Tag: native plants

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What is Perennial Gardening?

This garden has been a continued effort on the part of my partner and me. All of the plants pictured here are perennial. Our style is a bit chaotic, but every plant here is bursting and happy.

June was perennial gardening month, so I’m here (behind the curve) to tell you about it. You may have heard the term ‘perennial gardening’ or ‘edible perennial gardening’ before. But what is it, you ask? It’s pretty simple! Perennial gardening involves designing your garden around those plants that live through at least three or more growing seasons. 

So, what are we talking about here? Natives? What about food crops, herbs, and non-native plants? Well, perennial gardening involves all of these things… and more. Of course, I’m not going to recommend growing plants that aren’t native or adapted to your zone. But if exotics and tropicals are your thing don’t worry. You won’t be left out.

Creeping cucumber is one of the only cucurbits I grow. These fruits ripen, fall to the ground, and implant themselves for next season.

Most perennial garden guides only discuss gardening perennial flowering plants. But there’s so much more than that. Here are the types of plants you can include in a perennial garden. Spoiler alert. it’s most of them:

  • Food crops (asparagus, horseradish, rhubarb, watercress, garlic)
  • Herbaceous flowering plants (coneflower, salvias, phlox)
  • Medicinal herbs (yarrow, sage, lavender, bee balm)
  • Shrubs (wormwoods, evergreens, hydrangea, lantana)
  • Trees (fruit trees are great if you want to combine edible gardening with gardening for design)

Heartleaf Skullcap is a Texas Native I’ve enjoyed growing year after year. A drought tolerant shade lover, this plant will spread and take over.

Tips for Perennial Gardeners

Since you’re dealing with plants with a life cycle longer than just one growing season, there’s a bit more maintenance involved. Follow these basics of perennial gardening and you’ll have perennial garden plants and perennial flowers that bloom all summer long. 

Fertilizing

Because your perennials subsist in one area over time, you’ll need to add nutrients in temperate growing seasons to support overall soil health. Use a dry, slow release, full spectrum fertilizer for this purpose. If you compost, add a little compost to those plants that appreciate a nutrient boost. 

Add bone meal to flowering plants to help things pop off. Fruiting plants like bone meal as well, and greens enjoy high nitrogen fertilizers. Perennial vegetable gardening requires consistent applications of fertilizer to support plants that may have taken time to establish themselves. Asparagus, a beloved edible perennial, really enjoys a balanced, full spectrum fertilizer in early spring just as spears poke through the soil surface. Fruit trees need some assistance just before they flower with a high nitrogen fertilizer. Blood meal is a great option for perennial fruit trees. 

Do some research when you’re planning to determine the best perennials for your zone and growing habits. If you’re working directly in the soil, you’ll have most success with natives and adapted plants. If you’re growing in containers, go crazy! But remember you may have to move containers around when the weather gets extreme. This is especially so for tropicals grown in areas with cold winters. 

Dividing

To keep your perennial garden plants healthy, move them around and transplant them in spring and fall. Dividing plants has multiple benefits:

  1. Pests are easier to control in plants that are contained. However, remember that if your plants are being eaten, they aren’t part of the ecosystem.
  2. Diseases are less likely to spread in areas where plants aren’t overcrowded. 
  3. Share the love. Either with other parts of your garden, or with friends and family. If you don’t have a place to put a plant you’ve divided, you can save it in a pot for later. 
  4. It helps you save space if you use perennials for container gardening. Dividing is essential to prevent root binding. 

Deadheading

Deadheading is one of the most fundamental parts of perennial flower gardening and edible perennial gardening. When a flower is spent, snip off the bloom. Many flowers reproduce via seeds that remain after the flower has bloomed and died. These seeds will scatter in the area the perennial flowers are growing, unless you deadhead them. This helps contain plants that can take over, and allows you to collect perennial seeds. You can save them or give them away. 

Deadheading also maintains the health of your garden. Too much matter in the process of decay can attract pests and disease. If you have a large space you’d like to fill up with one kind of perennial flower or vegetable, you can deadhead, and scatter seeds therein yourself. 

Pruning

I’ll admit, I suck at this. I love to see the way perennial garden plants grow and I’m a tad shear shy, as they say. They do say that, don’t they? 

