Last month, The Lady Slipper introduced a new column, Kentucky Yard Restoration. In that premiere article, Karen Cairns describes her restoration project as a labor of love. I think most of us can identify with that statement.
Years ago, I planted natives for the birds and butterflies, without realizing that I was providing habitat for many other Kentucky creatures. I lived in an ordinary neighborhood with a few old trees, a small back yard, and houses in every direction but up. The birds came. The butterflies came. But so did the frogs, box turtles, rabbits, raccoons, and bees. I still get goosebumps when I remember finding that first bullfrog.
One morning, I found a neighbor in my backyard wandering around looking at it all. He asked how we installed the small pond–and when I say small, I mean it. But it was cozy enough for the green frog who took up residence there.
Each August, the hummingbirds were so numerous and bold, they would fly between our heads while sitting in our bench swing. I once had one check me out by hovering about a foot from my face and squeaking at me for a bit. What she was telling me, I don’t know, but I cried. I just stood there and cried because the interaction was so amazing.
Over the years, I noticed that some species were more abundant than others, and we began referring to things that happened during “titmouse summer,” “red-winged blackbird summer,” and so on. We had a pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks that stopped by Mother’s Day weekend without fail for many years. A red-winged blackbird flew in at the same time every day to chat with our dog. After a hard storm, a pair of bluebirds took refuge until they were strong enough to rebuild. They returned often to feed their offspring.
When we moved, I started over. Our new home had a Bradford pear tree and some holly bushes. If you think I despaired, you are wrong. I was excited, and I started all over again. After ten years, my home is surrounded by trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses–almost all native. The backyard bumps up to a field that connects with a wild and protected area. My backyard blends right into that field. Some might call it ugly; I think it’s beautiful. It is habitat, and now I take stewardship seriously–so seriously, that my mantra has become “Every yard matters.”
This small area is winter habitat and to some people, ugly. In early spring, it’s mowed. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, native blooms fill it.
If we can convince a few of our neighbors to return just a small section of their yards to the wild, we can reconnect to the wild in a way most of us think impossible. Imagine the corridors of habitat we could create. Many will be slow to adopt to this idea, but we must try. We have no choice if we are to become the stewards we are meant to be. I want my children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren to know the joy of discovering a frog in their small pond. We don’t all start out with stewardship as our end goal, but that’s where a restoration project takes us.
We want to share your yard reclamation stories. You don’t have to be a great writer–we only need your passion and your story. Please consider sharing your Kentucky Yard Restoration story. You can contact us at LadySlipper@knps.org.
A recommendation to not use landscaping cloth in flower beds, is usually met with a lot of resistance. Laying cloth is standard practice among professional landscapers and home gardeners. However, as we become more aware of the importance of natives in our landscaping, it’s also time to give up the cloth. There’s nothing natural about it, and it works against you in native plantings. Initially, landscaping cloth sounds like a great idea, but in the end, it is usually more trouble than it’s worth and there are a number of reasons why.
Cloth compacts the soil
Compacted soil is not a natural growing medium regardless of what you’re planting. You want loose crumbling soil that drains well and has plenty of nutrients. Plants grow better when their roots are allowed to grow easily, and water and nutrient intake is easy. Under landscape cloth, you will find compacted soil—it’s hard to dig and plants are seldom as healthy as they should be.
After installing landscape fabric, soil quickly begins to lose its crumbly, granular structure. In nature, many natives require that spongy surface in order to grow and establish. A side effect of sealing the soil surface is that it hinders recruitment of many delicate natives from existing plants.
Now consider that cloth seldom stays where you put it. Usually, it’ll work its way to the surface, where it’s ugly. Sometimes cloth goes deeper into the soil. Eventually, you could plant right over it, never knowing it’s just an inch or so below your new planting and that will definitely affect that plant’s health.
Eventually, landscaping cloth begins to show. Photo Credit: Rick Gordon, Creative Common License. Displaced landscaping cloth is ugly and requires a lot of labor to remove. Photo Credit: Craige Moore, Creative Common License.
