Our garden on May 8, 2015: a mat of Common Chickweed with Common Milkweed fighting its way through
Hi Gang,
I was away for a week in West Virginia in late April (we were leaders and presenters at our favorite festival, the New River Birding and Nature Festival).
We left in winter conditions and returned to summer conditions. Tackling the next part of garden cleanup has been quite a task in the heat and gnats. I wondered how you all were faring with your own gardens especially since some of you are quite new to wildlife gardening.
I thought it might be timely to step-by-step explain how I wrap up the garden cleanup in spring.
I hope my post helps guide you. Please share your comments and questions in the comment section following the post (rather than write to me directly), that way everyone can benefit from your questions, my answers, and all the additional sage advice that others share.
Is my garden cleanup done yet? Not nearly. Heading back out as soon as I send this off. Good luck with yours and please wish me some luck and stamina with mine. It will all be worth it when it’s done.
I thought you would enjoy Susan Harris’ Garden Rant post, written after she attended the September 21, 2014 “South Tour of Monarch Gardens,” featuring private backyard and front yard gardens in Cape May, Lower Township, and Cape May Point:
As you can tell from the title, she was quite complimentary. Bravo wildlife gardeners and thank you SO MUCH for letting me share your gardens with tour participants! Keep enjoying your oases and the many wildlife visitors they attract and have fun inspiring others to do the same. If you know anyone who is ripe to be hooked on wildlife gardening, be sure they are aware of the upcoming workshops I’l be teaching: “2015 Gardening for Wildlife Workshop Series.”
Monarch caterpillar on Common Milkweed in Pat Sutton’s garden August 25, 2014
At the peak of Cape May County’s world-famous fall Monarch migration, tour diverse gardens that have hosted Monarchs since May. Each features native nectar plants and as many as five different kinds of milkweed (used by Monarchs for egg laying to create the next generation). Expect Monarchs and other butterflies, Monarch eggs, caterpillars, and maybe even a chrysalis. The complex Monarch migration will be both explained and enjoyed.
I’ve worked with 18 garden owners to line up this set of Garden Tours. Don’t miss this opportunity to see a fine selection of wildlife gardens with lovely stands of MILKWEED: Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, Whorled Milkweed, Purple Milkweed, and Tropical Milkweed. The annual, Tropical Milkweed, will be in bloom. Most of our native perennial milkweeds have already bloomed, but their robust leaves still pull in mating and egg-laying Monarchs well into the fall, as our local Monarchs create yet another generation. These gardens are coming into their fall attire, which will be as stunning as the summer garden, yet completely different.
2014 TOURS OF PRIVATE MONARCH GARDENS
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 19 — Mid-County Tour, including amazing gardens along the Delaware Bayshore in North Cape May and Villas Saturday, Sept. 20 — North Tour, including Pat Sutton’s garden and other gems from Cape May Court House north to South Seaville Sunday, Sept. 21 — South Tour, including gardens south of the Cape May Canal
Expect these gardens to also be hosting lingering hummingbirds, butterflies, caterpillars, stunning native plants, and undoubtedly some surprises. Fall migration will be underway, so anything’s possible.
TOUR DETAILS AND PRICING
Gardening naturalist and author, Pat Sutton, leads these tours, which include her own garden in Goshen (North tour). Bring lunch since the group will eat in one of the gardens. Limit: 25 per tour. Three Tours / Cost per tour: $35 members (NJ Audubon), $45 nonmembers.
(Join three tours at a discounted rate of $90 members, $115 nonmembers.)
These tours require preregistration with payment.
Registration: you may register by phone at 609.898.8848 with a credit card or send payment to the Nature Center of Cape May, 1600 Delaware Avenue, Cape May, NJ 08204 (noting which tours and full names, addresses, and phone numbers of registrants). NCCM reserves the right to cancel programs, and refunds are available only if NCCM cancels the event. Walk-ins are welcome on a space-available basis. Become a member of NJAS and receive discounts in the gift shop and on many programs.
It is the peak of Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration. Numbers have exploded now that young have left the nest, females are busy with second broods, and hummingbirds that nested in the far north (Gaspe Peninsula) are moving south. Gardens designed and planted with hummingbird-friendly plants and a wealth of yummy soft-bodied insects (which hummingbirds also love to eat) are experiencing a virtual blizzard of hummingbirds.
