Less Lawn ~ More Plants

We have had great success smothering our lawn to create new planting areas and kill weeds such as creeping charlie.

We just finished planting an area in our back yard which was previously part of the lawn last fall.

After the leaves fell, we raked the leaves from our lawn onto the area to be smothered. Some people use newspaper for smothering grass. We realized after using newspaper that it was very time consuming for large areas and it took a while to build up a supply to have enough for the job.

We now use rolls of Builder's Paper which come in 3' widths and are available at Home Depot or Lowes in the paint section. The paper is a nice thickness and you only need one layer to do the job.

For this project, we rolled out the paper on top of the raked leaves, then covered the paper with more leaves. You need to have enough leaves on top to weigh down the paper. A shredded wood mulch also works well.

We no longer use landscape mulch in the yard other than for pathways because we are trying to restore the leaf litter layer as much as possible.

This photo shows the layer of leaves on top of the paper.

There are some great advantages to smothering grass this way.

The biggest ones are that it does not create any soil disturbance and you don't need to use any herbicides. No soil disturbance means you will not be disrupting any root structures or soil mycorrhizal fungi as well as not promoting weed seed germination.

Most of all it is a lot less work than removing the sod. The added layer of leaves and decaying sod creates a wonderful layer of humus and adds organic matter to your soil.

The paper and leaves need to be left for at least two seasons, ie. paper in the fall and plant in the spring or paper in the spring and plant in the fall.

Be aware if you have a dog that they can easily tear the damp paper if they run through the area which will allow for openings and the sod to poke through.

This photo shows the area planted the following spring.

Here are some other before and after photos where we used wood mulch to smother the grass. The area was heavily infested with creeping charlie so we needed the extra weight of 2-3" of wood mulch to kill the creeping charlie.

Before 

Paper and mulch added

After

Ant Dispersed Seeds

We have been monitoring the seed capsules of our Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) the last couple of weeks for their pending ripening. Timing is everything if you want to collect the Bloodroot because the seed pod bursts open releasing the seeds in a short time frame.

Unfortunately we were a couple of days late this year for the Bloodroot and found only one pod that still had a few seeds in it.

The green seed pods form underneath the Bloodroot leaf and often remain green up until the time of opening so it is hard to judge when they will burst. The brown seeds are arranged in vertical rows on the interior of the pod and are released to the ground below.

Attached to both the Bloodroot and Wild Ginger seeds is a fleshy appendage called an elaiosome. The elaiosome attracts ants to the seeds because it resembles a caterpillar.

The ants pick up the seeds and carry them off to their nest where they eat the elaiosome and discard the seed, planting it in their nest. 

According to William Cullina in his book Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada, the seed is discarded in the ants' compost pile where it is nurtured from the nutrients released by the decaying waste and protected from harm from the territorial ant colony.

Like many spring ephemeral seeds, they are best sown in pots or directly in the ground once collected before drying out. We will often collect and plant seeds in clusters so that the following season we see a grouping of seedlings emerge (their first leaves only emerge) - then we know not to weed the seedlings out. It is not until the following year that the true leaves emerge.

Asarum canadense - Wild Ginger Seeds, Seed Capsule and Flower

Wahoo!

Our Eastern Wahoo tree (Euonymus atropurpureus) is flowering right now. We purchased it last year from Out Back Nursery and added it to the lower area of our yard where the soil is heavier and moister.

It is a native tree to Minnesota's deciduous woods and according to the USDA Plant Database much of the eastern United States & Canada. It is considered a large shrub or small tree reaching a height of about 15 feet so it can be used in the landscape as a very nice small ornamental tree.

The flowers turn into bright pink fruit capsules in the fall which dangle from the branches. The capsules become very evident once the leaves fall. As they dry, they open up similarly to the orange fruit of bittersweet vine with a reddish seed hanging out.

The Wahoo Tree (sometimes called Burning Bush) is related to the non-native and invasive Euonymus alatus or Winged Burning Bush.

According to Welby Smith in his book Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota, the most favorable conditions for the Wahoo Tree are under a thin canopy or in patchy shade along the edge of woods. He also writes that the seeds are spread widely by birds that feed on the fruit.

For more photos of what's in bloom in our yard right now, check out the In Bloom page.

The Monarchs are Back

We saw the first Monarch Butterfly return to the yard yesterday. She looked pretty frayed and dull in color from her long journey north. I watched her for quite a while as she flew back and forth across our prairie species looking for Milkweed (Asclepias) plants.

She deposited eggs on the underside of the milkweed leaves on many of our plants including some very tiny Butterfly Milkweed seedlings.

Monarchs are specialists because their larvae will only eat Milkweed species. They will nectar on many different flowering plants, one favorite in our yard is the Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis) in early August.

We have four types of Milkweed at the moment, Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata). We recently purchased seed for the Tall Green Milkweed (Asclepias hirtella) so that will be a new addition to the yard soon.

A few years ago, we applied to have our yard registered as a Monarch Waystation because we are providing food and nectar sources for the monarch butterfly.

We will now be watching for the caterpillars to develop in the next month. For photos of a Monarch butterfly emerging from a chrysalis in our yard go to the insects page.