Weeding is more difficult
Initially, cloth will deter weeds, but nature is tougher than the cloth. Eventually, the weeds will return and guess what? Pulling those weeds will be a nightmare because that layer of cloth is under the surface acting as an anchor! You’ll have to dig it out most likely and doing so will leave a hole in the fabric, which means more weeds. While you might have fewer weeds, those weeds will be more difficult to remove. Wild violets (Viola spp) are notorious for rooting into imperfections in landscape fabrics.
If that weren’t enough, consider what these cloths are made of: petroleum and other chemicals, which leach into your soil. As we become more environmentally aware, landscaping cloth is no longer a reasonable choice.
Long term, landscape fabric doesn’t allow the gardener to shift landscapes in tune with horticultural and environmental trends. It arrests the landscape because it takes a fair deal of work to remove and can be a pain to remove around existing plants.
Cost
Landscaping cloth isn’t expensive until you consider how much of it you need to cover all your landscaping and native beds. You’ll also need pins to hold it down. To hide it, you’ll cover it with mulch. It adds up, and it’s totally unnecessary. A more natural alternative is old newspapers covered in wood or straw mulch. While these barriers will eventually break down, they are easier to work with over the years and provide better water flow into the soil.
Reseeding
Many natives propagate by self-seeding. Landscaping cloth makes that close to impossible because the seeds never make contact with the soil underneath the cloth. What happens when you want to add new plants? You must cut the cloth to add plants, bulbs, and so on. Every hole in the fabric is an opportunity for weed seeds in the underlying soil to germinate and break through.
While your natives may fail to reseed because of the cloth, weeds are different. Seeds traveling by air or deposited by birds and other small mammals won’t mind the lack of soil a bit. They’ll sprout in the mulch and send their strong roots through the cloth.
It isn’t natural
There’s nothing natural—or native—about landscaping fabric. If your motivation is stewardship, I probably don’t need to say anything else. Regardless of whether it’s under mulch, rock, or even soil, a cloth barrier traps creatures below ground. You’re killing creatures that live in the soil and keep it healthy!
When you hike in the woods, you don’t see landscaping cloth. Remember, you’re trying to create, or mimic, a natural environment. In looking to mimic native systems, consider materials that you see in the woods or meadows. Leaves and duff, as well as thatch or straw, are the natural mulches in ecosystems. They provide a level of control on the weedier species, but they also break down over time to support new plants. While we may not mimic that same level of space and time variability in our yards, using natural materials is important!
What to use instead
Establishing a new bed takes work with or without putting down landscaping cloth but eliminating that cloth will save you some labor and money. What you use to reduce weeds is up to you and the soil’s health should be a factor. If it’s compacted, amend with organic matter before you do anything else. Rototilling the area isn’t necessary and actually destroys soil composition, so avoid rototilling unless the soil is severely compacted.
Cover turf with cardboard and newspaper to smoother it when preparing a new bed. Photo Credit: Bryant Olson, Creative Common.
Remove turf or cover it with layers of cardboard or newspaper to smoother it. Both will quickly degrade and help amend the soil. Wet the cardboard or paper to keep it in place. The next step is a few inches of good arborist chips. You can buy mulch, but most tree servicing companies will gladly dump a nice mound of chips for free. Chips aren’t consistent in size and color, so they look more natural—more like a forest floor. They degrade quickly though and will need supplementing often if you continue to use chips.
If you plant immediately, cut through the cardboard and plant in the ground and keep the area well watered until the plants are well established.
You can avoid remulching eventually, by using native groundcovers as green or living mulch. It takes a few seasons, but eventually your plantings will be so full that few weeds can’t set up home. You will still have to weed occasionally but maintaining this spot will be much easier than if you laid cloth underneath.
Meadowscapes and other areas where a mix of native species provide aesthetic vistas at lower maintenance requirements than traditionally manicured beds. Using grassland species will require occassional mowing or spin-trimming, but these areas are great for self-mulching and weed control.
