Native Plants – Page 2 – Maryland Grows

New Year, New Habits on the Horizon

January 16, 2025Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about habits lately—a whole lot. Changes in just one or two simple habits can radically transform our personal lives, society, and how we relate to the natural world, hopefully for the better but sometimes for the worse. How many of us have made a resolution or started a new habit already this year involving nature, gardening, or land stewardship? Are you sticking with it or just getting around to thinking about starting it? I am here to say: “If it matters, don’t give up!” It can take time and practice through repetition to establish or change a habit, according to an accumulating body of fascinating research around the human psychology of habits. A little bit of knowledge about how habits work can go a long way toward establishing and maintaining new habits.

The habit loop

Habits are a big part of what powers us through the day without having to think through the details of each and every step in a routine action. From wake up routines to commuting patterns, we carry out a series of regular actions based on established and regularly repeated cues, routines, and rewards. This is known as the “habit loop,” as vividly described by Charles Duhigg in his best-selling book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.

Duhigg describes how habits, deeply encoded in one of the most evolutionarily ancient parts of our brains, the basal ganglia, relieve us of some of our daily cognitive load so that the more advanced parts of our brain can be devoted to higher order activities like reasoning, innovation, and decision-making. Habits can become ingrained fairly quickly if the chemical neurotransmitter reward in our brains is great enough, if the cues and rewards are strongly linked, or when routines are simplified and reinforced through regular repetition and behavior reinforcement.

A square illustration of the habit loop showing a human eye on the left, representing the cue. Above the eye is an arrow that makes a right turn at the top of the illustration and connects with a scrub brush representing the routine of cleaning the birdbath. An arrow flows from the brush and turns downward to a pair of binoculars, a bluebird, and a red heart symbol and exclamation point representing the reward of seeing a bluebird. An arrow continues downward and curves left to form the bottom of the illustration, connecting back to the human eye.

Caption: An example of the habit loop illustrating part of my winter bluebird care routine. I spot a messy bird bath after a day of heavy use (visual cue), spring into action to scrub the basin and refill with clean water (routine), then enjoy the thrill of spotting a bluebird taking a drink of fresh, clean water the next morning (reward). My craving to see bluebirds in winter helps to power me through this frequent winter routine on freezing cold days. I suspect some endorphins are released in my brain every time I witness the scene of a bluebird drinking fresh water outside my window on a freezing cold winter day. Graphic: S. Small-Lorenz

Cue-routine-reward. Cue-routine-reward. A habit cycle powered by an incessant craving for a drop of neurotransmitter joy. Habits can become so routinely mechanized that they are difficult, yet not impossible, to change. It is entirely possible, though, to modify habits just through tweaking routines. It is also possible to create new habits through repetition, with clearly identified cues and rewards. To instill a new habit, it can help to establish the cue, the reward, and a simple sequence of action steps in between.

Black plastic trash bag in the gutter with leaves spilling out of it

These habits also reflect missed opportunities to create better soil with higher soil organic matter that absorbs more stormwater where it falls, which would result in a more flood and drought-resilient watershed because soil with higher organic matter absorbs and retains more moisture. This, in turn, creates a foundation for a flourishing landscape that supports a wide array of biodiversity.

Keystone habits: Small actions that lead to big results

Then there are habits known as “keystone habits.” Like the architectural feature that supports an arch or keystone species that sustain an ecosystem, keystone habits are those habits that have the power to make big change throughout a system, by means of small actions. Small action = big change. It sounds so simple and gratifying, right? But is it realistic?

Duhigg gives examples of successful organizations and individuals who have identified and implemented keystone habits to achieve positive change and desired outcomes. These include daily habits drilled by Michael Phelps that helped him to break a world swimming record in an Olympic race, even while his goggles failed him, and former Alcoa CEO Paul O’Neill’s singular, unprecedented obsession with workplace safety that dramatically transformed its corporate culture and overall productivity, despite initial deep doubts and laments of indignant shareholders. Think about a life-altering habit that you have adopted, changed, or left behind. How hard was it but how much did it transform your life to eventually change that habit? Research has shown that cues and rewards of the habit loop can be difficult to rewire, but that it is also entirely possible to alter the routine between the cue and reward to achieve a more desired outcome.

My primary driving question these days is: “How do we change habits to improve habitat?”

As I review the many sustainable practices promoted through our Bay-Wise Living Landscapes Program, I am searching for those potential keystone habits that we should emphasize in 2025 that represent small actions for big changes. Small behavior changes across the landscape that, when added up, could have an outsized, beneficial impact on our watersheds and their ecosystems.

