Bayscape Blog 09/07/11

Time to Tackle Your Garden

September has arrived, school is back in session, and all that’s left of summer is the 1000 photos you took on summer vacation. If you are a gardener that’s all good news! Fall is the best time of all in the garden. The weather is starting to cool, so you can tackle all those projects you tried to do in July when it was over 100 degrees. Summer flowers are fading and as you cut off the spent foliage look for any empty spots that could use additional plants. Take some time to assess your garden to see what worked and what didn’t work this growing season and also what plants made you work. Then, let the fun begin, and get some new plants for your garden.

Yes, fall is the best time to add new plants to your landscape. If you are buying plants there are lots of sales going on, because retailers don’t want to care for plants over the winter. If you are looking for “free” plants, try trading with fellow gardeners. Many are digging and dividing now and have lots of extras to trade or give away. The weather is good for planting and there is enough time before winter weather arrives for the plants to adapt to their new home.

No matter if you are starting a new garden or renovating an existing one, the hardest part is selecting new plants. Where do you start? It can be really difficult to limit your choices. There are so many worthy plants available and we gardeners want them all! Make the process easier by choosing native plants. Read through the older posts on this blog to get ideas. You are sure to find some sensational natives to add to your garden.

The goal of any garden should be to have at least three seasons of interest, another good reason to turn to natives. Many natives have multiple seasons of interest. A good example is the native shrub chokeberry (Aronia). It has clusters of small white flowers in the spring, followed by a spectacular display of red berries that last from late summer until the end of winter and great red fall color too. Try a viburnum dentatum, with white flowers in spring, dark blue-black fruit in late summer and sizzling red fall color. For flowers, choose native perennials with long bloom times, interesting seed heads and good fall color. For additional interest in your landscape select flowers that will attract butterflies or hummingbirds. Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberose) will guarantee monarch butterflies and hummingbirds love cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received for choosing plants is “don’t fight the sight”. In other words, choose a plant that works in your space instead of choosing a plant and then trying to change the space so that the plant will survive there. Put sun lovers in sun and shade lovers in shade. If the plant is drought tolerant don’t plant it in a spot that is irrigated. If you have a wet site in your garden go with plants that enjoy wet feet. Plants will be happier, healthier, look better and require much less of your time.

Remember to become a Shore Steward. You don’t have to live on the shore to make a difference in the quality of the water flowing into Barnegat Bay. So this month don’t landscape, Bayscape. Choosing native plants will give you a beautiful landscape that requires no fertilization, so there will be much less pollution flowing into the waterways. Go to www.littoralsociety.org for more information.

Bayscape Blog 8/10/11

The Beauty and Benefits of Native Plants

By Judy DeFiglio

I just returned from the vacation of a lifetime, a fantastic trip to Alaska. I expected breath taking scenery, mountains, glaciers and lots of wild life and it did not disappoint. It is a truly majestic place, where you feel the power of nature like nowhere else. What I didn’t expect, was the enormous amount of flowers. Native plants were blooming everywhere, from Fairbanks to Ketchikan. What a spectacular sight.

I had the opportunity to go on a nature hike up the side of Mount Roberts in Juneau, and there, at 1800 feet, I was surrounded by a sub alpine meadow full of blooms. What was even more amazing, I recognized most of them. There were many of the same wildflowers we have in New Jersey or close cousins. Imagine my surprise, to travel to the other side of North America and see the same plants I have been growing in my garden! Of course they were blooming at a different time. Many of our spring bloomers were blooming in late July.

The difference I noted was that in Alaska not only do these native plants spring up all over in the wild, but also, everyone grows them in their gardens as well. Alaskans seem to understand the beauty of native plants and the benefits of including them in their landscape. The growing season is short but the summer days are long with eighteen to twenty hours of sunlight. You do see lots of container gardens filled with traditional annual bedding plants to provide constant color for those few short months, but for their gardens they choose natives because they know that the natives will survive the long, brutal winter and be back next year.

The Alaskan gardener also gardens for the wildlife. They are sure to plant natives that attract birds and lots of plants that produce berries to provide a food source for animals. Blueberry bushes are as popular in Alaska as they are in New Jersey.

Maybe we need to take a lesson from our 49^th State- accept the climate we live in and grow the plants that are happy here, instead of importing non natives that will never grow properly or become invasive and threaten our environment. We all need to do our part to save our waterways. Planting native plants in your garden is an easy, beneficial, and beautiful way to help. No fertilizer= no fertilizer runoff.

The natives in my garden are thriving despite the weeks of 100 degree weather, not so the few remaining exotics. I was fortunate to miss the heat wave will I was in Alaska, needing hat and gloves to visit the snow and ice covered glaciers. Since I wasn’t home, my garden was on its own. I’m happy to say that flowering in my garden right now are:

Perennials: Black-eyed-Susans (Rudbeckia), Blanket flower (Gaillardia), Blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), Gayfeather (Liatris), Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum), Phlox (Phlox paniculata), Purple coneflower (Echinacea), Rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), Threadleaf tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata)

Shrub: Sweet pepper bush (Clethra alnifolia), Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) Many other native shrubs are starting their berry display.

