Mid-July 2024 updates to the habitat garden
Updates on how recent native plantings are faring, progress in areas of massive infestations of noxious weeds, and some notes on other established native plantings.
Updates on recent plantings
As I reported recently, I’ve planted several new species of native plants on the property, particularly in the wetland area. Here’s a progress report:
Sidalcea Hendersonii: is thriving in the wetland areas. They quickly grew and bloomed. They are such young plants that the bloom period was rather short, otherwise I would have taken a photo. Next year. Happy dance.
Prunella Vulgaris Var. Lanceolata is thriving. Now that I have the native for sure on site, I can compare it to the plants growing in the wild here. For sure it already has a huge presence on my property and I’m relieved to know that one of the plants that I thought was a weed is indeed a plant I want to keep.
Downingia Yina: croaked very quickly after planting in the wetland. It croaked so quickly I don’t know what happened - if slugs got to it or what.
Ceanothus Oregon Mist: made it through the heat wave with just a couple of light waterings.
Aralia Californica: disappeared. I see no sign of it left, and sadly didn’t pay enough attention to what was happening. I don’t know if a critter ate it or what.
Cow parsnip: croaked. Very quickly. I thought I was giving it the very best conditions next to a seeping creek, but I guess not. It looked good for a couple of days, then did this:
Ribes Sanguineum Xera’s Lime Punch: survived the heat wave, though it is looking a little sunburnt.
Sidalcea Campestris has been devoured by rabbits, I think. Possibly slugs, but slugs leave my other sidalceas alone, so who knows.
Delphinium Trollifolium: I planted two in wet areas underneath the dappled shade of an Oregon Ash. They did not appreciate that, and their foliage got flattened and croaked during a heavy rainstorm. Another I planted in partial sun near the ash, it seemed to do better, but is succumbing to slugs.
Solidago Bees Knees: survived the heat wave just fine, and it appears to be ready to bloom.
Allium Amplectum: bloomed so quickly I barely saw it, then croaked. Behaved like an annual. Died prior to the heatwave - no idea what happened here.
Aster Hallii: survived the heat wave just fine, with no mulch even!
Sidalcea asprella ssp. elegans ‘Josephine’: is surviving and bloomed, but it is such a wimpy looking thing I am worried it won’t do well in the long run. I’ll update next year.
Summary: my recent native plantings, especially those that went in the wetland, were mostly disappointing. I wish I had a webcam on them to see what was happening, as I just didn’t take the time to observe them as closely as I needed. In my defense, I didn’t think I needed to. Perhaps they don’t like being as wet as the literature says they do. Or perhaps non-native slugs devoured them all. The only one I know for sure was not slugs was the cow parsnip. That one seemed to rot, or dislike being transplanted for some other reason.
Property restoration progress
Blackberry: I continue to make progress on eradicating massive stands of blackberries, spending a few hours a day working on them. Sometimes it is cool enough that I can wear long sweatpants while I’m reaching deep into the tangled mess of thorns. Other days, especially during the heatwave, it is just too darn hot. So if you see me out and about looking like I got in a fight with barbed wire, now you know why.
The mulch that I’ve been making through the electric chipper with the blackberry vines is pretty incredible stuff. All of my veg plantings made it through the heat wave just fine, and some are looking better than ever. In fact, my Paisano paste tomato plants, which have always looked a bit wimpy in the past, are looking pretty incredible with a deep blackberry mulch on them. And the cabbage root maggots haven’t managed to find my brassica plants which is a huge bonus.
Underneath all that blackberry I’ve made some awesome discoveries recently: a sizeable mock orange, ocean spray, and trilliums. I’ve also found quite a few dead shrubs, that look to be mock orange or ocean spray as well. I wish I could have seen this property prior to the invasive weeds moving in.
Ivy: all of the vines growing up trees that I can get to have been cut and treated with Vine and Stump killer, and the vines are dying off. If you’ve got ivy on your property, know that the vines growing up trees is where fruits and seeds form, which the birds then spread all over the place.
I’m taking a break from the ivy for now, trying to get to the blackberry before it sets seed. But I did recently ask the Clackamas County Soil and Water Conservation District about treatment for ivy. They said hand pulling is pretty effective. In my experience it is super easy to pull smaller plants, but the knees and other joints quickly start aching with the strength needed for pulling more mature vines out of the ground.
For this reason - and the fact that hand pulling is so slow that it is hard to get ahead of a bad infestation - I asked what would be an effective spray treatment, and they offered the following recipe via email: “The tank mix developed by some folks in the Portland Metro, which many practitioners are using and finding good success is a triclopyr + glyphosate mix. You need to be careful with the mixing procedures to ensure compatibility of the products. The mixing procedures for a spray tank is to add water, then 2% triclopyr (i.e Garlon 3a), then add 4% glyphosate product, then 1-2% surfactant (i.e Competitor). Folks have been having good success.” I have yet to look into actually using this recipe… it seems confusing.
Creeping buttercup: the Milestone treatment that I talked about a few months back has worked excellently. I need to do a tiny spot treatment for plants I missed, but otherwise it has been a huge success. Interesting note: Prunella Vulgaris Var. Lanceolata - the native Prunella - has popped up and is now thriving in many areas where the creeping buttercup was trying to take over. Happy dance.
Prunus avium: I’ve cut all the major cherries that I can get to prior to them making seed and made firewood out of them. I’ve got about 9 million suckers and saplings that I now need to treat.
Established plants
As I make my way back beyond the blackberries and cherries, I’m finding many plants and trees that I didn’t know I had.
In another area, a huge stand of Hedgenettle has popped up where a hideous stand of blackberries used to be.
This is a mock orange I planted some years ago. I’m finding it really interesting that there are 2 plants that have done really well, putting on this huge floral display, and 2 other plants that have grown, but they don’t bloom. I think the difference is that the plants that don’t bloom are in dryer locations. The mock orange I found near my wetland is in quite a bit of shade, but it bloomed for me this year as well.
An exciting find for me this year was the Clodius Parnassian making use of Pacific Water Parsley as a nectar plant multiple times. This butterfly loves my property, and I have plenty of areas where I can expand its host plant (bleeding Heart) even more.
This year, the wapato is SO happy that it is starting to encroach on my vegetable garden. It’s interesting that this plant thrives in the wetland area while so many of the others failed. I guess my sunny wetland will be dominated by Wapato and Checkermallow. That’s ok by me.
Lastly, nodding onion is a plant that I added to the property many years ago. It seems to enjoy all kinds of conditions, and divides easily and seeds around readily. Too bad its a little on the bitter side for my eating, as it really does grow easily.
What’s new and exciting in your habitat areas?
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