Category: Garden

Zizia Aurea (Golden Alexander)

Welcome to ChooseSustainable.org where we explore ways of living sustainably. In this series of short posts I present a native plant to encourage everybody to abandon our traditional way of gardening (basically a continuous fight against nature) and engage in sustainable gardening practices that nurture the ecosystem, sustain wildlife and foster biodiversity.

In this post I’ll talk about a native flowering plant of the carrot family: Zizia Aurea (Golden Alexander).

Golden Alexander tolerates dry soil and spreads quickly

Quick facts:

  • Zones:3-8
  • Bloom time: Spring (April-June)
  • Sun: Sunny to part sunny
  • Soil Moisture: Medium, Dry
  • Aggressive: YES
  • Front yard: YES
  • Height: 3’
  • Status: OK
  • Maintenance: MEDIUM (It spreads aggressively and may need deadheading)
  • Wildlife value: High

Wildlife connection: This plant attracts many insects, including small flies, bees, and bumblebees. It is also the host plant for a few varieties of the swallowtail butterflies and some varieties of moths.

I planted a few small golden alexanders some years ago in a dry patch of my backyard mostly hoping to attract the black swallowtail. My efforts have been rewarded as shown in the picture below.

The caterpillar of a black swallowtail feeds on golden alexander

The plants grew very quickly and took over the area that was assigned to them. In addition they appear to expand aggressively through reseeding, for this reason some effort to keep them in check is required.

The green leaves emerge in early spring and by mid-May the plant is in full bloom providing early food to many insects. The yellow flowers are fairly large and even from far away the plant has a nice full appearance. After the bloom is over the leaves last through the summer. I usually cut them back in late summer if they grow too much.

Flowers of golden alexander

If you have a rough patch in your yard that you want to fill up quickly this plant is a good choice. It may be possible to grow it from seeds, although I never tried. The plant is hardy, we have been in a drought for 2 years and it seems to do just fine. Because golden alexander is quite aggressive, I suggest to provide it with its own space. Additionally, one can deadhead the flowers before seeds are released .

Golden alexander attracts black swallowtail butterflies

Please make sure to purchase native flowers from nurseries that don’t use neonicotinoids and look out for the full botanical name to avoid cultivars.

Would you like to talk about a native plant in your backyard? Please send me your post at info@choosesustainable.org

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Prunus serotina (Black cherry)

Welcome to ChooseSustainable.org where we explore ways of living sustainably. In this series of short posts I present a native plant to encourage everybody to abandon our traditional way of gardening (basically a continuous fight against nature) and engage in sustainable gardening practices that nurture the ecosystem, sustain wildlife, and foster biodiversity.

In this post I’ll talk about a large cherry tree: Prunus Serotina (Black Cherry).

A young black cherry in my backyard. Mature trees grow up to 60′-80′ (18-25 m).

Quick facts:

  • Zones:3-7
  • Bloom time: Early spring (Apr-May)
  • Sun: Sunny area to shade
  • Soil Moisture: Wet-dry
  • Aggressive: NO
  • Front yard: YES
  • Height: (60-80’)
  • Status: OK
  • Maintenance: NONE
  • Wildlife value: Very High

Wildlife connection: A host of insects, birds and mammals depend on this tree for survival. The early flowers provide food for many species of bees and bumblebees, along with smaller insects. The leaves provide food for the caterpillars of several butterflies and moths and for a large variety of beetles. The fruits are extremely important for birds and mammals such as foxes, raccoons, opossums, chipmunks and squirrels.

I consider myself very lucky because I had a large black cherry in my yard. The tree was able to survive the invasive buckthorn and, after the buckthorn was cleared, two new small trees emerged. The large tree died last year, but the young trees are growing fast.

The leaves of this tree are bright green and shiny. If you look at them up close you will notice that many leaves have bumps and holes. There is no need to worry, it just means that the tree is serving its purpose and it is being used by insects, as it should be.

The presence of holes and galls suggests that insects have been using the leaves.