We add natives to our yards for several reasons. Mine started with a love of birds, butterflies, frogs, bugs, and so on. At the time I wasn’t thinking about being a good steward of the land, but that is what happened. Regardless of why you plant natives, you will approach the addition as you would any other flower bed by preparing the area, and if that includes landscaping cloth, please stop and reassess your decision.
I’ve never met a gardener who doesn’t want to reduce maintenance in their garden. While it can be fruitful to care for a garden, sometimes we just want to sit back and relax while enjoying it! Groundcovers are one solution to reduce garden maintenance. The fewer blank spaces there are, the fewer chances for weeds and the less need for mulch. There are many native groundcover plants that are great choices in garden settings.
Groundcover usually refers to plants that are low-growing and have a spreading or creeping habit. Some perennials that grow taller can be used like a groundcover. There are many groundcover species commonly seen in the landscape, mostly non-native ones like Vinca major, Pachysandra terminalis, or Liriope. Unfortunately, many non-native groundcovers are also considered invasive like wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei), and English ivy (Hedera helix).
There are many reasons why a groundcover may make a great choice. Groundcovers can help fill large spaces, especially if you’re on a budget. The groundcover will spread over time, so you can buy fewer plants to get started. Many native groundcovers are manageable in the landscape even when left to naturalize.
In a design sense, using large swaths of groundcovers can create a simple, refined garden space. Use them to create a monochromatic palette or greenery for foliage interest. For groundcovers that bloom, large blocks of color create nice views along a roadway or as a backdrop to a garden.
One of my favorite ways to use a groundcover is underneath trees and shrubs. Because it can be difficult to reach underneath a shrub to pull weeds, planting a groundcover helps with this dilemma. I often show up to client’s homes, where I find invasive honeysuckle growing inside another shrub. This situation is often overlooked, so when you plant a shrub, consider planting a companion groundcover underneath.
In an ecological sense, native groundcovers can be used to suppress invasive species in an area. For example, wild ginger has a dense root structure, which prevents anything else from growing in it. Groundcovers will compete with other plants through its root structure, shading the ground, and absorbing moisture from the soil. Use this behavior to prevent weeds.
Some plants can be considered groundcovers even though they are not low growing. Ferns, like ostrich (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and interrupted (Osmunda claytoniana), will spread by underground rhizomes or stolons to form small colonies that are great for filling in sections of a shade garden. River oats is a nice ornamental plant that looks like a grass. It readily seeds, but it is great in areas where you need to keep out invasive plants and to prevent soil erosion.
Like river oats, grasses, and sedges (Carex species) make great groundcovers on sloped areas that are prone to erosion. These plants in a residential setting work well because they mimic a lawn but eliminate mowing along steep slopes which can be dangerous.
Sedges are another low maintenance alternative. They are the only plant I consider no maintenance because many species don’t need cutting down in spring. They are safe choices in an easement garden between the sidewalk and street since they don’t block views. A few can tolerate being stepped on occasionally in these high traffic areas.
A few part shade to shade groundcovers to consider are wild ginger (Asarum canadense), Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens), stonecrop (Sedum ternatum), woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera), golden groundsel (Packera aurea), green and gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), and dwarf crested iris (Iris cristata). Some of these can tolerate nearly full sun conditions. For full sun conditions try moss phlox (Phlox subulata), pussytoes (Antennaria virginica), and prairie smoke (Geum triflorum).
Woodland phlox
White phlox
Green and gold
Virginia bluebells
Wild ginger
Success with groundcovers starts with the right plant for the right place. Always check the plant’s growing conditions before purchasing. A groundcover may thrive in its ideal condition, but struggle in others. Always check botanical names before purchasing since common names can be misleading. It’s easy to confused them with similar non-native species, or a cousin who likes a different microclimate.