My 2025 keystone habit for Maryland

If I could foster one keystone habit change across Maryland in 2025 it would be this: “Recycle yard debris on-site.” This one habit actually captures a number of low-cost but beneficial practices, such as leaving leaf litter where it falls, leaf mulching, grass-cycling, and creating wildlife brush-piles from yard prunings. So, technically, we’re talking about habits within a habit.

The photo shows fallen tree leaves partially covering a lawn area.

The photo shows a log exposed under a layer of snow.

Caption: Leaf litter (L) and a log under a layer of snow (R). Firefly larvae take shelter in leaf litter and logs throughout the winter. Yard “debris” has high habitat value, providing overwintering habitat for many beneficial insects and wildlife species. Photos: S. Small-Lorenz.

Managing our yard “debris” like leaves, grass, clippings, branches, stumps, snags, and prunings in ways that acknowledge their ecological value can improve soil and water, laying the groundwork for more climate-resilient landscapes and communities. Leaving leaves where they fall nourishes soil and vegetation, retains soil moisture, creates a substrate for native plants to establish, and provides an insulating ground layer of habitat for a wide array of species.

Leaf mulching and composting on-site are other sustainable options for managing leaf litter. Grass-cycling by leaving grass clippings on the lawn instead of bagging it up and sending it off-site provides a free, natural fertilizer with a much lower carbon footprint than trucking it off or applying manufactured fertilizer. Arranging downed limbs and pruned branches into brush piles provides shelter for songbirds and small mammals on extended snowy days like we’ve had this month and throughout the year and returns carbon and nutrients to the soil. (The main exception to this habit is to remove and properly dispose of invasive non-native plant materials, especially those that reproduce vegetatively or have gone to seed, to avoid spreading them.)

Photo of a small brush pile in deep snow, surrounded by animal tracks. — Caption: Brush pile in deep snow, surrounded by animal tracks.
Photo: S. Small-Lorenz

How does habit change take root in the community?

However, pleading with people or even providing scientific evidence is not likely to make these habit changes take hold on a large enough scale to make a measurable impact across an entire watershed. Study upon study has shown that people are more likely to respond to a combination of seeing their neighbors do it and financial incentives over any amount of urging, pleading, pledging, or piles of scientific evidence (Bergquist et al. 2023). Could this be because neighbor cues and financial rewards better tap into this primal habit loop of cue-routine-reward? There is evidence that the answer to this question is “yes.”

Friction, cues, and incentives

In a fascinating review, Mazar et al. (2021) identified three successful strategies for motivating environmental behavior change through policy, and I believe these strategies are applicable to individuals and organizations as well. First is the strategic use of friction. Identify where friction can be reduced or increased to motivate habit change. Make it easy to implement the desired behavior (reduce friction) or a little more challenging to do it the old way (add friction). They cite a number of environmental behavior change studies, including one that made it easier to recycle by reducing steps to the recycling bin or a little more expensive to use disposable bags through token bag fees. This is a matter of simplifying the routine in the cue-routine-reward habit loop to lead to the desired behavior or complicating it to deter less desired behavior.

A bright blue male Eastern Bluebird points his bill upwards as he drinks clear water from a bird bath during a heavy winter snow. An inkberry holly next to the bird bath holds several inches of snow on its foliage.

“Re-setting the default” is a related strategy. A variety of studies have shown that setting the desired behavior as the default results in more rapid and widespread adoption of the more environmentally friendly option. For example, placing vegetarian meals at the top of a menu or adjusting office thermostat default settings resulted in significantly higher uptake of the desired pro-environment behaviors. In a different but related example, if I see salad at the start of a buffet meal, I will undoubtedly fill my plate with a bed of greens. If I encounter the dessert table first, you’d better believe I’m starting with the cheesecake!

Second is implementing clear cues to action – for example, studies showed that improving signage on cafeteria recycling bins using clear visual symbols right at the disposal site resulted in positive environmental behavior changes. I see this as directly tapping into the cue part of the cue-routine-reward habit loop.

Third is psychologically informed incentives that steer people toward desired environmental habits or away from detrimental habits. It turns out that people really like and value free things. Small fees, like the bag fee, have resulted in major societal behavior shifts by imposing a very small cost on the behavior of accepting a disposable bag. My local natural foods store takes it a step further by offering a wooden nickel token for each reusable bag a customer deploys, to donate to their choice of three local charities. There’s a double reward to accelerate that cue-routine-reward habit loop. Save the bag fee and donate it on the spot to a charity making a positive impact in the community.