In mid spring (mid to late May in my yard) the tree blossoms with nice white flowers that unfortunately don’t last very long, perhaps 2-3 weeks. In summer the flowers are replaced by small black cherries that look more like berries. It is hard to catch a glimpse of them as they quickly disappear, eaten by birds.

The flowers of black cherry in mid-late May

The importance of this tree to the ecosystem is hard to overstate and it is on the same level as the oak’s. Both trees provide to the essential needs of a large number of species. If you do have some room in your yard and are thinking of planting a tree, Prunus serotina is an excellent choice for conservation.

The tiger swallowtail is just one of the many creatures that rely on black cherry for survival. I wonder if this one was born on my tree

Please make sure to purchase native flowers from nurseries that don’t use neonicotinoids and look out for the full botanical name to avoid cultivars. The YouChoose App provides resources and several links to useful sites for sustainable gardening.

Would you like to talk about a native plant in your backyard? Please send me your post at info@choosesustainable.org and if you liked this post please share it with others.

Why we should remove invasive plants

Welcome to YouChoose, a blog about individual climate action. This week I would like to talk about invasive plants and why we should remove them from our backyards.

In this post we’ll focus on buckthorn, honeysuckle, and garlic mustard, of which I have extensive experience, however this same argument can apply to other invasive plants in other regions.

Because my property borders with a neighboring subdivision, one side of the yard was left wooded presumably as a delimiter between the subdivisions. The area was infested with buckthorn, honeysuckle, and garlic mustard. These plants had created a thick border between the two properties. Honestly I wasn’t aware of their devastating effects on the native oaks. For this reason I left them unchecked for many years, thinking that they provided a nice thick screening, until I realized that I was contributing to the destruction of Illinois ecosystem.

After the offenders were removed other plants could grow, such as the elderberry that still provides a nice screening between the properties in addition to having a high value for wildlife.

A couple of red cardinals enjoys the buckthorn-free wooded area in the backyard. Can you spot the female?

Unfortunately my yard was nothing exceptional, I see a lot of buckthorn left between backyards and between backyards and roads. Therefore, let’s first review here the reasons why it is important that we do our part and remove these plants.

Garlic mustard (alliaria petiolata)
Here is a small garlic mustard plant in early spring.

Garlic mustard is an aggressive invasive herb imported from Eurasia. It has a two-year lifecycle and it spreads aggressively in wooded area. It can quickly occupy large areas of a forest and it does not allow other native plants to germinate. For these reasons it is responsible for the decline in population of many woodland species.

Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)
Buckthorn plant

Buckthorn is an aggressive shrub originating from Europe. It quickly spreads in shaded areas. Leaves are developed early in the season and they last until late fall, thereby casting a shade that doesn’t allow sunshine to reach the younger oaks. The emergence of early leaves impacts the bloom of spring ephemerals. In addition these plants grow densely, reducing the growth and survival of native shrubs and trees.

Buckthorn affects the chemical composition of the soil making it inhospitable to other plants. The plant produces thousands of seeds that are also spread to remote areas by birds. The larger impact is the destruction of oak forests and the entire ecosystem that depends on them.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera family)
Honeysuckle plant

Just like buckthorn honeysuckle is a fast- growing shrub or vine from Eurasia. It has a devastating effect on the forests of the Midwest because it spreads quickly, grows leaves early and doesn’t allow other plants to emerge. I have first-hand experience of the infesting capability of this plant which is in my opinion worse than that of buckthorn.

Other regions may have different invasive species, however their impact on the ecosystem is similar. Wherever you are, you should research whether invasive plants are present in your yard. If you do have them, but are hesitant (as I was) to remove them because you like the screening or the look they provide, I strongly encourage you to go ahead and replace them with native shrubs. The damages produced by these foreign species far outweigh the few advantages that they may procure.

By removing these invasive species from your yard, you will be doing a great service to the ecosystem and to our Earth and by replacing them with native species you will provide food and shelter to many creatures.

