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PLANT OF THE MONTH: Virginia Mountain Mint
Posted on by ridgetownrick
The fragrant minty leaves of this plant can be used in your dinner, but I prefer it to leave it in the garden where lots of bees and other pollinators can be found on the flowers. The tiny white flowers, upon close inspection, are covered in little purple polka dots. This delightful flower is a must have in your native plant garden, and it tolerates a wide range of light, soil and moisture conditions. As usual, the Plant Description and In the Garden sections, below, are courtesy of Shaun Booth from In Our Nature. This Plant of the Month article has been adapted from our book The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region.
Common Name: Virginia Mountain Mint
Scientific Name: Pycnanthemum virginianum
ARTICLE: Is it Invasive or is it just Aggressive?
Posted on by ridgetownrick
This article is NOT about invasive species, but is about the strategies I use to deal with aggressive species in the garden. But first, a note about invasive species.
Common Reed or Phrag (Phragmites australis), Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) – these names tend to strike fear (or at least dread) into hearts of native plant gardeners. They are all invasive species.
What makes them so bad? All were introduced into gardens from which they then escaped into the wild. There, their ability to spread was so powerful that they soon started to exclude the local plants (and sometime even animals).
Invasive species may spread by seed (e.g. Garlic Mustard, Phragmites, Buckthorn) or by rhizome (Japanese Knotweed, Lily of the Valley) or both. Control of the spread is difficult, at best.
BOOK REVIEW
Native Plants for Prairie Gardens
Posted on by ridgetownrick
By June Flanagan
· Publisher: Fifth House Books, (2005)
· Paperback: 208 pages
· ISBN-10: 1391894856
· Dimensions: 9” X 9”
· Price: $33.21 (Amazon.ca); $10.91 (used, on Amazon.com)
Note: This review is adapted and expanded from the one I posted to Amazon after purchasing the book in 2017.
The title is a bit misleading. I was expecting more of a field guide to plants suitable for gardening. Instead, the book is more about acquiring, planting and growing the native species. It contains very few pictures – mostly text. I probably would have called the book “Gardening with Native Prairie Plants” because what you get is a well thought out treatise on that topic.
The book starts with definitions of prairie, then lists the plants for various uses in the garden (colour, xeriscaping, shade, winter interest, etc.). The chapter on acquiring native plants differentiates between garden center sources (true native plants vs cultivars) and gathering your own seed – including a section on storing your seeds.
Other Random Stuff
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