Mosaic Monday #135: Going Native

I was raised by a lawn and garden perfectionist.  Nary a dandelion to be found in my Dad's rolling Zoysia landscape.   Trees were pruned to showcase the natural architecture of the branches - my Dad's sculptures were as beautiful in the winter as they were when wearing a full coat of leaves.   His vegetable garden was just as meticulous, with ruler-straight rows and cages to keep those tomatoes in line.

Until we moved to our current home in Montana, I strived to be that gardener.

With the new construction associated with our log home, the landscape immediately around the house was a blank canvas.  In the process of making other design choices, I must have thumbed through a hundred Log Home Living magazines.  In most cases, the curb appeal of the featured homes was classic - manicured lawns, rock gardens with showy trees, and lakeside settings with trellises and gazebos.  As tempting as it was, Spousal Unit and I knew that this was not the answer for us.  

Retirement is to be enjoyed, right?  So, for a start, Spousal Unit declared that his last lawnmower would not be coming with us.  OK.  Check.  No formal lawn.  

As for me, I would also want freedom in the summers for hiking, camping, kayaking -- well, you get the point.  So, something low maintenance was in order.

Ever since we lived in Arizona, I have had an aversion to sprinkler systems.  If one is needed regularly, it means the plants in the landscape are not native, not adapted to the rainfall that is normal for the area.  That was it -- I wanted to go native.

"Water, water, water ... There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ration of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous space among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation.  There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be."  -- Edward Abbey

We are three years into this gardening adventure, and I am still learning.  Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar entitled "Conservation Gardening: Landscaping with Montana Native Plants for Montana's Native Wildlife."  Led by David Schmetterling, the webinar covered how to landscape with resource conservation, drought and wildlife in mind.  His "laboratory" was a small city lot around his Missoula, Montana home.

I was enlightened.  Going native is not just about the plants, but the entire ecosystem.  Yes, even the insects, even those who want to eat my plants.  He shared a story about paper wasps who score the bark of aspens to make their large paper nests.   Aspen beetles use the scars to lay eggs.  In the spring, as larvae hatch, ants are there to eat some of them.  The tree responds to the scar by oozing sap, an early food source for butterflies before flowers are blooming.  In other words, if I eradicated the paper wasps, I would impact three or more other species!!!

I resolved to look at my garden differently this spring.  Insects on native plants would be left to their devices.  Infestations on non-natives would be addressed. 

Fairly quickly, I had an opportunity to test myself.  On May 31, I observed some irregularity on the goldenrod, and closer inspection revealed this black and white caterpillar. (I put it on the rock only to get a photo.)  You would be so proud of me - I left it there on the rock!  Of course, anything living has to have a name, so I embarked into the world of caterpillar identification.  Thirty minutes later, I was none the wiser.  It could be an asteroid, the brown-hooded owlet, the camouflaged looper, the common pug, the striped garden caterpillar or the goldenrod gall moth.  Didn't look like any of them!  Spousal Unit suggested I give it a name, so Montanas Angelas it is!

By June 8, I had already lost my resolve, partly because Spousal Unit expressed a concern that the goldenrod would not flower properly.  A few caterpillars were sacrificed, but I didn't touch the few aphids that I found on the goldenrod, or the spittlebugs with their cocoons of spit.

I can take some consolation in my approach to the golden currants -- I did not spray the aphids that massed on the fresh growth on May 31.  And now I can report that the aphids are gone, with no apparent damage.  Lesson learned!

I have written extensively in the past about my attempts to deter the deer and other critters.  I believe I have finally found an effective solution.  This sprinkler features a built-in motion detector, which prompts it to go off suddenly with two full arcs.  I know it frightens me when I forget it's there and I wander into range!  Four have been placed in strategic locations, and the deer no longer come into the main section of the landscaping.  Of course, nothing is foolproof - a female turkey did a number on several of my chive plants by walking in between the sprinklers,  C'est la vie - I'll take it!

Ever since the first time I saw lupines in bloom, I have been longing to have them on my property.  Last May, Dear Neighbor Friend and I transplanted 27 lupines.  As the summer wore on, they all seemed to die.  It was a long shot -- everything I read indicated that lupine don't like their roots to be disturbed.  So, I bought some lupine seeds, and planted them in over 35 spots around the garden.  I have been so pleased with the results - all but four spots sprouted one or more lupine.  AND, as I have been making my rounds, I have discovered that some of the transplants have grown as well!!!