Here is a list of alternatives to buckthorn
  • Dogwood (Cornus rugosa, Cornus alterifolia)
  • Serviceberry (Amelancher arborea, Amelanchier laevis)
  • Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis)
  • Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago)
  • Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpia)
  • Spice Bush (Lindera Benzoin)
  • Sumac (Rhus Glabra, Rhus Aromatica and similar)

The YouChoose App provides several great links to resources on native plants. If you have an android phone you can download the app from Google Play using the link on the right.

 In the next post we’ll discuss identification and removal techniques.

Do you want to share your experience? Send me an email at info@choosesustainable.org

Start a native garden: Motivation

Welcome to YouChoose, a blog where we explore ways of living sustainably. This week I would like to share the first steps we can take towards sustainable gardening. There are many topics to be discussed on this subject and I plan to share several postings about my journey to achieve a 100% sustainable backyard.

The focus of this post is motivation. It is important to be confident that our efforts make a difference. My experience bears witness to this fact: I have seen my backyard quickly transform from a lawn wasteland to an ecosystem full of life.

After-A part of the tall prairie section in my backyard
Before-My backyard as it was with the traditional suburban landscape

Here is just a quick overview, we’ll go into the details in future posts.

QUICK TIPS TO START – STEPS to DO

  • Be motivated and be sure that your efforts make a difference
  • Don’t be overwhelmed; small steps go a long way
  • Remove invasive plants (if any)
  • Reduce the amount of lawn in the yard
  • Plant native forbs and shrubs
  • Provide wildlife with places to live and shelter
  • Plant native trees
  • Provide water

QUICK TIPS TO START – things to AVOID

  • Being obsessed with lawn appearance
  • Being afraid of making mistakes
  • Using herbicides or pre-emergent chemicals
  • Using pesticides
  • Collecting and disposing of leaves

My neighborhood is a typical Midwest suburban neighborhood with single family homes surrounded by yards landscaped with lawn (a lot of it) and mulched areas planted with evergreens, roses, and plants readily available at general home improvement stores or nurseries. As a foreigner in a foreign land my initial efforts were devolved to maintaining what was found. Therefore, I joined the chorus, hired a lawn maintenance company to take care of the lawn and visited local nurseries or whatever was nearby to purchase familiar plants: roses, azaleas, peony, etc. Plant diseases or parasites were treated with chemicals recommended by the nurseries and, occasionally, a mosquito treatment kept the yard free of bugs.

It is likely that my experience mirrors the one of many homeowners. It was only later that I realized that the weed-free, picture-perfect look of the suburban homes is achieved at a very high environmental cost. The perfect lawn is maintained by pouring herbicides and fertilizers, in addition to constant mowing. The weed-free mulched areas are loaded with pre-emergent chemicals, and the bug-free backyard requires the use of non-selective pesticides that have repercussions on the entire food chain of the creatures living (or better trying to survive) in our backyards.

The eye opener for me came one day when I was going for a walk in the neighborhood and came across a road that was developed on one side and undeveloped on the other. The developed side had new homes surrounded by a luscious lawn of an intense green. The mulched areas were planted with flowers of almost a neon color that matched some of the house details, nothing was out of place, the whole view was studied to the detail. The undeveloped side in the front was filled with milkweed and other tall grasses and had the messy look of the summer prairie. When I stopped and listened, the developed part was dead silent, not a buzz to be heard, not a bug to be seen; the undeveloped side was a concert of sounds and voices of creatures living there.  This was when the realization came to me, that my move into a suburban acre was forcing all the other creatures living there to move out or die. I was depriving many species of food and shelter and was poisoning the soil and water.

Since that day my yard has changed very much and it is still an ongoing effort. I have also become addicted to bugs and can’t stop taking pictures of them and being amazed at their shapes and colors.