But especially with fruit trees, pruning perennials is so important. This helps your plants grow happily and easily, and keeps your garden manageable. Clipping off dead or overgrown leaves and branches prompts thicker growth in a lot of plants. When you prune edibles, you can take that snipped piece right into your kitchen. This is part of the reason perennial gardening is so rewarding. 

One of the biggest benefits to perennial gardening is that it helps you maintain soil health. You don’t spend a lot of time pulling plants out from the soil or tilling the soil to plant anew. By practicing low tilling, you support the microbiome of your soil. So why not try perennial gardening yourself? 

Bachelor’s Buttons are a vibrant addition to your summer garden that die away in winter only to return again in spring.

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North Texas Natives: Native or Invasive – What’s the Difference?

It’s been a while! I’ve been busy with something I hope you’ll enjoy, and should be able to share the news with you within a week! Hang tight. For now, we’ll discuss native plants versus invasive plants.

Make your way through plant groups on social media or read a bit about them and you’ll find that there’s a distinction made by gardeners, naturalists, and conservationists (among others) between “native” plants and “invasive” plants. I remember first learning about the two categories when I began dipping my toes in the foraging pond. I remembered reading about plants that had “invaded” ecological spaces and that they needed to be aggressively controlled. At the time, coming from an anthropological background I found terms like “alien” or “invader” dubious, because of their roots in ethnocentrism and xenophobia. So, I wondered for a time, what’s so invasive about invasive species?

Since I initially came from a place of suspicion about lingering colonial methods of control in the language we speak, it’s worth defining the terms “native” and “invasive” when we talk about local fauna. A native species is something that is fully assimilated and integrated into the conditions where it lives. An invasive species is one that can change the ecology it finds itself in so that it alters the beneficial system that existed before. Invasives can prevent natives from maintaining their hold on a certain ecological niche and reduce the amount of animal species that may have traversed an area for food or shelter. This works on all levels: beneficial bacteria, insects, and fungus have a harder time remaining in their home as well. Learning this helped me realize that invasive species may actually be more “colonial” than the idea of native species as they show up in an area and proliferate, obliterating species that flourished there before via the production of disadvantageous chemistry and detritus that when broken down keep the toxic cycle going. There’s a US historical allegory that goes along with this. I think you get my drift.

American Lotus: an alternative to the invasive Swamp Morning Glory

In her book, Gardening with Native Plants of the South, Sally Wasowski attributes the continuous planting of invasive species as a result of the nursery trade adopting so many of them for their looks rather than their ecology. Some gardeners opt for color instead of proper nutrient generation. But what of plants introduced to an ecological area that aren’t technically native, but manage to integrate and do no harm? Maybe looking at safer versions of invasive plants is something nurseries should consider for the locality they are situated in. As soil erosion and health becomes more of a concern in our changing world, maybe nurseries will move in this direction. What that means, though, is a change of culture. And we all know that paradigm shifts are slow. So, it’s up to us as gardeners to ensure that we garden ethically and pay homage to the earth – the land – that exists before we plan our gardens. Just as we consider which plants thrive in areas with full or dappled sun, we can look to our local ecology to determine which plants will work best chemically and biologically, or which will support the biome that exists already. Plenty of natives are showstoppers, just as species that are more “exotic”.

References:

Shelef, Oren, Peter J. Weisberg, and Frederick D. Provenza. “The value of native plants and local production in an era of global agriculture.” Frontiers in plant science 8 (2017): 2069.

Wasowski, Sally. Gardening with native plants of the South. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.

Zhang, Pei, et al. “Invasive plants differentially affect soil biota through litter and rhizosphere pathways: a meta‐analysis.” Ecology letters 22.1 (2019): 200-210.

Datta, Arunava, et al. “Identifying safe cultivars of invasive plants: six questions for risk assessment, management, and communication.” NeoBiota 62 (2020): 81.

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North Texas Native: Turk’s Cap

In this ‘Weekly Native’ series, I’ll showcase a species of plant that is seasonally active in North Texas. This week’s native is Turk’s Cap, also known taxonomically as Malvaviscus arboreus.

