AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO GARDENING

 

AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO GARDENING

It was a foggy morning at the farm an hour ago but now at 8 AM the fog has lifted and the eastern sky has lost its pink hue and blue predominates. August is here and the weather prediction for the next couple weeks is more like August should be than July was. We received slightly over 8 inches of rain in July while towns in southern Vermont received 18” and some parts actually washed away. I hope we’re back on track.

Two years ago, I began a pollinator garden and it’s beginning to shape up. It represents what I intend to do with all the gardens here. I want to showcase an ecological approach to flower gardening whereby we interplant gardens with flowers that will complement the native flowers along the river, the roadside and the adjacent field to the southwest. Flower varieties translate to pollinators as well as the animals that rely on them too.

I began the garden in the fall of 2019, by working on the soil and mapping out what plants I might incorporate. I asked my friend Kate Butler, owner of Labour of Love Nursery & Landscaping in Glover, Vermont to choose 5 or 6 plants that over time would exceed 7 feet tall and hide the deer fence. I wanted a backdrop of enough tall plants so as to make the fence lose its identity—except to deer. I love tall plants and have carried that love into all my garden design. I try to grow some daylilies which will offer some height as well as a long bloom time too. I have begun weaving them midpoint through our gardens, not towards the back portion as tall plants were traditionally planted. Kate didn’t disappoint with her selections and now those tall plants are knockouts and although I still struggle with their Latin names, their presence adds the strength to the garden that I sought.

The largest plant which surprises me more every day is Silphium perfoliatum, Cup Flower. This is a giant now that exceeds 9 feet in height and 6 feet in width. Its large leaves catch water and the yellow flowers draw in so many flying insects that even my part time entomologist friend, Jody Frey can’t keep up with the photographing and identifying. I believe theplants are responsible for many new butterflies that I have never even seen before.

Then there is Cephalaria gigantea, the Giant Scabiosa, Macleya cordata, the plume poppy, Coreopsis tripteris, Rudbeckia lacinata a.k.a Golden Glow, the 8 foot tall daisy that was always planted by milk houses and outhouses when I was a boy. And there is Helianthus salicifolius, the willow leaved sunflower that misled me the first year I planted it. After a couple days in the ground, woodchucks ate it down and then the original 3 tiny stems put up mountains of stems that whisper kind gardening thoughts as the winds blow from the west.

From the tall plant showcase I began to integrate pollinator plants of all colors, heights and textures. 60” tall Asclepias incarnata ‘Cinderella’ and 24” tall Asclepias tuberosa, the butterfly weeds came next. People had mentioned that tuberosa didn’t grow in Vermont but I don’t believe it. They are slower growers and if you expect their height to match A. incarnata it won’t happen but the flowers are constantly covered with insects and butterflies. Heleniums from 36” down to 15” came next, 3 varieties of purple and one of white liatris planted in groups of 6 -10 corms,  echinaceas, emphasizing the “originals such as “purpurea” but including some of the brighter, modern hybrids too, and then the salvias (with their strong, sometimes offensive odors if the leaves are crushed) which offer bountiful blooms in blue, purple, rose and white. Vernonias, the ironweeds, fill in spots and offer more “vertical”. I include the very tall Vernonia noveboracensis a.k.a. New York Ironweed, and a few of the broadleaf Vernonia too. When these begin to bloom, they are wonderful to watch on a clear morning as butterflies can be seen flying into them from distant locations. Their fragrance must be insect-strong as I cannot detect anything but the insects certainly do.

 

Throughout the summer the garden perimeters provide a plethora of native plants which bloom at various times. I can count on Lilium canadense as blooming around July 4^th and being gone by mid-August but there are the native milkweeds now, goldenrods, eupatoriums including the white boneset variety, cardinal flower, woodland phlox, early asters and chelone a.k.a turtlehead which is host to my favorite little butterfly the Baltimore checkerspot. With this many opportunities give your garden an ecological approach and enjoy all the visitors who arrive to enjoy not only what you plant but what surrounds your home. Be well, happy gardening. Have questions? Email us at vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com or call us at 802-426-3506. We are always here to help you grow your green thumb!