4863&wrapid=68
Scroll down to get to the link. It’s right after the link to plant rescues.

South Georgia native plant symposium-
http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu/wildflower/archives.asp
I believe the symposium for 2007 was held earlier this year but here’s a sampling of what they offered-
http://www.uga.edu/gardenclub/nativeplants.html
I attend these types of symposiums. I learn something new each and every time I attend. I’d highly recommend trying one if at all possible. If attending a symposium is not possible, note the names of the speakers from the most recent symposium and attempt to contact them for guidance. You’ll find that most of these types of people will bend over backwards to help you help yourself.

Take a tour of Cedar Hill if at all possible-
http://www.cedarhillenrichment.org/


You might want to consider joining the Georgia Native Plant Society. You would be able to tap into a wealth of information because most if not all of their members garden for wildlife and their volunteers have access to plants from rescues. Plants from rescues are simply that, plants in the path of a bulldozer that need to be relocated or they’re history.
http://www.gnps.org/

Discussion of native berry gardens here-
http://www.ecoterralandscape.com/cgi-bin/ViewTopic.pl?Topic=00-072706dt
Looks as if they have lectures available to the public also.

Highly recommended that this course be taken if at all possible as it provides the basics from which to build-
http://www.uga.edu/botgarden/cnp.html

Here’s your Wildlife Habitat Council-
http://www.wildlifehc.org/managementtools/backyard-stateresources-state.cfm?FrontID=691

Click on your county here-
http://georgiawildlife.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=89&txtPage=9

This link takes you to the Georgia Wildlife Web-
http://dromus.nhm.uga.edu/~GMNH/gawildlife/index.php
I think you may find it indispensible.

Southeastern US Plants
http://2bnthewild.com/index2.shtml

Don’t forget The Nature Conservancy or the National Audubon Society. Both organizations have an extensive network of members doing exactly what you’re going to be doing.
http://www.nature.org/
http://www.audubon.org/

Before ordering any plant, I generally start by making sure it's native. I use the botanical name of the plant when searching. I start my search here-
http://plants.usda.gov/index.html
You can generally find whether a plant is native or introduced at this site and you can even generally click on your state and see which county it has been documented as occurring in.

To sum up the above, you need to identify which elements of a wildlife sanctuary you already have present and which elements you want to include in your landscape design out the gate. Once you have done this, you have your blueprint for success and can start plugging the elements into a landscape design. I actually started with the removal of invasives first. I shouldn't have done that. Cost me too much time because I didn't quite know what to plant back into the areas I had cleared. Once an area is disturbed, it's ripe for noxious weeds and invasives to take over. I actually created more work for myself and wasted a lot of money by not using worksheets from the start.

Gosh, I'm really excited for you.

To get a better feel and understanding about the design of the plantings, first I think we all need a list of what native plants (trees, shrubs, forbs and grasses) you currently have and what are the native host and nectar plants you're considering using for your Wildlife Sanctuary. Also, are any of the current native trees of any size or are they all recent plantings? Creating the design of the natural look using native plants will just be much easier if we had a list of what you currently have. I think, if you look to nature, the design of it just comes to you. You mimic what you see in the natural plant community.

Could you please provide a list of what you have and what you're considering, so that there's no need for anyone to take the time to write out a list, when you've already got the plants. Water, ponds, drippers, rain chains, misters, snags, brush piles, etc etc are also very important to the success of your Natural Native Wildlife Sanctuary.

I second the reading of this wonderful and insightful book!

People that are trying to help you, could really use your list to to try and better understand and help you.

WOW! Thanks Great Pictures & Info!
Just check back in.................
let me take a sometime and read ...........

I'm working on my plant list & pictures of space, hope to post them in a few days!

Two plant lists please-
Plants already present on the property
The plants you said knew you would be growing for host and food

If you happen to have a list of species that were once present on your property too, that would be even better.

The lists of plants are most important now to determine the overall design. I agree with Equil, plants present, plants wanted for host and food and plants that once were present.

The plant list I'm working on with pictures too! This week I haven't ben able to do what I wanted in my design,plant list ect.......... Been in court dealing with my fahter's estate, hoping it will be settle soon. Back to court again this afternoon!