This Texas annual hails from Central and South America and has made its way into Texas. Generally a resident of the Gulf Coast, somehow it managed to find purchase in one county in North Texas. Most likely because someone who loved it down south decided to include it in their garden here or gifted a cutting to their northern friend.

It’s a very happy plant, no matter where it ends up in it’s growing regions. It enjoys full sunlight to partial shade and subsists in silty prairie soils to rich, loamy forest floors. Host to several species of butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, it’s a great addition to vegetable gardens and orchards that require pollination to fruit. It’s pest resistant as well, able to propagate beyond the damage done by white flies which don’t usually make their way to the plant unless it’s domesticated.

This is the hybridized version of Turk’s Cap, denoted Pam Puryear.

It’s very showy and in landscaping projects. The flower color ranges from red to white, with newer hybrid species showing off light pink flashes. Flowers present mostly closed with a stamen rising through and above the small blooms – about one inch in size. Turk’s cap is drought-resistant, but not cold tolerant. That’s not a problem in the zones you’ll find it living. Freezes aren’t persistent in many of them. However, it is an annual, so longer-term cool temperatures will cause its leaves to yellow and for it to die back. Wait for it to grow back in spring, though.

It’s a Texas Superstar according to Texas A&M Agrilife. The criteria for a Texas Superstar are as follows:

  1. must be attractive and useful to the gardening public
  2. must be unique and offer desirable and ornamental characteristics (i.e., the ability to perform in the heat of Texas summers or pest resistance) not usually available in commonly sold plants
  3. must consistently perform well for most Texas consumers regardless of their gardening expertise and growing locations
  4. must be as pest resistant as possible (deer proof is an added bonus)
  5. must be able to be propagate and mass-produce in sufficient numbers to meet consumer demand; and
  6. preferably is so attractive in the sales container that it “sells itself” to consumers – who have never heard of the attributes of the plant

Based on these, it’s easy to see how Turk’s Cap is a great plant to begin a gardening journey. Maybe one of your friends is growing it? To propagate the plant, root clippings in water with rooting powder. Then plant in soil.

Most of the plant – save the roots – can be eaten. Small fruit grow after the plant flowers, and studies have shown the fruit can reverse liver damage in lab rats. Foragers purport the plant is a great source of antioxidants, protein, starch, and vitamin C. So, if you find yourself starving in a field of Turk’s Cap, take a few! But use proper preparation methods to break down hard-to-digest enzymes first and ensure the plant has not been treated with toxic pesticides which can poison anything over time. The leaves, for instance are less difficult to digest if they’ve been wilted a bit. The flowers can be eaten raw and taste like honey suckle. Mineral and nutrient concentrations have powerful medicinal benefits as well, making Turk’s cap a wonderful treatment for colds, fever, wounds, and hypertension. That’s just a few of the medicinal uses for this plant. In fact, the medicinal use of Turk’s Cap has been employed to this day in Mayan culture. Current studies show it could be very promising if used in the pharmaceutical industry.

So, if you’re new to gardening, or you just want to grow something that doesn’t require much effort on your part, Turk’s Cap is your plant. Wait until Spring, and try it out, why don’t you?

Here it is, doing great and persistent among other lovely plants despite our recent cold snaps. Grow on, friend!

References:

https://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/turks-cap.html

http://admin.ipps.org/uploads/16B-Grant-Greg-Texas-Superstar.pdf

Patrock, Rich, Shelley Maher, and John Reilley. “A comparison of flower visitors to Texas native and exotic ornamentals.”

Abdelhafez, Omnia Hesham, et al. “Hepatoprotective potential of Malvaviscus arboreus against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in rats.” Plos one 13.8 (2018): e0202362.

Rodríguez-García, Cecilia Mónica, et al. “Antioxidant, antihypertensive, anti-hyperglycemic, and antimicrobial activity of aqueous extracts from twelve native plants of the Yucatan coast.” PloS one 14.3 (2019): e0213493.

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North Texas Native: Aromatic Aster

In this ‘Weekly Native’ series, I’ll showcase a species of plant that is seasonally active in North Texas. This week’s native is Aromatic Aster, also known taxonomically as Symphyotrichum oblongifolium.

Walking through the rocky side of my yard last week, I found this!

Well, hello there, tiny flowered friend.

I knew it was in the aster family due to its characteristic flowers. They look a bit like a daisy, but the petals are thinner. They vary in color from white to lavender, and are so small – only a few centimeters wide. The leaves are variable from base to tip. It’s this that made it difficult for me to confirm identification. However, I found there is only one aster that grows here in North Texas. Commonly known as Aromatic Aster, Fall Aster, or by its Latin name, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, and it is covering the Blackland Prairie right now.

After this sighting at my house, I noticed more of these Asters around on walks in my neighborhood. What struck me most is how many different forms the plant can take. Note the clustered nature of this patch I found in a nearby yard:

See how the flowers close up a bit when they’re in close quarters?

The leaves are barely visible among crowded blades of St Augustine grass. What is always striking is the flowers. I wasn’t the only one who noticed them, either. Social media posts in various gardening pages were full of questions about what to do with this perennial that emerged in a yard. Is it a weed? Is it invasive? How can I get rid of it?

That last question was my least favorite, of course, knowing what I know now about this native. From basic observation (see the photos in this post), it’s obvious the plant thrives in many different environments: rocky, disturbed areas; lush and regularly watered yards full of non-native grasses; and of course, my favorite find – on the nearby prairie.

Wow! Just wow.

So, what’s so great about Aromatic Aster? Well, a lot, actually. Not only do pollinators love it, but it is drought resistant. So, when social media threads have bits of advice that include pulling up the plant by its root, I have to jump in and say, wait! Think of the bees and butterflies that depend on nearby stops to survive. Know that if you decide to reduce the amount of water you apply to your non-native grass-filled yard it will carry out its growing season regardless. As will many others. But that’s a topic for another post.

In my research, I learned that not only does this plant survive drought, but it works to restore disturbed prairie land. Even though it has a relatively short growing season (from September to early November), it stores its energy in bud banks that exist below the prairie surface. So, pulling it up by the root will do little to prevent it from coming back next year. Furthermore, the more the soil it lives in is disturbed, the more likely it will step in to do some cleanup. Pulling it up by the root will actually promote growth rather than reduce it. The Aromatic Aster is a stabilizer for the prairie, and an essential for maintaining a thriving and healthy ecosystem. Due to many factors, the prairie is at risk, and allowing it to do what it would do without human intervention only bolsters its ability to self-regulate.

That feedback loop is so exciting to me: the prairie gets burned by wildfire, cut down by lawn mowers and heavy foot-traffic, and the easy-going, adaptable, drought-loving Aster steps in to restore and re balance what is off-kilter. What’s even more interesting is that this particular species of Aster has been used medicinally to treat fever. A fever is a kind of imbalance in the body, eh?

This great balancing ability has more mileage when we look at what effect the Asteraceae genus has had on the plant taxonomy community. In the past few decades there has been a lot of debate on whether or not certain plants that were scientifically categorized in the genus actually belonged there. This caused a schism from one genus (Asteraceae) into eight different genera. Even further divisions are currently in discussion. In a way this plant has convinced those of us who notice it to refocus, reclassify, and restore literally and figuratively. So if you notice these growing in your yard, please don’t remove them. They’re there to get in, do some dirty work, and retreat back into the dark below the prairie surface to rise again next fall.

If you’d like to grow Aromatic Aster in your garden, you can divide the plant easily now as it’s growing and bring it in for winter. Or you can purchase it from a local nursery that sells Texas perennials next fall. Whatever the case, do not disturb lest ye be overrun with Aster next year!

References:

Cobb, Forrest, and Roel Lopez. “Facing urban water challenges with integrative irrigation techniques in drought-prone areas.”

Gök, Rengin, et al. “Shear wave splitting and mantle flow beneath LA RISTRA.” Geophysical Research Letters 30.12 (2003).

VanderWeide, Benjamin L., David C. Hartnett, and Daniel L. Carter. “Belowground bud banks of tallgrass prairie are insensitive to multi‐year, growing‐season drought.” Ecosphere 5.8 (2014): 1-17.

Yatskievych, George. “How faster to master the Aster disaster: a primer on the changing nomenclature of Missouri Asters.” (2004): 26-32.