Hummingbird feeding on Silene Regia and hummingbird moth feeding on Asclepia Siriaca

Are you ready to start the transition? Don’t wait and don’t be afraid of the messy look, there are wonderful native plants that are perfect for the front yard. My only regret is that I didn’t start earlier. It takes about 3 growing seasons to go from nothing to an initial blooming backyard.

In a next post we’ll discuss the first step: How to identify and remove invasive plants.

Do you want to share your motivation for starting a native gardening? Send me an email at info@choosesustainable.org

Amelanchier Arborea (Downy Serviceberry)

Welcome to ChooseSustainable.org where we explore ways of living sustainably. In this series of short posts I present a native plant to encourage everybody to abandon our traditional way of gardening (basically a continuous fight against nature) and engage in sustainable gardening practices that nurture the ecosystem, sustain wildlife and foster biodiversity.

In this post I’ll talk about a small tree I planted in my yard a few years ago: Amelanchier Arborea (Downy Serviceberry).

Quick facts:

  • Zones:4-9
  • Bloom time: Early spring (March-May)
  • Sun: Sunny area to shade
  • Soil Moisture: Medium, Wet
  • Aggressive: NO
  • Front yard: YES
  • Height: (15-25’) But it can vary
  • Status: OK
  • Maintenance: NONE
  • Wildlife value: High

Wildlife connection: The trunk, flowers, leaves, and fruits of this plant are very important for wildlife. Serviceberry is the host plant to caterpillars of several butterflies and moths. Several other insects use this plant for their larvae. The flowers attract bees, honeybees, and other early insects and the berries are food to birds and small mammals.

I planted a very small serviceberry tree in my backyard several years ago. Not being very familiar with the plant I placed it in a location where it was unhappy. Thinking in retrospect, the soil was probably too dry. Although the plant is tolerant of a wide range of soil moisture it prefers moist and well drained soil.

After waiting for a few seasons I decided to transplant it to a different location. Since then the tree has been growing better and this year it bloomed for the first time.

If you are looking for a small tree, Serviceberry is a very good choice. Its size makes it suitable for small yards but it can be a nice decorative addition to a big yard as well. It provides early spring flowers, fruits, and foliage color in fall and it seems fairly low maintenance. The spring flowers are particularly important for early bees, when other flowers are still not available.

Please make sure to purchase native flowers from nurseries that don’t use neonicotinoids and look out for the full botanical name to avoid cultivars. Contact me for suggestions on where to buy.

Would you like to talk about a native plant in your backyard? Please send me your post at info@choosesustainable.org

Viola Sororia (Common Violet)

Welcome to ChooseSustainable.org where we explore ways of living sustainably. In this series of short posts I present a native plant to encourage everybody to abandon our traditional way of gardening (basically a continuous fight against nature) and engage in sustainable gardening practices that nurture the ecosystem, sustain wildlife and foster biodiversity.

In this post I’ll talk about a spring flower that comes up in my backyard: Viola Sororia (Common violet).

Quick facts:

  • Zones:3-9
  • Bloom time: Early spring (March-May)
  • Sun: Sunny area to shade
  • Soil Moisture: Medium, Dry
  • Aggressive: YES (but keep in mind it is a 3 inch plant)
  • Front yard: YES
  • Height: (3-4’’)
  • Status: OK
  • Maintenance: NONE
  • Wildlife value: High

Wildlife connection: Viola sororia is the host plant of several marvelous butterflies whose populations have been declining. The caterpillars of at least five different  Fritillary butterflies feed on the foliage, the seeds are attractive to ants. Several birds and small mammals eat the seeds and occasionally the leaves of this plants. Read more at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/fritillary.shtml

I wasn’t really thinking of writing this post until last week when I was placing an order to purchase a few violets for the front yard and did a quick internet search on common violet. I was surprised and saddened to read the conversations about this little plant and felt that it deserves better than the constant disdain it gets. The discussions around this flower usually include terminology such as weed, extirpate, smother, eradicate and similar. One is even warned not be fooled by its innocent look! I quickly realized I was dealing with the public enemy #1 of the gardening world.