Tree's I have
Live Oaks- Pine's

Sorry about your father.

Are you able to identify which pines it is you have?

They are called terry pines. :~p hehehe

Only the bestest!

Thanks !

Slash Pines
hoping to get pictures this coming week, will post soon !

This is a very interesting project. I'm going to follow suit, Donna. I can't wait for you to post pictures of your existing trees and see what suggestions come from it. These links you've been provided on this thread have kept me busy for days!

I got picture's, hope you can make them out!

view from Hwy
Planning start on this side of live oaks. 120' x 300'.
I will divide into phase so I do not get over whelm!

This message was edited Oct 23, 2007 5:23 PM

side view

another

another driveway view, My house in the distance

This message was edited Oct 23, 2007 5:19 PM

driveway entrance
(brother in laws house in the distance)

This message was edited Oct 23, 2007 5:20 PM

My side yard garden with the pond view

Wow!! Gorgeous!!!!

I see a lot of lawn. I got saddled with a lot of lawn on my property too. I'm still working at eliminating mine and I go after a little bit more each year so that I don't get overwhelmed. Blows my mind what people will bulldoze and rip out on a larger property like yours to be able to have that suburban cookie cutter look that they can plant their home on.

What county of Georgia do you live in? Sounds to me as if your property may have been a Slash Pine ecosystem. The diversity of wildlife that supported was phenomenal and it certainly lends itself to an outdoor classroom if you can piece it back together methodically and systematically. If you're really serious about creating a wildlife sanctuary as well as an outdoor classroom, you're goint to have to start doing a little bit of local detective work determining what type of ecosystem used to be present on your site. Good basics here- http://www.fs.fed.us/conf/ee/for_eco_study_guide_2000.pdf
Once you begin identifying which species of plants used to occur naturally there, the design direction for your wildlife sanctuary will begin to unfold and you will be able to use your property as an outdoor classroom... right now the future teacher needs to educate herself and I can tell you from personal experience that's an ongoing process. Have you begun to network with any of the folk from your DNR, Cedarhill, your Wildlife Habitat Council, or any folk from your native plant society yet? Setting aside time to make contact with the professionals in the best position to help you create your wildlife sanctuary will save you a lot of headaches down the road not to mention time and expense.

I see a lot of commonly available non-native nursery type plants in your photographs. Were you going to keep those and work around them or were you going to remove them and go straight for the 100% actual wildlife sanctuary type species? You've got so much space there to work with out the gate you might consider leaving what the former owners planted unless it's a noxious weed or an invasive.

Do you know which Live Oak you have? Quercus virginiana? If not, you might want to take photos of the leaves and the bark and post a request for an ID over in the plant identification forum. Do you have any Sabal palmetto (Cabbage Palm). Serenoa repens (Saw Palmetto), or Ilex glabra (Inkberry) on your property?

A few ideas are coming to mind already to work with your existing Pinus elliottii. Can you take a piece of paper and draw a diagram of where your house and garage are in relation to the water? Include driveways, sheds, swingsets, basically everything you have on the property in the form of a structure. You don't need a perfect drawing but a drawing of where everything is in relationship to everything else would be very beneficial right now. Be sure to include your driveway and any footpaths down to the water. You can take a photo of your drawing and post it here.

Really could use that list of plants you said you knew you would be growing for host & food as well as a list of plants already growing on the property.

Our property 40 yrs ago was a junk yard with a swamp on the back side. The pond wraps around from our driveway side and goes all the way around our back yard. Which I will keep that for private from the acreage out front. The property line from my brother in laws & ours house goes straight down the middle of the driveway. So the biggest part of the pond that I view from my side driveway porch, belongs to Brother in law.

. Live Oaks are Quercus virginiana Ga. state tree. No palm's here, I'll be keeping all exisiting tree's on property. I have not gotten around in contacting anyone as of yet, althou that's in my plan's too. Here's my start plant list that I'm adding too and narrowing as I go. Will add perennials, vine's, annuals and herbs & cover crops later.

