Landscaping and Conservation

Natural History of Normandy Farms

Normandy Farms lies on a large, nearly level glacial surface called the Tipton Till Plain, which covers most of central Indiana.

During the Ice Age, this area was covered by ice a few thousand feet thick. At least two glaciers came and went, grinding up and transporting the sedimentary bedrock beneath them and leaving behind deposts of till—a mixture of clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders—and no vegetation. A succession of plants returned to the area, culminating in a forest of beech and maple.

When European settlers arrived in Indiana, most of the land was covered with hardwood forest. The settlers cut the trees for farmland, so very little original vegetation remains.

A good read: Marion T. Jackson, Editor. The Natural Heritage of Indiana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. Back to top

How to Take Care of Your Trees

Trees are a part of what makes us feel "at home" in Normandy Farms. Some of us have forested lots with magnificent old trees that we want to preserve, others have newly planted trees that require care to become established. The International Society of Arborculture's website can tell you just about anything you'd like to know about trees: their benefits and value, selection, planting, pruning, avoiding damage during construction, etc. Check out their Trees Are Good website which is designed for the public. The site also tells about the services arborculturists can provide to help you care for your trees. Back to top

A Warning About Weeds

Every homeowner has done battle with the ubiquitous dandelion. But Normandy Farms offers even greater challenges. People living in parts of the subdivision that used to be farm fields must contend with an amazing array of old field weeds. Some have colorful names like lamb’s quarters, shepherd’s purse, pigweed, and henbit, but there’s nothing to like about the bully of them all—the thistle.

They say that Nature abhores bare earth, and that’s important to keep in mind in Normandy Farms. The soil of old fields acts as a “seed bank,” storing millions of dormant weed seeds until the day some hapless gardener scrapes off the turf to start a garden. The seeds revel in their sudden exposure to light and bam! The disturbed soil is soon covered with weed seedlings. In the blink of an eye some can grow four feet tall!

The lesson is this: Disturb the soil as little as possible once the initial preparation has been done. And MULCH, MULCH, MULCH to keep weed seeds from seeing the light. Back to top

Bagworms Can Damage Trees and Shrubs

Winter’s a good time to check your trees and shrubs for bagworm “bags.” Infestations of these caterpillars often go unnoticed because people mistake the protective bags for pine cones or other plant structures, and signs of infestation have been noted around our neighborhood.

Bagworms are caterpillars that make distinctive spindle-shaped bags on a variety of trees and shrubs. They attack both deciduous trees and evergreens but are especially damaging to juniper, arborvitae, spruce, pine, and cedar. Large populations of bagworms can strip plants of their foliage and eventually cause them to die.

To control bagworms, hand pick the bags off the trees and dispose of them in the trash. If you do not pick them off in the spring, the eggs contained in the bags will hatch in early June and the larvae will start consuming the surrounding foliage. Then you will need to control them with insecticide. Back to top

For pictures, further information, and guidance on the insecticide option, visit http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/weeklypics/Weekly_Picture7-23-01-1.html

Beware of "Volcano" Mulch

Mulching around the base of a tree is great to prevent weeds, preserve moisture, and give the landscape a finished look. But mulch misapplied can do more harm than good!

Don't mound mulch up the sides of the trunk, volcano-style. This holds moisture against the bark, which encourages rot and can lead to the death of the tree. Think of mounding the mulch doughnut-style instead. Use two to three inches of mulch, and pull the mulch back at least three inches from the trunk. Your tree will thank you. Back to top

For a picture and more information, visit http://www.ces.purdue.edu/gardentips/landscape/volcano.html

Austrian Pines At Risk for Tip Blight

If the long dark green needles on your Austrian pines start to get brown tips and die-back in the lower branches, take note. The cause may be Diplodia tip blight, a fungal disease that stunts the tips and lower limbs and eventually kills off the interior branches, leaving only a shell of green.

According to Purdue’s pamphlet on the subject (BP-24), the Diplodia fungus is born on cones near the top of the tree. It infects current-season needles and developing shoots from late April to mid-June (earlier if the weather is mild). Diplodia tip blight affects Austrian, Scotch, ponderosa, and mugo pines and occurs most often in well-established plantings, especially trees 25 to 30 years old.