Working in the landscape industry, I’ve seen groundcovers planted haphazardly in landscapes with little thought. Use groundcovers to show intentionally, which achieves a certain affect whether it’s for aesthetic or ecological reasons. If you have areas in your landscape that could use some groundcover, consider some of these native choices.
Katrina Kelly is a native to Lexington, Kentucky. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and has a degree in Landscape Architecture and Music. She is the owner and solopreneur of EARTHeim Landscape Design in Lexington, which focuses on creating unique garden designs with native plants and backyard homesteads. Her interest in native plants began when she volunteered at Salato with Mary Carol Cooper in 2005. She is a board member of the Wild Ones organization in Lexington. In the small amount of time she is not thinking about gardens or gardening, she enjoys photography, writing, science, fitness and nutrition, and building or crafting things around the home.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2021 Virtual Wildflower Week! This was a new experience for us hosting a virtual week-long event, but with the help of many people, it was a great success! Special thanks to our website guru Jeff Nelson, our video editor Kendall McDonald, and the iNat extraordinaire Vanessa Voelker!
Here is a recording of the closing meeting on Saturday, May 17th in case you missed it!
The centerpiece of our Wildflower Week was a state-wide BotanyBlitz on iNaturalist from April 10th – April 17th. More than 100 members joined the project and posted over 3,200 observations of Kentucky plants within a one week span! Over 450 different species were photographed. Observations were posted in over 60 counties ranging from Carlisle County in the west to Pike County in the east.
Distribution of iNatuarlist observations from the 2021 KNPS BotanyBlitz April 10th -17th
We also posted virtual field trips throughout the week. If you didn’t get a chance to see them, you can still see them on our website or take a gander at our YouTube channel. The most popular video was by our very own Tara Littlefield, along with her kids Estella and Henry, teaching us about Kentucky Trillium species. Thank you to all those who submitted videos!
by Vanessa Voelker, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves
The 2021 Wildflower Week BotanyBlitz was a huge success, and your enthusiasm for this event massively exceeded our expectations! In all, the community of 110 observers made 3,193 observations of 460 species of wildflowers, blooming woody plants, graminoids, and mosses. Of those observations, an impressive 2,680 (83.9%) reached Research Grade status.
It was a tight race in both winning categories, but our 1st place champions are @ktuttlewheeler for Most Observations (196 observations), and jabrams_foc for Most Species (108 species). In Most Observations, close behind in 2nd place was jabrams_foc with 193 observations, while sekistler and terrikoontz tied for 3rd place, both with 128 observations. For most species, sekistler was another close 2nd place with 104 species, and ktuttlewheeler in 3rd with 90 species. This was an awesome week of intensive botanizing, Kentucky!
Many thanks to the identifiers who helped elevate so many species to Research Grade: vvoelker, jabrams_foc, hbraunreiter, thomashulsey, jkoslow, rynxs, kentuckybotanist, mjpapay, williambee, laurabaird, trscavo, and ktuttlewheeler all helped to identify 50+ observations during the blitz.
A dreamy Dwarf Larkspur, observed by mtwyandell
The most observed species during Wildflower week was Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium tricorne) with 68 observations, and filling out the rest of the top 5 were Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) with 66 observations, Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia) with 60, Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) with 54, and Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) with 53 observations.
A final note: if this was your first iNat blitz and you enjoyed your experience, we’d like to invite you to join the Kentucky Botanists Big Year 2021 project as well! This is essentially a year-long botany blitz, where you can test your botanical mettle across the seasons. It’s a fun way to learn even more new species, and become more familiar with the ones you already know!
As part of Wildflower Week, we were able to recruit a number of folks to present virtual field trips and tours of their native gardens. Altogether there were 17 short videos, from wonderful natural areas and beautiful gardens across the Commonwealth.
In March of 2018, I moved into my home in Louisville, Kentucky. I had been living in apartments in Virginia for the past decade, taking care of ailing parents. I couldn’t wait to garden again! My new huge yard had three big trees (a white mulberry, a red mulberry, and a silver maple) and four bushes (two azaleas, an Oregon grape holly, and a winterberry), plus almost every kind of invasive, non-native plant.