From this seed-planting experience, I have also learned that it doesn't take much magic to get results.  I tossed (literally) some seeds behind our jack-leg fence, and in an open area to the left of the fire pit.  Both areas have yielded a bumper crop of baby lupines!!! They are tiny now, but in years to come, they will put on a majestic spring show!

With the benefit of hindsight, I might wish that I had not agreed to include non-natives in the landscaping.  For example, the sand cherries have suffered die-back every spring.  Last year, I carefully clipped a "diseased" portion and engaged Montana State University.  The experts there advised pruning and sanitizing the shears after each clip.  Well, here we are again with die-back.  This year, I am going to leave it and see what happens.

Similarly, the Norway Maple has been on a slow downward spiral ever since it was chowed by elk the first year.  This spring, it has not leafed out, and I am declaring it dead.  We have not decided what will replace it, but you can be sure it will be a native plant!

Gardens can also benefit from structures for visual interest and texture.  This summer, we have added "lawn art" in several locations.  We are still looking for a large piece, to be placed in the middle of the leach field.  In our mind's eye, we envision part of an old tractor, or perhaps a windmill from a dis-used ranch.

Jokingly, I often ask Montana natives how long you have to live here to qualify.  They chuckle, and politely change the subject.  So, when I read this sentence in the book "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, I was over the moon.  "For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, material and spiritual, depended on it."  Now that, my friends, I can do. 

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

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Click here to enter

MM #81: Learning My Lessons (or a Garden Tour with Dad)

Golden Currant - May 23, 2020

Nature has a way of teaching us.  Such as: don't plant your pots before the end of May!  You would think I would know better, having lived in Montana for three years.  But sometimes the heart outpaces the head!!!

As faithful readers know, I even started a garden journal last year (see June 9, 2019, July 21, 2019, and September 8, 2019), to document my learning and for other reasons.  Sigh.  But not all is doomed - I have good news as well, and some of it even derived from my knowledge gained last year.

And how can I be downcast when I am IN MY GARDEN?  It is a joy that vibrates through my whole being, and hard to explain to any but other gardeners.  If I am ever somewhat morose, it is when I think of my Dad, and how I would thrill to give him a garden tour, as he was wont to do with all family, and anyone else that he could swindle into it!  So, you will be patient with me in this post, as I act out a garden exploration with my Dad.

May 7, 2020

Let us begin at the driveway entrance.  In May 2019, we built jackleg fences to mark the driveway,  and the next month we added flower baskets to sections of the fence using chicken wire and coconut fiber.  This year, we added a layer of black plastic between the fiber and the soil to aid moisture retention.  In hindsight, we should have poked some holes through the plastic to allow for some drainage.  After several days of steady rain, I feared the whole structure might break under the weight, and I found myself out there trying to punch holes from beneath with a screwdriver.  Marginally successful.  Also, we planted too soon- on May 13, Spousal Unit helped me rig temporary covers from clothes hangers and trash bags since frost was in the forecast.  It did the trick, but what a pain!!!

I'm talking about flowers, and I can envision my Dad sizing up

trees, hands on hips, shrewdly observing that two of our

larch transplants don't look healthy.

Rocky Mountain Bee Plant - May 23, 2020

In August 2019, our-neighbor-with-a-digger helped us construct the flower bed near our "address rock".  As I wrote in this post, fall transplanting included the red osier dogwood, juniper, pearly everlasting and Russian sage.  All have survived the winter except for the sage.  In the fall, I also planted coneflower, goldenrod, rocky mountain bee plant, aster, aspen fleabane and grass seed.  In the spring, I sowed blanket flower, columbine and yarrow.  Thus far, I can clearly identify the bee plant, first based on location; now I can discern the plant by its leaves.  Coneflowers may also be sprouting, but it will take a few more weeks to be sure.  On a whim, I also threw some sunflowers by rocks on the other side of the driveway, and they have emerged!

