HOMEWORK WEEK #3

My plant choices so far are from what I have learned in class and what plants we have donated to us at the Conservation Center

We are each being asked to draw a plan and submit it. based on all the ideas a master plan will be developed. This is what I have so far!

HOMEWORK WK #4

Today I submitted my plan along with the other participating volunteers. This site forms a natural bathtub so we are not digging. We laid out cardboard and covered it with topsoil that was donated today. Next week we will build up the bed with leaf humus and sweet soil and tamp it all flat in the center a create a berm at the far end away from the parking lot.

I chose plants that the Center already has in a holding bed which created an interesting challenge with some of the more prairie type plants. We were asked to stick to native plants that can serve double duty as habitat and food for birds and pollinators. It was also requested that we include native ground covers for the edges to reduce maintenance. Some sort of feature that children could play on was also requested hence the river stone among the rock rubble and the stumps in the shaded area of the wild ginger.

This is amazing!!! Wonderful.

You might have already bought plants. In which case ignore my advice, because really, it is fine. But I have two small points.

1) The Wild Ginger won't like so much sun. It is full sun, with a small Maple sapling, right? You might use a different ground cover instead. Maybe Wild Strawberry, or Common Cinquefoil?

2) There is a lot of tall things. You might swap one out for a shorter plant. Especially right next to the tall shrubs, it might look nicer to have something shorter.

But it looks fantastic! I love it.

And like I said, feel free to ignore my advice. :)

Thank you Susan— we have not purchased plants yet so I will heed your advise about the wild ginger. We don’t plant until September so we have time!

Yeah, no to wild ginger as a sun groundcover. We use barren strawberry for our rain garden, Geum fragarioides. It's not a fast spreader though. Also a low growing St. John's wort, although it is not native. Not invasive where I live, but not native.

St. John's wort is a good idea I pinkmountain! There is a nice, low native groundcover Kalm's St. John's Wort that is native. Hypericum kalmianum. Beautiful plant. You can find it at native plant nurseries. I found it at Wildtype in Mason, MI.

Yeah I get a lot of free plants from staff and volunteers. So far I have not exhausted all the possibilities of things that will survive the soil and deer. I had kinnickinnick/bearberry ( Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) at my last house. It was very hardy of all kinds of abuse but not a fast spreader either. I don't see it much around for sale. I have also purchased many plants from Wildtype. Great plants there! When one has the opportunity to shop there on their days open for retail customers.