Normandy Farms is full of mature Austrian pines, probably all planted around the same time, so many are starting to develop the characteristic brown tips and die-back. All is not lost, however. The useful lives of most moderately infected Austrian pines can be extended with good cultural practices and supplemental chemical care. Spraying for Diplodia tip blight must be done before the developing shoots or “candles” are one inch long.

An alternative approach with these older trees is to trim the lower branches as they die back and underplant the pine with Japanese yew or some other non-susceptible evergreen that will grow up and take its place. Back to top

Recycle Coffee Grounds

Coffee grounds are a nutritional additive for your soil. During the brewing process most of the acidity is removed, leaving used grounds with an average pH of 6.9 and a carbon-nitrogen ratio of 20-1. Apply this “green” material as a side dressing to nitrogen-loving plants, including most perennials, and balance the nutrition of your soil with “brown” materials such as leaves or dried grass. Or, add the grounds to your compost pile. Any Starbucks will let you take home large bags of used grounds for free. www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp Back to top

Find Plant Photos with Google Image Search

Browsing new plant catalogs these winter days? Consider whether those glorious closeups tell you how a plant will really look in the garden. For a better sense of its shape and size, type the name into Google’s Image search. Google pulls up thumbnail photos of that plant in wide-ranging sources all over the world. Click on a thumbnail for a larger view and more information about the plant. A great way to learn! Google Image Search Back to top

“Plant-a-Million” Trees

Now homeowners can call on the Marion County Soil & Water Conservation District to help them manage their backyard resources and plan for erosion control and wildlife habitat. The new project aims to help people plant one million native trees in central Indiana and understand the importance of the tree canopy to quality of life. Visit www.hhrcd.org/plantamillion.htm. Back to top

Kids’ Garden Tools

I’ve searched everywhere for a decent set of garden tools for my granddaughter. These are well-made, inexpensive, and cute as can be: earthlygoods.com/tools/kids_garden_set.html Back to top

Wildflower Identification Solution

Wondering whether that little pink flower in the woods was a toothwort or a spring beauty? The Connecticut Botanical Society offers a gorgeous array of wildflower photographs to help you decide. Photos may be arranged by color for easy identification. Click on a photo for a larger image and detailed information about the plant. Back to top

Botany Illustrated, 2nd Ed.

Drawings by Indianapolis artist and gardening virtuoso Jan Glimn-Lacy are featured in this practical botany reference and coloring book, newly updated with expanded user-friendly text and more plant examples. Available on line and from Springer Publishers. By Janice Glimn-Lacy and Peter B. Kaufman. ISBN 0387288708 $39.95. Back to top

Great Plant Shopping

IMA Greenhouse Located next to Lilly House at the IMA, the Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse garden shop offers a unique assortment of hard-to-find plants and gardening gifts, with interesting new plant varieties arriving all the time. Greenhouse hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Thursday until 9:00 pm, Closed Monday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Back to top

Master Gardener Answerline

What’s up with those little holes in your strawberries? When should you harvest your rhubarb? Get answers to these and other gardening questions from Master Gardeners at the Purdue Extension-Marion County answerline. Call 275-9292 or email marionmg@purdue.edu. Back to top

Weeds Gone Wild Website

A work group of the Plant Conservation Alliance is compiling a national list of invasive plants that infest natural areas throughout the U.S. Their site offers illustrated fact sheets with plant descriptions, management options, and suggested alternative native plants. Participation in the Weeds Gone Wild project is open to anyone interested in getting involved. www.nps.gov/plants/alien Back to top

What Tree Is It?

This fun site lets you identify an unknown tree from just one part, such as a leaf or fruit. It steps you through alternative qualities of leaves and fruits, and you select the images that more closely resemble your sample. Or, you can link to tree images from lists of common and scientific names. www.oplin.org/tree. Back to top

PLANTS Database

Provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. The site includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, and images. http://plants.usda.gov/ Back to top

Keep Electronic Devices from Landfills

Computers, cell phones, fax machines, and other electronic devices have limited life spans but are difficult to recycle because they are made from many different materials. With nearly one billion pounds of electronics being discarded in the United States each year, the National Wildlife Federation, partnering with Access Recycling, hopes to reduce the amount going to landfills and incinerators by recycling them instead. Learn learn what you can do at www.nwf.org/electronics/whatwerecycle.cfm. Back to top