Savor the intangible rewards

Rewards don’t always have to be financial, although small financial rewards or rebates have been shown to motivate environmental behavior change on a societal level. Rewards may come in the form of cost and time-savings or they may be as intangible as the smell of rich organic soil that you and your tree co-created, the endorphins released during the exercise of planting a common witch hazel shrub, the pleasure of seeing an Eastern Bluebird take a drink of fresh water from your clean, heated bird bath on a freezing winter day, or the joy of sighting that first firefly flicker of June.

Photo shows leaf litter, prunings, and standing woodland sunflower stems in the winter during a January snowfall event.

Photo shows leaf litter and songbird tracks in a light layer of snow.

Captions: Top: leaf litter, prunings, and standing woodland sunflower stems in the winter during a January snowfall event. Bottom: litter and songbird tracks in a light layer of snow. Photos: S. Small-Lorenz

If we can get comfortable with a slightly rougher and wilder aesthetic in our residential landscapes, the biodiversity and climate-resilience benefits could be immense. These new habits lend themselves to creativity – you can be as messy, manicured, or artistic as you would like with them yet still enjoy the benefits of rich soil, sustained soil moisture, pollinators, songbirds, hawks, and owls in your yard or park.

If you have resolved to become a better steward of nature this year, or even if you are just now thinking about trying your hand at some aspect of ecological landscaping, try putting your new knowledge of the habit loop to the test. If you’re looking for a place to start, join me in recycling your yard waste on-site in 2025. It may take a while to adjust and get the hang of this way of doing things, but once you get in the habit loop by identifying your cues, routines, and rewards, I predict that the workload becomes lighter, the cost savings will add up, and the many intangible rewards of being a better watershed steward right where you live will be noticeable and energizing.

References

Berguist, M. M. Thiel, M.H. Goldberg, S. van der Linden. 2023. Field interventions for climate change mitigation behaviors: A second-order meta-analysis. PNAS 120(13).

Duhigg, C. 2023. The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. Penguin Random House. New York.

Mazar, A., G. Tomaino, Z. Carmon, W. Wood. 2021. Habits to save our habitat: Using the psychology of habits to promote sustainability. Behavioral Science & Policy, 7(2). Pp. 75-89.

By Stacy Small-Lorenz, Ph.D., Residential Landscape Ecology Specialist, University of Maryland Extension. Read more posts by Stacy.

Use De-Icing Salts With a Grain of Salt

January 10, 2025January 14, 2025Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

Winter Wonderlands are pretty to watch and enjoy with a lot of waterproof and warm clothes, but they also have their little challenges. For example, lots of snow can lead to a lot of compacted snow, that turns into ice, making Winter Wonderlands turn into Winter Slipperylands with all the accidents and issues that ensue. A common practice to reduce ice and its dangers is the use of de-icing salts. In this post, I want to talk about de-icing salts and how their excessive use can lead to unwanted consequences in our natural spaces and the organisms that inhabit them.

What are de-icing salts?

De-icing salts are most commonly sodium chloride salts, a non-food-grade version of the salts we use in our kitchens. Because high concentrations of sodium chloride in the soil lead to many environmental issues, alternatives exist, including potassium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, and calcium magnesium acetate (CMA). Note, however, that although these alternatives are considered more environmentally friendly, they are just less environmentally harmful than sodium chloride.

All these salts generally reduce the freezing temperature of water, leading to water (ice) melting at temperatures at which it would have been frozen in the absence of the salt. Although this is a very simple and effective way of reducing or preventing ice formation, the intense use of salts leads to accumulation in the soil and water table, which is worrisome in many ways.

Photo of a large bag of de-icing salt on a walkway ready to be applied. — De-icing salts can degrade ecosystems when misapplied or applied unnecessarily. Photo: J. Jönsson (CC).

What happens if salts accumulate in the soil and water?

As we apply salts, they eventually dissolve in the water we are trying to de-ice, in moisture in the soil, and/or with precipitation. This salt then accumulates in the soil and in the water bodies into which the area drains. Both these processes can have strong effects on the health of the environment and the survival of many species.

Soils with high salt content are generally more toxic for plants (herbaceous and woody) that are not otherwise adapted to salty environments, leading to a negative effect on plant health and survival in regions where salts are applied intensely and regularly. For example, high salt content in the soil reduces the ability of plants to capture water and other nutrients and to tolerate low temperatures and drought. Further, when exposed to these high concentrations, plant tissues can also become enriched in salts, which can lead to cell dehydration and an inability to perform photosynthesis.