Transplanted lupine - May 20, 2020

As we stroll up the driveway, I cannot spot any of the lupines that I sowed in the fall.  It doesn't help that I didn't mark my planting spots!  Such a mistake - WHAT was I thinking?  If Dad was here, I would take the opportunity to reminisce about planting beans (or was it peas?)  Back in the day, Dad coated them with some black stuff, and then us kids would poke them into the ground.  With the benefit of age and learning about planting lupine seeds, I realize the "black stuff" was an inoculant - I performed the same operation when sowing my lupines in the fall.  Maybe they will still grow, but I am skeptical given that other lupines in the area are well underway.  In fact, my kind Dear Neighbor Friend took me to a nearby ridge and we harvested 29 lupines of varying sizes, which were transplanted along the driveway.  Some sources say lupines don't tolerate root disturbance, but it is an experiment.  So far, 5 are perky, 7 are middlin' and the remainder look downright dead.  Time will tell.

Columbine volunteers: May 23, 2020

Arriving at the flagstone path to the front door, we begin to see the "formal" landscaping installed in June 2018.  I have been very pleased that some of the plants are propagating nicely.  Case in point: the columbines.  In this area alone, I have 6 "volunteers".  Second example: the goldenrod.  Too many "babies" to count.  It does appear that the seeds do best when they have something to grip to, like gravel.  Perhaps otherwise, they simply blow away.  In many cases, the instruction is to sow "on the surface:.  Well, there you go.  And THERE they go!  So I think I will, in future, try sowing this type of seed among some gravel, which can later be removed.

Goldenrod nursery - April 26 - May 23, 2020

Ah, the pot on the front porch (and the other pots, too, for that matter).  A sad story.  Clearly, planted too soon on May 10.  The coleus have already withered away, and the black susan vines are not faring much better.  Just one too many nights with cool temps and days with light snow that didn't stick.  Lesson learned!

Pots on May 10 - and no, I am not going to show you how they look now

By the way, we do think Spring has been later and cooler than last year.  As "evidence", ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit the following comparisons.

Columbine

Left:  May 21, 2019 (flowers forming)                   Right: May 23, 2020

Goodland Apple

Left: May 21, 2019                                                                  Right: May 23, 2020

Norway Maple

Left:  May 21, 2019                                               Right: May 23, 2020

Some sections of the "formal" landscaping still look orderly, with rounded clumps of plants at regular intervals.  Other areas are starting to fill in, randomly, and in the manner I have envisioned.  As I gaze upon some higgledy-piggledy areas in my flower beds, I wonder what Dad might say.  I remember him as a perfectionist when it came to his lawn, trees and vegetable garden, although he would clearly tolerate a volunteer tomato or two.  I don't recall much in the way of flowers, so I wonder.

In its "final" stages, I hope for a prairie, awash with a variety of plants and bushes, growing together in a riot.  This means a few things: 1) I have to be patient, and let a plant grow for a while in order to determine if it belongs, 2) it is harder to decide if something has been nibbled, and 3) since I have more plants, I don't freak out as much if ONE is nibbled!

Oil Beetle is distinguished from other Blister Beetles by its short wings

I have discovered a new "enemy", the Oil Beetle.  Weeding one day, I noticed this prehistoric-looking creature eating a plant.  What?  I took a picture, squished it with a stick and then looked it up.  An Oil Beetle may seem an ordinary black bug, but its secret weapon (a caustic chemical called cantharidin) can blister human skin.  It is part of a family of Blister Beetles, which are fond of flowers, nectar and plant juices.  I see them frequently now, and if they are on one of my ornamental plants, they are DEAD.  This creature might explain "nibbling" that has happened in the past when plants were caged.  Below is an aster that has been stripped of its leaves.  I think I know the culprit!

Dad had an arsenal of bug-fighting tools at his disposal, and the one that stands out in my memory was a knee-high metal canister with an attached tube and nozzle.  It had a pump handle, and its main use was to spray the fruit trees.  I also remember Sevin being applied liberally to chase off aphids, and it was easy to turn to that last year when I had an infestation.  But sometimes, no tool or product was necessary.  Give him a cutworm on a prize tomato plant, and he would grab it and PINCH, it would be oozing green caterpillar juice on his fingers.  I surmise that's why I reacted without thinking when I saw that beetle munching its way through my plant! 