Protecting the Watershed: Drain Marking

Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District is raising awareness of water quality issues by helping neighborhoods mark their storm drains with a pre-printed marker, label, or sticker that reads "No Dumping - Drains to Stream" or a similar written message that specifies where the runoff drains. Gardeners can help by not washing leaves or grass clippings down the drain. Instead, sweep, rake, collect and compost organic material that accumulates on your driveway, sidewalk, or street. To lead a volunteer drain marking group, contact Tom White at 317-327-2250 or twhite@indygov.org. Back to top

Tree Pruning Guide

A big thank you to the National Arbor Day Foundation for this neat little animated demonstration of pruning technique, complete with sound effects. Topics include shaping young trees, keys to good pruning, pruning for strength and form, and best times to prune. A virtual lesson lets you wield a hand pruner or saw and watch the result as your pruned tree “grows.” Excellent fun, and useful too. www.arborday.org/trees/pruning/ Back to top

The Rain Garden Solution

You might be surprised at how much rain runs off your roof during a good storm or a daylong soak, says the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Nature expects rain to stay where it falls and slowly percolate into the ground. But in many of our landscapes, runoff from rooftops, lawns, and driveways sluices down the street to the storm drain, carrying pollutants and sediments that eventually enter our lakes, rivers, and streams. A beautiful, natural solution is a rain garden--a shallow depression positioned to receive runoff from hard impervious surfaces and planted with deep-rooted native plants and grasses. Rain gardens slow the rush of water, hold it for a short time, and allow it to naturally infiltrate into the ground. To learn more about rain gardens, visit the IASWCD at www.iaswcd.org/PathwayGarden2.htm or the Rain Garden Network at www.raingardennetwork.com/about.htm. Back to top

Landscaping for Wildlife with Native Plants

Native plant experts and wildlife experts have teamed up to create four gardens guaranteed to bring life to your landscape by providing food and habitat for a variety of desirable critters. The American Beauties™ collection of native plants makes it easy to use trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, and wildflowers that are beautiful and good for wildlife. www.abnativeplants.com Back to top

Identify the Soils in Your Backyard

We thank the Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District for putting us on to the USDA’s Web Soil Survey. Their press release explained that the survey has identified more than 32 different soil types in Marion County alone, each with a different personality that should be considered when deciding what to do with the land, so I gave the site a try. After drawing the boundaries of my backyard on an aerial view of my neighborhood, I learned that my soil is mostly Crosby silt loam. I Googled that and learned that this typical till plain soil lends itself to growing corn, soybeans, small grain, and hay, but if left to its own devices would be covered in native deciduous forest. http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/ Back to top

The Truth About Gypsum

Our thanks to Donna Gahwiler for following up on some erroneous claims about the benefits of adding gypsum to our local clay soils. Here are the facts from Purdue University horticulturalist B. Rosie Lerner: Gypsum (calcium sulfate) generally has no effect on soil tilth when applied to a heavy clay and/or physically compacted soil. It is used out West where the compaction and impermeability of the soil is due to a high sodium content. The calcium in gypsum displaces the sodium which can then be leached away. It helps open up those alkali soils so that water and other nutrients can get in. Unfortunately, there is little the gypsum can do for soils that are compacted from heavy traffic, construction, packed clay, etc. Adding organic matter such as finished compost, dried animal manure, or peat moss would be much more beneficial types of amendments to problem soils in Indiana. Back to top

Oh, Deer!