At the peak of Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration, we’ll savor an array of diverse gardens that have hosted nesting hummingbirds since May and are now drawing in dozens of migrants. Native nectar plants, healthy insect populations, water sources, and adequate cover are key elements of each garden.
TOUR DETAILS AND PRICING
Gardening naturalist and author, Pat Sutton, leads these tours, which include her own garden in Goshen (North tour). Bring lunch since the group will eat in one of the gardens.
If some of you are keen to create a butterfly & hummingbird garden, be sure to download the article & plant list Sutton wrote / created:
Limit: 25 per tour. Nine Tours / Cost per tour: $35 members (NJ Audubon), $45 nonmembers. (Join three tours at a discounted rate of $90 members, $115 nonmembers.) These tours require preregistration with payment.
Registration: you may register by phone at 609.898.8848 with a credit card or send payment to the Nature Center of Cape May, 1600 Delaware Avenue, Cape May, NJ 08204 (noting which tours and full names, addresses, and phone numbers of registrants).
NCCM reserves the right to cancel programs, and refunds are available only if NCCM cancels the event. Walk-ins are welcome on a space-available basis. Become a member of NJAS and receive discounts in the gift shop and on many programs.
Garden Gang members Bob and Carol Marceluk in Ocean City, NJ, and their WILDLIFE HABITAT were featured in the Press of Atlantic City, Saturday, July 12, 2014: “New Boardwalk Attraction,” by Martin DeAngelis.
I met Bob and Carol in 2012 when I taught a series of Gardening for Wildlife Workshops for the Ocean City Environmental Commission . . . and, as they say, the rest is history!
They transformed a large expanse of boring lawn into gardens full of native nectar plants (that bloom spring through fall), lots and lots of caterpillar plants (including MILKWEED of course), native berry-producing trees and shrubs (for cover and food), water features (including a new pond), neat seating areas. It has given them SO MUCH pleasure and provided an oasis to migrant and resident wildlife.
I wish I was brave enough to add Bob & Carol Marceluk’s habitat to the “Tours of Private Wildlife Gardens” that I lead, but taking people into Ocean City in the summer on a weekend . . . In the future I might plan a special tour to barrier island gardens on a date after the crazy summer tourist season. I’ll keep you posted!
Fellow wildlife-gardening educators Jack and Jesse Connor have brought to my attention 4 bills proposed in the NJ Legislature that we all should be aware of and consider voicing our support.
In short, here are the 4 proposed bills that we can speak up about and show our support:
A3133 Requires DEP to establish “private wildlife habitat certification program”; creates affirmative defense against municipal nuisance ordinances for properties certified under the program.
A3125 Prohibits sale or planting of certain invasive plant species.
A1305 Requires any State entity planting vegetation to use only vegetation native to area being planted, and when purchasing vegetation, to purchase, to the maximum extent possible, only from NJ businesses.
A1373 Prohibits use or sale of neonicotinoid pesticides.
Working with Jack and Jesse, Garden Gang member Jean Riling put together a concise document about these 4 proposed NJ Bills and who to contact (depending on where you live):
Have you (or do you know anyone who has) been harassed for having a wildflower meadow or perennial garden? I do, quite a few in fact. Sadly manicured lawn (“neat as a pin, ugly as sin”) is the norm and any venture towards wildlife habitat in the way of native perennial gardens or meadows in some neighborhoods is seen as a threat. No wonder pollinators are struggling!
Are you fighting English Ivy or Bamboo or Japanese Honeysuckle (all invasives) that are spreading from a neighbor’s yard or were planted by the previous property owner? I have. This bill is an excellent start to help address some of the worst invasives. Once passed hopefully additional invasives can be added to the list.
Many of us have read the articles about European Honey Bees and how their numbers have crashed. Well native bees and many other native pollinators are also in dire straits. Here’s our chance to get Neonicotinoids out of NJ! If you’re unaware of Neonicotinoids, be sure to read Jack Connor’s recent Blog post on South Jersey Butterfly B/Log.
Click on Jean Riling’s document above (Four NJ Bills of Interest as of June 2014) to read more and learn how you can voice your support.
