Seeing as last week ended up cooling off quite a bit, the apple trees have not yet bloomed. I’ll have to hold off a little longer on the bean planting. Which is fortunate for me because I have yet to actually get my beets in and the forsythia and daffodils are all done. 

There are no phenological plantings to be done, other than tidying up what I haven’t gotten to, so let’s take a mosey about the property and see what is leafing out and blooming. 

The front gardens are a riot of tulips and grape hyacinth. I have a red parrot tulip in front of me with some of the grape hyacinths and it smells incredible, almost like a rose. I don’t remember where it came from. Maybe one of those spring forced bulbs from the grocery store that someone gave us as a house warming present. I love when they go on sale, sometimes for 50 cents when they are mostly dead, but then you pop them in the garden and you get years of tulips or hyacinths for cheaper than you could ever buy the bulbs for. 

We have a circlet of blue surrounding our serviceberry bush. And the Nannyberry is leafing out, but this is the second year with no blooms. Either it takes awhile to get established, it hates where it is, or something is amuck. 

Native bushes for the back hedgerow

I didn’t kill my Ninebark, yay! 

It is leafing out, slowly but surely, and looks like it will do just fine where I’ve planted it. 

I also moved my Buttonbush that I got from Lacewing last year and it’s leafing out happily. Another happy native plant for my hedgerow area in the backyard. 

I got a Gray Dogwood bush from Lacewing as well and it seems to be doing ok. 

There are some random perennials from Lacewing too -  I can’t remember exactly what I bought - I think a Gray-headed Coneflower and something else … I really can't remember. But I’ve moved them up to the new front garden instead of keeping them in the Tallgrass Prairie section where I had planted them last year. 

The bushes were bought last fall when they were selling off stock at Fiddlehead, I didn’t really have any plan for them other than to add more natives to my property. Now that I have the ‘hedgerow’ plan they will work beautifully and I can use them instead of having to purchase new plants for some of the spots. 

I still really want to get some American Plums for their numerous pollinator, food web and personal eating benefits. And I’m going to see about finding some Chokecherries and other edibles that are useful for me and the hedgerow food web.  

I’m also considering a meadow planting in the hedgerow area while the bushes are small for added interest and benefit. With the tallgrass prairie, the ratio has to be about 70% grasses to 30% forbs or flowers. With a meadow it can be any ratio and the more flowers the merrier. Plus it doesn’t just have to be natives as long as the non-native species aren’t going to crowd your native species out. 

I am having a bit of an internal struggle between Doug Tallamy’s ‘just say no to any non-natives’ and the fact that I love beautiful flowers too and want a cutting garden. Struggles, struggles. 

Let’s take a look at the specific native bushes that I have planted so far and why they are so beneficial as a hedgerow and to this particular area. 

Tomorrow