Wanting to get my woody ornamentals plant first. I'm thinking of starting off with the Butterfly Garden planning native host & nectar. Which I already have almost all the perennials native & non native that I want to use. Adding a large plot of milkweed for the monarch's. Keeping it simple, which I know I can't do it all in a year time. But divide 120' x 300' into several individual plots that will grow together in time with pathways through out. I only have 16 acre's here to look after, we have a pasture of 6 acre's that I'm planning to use a small part of as a nursery beds for holding my perennials & ect.

I'm in Coffee County, Ga. Coastal Plain & Flatwood Lower Section. With sandy loamy soil, no red clay on this property! As I was mowing my large patch of weed in this future sanctuary this afternoon and eastern indigo & a cotontail rabbit came out. So the wildlife are already taking up homesteading here!

Trees & Shrubs

Aesculus Paviflora Bottlebrush Buckeye
Aesculus Pavia Red Buckeye
Asimina triloba Paw Paw
Callicarpa Americana Beautyberry
Celtis laevigata Sugarberry
Cephalanthus occidentalis Buttonbush
Cercia Canadensis Red Bud
Chionanthus virginicus Fringe tree
Cornus amomum Silky Dogwood
Cornus kousa angustata Chinese Dogwood
Crataegus aestivalis Eastern May Haw
Diospyros Virginiana Persimmon
Itea Virginicus Henry’s Garnet
Lindera benzion Spicebush
Liriodendron Yellow Poplar
Prunus angustifolia Chickasaw Plum
Ptelea trifoliate Hop Tree
Rhamnus caroliniana Carolina Buckthorn
Sambucus Canadensis Elerberry
Sassafras albidum Sassafras
Viburnum nudum Possumhaw


Will add more later!


This message was edited Oct 24, 2007 9:12 PM

This message was edited Oct 24, 2007 10:35 PM

The existence of that swamp is great. Is it still there?

You are in Coffee County which is the lower coastal plain specifically in the Atlantic Coastal Flatwoods Section, right? If so, you may have been a forested wetland. Plug these into a search engine and see what you come up with- forested + wetlands + Floodplain + Alluvial.

Here's a link that may provide you with some insight-
http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/na/na0517_full.html

The trees you listed are all North American natives other than the Cornus kousa (Kousa Dogwood) which looks very similar to C. florida (Flowering Dogwood).

I don't think Aesculus parviflora (Bottlebrush Buckeye) is a member of a lower coastal plain plant community. The Aesculus pavia (also has the common name of Bottlebrush Buckeye) you listed above is. Additional benefit in choosing A. pavia is that it is listed as threatened and/or endangered which is what to me, would be the type of plant I would like to find in a lower coastal plain wildlife sanctuary.

Asimina triloba (Pawpaw) is not a coastal plain plant but it's a great plant for wildlife. Same goes for Diospyros virginiana (Persimmon), Lindera benzoin (Spicebush), and Frangula caroliniana (syn. Rhamnus caroliniana) (common name of Carolina Buckthorn and this is a NA native not the European exotic invasive).

Although Asimina triloba is not a coastal plain plant, Asimina parviflora is and it's also indigenous to your county.

Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry) is a coastal plain plant but it's not indigenous to your county. Same goes for Celtis laevigata (Sugarberry), Cephalanthus occidentalis (Buttonbush, Honey-bells), Cercis canadensis var. canadensis (Eastern Redbud but all the other C. canadensis variations are also referred to as Eastern redbuds), Chionanthus virginicus (Fringe Tree), Cornus amomum (Silky Dogwood), Prunus angustifolia (Chickasaw plum), Ptelea trifoliata (Hop Tree), Sambucus nigra (taxonomists are messing with us again because it's called nigra now not canadensis) I should also point out that part of the reason for the split is to help differentiate between the European Black Elderberry and the American Black Elderberry which is actually S. nigra ssp. canadensis), Sassafras albidum (Sassafras).

Two viable options to the P. angustifolia (Chickasaw plum) might be P. serotina (Black Cherry) and P. umbellata (Hog Plum but also sometimes sold as Chickasaw Plum?). Both would have occurred naturally in the coastal plain plant communities with Prunus umbellata being a native to your county.