Apparently the unforgivable crime of this tiny warrior is that it refuses to die and go extinct like so many other less resilient native plants. In some posts the plant is tagged as an invasive! However if we look at the definition of invasive plants from the USDA we find that an “invasive species” is defined as a species that is:

  1. Non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration; and,
  2. Whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

Our little viola sororia is a native plant, which means it was here before we Europeans even arrived, and it doesn’t cause any harm to anybody. It is actually an edible and medicinal plant. In addition, as the host plant of several butterflies, is beneficial to the environment. By this definition we humans are a more invasive species than the viola sororia!

In fact the gentle violet has been gracing our landscapes for thousand of years. Known in ancient Greece as ion, the violet was borne from an act of kindness of our Mother Earth (the goddess Gaia) to feed Io, a young girl turned into a cow by the always vengeful Greek gods. It speaks a lot of our gardening habits the fact that a gift from our Earth, a symbol of  love and gentleness has become the object of so much hatred.

I welcome violets in my yard wherever they come up, usually in patches here, there, and everywhere. Hopefully this short post will inspire others to see violets in a different light, to see that they have an important purpose and perhaps to stop and think before removing them. By letting this ancient flower thrive in your yard you will be feeding small herbivores and birds, and you will be sustaining a declining population of butterflies. If you think your efforts won’t make a difference think again. For the first time this past summer I was able to snap a picture of a Fritillary in my backyard.

Welcome back dear violets, resist, I am glad you haven’t become another casualty of our suburban gardening.

Please make sure to purchase native flowers from nurseries that don’t use neonicotinoids and look out for the full botanical name to avoid cultivars. Contact me for suggestions on where to buy.

Would you like to talk about a native plant in your backyard? Please send me your post at info@choosesustainable.org

Pulsatilla Patens (Eastern Pasqueflower)

Welcome to ChooseSustainable.org where we explore ways of living sustainably. Spring is here and I would like to share my first gardening post. This is the first short post in which I present a native plant to encourage everybody to abandon our traditional way of gardening (basically a continuous fight against nature) and engage in sustainable gardening practices that nurture the ecosystem, sustain wildlife and foster biodiversity.

More on this later, now I want to talk about one of the first spring flower that come up in my backyard: Pulsatilla Patens (Eastern Pasqueflower).

Quick facts:

  • Zones:3-6
  • Bloom time: Early spring (April)
  • Sun: Sunny area or partial shade
  • Soil Moisture: Medium, Dry
  • Aggressive: NO
  • Front yard: YES
  • Height: (3-4’’)
  • Status: OK
  • Maintenance: NONE
  • Wildlife value: High

Every spring around March, after I do the spring cutting of the tall prairie plants, I anxiously await the first signs of spring in the garden. By the end of March as soon as the snow clears, I search for my beloved Pasqueflowers and feel very happy when I see them coming back, among the first to announce the arrival of spring. Pulsatilla Patens is one of the spring ephemerals. For many suburban inhabitants of the Midwest gardening season starts at the end of May, on Memorial Day, however for native gardeners the season starts much earlier, at the beginning of March. Spring ephemeral for all their understated and brief beauty play a very important role in sustaining the ecosystem and I encourage everybody to plant large amounts of these perennials. I have neglected spring ephemeral in my garden but am planning to substantially increase their number this year.

Of course, one may say we have plenty of early bloomers, daffodils, hyacinths and tulips, but none of them serves the important task that the native early spring flowers accomplish, which is to provide food to the first insects that come out of hibernation. Last year I planted a bunch more and I am hoping to see them come back this year.  This little flower makes a great addition to the front yard, it is very well behaved, doesn’t spread (I wish it did) and will also go very well in the mulched area under trees.

If you plant this little jewel in your yard, you’ll see early bees flocking to it when everything else is still dormant. Please make sure to purchase native flowers from nurseries that don’t use neonicotinoids and look out for the full botanical name to avoid cultivars. Contact me for suggestions on where to buy.