Bayscape Blog 7/11/11

The Butterfly Bonus

by

Judy DeFiglio

Last week I shared with you, my joy at watching a family of hummingbirds visit my Monarda all day long. Today, I want to keep the (garden) party going and add the bonus of butterflies. As I walked around the garden yesterday pulling some weeds and seeing if anything new was blooming, I was delighted by so many different butterflies gliding around my garden. What a sight! The flowers were gorgeous, so plentiful this year, but the extra splashes of color from the butterflies just added the crowning touch. What did I do to create this masterpiece of nature? I just planted the native plants that butterflies need and love.

Back in the blog of 9/27/10, Butterflies in Your Garden, I described what a butterfly needs to make your garden its home. This blog I want to focus on the flowers that you can grow to attract the butterflies. These plants are mostly for sunny spots because butterflies need the sun to be able to fly. Grow a variety of plants that bloom at different times and you will provide food for the different butterfly and their larvae throughout the season.

Spring blooming Bluestar(Amsonia tabernaemontana), has pretty, light blue star shaped flowers on 3 foot tall stems. It is an early nectar source for several butterflies. The foliage has good yellow fall color.

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) tops the list if you want to attract monarch butterflies. This bright orange flowered plant loves it hot and dry. It grows 12 to 30 inches tall and thrives in our sandy soil. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnate) is another milkweed that attracts monarchs. It grows 2 to 3 feet tall and as the name implies, likes a wetter site. The flowers are pink.

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) grows 2 to 3 feet tall with large, dark pink flowers and provides nectar for a wide variety of butterflies (pictured above). It blooms all summer long. Another summer bloomer that looks good with coneflower in your garden and attracts many different butterflies is blazing star (Liastris spicata). The 3 to 4 foot tall spikes of pinkish-purple flowers add a great accent to your landscape design.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) are the workhorse of any summer garden. The long lasting, bright yellow flowers are drought tolerant. Butterflies love them and so do I.

If you have the space, Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum) will bring monarchs and swallowtails to your garden. This great plant with pinky, fuzzy flowers can grow up to 8 feet tall and like moist soil.

Asters (Asrer novae-angliae) are a great choice to attract butterflies later in the season. They can grow up to five feet tall, and the violet flowers look great in a fall garden. Another late bloomer that butterflies love is goldenrod (Solidago). The abundant, golden yellow flowers add a burst of color when most everything else in your garden has given up (and no they don’t cause hayfever).

Try some of these native plants in your garden. Not only will you get beautiful flowers, but also the added bonus of butterflies. Isn’t it wonderful that doing something so good for the birds, bees, butterflies and Barnegat Bay can bring such beauty and joy to ourselves too.

One of the jewels in my garden. Happy 4th of July

Bayscape Blog 6/1/11


The Jewels in My Garden

By Judy DeFiglio



I woke up to the perfect summer day today. Sunny and warm with a soft breeze and no humidity, it can’t get better than this. No wait, it did get better! I stepped out on the deck to enjoy my morning tea and was greeted by this amazing addition to my garden. Sparkling like a jewel in the sunshine, this industrious hummingbird was hard at work among the monarda. He even stayed long enough for me to run inside for my camera. What a beautiful way to start the day.

This is the kind of bonus you get when you plant natives in your garden. You can attract hummingbirds to your yard without having to bother with feeders, having to boil sugar water and washing out the tubes. Plant beebalm (monarda) and the hummingbirds come. Monarda is easy to grow and is very fragrant both the flowers and the leaves. It does belong to the mint family and can spread quickly. It is not difficult to remove but still, I plant it in lean soil and do not water or fertilize it.

Another native that attracts hummingbirds is gayfeather (Liatris). These three feet tall spires of rosy-purple flowers look great planted with coneflowers (Echinacea) and black-eyed-Susans (Rudbeckia) in a summer garden. Liatris also attracts a variety of butterflies. It’s easy to grow and easy to care for.

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is a hummingbird magnet. The bright, red, tubular flowers are one of their favorites (and one of mine too). This native tends to be short-lived, but it is so pretty it is well worth it for however long it stays around. It does needs moist soil, so it is a good plant for a wet site or rain garden.

Hummingbirds will also visit your garden if you plant our native columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis). They are an important source of nectar because they bloom at the time that the hummingbirds are migrating north in the spring. I love these red and yellow flowers with their interesting spurs.

If you are looking for a flowering shrub that attracts hummingbirds, sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) is a great choice. This is a versatile plant that will grow in sun or shade and in wet or dry sites. The white flowers are fragrant and there is a pink form available. One cultivar is aptly named “Hummingbird”.

Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) is a hardy, fast growing vine that will grow in any soil. It can take dry, infertile soil and even salt spray from the ocean, but do not plant this one in fertile soil or it will take over your garden. That being said it is a spectacular native plant and hummingbirds love the large red trumpet shaped flowers. Grow it on something sturdy. It can be pruned back if it gets too large.

Try one or all of these native plants in your landscape and enjoy the extra special treat of these jeweled visitors to your garden.