Cornus kousa, although very beautiful, would be more appropriate in a wildlife sanctuary located in Japan, Korea, or China. Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood) and C. foemina (Stiff Dogwood) are both indigenous to your region.

I believe Crataegus aestivalis is naturalized in your state. You'd have to do some digging on that though to confirm. It's a North American native though. Are you familiar with Crataegus marshallii, C. uniflora, or C. spathulata? Those might better support the species of wildlife in your particular county. (Pretty much every plant listed above goes by the common name of Hawthorn, makes it confusing)

Itea virginica 'Henry’s Garnet' is a cultivar of the straight species (Virginia Sweetspire) which is a coastal plain plant and is additionally indigenous to your county. Cultivars frequently don't meet the nutritional requirements of native fauna as well as the straight species do.

You didn't specify which Liriodendron. Liriodendron tulipifera (Tuliptree) is an excellent choice and would have been a species that may very well have occurred naturally on your property. Liriodendron chinense (Tuliptree) would not be a good choice.

Viburnum nudum (Possumhaw) is an excellent choice. You might want to also consider V. dentatum.

You can look up any plant your are interested in for more detailed occurrence accounts here-
http://plants.usda.gov/index.html

Here are a few you might want to look up for wildlife value for your state-
Rhododendron canescens (Mountain Azalea)
Taxodium distichum (Bald Cypress)
Leucothoe axillaris (Coastal Doghobble)
Clethra alnifolia (I know it as Summersweet, believe it is called Coastal Sweet Pepperbush by you)
Fothergilla gardenii (have no idea what the common name of this is, Fothergilla?)
Bignonia capreolata (Crossvine)
Styrax americanus (American Snowbell)
Nyssa sylvatica (Blackgum)
Ilex vomitoria (Yaupon) very beautiful plant
Baccharis halimifolia (have no idea what the common name of this is, Baccharis?)
Halesia diptera (Snowdrop Tree, Silverbell)
Calycanthus floridus, not indigenous to your county but a wildlife magnet (Sweetshrub, Carolina Allspice)

While poking around for plants for you, I ran into this symposium which appears to be an annual event. Looks like it would be right up your alley-
http://www.nespal.org/wildflower/

If you can narrow down your ecosystem. I can hone in on more ideas for a wildlife sanctuary. If you would consider steering away from a wildlife sanctuary in favor of a basic butterfly/bird habitat for your state, You'd shave off months and months if not years of detective work for yourself.

editing to add some common names that I know for Donna- be careful Donna, common names can cost you a lot of money. Many plants share the same common name but they are definitely not the same. Now add to this that many people refer to a plant that is exactly the same by different common names and it can be a logistical nightmare trying to figure out who is talking about what unless you know the scientific name of a plant. Use the common names to get a visual in your head but when you are buying plants, go by the botanical name only, if you don't get the botanical name... you could end up with a plant you don't want. Will go back through other posts and try my best to add more common names for you as soon as I have more time.

This message was edited Oct 31, 2007 10:35 AM

Equilibrum,
you have give me so must to think about and lots of wonderful info. I truly thank you for all your help! Back in Nov 06 I was going to open a nursery and was asking for Help/Opinions you were right there for me! Well I haven't open and life just kept turn me 360 every time I got off to a good start. Altho I do have many stock perennials for Butterflies & hummer's.

So, yes I should just focus on butterflies & hummmer for now. Planting as many host & nectar plants as possible. I would love to have a little garden shack in the middle of the garden plot. That I might one day be able to sell from my garden. Let it be a display garden/outdoor classroom. This is my dream and getting there is going to take alot of work & time and money.

I do have a list of Ga. butterflies and their food source's. Would like to have a plot just for the Monarch's with many milkweed & nectar plants for them. Also bring in the ladybugs and other beneifical insect too. And to have another wildflower meadow of ga. natives that would be good drought tolerant. In 1996 I planted several pounds of wildflower's, it was a beautiful site for many years but now the grass as taken over again.