Monarch on Meadow Blazing Star with Purple Coneflowers beyond (both are Chocolate Cakes, irresistible to pollinators)
This is the 23rd year I’ve been leading these tours of private backyard wildlife gardens. And they just keep getting yummier and yummier!
Mark your calendar with the following dates & plan to join me for one, several, or all NINE of the 2014 “Tours of Private Wildlife Gardens” (pdf) that I will again be leading for NJ Audubon’s Nature Center of Cape May.
Alert your friends, family, neighbors, … anyone you’re trying to HOOK on wildlife gardening!
We’ll be visiting 18 gardens over a 3-day period – six delightful and unique gardens each day. These wildlife-friendly gardens offer so many ideas in the way of design, use of space, plant combinations, native plants that are lovely AND beneficial to wildlife, “chocolate cake” nectar plants, key caterpillar plants, great native shrub ideas, “how to” create your own meadow ideas, garden accents and features like misters, dragonfly ponds, arbors . . .
Imagine getting a glimpse into private backyard wildlife gardens, interacting with the artists who created them, having each and every garden and wildlife question answered, enjoying it with a group of fellow wildlife gardeners, all while being entertained by buzzing and hungry and feisty hummingbirds, dazzling dragonflies, glittering butterflies and other pollinators! Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it ? !
Enjoy a SNEAK PEAK (South Tour, North Tour, Mid-County Tour) into some of the gardens we’ve visited in the past. I’ve updated these links to include many new gardens added in recent years.
Pollinators galore (Sachem and Bumble Bee) are drawn to Purple Coneflower
More butterfly and hummingbird gardens are tucked into Cape May County than probably anywhere else in the country. Mid-July is the time of peak butterfly diversity and numbers. Gardens look completely different from one month to the next (so seriously consider all 9 tours). Learn the magic combination of native nectar plants and caterpillar plants that makes a garden especially attractive to butterflies. Design ideas and new wildlife plants will be showcased while tour participants are entertained by a blizzard of butterflies and hummingbirds.
Tours of Private HUMMINGBIRD Gardens — 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird nectaring on Bee Balm
At the peak of Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration, we’ll savor an array of diverse gardens that have hosted nesting hummingbirds since May and are now drawing in dozens of migrants. Native nectar plants, healthy insect populations, water sources, and adequate cover are key elements of each garden.
Tours of Private MONARCH (butterfly) Gardens — 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Monarchs and a hungry Preying Mantis have come to dine on New England Aster
At the peak of Cape May County’s world-famous fall Monarch migration, tour diverse gardens that have hosted Monarchs since May. Each features native nectar plants and as many as five different kinds of milkweed (used by Monarchs for egg laying to create the next generation). With the downward spiral of the Monarch population, time will tell, but we hope our gardens will be hosting Monarchs and Monarch eggs, caterpillars, and maybe even a chrysalis. The complex Monarch migration will be both explained and enjoyed. Fall gardens will be full of other butterflies and many interesting pollinators.
TOUR DETAILS AND PRICING
Gardening naturalist and author, Pat Sutton, leads these tours, which include her own garden in Goshen (North tour). Bring lunch since the group will eat in one of the gardens.
If some of you are keen to create a butterfly & hummingbird garden, be sure to download the article & plant list I wrote / created:
Limit: 25 per tour. Nine Tours / Cost per tour: $35 members (NJ Audubon), $45 nonmembers. (Join three tours at a discounted rate of $90 members, $115 nonmembers.) These tours require preregistration with payment.
Registration: you may register by phone at 609.898.8848 with a credit card or send payment to the Nature Center of Cape May, 1600 Delaware Avenue, Cape May, NJ 08204 (noting which tours and full names, addresses, and phone numbers of registrants).
NCCM reserves the right to cancel programs, and refunds are available only if NCCM cancels the event. Walk-ins are welcome on a space-available basis. Become a member of NJAS and receive discounts in the gift shop and on many programs.
In nearly all my programs and workshops I recommend adding a MISTER to your wildlife habitat. This suggestion is often met with some confused looks, so I thought I’d follow it up here with some photos that can help walk you through it and understand how simple it can be. NO ELECTRICITY needed, just a hose connection.
Why a mister, you may ask?