We thank Marion County Master Gardeners for putting us on to a website that rates common landscape plants by deer resistance. This useful information comes from the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. www.rce.rutgers.edu/deerresistance/ For an Excel version of the table that you can sort by common name, Latin name, rating, and plant type, e-mail me. Back to top

Phenological Indicators

Did you know that the budding and flowering times of certain “indicator” trees and shrubs can alert you when crabgrass germinates, when the soil is warm enough to plant seeds, and what garden pests to watch for when? Phenology studies the timing of natural living processes as they relate to the cyles of weather and climate. The University of Wisconsin provides a gentle introduction to this fascinating topic and a list of specific indicator plants. Back to top

Natural Dyes for Easter Eggs

Use common foods and flowers to dye Easter eggs the natural way. A cooking site and a native plant site provide the details for a fun children’s project. Back to top

Invasive Plants in the Midwest

A flyer from the Midwest Invasive Plant Network shows photos and range maps of 16 new plant invaders along with specific information on how to identify the species. Some, like tree of heaven, are well known already to many in Indiana but are just moving into states to the north of us. Others, like mile-a-minute vine, haven’t yet reached Indiana, though those living in the Ohio River counties should be watching closely for it. Every state in the Midwest and southern Ontario collaborated on this project and has set up contact information for reporting sites. In Indiana, contact the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab at 765-494-7071 or ppdl@purdue.edu, or call 1-866-NOEXOTIC. To download a copy of the flyer, go to www.mipn.org. Back to top

Places to Visit: Marian College EcoLab

Birding hikes and conservation workdays are among the offerings of the EcoLab, a 55-acre wetland and lowland forest at the north end of the Marian College campus. The area encompasses one of the best-preserved Jens Jensen landscapes in the world. Because Jensen used native plants in his design, the EcoLab’s wetlands and surrounding lowland forest act as an oasis for native flora and fauna in the city. Link to calendar of events from www.marian.edu/wetland/about_visiting.shtml. Back to top

Garlic Mustard Recipes

May is the month to pull garlic mustard in the woods. It’s an introduced species that is rapidly crowding out our native spring wildflowers. Make sure you can identify it before you dislodge the full plant by the roots. From a Maryland conservation group comes an idea for what to do with the pullings. A cooking contest in conjunction with their yearly garlic mustard pull pits professional chefs against each other to come up with the best culinary uses of garlic mustard. You’ll find their recipes at www.patapscoheritagegreenway.org/garlic05/index.html. Back to top

Soapbox: No Lawn Sprinkling Here

Hey, fellow gardeners, why don’t we just let our lawns go dormant when there’s no rain? What a tremendous waste of resources to cast gallons of purified drinking water to the winds. We in the gardening community could commit to a new standard of landscape “beauty” that better reflects Nature’s own strategies for conserving resources during dry weather. I can see our slogan now: “Brown and Proud: This Lawn Sprinkled Only When It Rains.” Thanks for listening. Back to top

“Most Unwanted” Plant Pests

We thank Geoff VonBurg for making us aware of this new site offering a rogue’s gallery of invasive flora and fauna that threaten Indiana’s natural and cultivated plant communities. From Giant African Land Snail to Mile-a-Minute Weed, you’ll learn the threats and identification of these invasives through this eminently browsable site, which is produced by the Indiana Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) Program. extension.entm.purdue.edu/CAPS Back to top

Adapting to Climate Change

What can Indiana gardeners look forward to as global temperatures rise? Hotter days and higher nighttime temperatures will stimulate aggressive weeds like kudzu, garlic mustard, poison ivy, and purple loosestrife, so we’ll need to spend more time weeding. Warmer winters may bring new biting insects and plant pests, so we’ll need to study up on pest control. Erratic weather patterns and more severe weather will make raingardens even more important as a means to capture and cleanse stormwater runoff. Our gardens will need to use more native plants, which are better suited to survive the extremes of local weather. On the bright side, we’ll find we can grow plants from a climate zone south of us that previously were not hardy here. Read the full story on CNN.com/living. Back to top

Landscaping with Non-Invasive Plants

Conservation groups warn us to avoid buying invasive plants, but what should we plant? A new brochure from the Invasive Plant Species Assessment Work Group (IPSAWG) guides gardeners to make good choices when landscaping by NOT choosing invasive plants. Landscaping with Non-Invasive Plant Species: Making the RIGHT Choice can help you avoid the bad plants while providing many beautiful alternatives. The brochure features images of a wide array of non-invasive plant alternatives. “You don’t have to make sacrifices just because you’re planting with non-invasive plants,” says David Gorden, representing the American Society of Landscape Architects on IPSAWG. “For every landscaping need, there is a non-invasive plant that can fill the role beautifully.” To obtain a copy of the brochure, visit www.nature.org/indiana. Back to top