As we pass around the side of the house, and take the stone steps down to the "back yard", I am sure my Dad would be looking at the grass and wondering when we will get out the mower.  In the fall of 2018, we sowed 50 pounds of wild grass seed, combined with wildflower seed.  Last fall, we added top soil to the remaining barren areas, and I scattered grass seed that I had painstakingly gathered by hand.  As you can see in the comparison pictures, we have progressed from construction zone to "I am thinking about being a prairie."  Spousal Unit has suggested that we buy more grass seed this fall to save my collecting it, and I am on board for that!

Top: area near fire pit - May 21, 2019

Bottom: same location - May 22, 2020

May 23, 2020 - Penstemon and Coreopsis

Actually, I think Dad would understand that my dream for my garden and "yard" is different than his.  Dad had his favorites, his "pride and joy," in his garden.  I am no different.  The "apple" has not fallen far from the tree.  Anything that is blooming, gives me joy.  I am thrilled that plants are settling into the rocky areas, lending a natural, "we've always been here" look to our stone steps.  I am excited about plants that gave me fits last summer, only to come roaring back this spring.  

I took care to guard the strawberries, since they were some of the

first plants to be nibbled last year.  They are thriving.

Top - yellow penstemon original plant

Bottom right and left: "volunteers" - amazing when you consider the mama plant was afflicted with aphids!

And as the boundary between the "formal" and the "woods" begins to blur, I have a growing appreciation for the naturally occurring plants in this region.  They were here first, and I welcome them to mix and mingle and make my dream come true.

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

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Mosaic Monday #79 - Three Years in Montana

May 9, 2017 - First time I ever saw Calypso Orchids

Can you believe it?  May 3, 2020 marked the third anniversary of our arrival in Montana.  (If you need a refresher on our epic cross-country journey, check out this post.)  I perused my blog and came to the shocking realization that I have not written about this anniversary.  You can read posts about the first, second and third recurrence of my retirement, but you will find zip, zero, zilch about an event that was a decade in the planning. Well, I ask you - what's more significant, the retirement or the destination?  It's the destination, my friends.  So, I am about to rectify this disappointing oversight.  Buckle your seat belts, and welcome to Montana!

June 12, 2017 - Day 2 of the re-set of our log house

July 2, 2017 - Black Lake - hike in Jewel Basin

July 11, 2017 - Man with Hat on the Highline Trail with Heavens Peak

August 31, 2017 - Mama mountain goats with kids - Crater Lake

October 19, 2017 - Golden glory - Middle Fork of the Flathead River

October 27, 2017 - Golden larches reflected in our house, 7 months into

construction

October 31, 2017 - our first Halloween in Whitefish

November 6, 2017 - house bedecked in snow

January 2, 2018 - skiing at Whitefish Mountain Resort

March 2018 - snowshoeing at Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

Moose at our lake - May 2018

May 23, 2018 - reflection in Hodge Lake

June 24, 2018 - we moved in April 14, and by June the landscaping

was completed

July 11, 2018 - Lupines and blanket flowers

near Many Glacier, Glacier National Park

August 12, 2018 - Man with Hat and me - overwhelmed by Grinnell

Glacier and Grinnell Lake

September 2018 - apple pie made with Goodland apples from the tree

we planted in honor of my Mother

November 2018 - Mission Mountain views

December 26, 2018 - the family skis/rides at Whitefish Mountain Resort

January 11, 2019 - my favorite picture

of Miss Josie before she died in September

February 28, 2019 - dog sledding!

May 24, 2019 - Great Horned Owl in a larch tree outside our house

June 8, 2019 - Columbine in my garden

June 10, 2019 - Holland Lake

June 13, 2019 - Sunrise at our house

June 2019 - bear collage - all bears from trail cams near our house

July 20, 2019 - at Logan Pass before we start hiking the Highline Trail

July 20, 2019 - beargrass along the Highline Trail

July 28, 2019 - Female Nokomis Fritillary on the bee balm in my garden

January 27, 2020 - mountain lion caught on trail cam

March 21, 2020 - Man with Beanie practicing social distancing at Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park

If you were counting, that was 32 pictures and collages. Boy, it was tough to choose!  Someday, when I have nothing else to do (hah!), I will count the number of pictures I have taken since May 3, 2020.  Hundreds!  A shout-out to my Spousal Unit, who applied his ruthless editing skill to help me downselect from the original 93 options that I compiled.  How appropriate that he stands out in the last photo of this post!  

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter