Dandelions: If you can, trowel up the entire taproot. But at least snip the heads while they’re freshly yellow and puffy.

Crab Grass: Rugged and malicious, can stubbornly settle into the driest of soils. (If so, wet the soil and pull as much root as possible)

Clover: Often considered a weed. However depending on aesthetic taste, small white clovers may be desirable in a yard or garden. Sweet Clover is the fast, dominating weed that you should watch out for and control early on.

Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis) is a fast colonizer common on construction sites. It can get up to 5' tall.

Trifolium clovers are considered a weed by some but may also add an aesthetic touch to a yard or garden.

Goatsbeard: The bad kind (Tragopogon dubius) is a nuisance, and a widely dispersed weed. However an entirely different type  (Aruncus dioicus) is planted in yards for a shade-tolerant native perennial.

Flowering Aruncus dioicus planted in a yard

Tragopogon dubius - Pull before it flowers!

Creeping Charlie: A merciless ground cover eager to set up shop in your yard.

Thistle: Pull it NOW when it’s thorns are still easy to handle, and before the taproot is too deep in the mid/late summer!

Violets: Pull them early before they’re established in your yard.

Tree Seedlings: Ash, Maple, Elm, and Buckthorn are the most common and can propagate in large numbers up to the hundreds.

A well-kept raingarden ready for spring, but just a bit too soon for vibrant colors... what to do?

Ever get that pre-Mother’s Day planting itch? Early Spring is a great time to sneak a bit of color into your garden before the bulk of the plants start blooming! By planting early blooming bulbs, perennials, or trees around the perimeters of the raingarden, you’ll extend it’s color life up to a month!

Bulbs: Plant in the fall. Bulbs can be tucked in virtually anywhere between your existing raingarden plants, however they do best on the high edges. Perhaps be creative by overlapping a flower garden into the raingarden?

Crocus

Daphodil

Siberian Squill

Tulips

Perennials/ Early Bloomers: Can be planted anytime, but spring and fall are best. They also favor the perimeter of the garden.

Pasque

Prairie Smoke

Columbine

Trees: Early flowering trees do well on the outside of the raingarden, such as the top “berm” of the raingarden (the pile of soil from when the raingarden was dug out). Planting on the tops is especially smart for fruit trees, which are susceptible to fungus. Keeping them in the dry parts of the garden/yard will ensure their success in wet areas. Serviceberry however can be planted anywhere, including the middle of the raingarden.

Cherry

Crabapple

Service Berry

Magnolia

Forsythia

Redbud

Lead Landscape Designer Michael Keenan recently spoke for Metro Blooms in North Minneapolis for WCCO News. Michael highlighted the Sentyrz Supermarket raingarden and explained the fundamentals of raingardens and how they help the Mississippi River. Happy Earth Week!

This Earth Day, Metro Blooms is teaming up with Project for Pride in Living (PPL) to build a raingarden. Not just any raingarden mind you, but a raingarden rich in community initiative. The Earth Day project will complete PPL’s renovation of an affordable apartment building at 2521 Girard Ave N. The housing building is part of PPL’s work in the Minneapolis Foreclosure Recovery Plan,which is supported by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. 

Metro Blooms is pleased to partner with PPL for the project, combining property redevelopment with a beautified landscape that protects our clean water.  

PPL commented in a press release that “We are thankful to Metro Blooms and area businesses for helping us achieve an ecofriendly solution for this renovated property, as well as welcoming environment for new residents” (Chris Wilson, PPL Director of Housing & Development). New residents of the building will also have the opportunity to learn about raingardens and helps to plant the new garden.

Local businesses that have contributed their time and resources to the project are:

• Ecoscapes Sustainable Landscaping 
• Ecoscapes Native Nursery
• Hedberg Landscape and Masonry Supply
• By the Barrel
• Boy Scout Troop #90 from St. Paul

The correlations are given in R values, which range from 0 to 1.  An R value indicates the level of statistical relationship between two data sets. An R value of  ”0″ would indicate no relationship, while a “1″ would be a perfect statistical relationship. The results of these correlations are expressed in the decimals below. If a percentage is expressed rather than a decimal, the statement comes from averages in our data.

Workshops: 

• Newspaper, (22%) Internet searches, ( 36%) and Minneapolis Utility Bill postings (58%) show to be the most influential source of attracting workshop attendees who end up installing raingardens. (2009-2011)

•  We compared the number of folks who forwarded the workshop information on to someone else with the reports of why folks attended the workshop. Correlations showed that attending with hopes to learn about the stormwater fee reduction (.941) and attending because raingardens are beautiful (.943) were the strongest reasons for deciding to forward the information on to someone else.

Onsite Consultations: 

• We examined the number of onsite recipients from 2008-2011, and compared them to the reasons for attending a raingarden workshop. We found that most onsite recipients most attended the workshop because of an in interest in native plants (.84) or attended because raingardens are beautiful. (.97)

• When workshop attendees do request an onsite, they are then on average more likely to install a raingarden (38%), install a rain barrel (17%), and redirect their downspouts (24%) than they are to take no action at all. (2008-2011)

All of us here at Metro Blooms are excited for our 2012 projects… we have dozens!  There are two however that we’d like to describe more in depth: Urban Homeworks and the Seward Montessori School Magnet. These projects indeed don’t stop at the raingarden themselves. Both promise a high level of initiative and enthusiasm to bring the raingardens to a higher level of education and community involvement. 

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Urban Homeworks is an organization combining affordable housing, volunteer support and intentional community here in Minneapolis/ St. Paul. A raingarden installation works great in this setting because the residents of the Urban Neighbors program actively seek ways be involved in their communities as part of their housing agreement. The raingarden will fit in fabulously to bring people together; keeping the community looking lush, living, vibrant, and contributing to our water quality. What a great way to combine teamwork and strategy to create a solid, effective, and positive way of living in community! Check out their website for more info and videos concerning their work and mission.

Project Description: The project will be part of the 2009 Emerson Ave park and parking area, which is a vacant lot owned by Urban Homeworks. The lot includes a gravel parking area along with a collection of sculptures made by Juxtaposition Arts students. Along with the benefits of art, the site will serve as an education site for North side residents about the art and design of stormwater management, demonstrating how trees and raingardens function for the watershed and create vibrant, aesthetic community space at the same time. The visuals to accompany the garden will provide information on what homeowners can do to reduce stormwater pollution on their own property.

Seward Montessori's existing Peace Garden, soon to be accompanied by a raingarden and channel drain.

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There’s much more to come as the grand season of Spring unfolds…

Stay up to date both here and on our facebook page! 

Family:

Scientific Name: Carex vulpinoidea 

Native cool-season perennial sedge that grows up to 3 ft high. Grows in wet, moist meadows, marshes, lake shores, stream sides, and road sides.

Watch for: Dense clumps of sedges with a brown seed head that resembles a fox’s tail. Blooms May to July. Leaves are generally longer than the stem. Remember: “Sedges have edges” on the stem.

Other names: Brown Fox Sedge, Common Fox Sedge

History: Sedges have many uses to 1st Nations tribes across the US. In the Northwest, they’re used for a cleaning brush, lining pit-ovens, moccasins, and berry baskets. The Nez Perce use many sedge species for rope and twine (Nebraska). The Paiute use sedges to make spoons (California/ Nevada). Some sedge stems can be eaten raw (i.e. Big-leaf Sedge).

Tidbits: Fox Sedge is a wildlife superstar. Rails, grouse, ducks, and even song birds (several sparrows, snow buntings, cardinals, and redpolls) make well use of the flower. Beyond birds, moose, beaver, deer and muskrat also take advantage of it’s water-side cuisine. For many small birds and mammals, sedges also provide concealment from predators.

Gardens/ Cultivation: Fox Sedge does well in raingardens due to it’s clumping form, can survive long periods of flooding and has a high tolerance to water fluctuation. It’s often used in upper shoreline zones and stream banks for stabilization. It’s an excellent pioneer species in wetland restoration projects as well, being able to re-vegetate and area quickly after a disturbance. There are no cultivars for sedges.

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Sources: 

Schmidt, Rusty and Shaw, Daniel. Plants for Stormwater Design. Minnesota Pollution

          Control Agency, 2003. 

PCEI: http://www.pcei.org/water/nplants.htm

USDA: http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_cavu2.pdf

]]> http://www.metroblooms.org/bloomsblog/2012/02/29/fox-sedge/feed/ 0 http://www.metroblooms.org/bloomsblog/2012/01/27/asters-purple-dome-and-new-england/ http://www.metroblooms.org/bloomsblog/2012/01/27/asters-purple-dome-and-new-england/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:18:32 +0000 Nick http://www.metroblooms.org/bloomsblog/?p=327 Read more »]]>
Family: Asteraceae

Scientific Name: Aster novae-angliae

As a prime example of a native plant which is highly cultivated, this entry will look at both. New England Aster is a very common and native perennial herb which favors upland moist to saturated conditions. Purple Dome Aster is a close cultivar of it’s New England predecessor, but is smaller and better suited to gardens. Both Asters flower from late summer into fall until the frost.