A mister can serve a dual purpose: (1) offering a place for songbirds, including hummingbirds, to bathe, and (2) moistening an otherwise dry part of your garden where you can plant goodies under it that like wet feet, like Cardinal Flower, Swamp Milkweed, Turtlehead, etc.
Misters are especially crucial during rainless summers when everything is bone dry. To a hummingbird, a bird bath is like the Atlantic Ocean and they’ll never use it. Instead hummingbirds need rain showers, garden sprinklers (which few of us use because we’ve planted NATIVES which need little pampering), or A MISTER!
Set up properly, a mister mists down from a nice height over leaves and plants beneath it, drawing in hummingbirds that will fly through it to take a bath or roll around on wet leaves below to bathe, as will warblers and other songbirds as well. We’ve seen some of our neatest garden visitors at the mister!
American Redstart (a warbler) bathing under our misterGray Catbird bathing under our misterCarolina Chickadee bathing under our misterYelow Warbler bathing under our mister on all the wet Pokeweed leaves. We happily let Pokeweed flourish in the shade under our pines where nothing else easily grows – it’s an incredible bird food and a stunning native plant
Do I need Electricity? NO!
NO electricity needed . . . just a hose connectionBe sure that you buy a mister that has 50-60 feet of tubing so you can wind it up a tree and out a branch.Simply turn your hose on in the morn and off at dusk or set up a hose faucet timer to accomplish that automatically
You can set your mister up on a hose faucet timer so that it comes on in the early morning and goes off at dusk (or whenever it suits you), or you can simply turn the hose on that is connected to your mister when you want it to come on and turn that hose off when you want it to stop misting (as we do). We turn ours off at dusk. Obviously, on rainy days we don’t turn it on.
Where Oh Where Can I Find a Mister?
Misters are sometimes sold at Nature Centers. Be sure you find one that has 50-60 feet of 1/4 ” black tubing (along with the special mister unit at the end); that way you can easily snake it up into a tree and out to the end of a branch so the mist mists out over a nice-sized area.
On line, a few places I found them available were:
Another product I’ve been told about, but not yet tried is a Fan Mister, like the average person might use around their swimming pool. Wildlife gardeners can adapt one and use it as a bird mister. Here’s one (and apparently they’re available at places like Lowes and Home Depot when all the summer stufffffffffffffffff is out):
I just returned from a far and distant land where thousands upon thousands of butterflies filled the many native plant wildlife gardens that I visited during my 10-day stay, which included the 18th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival.
Many of the butterflies were exotic (to me) southern species that just make it into the United States.
Since my first visit in 1979 to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, I’ve made 7 additional trips. That first visit in 1979 was kind of scary. It was in spring and Clay and I witnessed major fallouts of Broad-winged Hawks and other migrant birds at places like Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Exiting the refuge and looking north we cringed. Farm fields stretched as far as we could see without a tree or hedgerow in sight. How could these migrants survive once they left refuges like Santa Ana NWR?
Mexican Bluewing
Thirty-four years later I am hopeful and hugely impressed with favorable changes to the landscape in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, changes that include natural corridors of native plants running between many of the protected parcels. The official Birding & Butterfly Map of the Rio Grande Valley (available for free at nature centers throughout the Valley) directs visitors and residents to 86 sites, many of which have extensive butterfly gardens planted with native nectar and host plants benefiting all pollinators and attracting insect-eating birds galore.
The area is a bonanza for those of us in the north, whose gardens have been quiet for a good month.
Drought gardening is the new normal. Here’s our garden July 6, 2010, during a lengthy, blistering hot and rainless stretch.
With rain so precious and drought gardening being the new normal, I wanted to know exactly how much rainfall my garden received.
So I joined the “Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS),” bought my official rain gauge for $25, and began collecting rainfall data during the recent nor’easter. I tallied a total of 4.02″ of rain between October 7-13, 2013. WOW!
Read all about it in my October 2013 Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens post, “Rainfall: How Much?”.
And consider joining CoCoRaHS to contribute additional data for a more complete picture (details in my post).
In nearly all my programs and workshops I recommend adding a MISTER to your wildlife habitat. This suggestion is often met with some confused looks, so I thought I’d follow it up here with some photos that can help walk you through it and understand how simple it can be. NO ELECTRICITY needed, just a hose connection.