The lawn was immense. I live on a busy corner and there were no trees or bushes to soften the view. Invasives were everywhere. The worst offender was the more than 20-foot-high bamboo, which had sent out roots everywhere—into all the neighbors’ yards, even coming up through concrete! The two mulberry trees were covered in English ivy, grapevine, and euonymus (winter creeper), as was the side of the house and the chain link fence on the south side. The vines had been there years—they had trunks as big as my arm.
An invasive plant is one that does not belong where it is growing, whose origins are foreign. A native plant, for instance, one that is native to Kentucky, belongs here. Native plants may become aggressive, growing out of bounds, but are never considered invasive. Invasives crowd out the native plants, which support wildlife, birds, and insects. Invasive vines, such as euonymus, can harm trees, pulling down limbs and weakening the tree. I am an environmental educator. It is important to me to support our local insects, the pollinators, who in turn support birds and the ecosystem. I knew I wanted to plant more native trees, plants, and bushes.
My first herculean task was to remove the invasive plants. I found a video from the Olmsted Conservancy about removal of euonymus, grapevine, and ivy, and I followed the instructions. My son and I cut each off at the ground level and pulled down as much as we could. I painted the cut roots with an herbicide—my only use of chemicals. I hired a lovely young man, who later bought a house near me, to dig out the bamboo, digging down many feet to get all the roots. These efforts took up most of my first year. But, wow, did it feel good when it worked and the trees, the fence, the yard were free of these hanging, strangling vines. I also dug up bin after bin of lily of the valley from under the red mulberry. Yeah, they smell great, but they spread by runners and choke everything else out.
Dividing my property into three sections made the task seem more manageable. The lot is about 7,000 square feet with about 936 square feet for the house. There was lawn that needed mowing on three sides, small areas on the east and south, huge area on the north side. I have a side garden on the south, a front garden on the east, and a huge lawn on the north. The bamboo was on the west where my back deck adjoins the neighbors’ property. That neighbor had horrible problems with the bamboo and their patio area. When the dreaded bamboo was gone, they redid their fence and planted some evergreens between their fence and my back deck.
I immediately did away with the parts that needed mowing on the east and the south, planting a native red honeysuckle that I could see from my bedroom window for hummingbird observation. I made the south area, which is fenced, into an herb garden and grew a few vegetables the first year. It was small enough that I could dig up invasives, including massive euonymus all over the fence, and rip up the plastic netting that the previous owners had put down for weed control (which didn’t work and left bits of plastic everywhere!). The front lawn, near the street, was easy to make non-lawn just with digging and mulching what had been lawn by the curb. I planted lavender there (a “comfort plant” for me). I dug up bag after bag, box after box of daylilies and iris from the front yard. I like these and, even though they are not native, they do not cause problems, but they hadn’t been thinned in ages. I gave most of these away to neighbors. I saved the daylilies that were the most beautiful and that were fragrant. And I kept some iris—didn’t everyone’s grandmother grow roses and irises?
The huge, empty lawn on the north side gave me pause; it seemed enormous and required mowing. Lawns do not support pollinators, birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. They are a contributor to climate change, whereas vegetable gardens and plants help the ecosystem and work against climate change. To save my sanity, I decided to divide it into sections and get rid of lawn in increments. First, I extended the skimpy side garden by a huge amount, putting down cardboard and newspaper, then wood chip mulch. The tree company left me an enormous pile of wood chip mulch (free) on the lawn near the curb after trimming a white mulberry. I put down cardboard from the grocery store, filled in any spaces/gaps with newspaper, then covered with a thick layer of mulch. I made a curved section all around the bend in the road, linking the red mulberry with the silver maple near the house, which I planted with trees and bushes to act as a buffer zone. Last year, I finally filled in a large section in the middle, which is going to be a “lawn” made of violets. Violets are one of the only things that grow through the cardboard and mulch! Violets are native and good for pollinators.