I don't want just a square design! As I was mowing today I did see several yarrow, shasta daisy and coreopsis still hanging on. So being able to purchase wholesale and I have found a good source for woody ornamental not to far away. Which I'm hoping to visit them by the end of November. Now putting together the right blend of wildflower mix with native's, I'm doing my research. You gave me some wonderful resource's!

Instead of a wildlife sanctuary I'll focus on a Butterfly & Hummingbird Habitat!!
I am ADD and I do JUMP around!!! LOL! With many dream's what I would love to see growning in my garden. For all to enjoy the beauty as they drive by!

I'll go through your last post and redo my plant list again.
Thank you so kindly for all your help!
Donna

Equil, your suggestion about going to the Symposium in Tifton is something Donna has wanted to do for a long time. I'm glad you brought that event up again. In fact she had bought tickets for both of us to go but, the week of the event in Tifton, she was dealing with her father's critical illness and we canceled the trip.
Donna, I so very much want to see your dreams come true. With your plant knowledge and propagation skills a nursery is right up your alley. All the time and effort you have put into building your greenhouses and the money you have invested in your stock plants should give you the foundation you need to see your dreams come true.
A butterfly and hummer garden in that area is a great start to providing for some wildlife. It in itself will be a mini ecosystem for an interactive nature habitat. Study all the information and links in this thread and just do it. We are behind you all the way. You go girl.

Hi, gapeahen--

Sounds like a marvelous area for a butterfly and hummingbird garden full of natives and an exciting project! I look forward to hearing about your progress and all the new info you discover in your research from all of Equi's links and tips.

And don't forget to share it on the Butterfly and Hummingbird Forum. We are always looking for good info about natives and butterflies and hummingbirds. Thanks. t.

Hey Cordeledawg, I found that symposium by accident. Looked so tasty that I wouldn't have minded going myself! If you two gals are able to go next year, you gotta report back!

Hey gapeahen, You have a good solid knowledge of butterflies. I've read some of your posts over in hummers and flutters. For me, I find it easier to stick within my comfort zone. If I did have the wherewith all to open a nursery (and I don't), I would probably go with local genotype plants as opposed to butterfly host and nectar species for the simple reason that I wouldn't be creating a lot of research work for myself before even opening the doors. I guess what I'm saying is go with what you KNOW. A display garden on your own property of native host and nectar plants is an awesome idea that you could build upon in the future. The public at large is increasingly being exposed to the benefits of "going native". I don't know if you've had the opportunity to look at any children's school books lately but kids as young as 5th and 6th grade are being exposed to the concept of "plants out of place" and by Junior High the kids in my area are able to discuss native v. introduced species in a surprisingly productive manner. You've got an ever expanding market out there and you probably didn't even know it. And these kids are far more computer literate than you and I and are able to use search engines to ferret out information at the drop of a hat. These kids are being educated on the public health benefits of diversity and preservation of the wilds. They will be graduating from college, entering the workforce, buying homes, and... landscaping those homes and my bet is these environmentally conscious kids are going to be looking for the natives. You've got heightened public awareness on your side. There's the buying public out there that is ready to embrace natives thanks in part to the media and backing up that existing marker is a ready made market about to hit the streets (youth) so why not capitalize on it?

I'm working on an area on my property right now that I'd like to share with you. The reason why I am creating it is to keep the few groups I have that visit this property on the path and out of new plantings. Yup, I've got an outdoor classroom here. It's currently a war zone but I think you'll see where I'm going with it and might be able to suck some ideas out for yourself. If you'd like, I'll share some photos with you but be prepared to see a construction zone for all practical purposes as I've basically ripped everything apart going all different directions in the southeast area of my property. Goes back to me commenting to you that I "created more work for myself and wasted a lot of money by not using worksheets from the start".

So many thoughts are running through my head now that you're going to ditch the wildlife sanctuary in favor of a native display garden/outdoor classroom. I don't even have ADD but I LIKE.. no LOVE jumping around. Totally exciting! Remind me to mention my plant "autopsy" workshops for kids as that could be a big draw to your property. I've got one of those coming up in November. With your skillset, you could easily pull one of those off if you wanted to and with where you garden in Georgia, the plants I use for the "autopsy" workshop are your natives! One of the reasons why I was asking if your swamp was still present on your property... see... there's that jumping around again!