Family:

Scientific name: Eupatorium perfoliatum

Native perennial wildflower from 2-4 ft tall. Prefers low, moist to wet soils with plenty of organic material, with full to partial sun.

Watch for: The stem is covered with white hairs and forms branches at the top. Leaves are opposite along the stem and tend to grow together. Clusters of white flowers appear in late summer to early fall.

Other names: Throughwort, Wild Sage, Ague Weed, Feverwort, Vegetable Antimony 

History: Boneset is mentioned in nearly every early American book on medicinal plants. In early Anglo history, the whole plant would be hung downward from house rafters throughout the year for immediate use for colds, nausea, or fevers. A wide variety of 1st Nations use it for a variety of purposes, including sore throat, fever, cold, flu, chills, epilepsy, gonorrhea, snakebite, kidney trouble, and to induce vomiting. It’s recorded that the Menominis of the Great Lakes region learned to use Boneset for fevers from white people, which is a rare case of 1st Nations adopting an Anglo use of a medicinal plant, since it’s typically the other way around.

Tidbits: A German study in 1981 showed that certain compounds extracted from Boneset were just as effective as aspirin in curing the common cold. A toxic concentration of nitrates have also been found in the plant. Boneset was listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1916, but the FDA now refers to it as a herb of “undefined safety” with a diaphoretic effect.

Gardens/ Cultivation: The cultivation of Boneset has historically shown little economic incentive, which still holds today in it’s lack of cultivars. Joe-pye Weed (pictured pink) is a similar plant commonly cultivated for gardens. However, Boneset is still used in gardens and raingardens. It prefers saturated to moist conditions, is able to last 3.5 days inundated with water, and can withstand frequent flooding. Planting works well for Boneset when planted in cold spring or fall soil with high light exposure. The plant adds texture to gardens, although usually not a highlight in terms of color. Great for habitat and ground cover, and does well in raingardens and along shorelines. For wildlife, Boneset is attractive to Monarchs, Cresent, and Fritillary Butterflies. Turkeys, swamp sparrows and some waterfowl eat the fruit, while Mallard and Ruffed Grouse eat the leaves. It also provides cover for small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

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Sources: 

Kindsher, Kelly. Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide.                                          University Press of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas, 1992.

Schmidt, Rusty and Shaw, Daniel. Plants for Stormwater Design. Minnesota Pollution                                  Control Agency, 2003. 

Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower)

History: Coneflower is widely known as the most used medicinal plant of 1st Nations peoples in North America. It covers remedies for pain killer, toothache, coughs, olds, sore throats, snake bite, and cancer. It was also the prairie plant most  popularized and used by Ango-American doctors, verging beyond common folk use, which did not happen easily nor quickly. Anglo farmers would use the plant in a cattle or horse feed for livestock that had trouble eating. This popularity led to a heavy harvest for Coneflower, with a record of 200,000 lbs harvested in Kansas in 1902, profiting up to $100,000. Ups and downs in harvest continued to 1965, as interest in the plant turned into more of an academic medical research. After 1965, harvest decreased, but has recently picked up again. Now however more people are concerned with it’s survival in the wild, with Missouri prohibiting it’s harvest in parks, forests, and along highways. Today also brings more interest in cultivation.

Tidbits: The genus name for Purple Coneflower comes from the Latin word for Hedgehog, derived from it’s prickly stem. South Dakota University has studies how to make it into an insecticide, since some chemical compounds it contains are toxic to mosquitoes and house flies.

Gardens/Cultivation: It has been said there there is much more potential still awaiting to be discovered in Coneflower cultivation. It attracts butterflies, insects, and birds (especially American Goldfinch). It prefers upland moist to dry conditions, providing good soil stabilization (roots 6-7′ deep). It can withstand one day of flooding. Some examples of cultivars include Magnus, Ruby Star, Tomato soup (pictured dark red), White Swan (pictured), and Pale-purple Coneflower (pictured thin petals). Similar species include Yellow Coneflower, Smooth Purple Coneflower, and Sweet Coneflower.

 

 

 

 

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Sources: 

Kindsher, Kelly. Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide.                                     University Press of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas, 1992.

Schmidt, Rusty and Shaw, Daniel. Plants for Stormwater Design. Minnesota Pollution                             Control Agency, 2003.