The first year I planted many plants that I consider “comfort” plants—ones that remind me of someone or someplace. Some of these were not native, but I was careful not to get anything “exotic” that was invasive, that would spread and cause problems. I planted two rose bushes and some Daphne for fragrance—exotic plants that don’t spread. From here on, though, it was all native plants, trees, and bushes for me and my garden kingdom!
Do you know the online community Next Door? I discovered their free postings and found concrete pavers, rocks, bricks, broken concrete pieces with stone. Using these I was able to mark out section by section that I was converting from lawn into garden. I think it looks great and I feel great using recycled materials for my eco-garden! I even got three free native inkberry bushes from Next Door! I outlined four vegetable gardens using old brick and broken concrete—planting asparagus in 2019. This year I am eating asparagus every day! (And my pee has got that great smell.)
The past three years, I have planted more than 20 native trees and bushes—most I got free from the tree give-away program in Louisville: persimmon, oak, Kentucky coffee-tree, redbud, tulip poplar, inkberry, persimmon, wild plum, etc. I am now on my third huge mulch pile—all free from local tree companies. I bought one native tree, a fringe tree, from a local native plant nursery, and each year I get a selection of plants from this nursery—witch hazel, spice bush, cardinal flower, etc.
Last year I discovered a Kentucky Native Plant Swap on Facebook for this area, started a few years ago by Anne Milligan and Stephen Brown. It is fabulous. We have a seed and plant swap going with mini-swaps for different areas in and around Louisville. They are such a great community of like-minded native plant folks!
I planted river oats where the lily of the valley used to be, and now I can share those seeds with others. I also share beautyberry seeds. I label most of my native trees, bushes, and plants—this is for me (I am 75 and my memory…well…) and because I see this as community education; people are often asking me what a particular plant is.
Mainly, I am planting natives that form “clumps,” as I prefer a relatively neat garden! And I am leaving the sections outlined with rocks for the same reason. One advantage of having no lawn, besides not mowing, is that leaves from trees fall wherever and don’t need raking. This also provides habitat for over-wintering pollinators, increases soil viability, and is generally better for the ecosystem. My goal is to have my “yard waste” only for pulled up invasives!
Besides my online community of native plant admirers, I also include my immediate neighborhood. My third year here began with Covid and quarantine. I worked in the yard and neighbors would be out walking. It was easy and fun to be outside, physically distant enough to be safe, yet to meet each other and talk. Most neighbors have been extremely interested and supportive. Several told me what they had started to do with their front yards. People asked me what different plants were. I put up a sign in the fall explaining the river oats and inviting people to collect seeds for their yards. Sure, there are some folks who are skeptical that this will “work,” and some who are disapproving: “You don’t want any lawn?” One sweet lady asked with a plaintive tone, “But what will it be?” An older man shook his head, “You’re in for a world of trouble, lady.” But most have been admiring, “It’s like a miniature Bernheim Forest,” “It’s like Yew Dell West!” (Yew Dell is a local nursery.) Some neighbors want starts of plants.
Even in winter, a native lawn is lovely and full of interest.
I wrote a small piece, like this one, for my community newsletter, giving my address and inviting people to stop by, which they do. There was one “hate letter,” unsigned, from someone who believes I am deluded about climate change and sees me as an “elitist snob,” but I try to explain to neighbors that I am not telling anyone else what to do and that any small step they want to try with natives is worthwhile and a lot of fun. I love this sense of community, especially during a pandemic and a political scene fraught with tension. Plants and being outdoors are so very healing, in so many ways. I have so much to be grateful for.
Karen Cairns, EdD, MPH, BSN, is an Ashtanga yoga practitioner and teacher, traveling to India each year for several months to be with her teachers there. After getting her doctorate in Environmental Education at the University of Louisville, she worked in the Department of Urban and Public Affairs. The past decade Karen lived in apartments in Virginia, taking care of parents, so she was very happy to move back to Louisville in 2018 and have a garden once again!