I've got one last Plumeria workshop at a nursing home this morning that is an hour and a half and after that I'm leaving for a long weekend mini vacation with a friend so I won't be back until late Sunday night maybe even Monday. Until then, what's on your list of GA butterflies and their food sources? Did you include moths? ;) Sort of rushed and gotta get out the door right now or I'll be late. Have a fun weekend ladies!

Cracked up at your d-mail and am very grateful you have my photos tucked away.

Here goes for Donna and Deborah- this is an area of my property that was left alone... until just recently when I went in and removed somewhere around 1000 buckthorns and a handful of Japanese honeysuckles. You'll be able to see quite a few stumps that were painted with chemicals and left standing. The reason why they weren't cut flush with the ground was to see if they need to be retreated with chemicals or not next year. What I am trying to do in this area is to create raised beds for Cypripedium acaule and a few other acid lovers while creating a footpath to provide visual access to people who visit the property. I've gone with stepping stones in this area. I must admit they are labor intensive as you need to dig out a hole that is about 6" in diameter larger than them and about 6" deep so that the holes can be filled with sand. If you don't set the stepping stones in the sand, they will crack. I have about 200 set in sand, another 200 that have holes dug ready to be set, another 100 or so positioned where I will want them set but no holes dug for them, and another 100 stacked up waiting to be spotted. None of them have been backfilled yet. That can wait until next year and I'll have weed free something or other brought to the site to raise up the surrounding area around the stepping stones back to ground level. Throughout the photos you will see some that seem to be floating a few inches above grade, that's because I'll go back and fill in around all of them after they are all set. Ran out of time this year to keep working. It is my intent to gather up some of the local mosses and toss them in a blender with buttermilk and sprinkle my mix around the edges of the stepping stones in the areas where they are set that the shade is denser. Thoughts being that the moss would come sooner or later so I might as well speed up the process to help keep the ickies and nasties at bay.

Here are photos of the area and please remember it is "under construction". This area is toward the middle of the area in which I am currently working and we call it the junction in that it goes three different directions with a central raised bed-

Sadly, pretty much everything that you see that is green is either Buckthorn or Japanese Honeysuckle that I haven't removed yet. I will probably only have time to get another 500 or so out this year before the weather turns. Here's the continuation of that path going east-

This is to the west of the "junction" and that's a Downy Hawthorn standing there that was completely choked by a Silver Lace Vine of all things. I removed the vine as well as quite a few buckthorns from the immediate area so hopefully it will bounce back next spring. I wound the stepping stones around it because I have high hopes. If it doesn't bounce back, I'll plant something else in its place.

This is an area farther west from the above area and it is closer to an area that I've been working in already so I've begun planting back more natives. You will see a few saplings in tubes being protected from deer and rabbits until they are established.

Here is another one of those raised beds. There are a total of five in all throughout this area and I have been winding the "path" around them-

Here is more of the "path" coming in close to a habitat brush pile that I created using buckthorns that I took my chainsaw to. I've got quite a few of these habitat brush piles and I plant native vines around the bases of them to cover them up as well as to provide nectar and pollen for the pretties I want to attract to the property.

Here are some of the vines I currently have planted next to the habitat brush piles:
Dioscorea villosa (Wild Yam)
Menispermum canadensis (Moonseed Vine)
Aristolochia tomentosa (Woolly Dutchman's Pipe)
Smilax bona-nox (Saw Greenbrier)
Celastrus scandens (American bittersweet)
Parthenocissus vitacea (Thicket Creeper, Woodbine)
Clematis virginiana (lots of this) (Devil's Darning Needles, Virgin's Bower)

I'd like to get my hands on some Lonicera flava (American Honeysuckle, Yellow Honeysuckle), Clematis occidentalis (Western Blue Virgin's Bower), Cocculus carolinus (Carolina Coralbead), and Bignonia capreolata (Crossvine).

These brush piles look pretty when in bloom.

editing to add common names.


This message was edited Nov 3, 2007 7:54 PM