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ARTICLE: Building a Mini-wetland
Posted on by ridgetownrick
As a native plant gardener in a small southwestern Ontario town, I am blessed to have a half-acre property with a variety of growing conditions. These range from dry, full sun to dry, full shade and from moist, full sun to moist, full shade, and pretty much everything in between. But of course that wasn’t enough, so in 2012 I brought in 40 tons of Manitoulin Island limestone and built an “escarpment”, complete with a waterfall. (This will likely be the subject of a future article – or two). After I retired in 2018, I added a bog garden (see my Dec 2022 article The Boggy, Boggy Dew – the story of Creating a Bog Garden) at the base of the falls. In that article, I lamented that in my impatience to get plants established, I planted a number large, aggressive wetland plants that were overwhelming the delicate bog plants the garden had been designed for.
In 2022 I decided to rectify that problem by building a “wetland” in my back yard – a place I could put all those tall, aggressive spreaders. This is the story of that project.
What is a Wetland?
In Canada (the US has similar definitions) “wetlands are submerged or permeated by water – either permanently or temporarily – and are characterized by plants adapted to saturated soil conditions.”
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
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
Check out the May Jigsaw Puzzle!