Reductions in plant diversity and health can also lead to other, more indirect effects. They can affect the ability of insects or other animals to find appropriate host plants to develop on and nest in and can lead to an increase in pest outbreaks, which are associated with reductions in the general diversity of the plant communities.

Besides accumulating in the soil, salts can also dissolve in the water and end up in the water bodies close to where the salts were applied. When salt use is very intense, it can lead to a significant accumulation of salts in lakes, streams, and rivers, which has demonstrated negative impacts on their organisms. Fishes, amphibians, insects, aquatic plants, and microorganisms display specific ranges of salt tolerance, and given that freshwater is not normally enriched in salts, the rise in its concentration leads to an inability for these organisms to survive under those conditions. Further, because some of the de-icing salts have phosphates, their runoff into the Chesapeake Bay can increase phosphate pollution and its negative effects on the survival of Bay ecosystems. Finally, it has been shown that high salt concentrations in water promote the survival of salt-tolerant organisms, one of which is mosquitoes. This can lead to larger mosquito populations in areas where there is intense and regular use of de-icing salts.

Does this mean that I can’t use de-icing salts anymore?

No, this means that because salts are not neutral to our environment, we should use them thoughtfully and cautiously. For example, shoveling or plowing snow before it becomes packed and icy is a great way to maintain ice- and salt-free spaces. Also, only applying salts when you’re sure that a storm will arrive is another way to reduce salt applications and its negative effects on the environment. Finally, if salts are needed, a good strategy is to apply them lightly and only to high-traffic areas. Don’t treat areas where there is no traffic. It has been shown that de-icing salt grains spaced 3 inches apart can readily and efficiently remove ice. Applying salts more heavily does not improve the de-icing action but increases salt concentration in the soil and water bodies.

Image: Lake Superior Streams Regional Stormwater Protection Team.

Finally, if you do need to use salts on a regular basis, consider planting native salt-tolerant plants. For ideas, refer to this Salt-Tolerant Native Plants page from Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners in Northern VA. These plants will grow in Maryland, increase the biodiversity of your green space, and, in some cases, capture some of the salts in the soil, further reducing salt runoff.

To learn more:

Maryland Department of the Environment: learn other strategies to reduce salt use.
U. of Minnesota Extension: learn how to prevent or adapt to high salt concentration in soils.
Chesapeake Bay Program: learn how de-icing salts affect the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

By Anahí Espíndola, Associate Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park. See more posts by Anahí.

Anahí also writes an Extension Blog in Spanish! Check it out here, extensionesp.umd.edu, and please share and spread the word to your Spanish-speaking friends and colleagues in Maryland. ¡Bienvenidos a Extensión en Español!

How to Pay for a Pollinator or Native Plant Garden?

December 9, 2024Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

We hear a lot about the importance of establishing native and pollinator gardens. Indeed, these spaces provide many ecological services, from providing food resources and shelter for biodiversity to improving the quality of our soils and reducing water runoff. However, establishing these spaces requires at least some funds, which may or may not be available to many. In this post, I want to share some resources that can provide either funding or materials to establish such spaces in our properties.

Grants and rebates for native gardens and more

In our region, several grants exist that can provide funding to partially or completely cover expenses associated with the establishment of pollinator and native gardens. Some of these are state- or region-wide, while others are county or city-based. Below I share some of these, but because many of these grants are local, if you don’t happen to be in the regions where these are active, do a quick search on your favorite web search engine and I am pretty sure you’ll find one that applies to you relatively easily.

State-wide grant:

The Chesapeake Bay Trust has a state-wide program of mini grants which can be used to fund pollinator and rain gardens, among others. These grants provide up to $5,000 of funding for projects of different sizes, and the submission deadline is on a rolling basis. Applicants can be many different types of organizations, but it’s best is to check their current guidelines to know all the specifics about each year’s rules (these can be found directly on the grant website).

County-based programs:

Log for Prince George's County. It says Prince George's County Maryland Proud. Get to Know Us.

The Rain Check Rebate Program is offered by Prince George’s County and includes monetary support to establish rain gardens (which can also act as pollinator gardens) and other features (e.g., rain barrels, permeable driveways) that will increase water retention and reduce water runoff. Through this program, private property owners receive up to $6,000, and commercial properties, associations, and non-profits receive up to $20,000. The application process is relatively straightforward and simple, and the reimbursements are processed relatively quickly.

The non-profit Unity Gardens provides grants to fund the planting of native gardens (including rain and pollinator gardens) in Anne Arundel County. These grants are open to the public and range from $1,000 to $3,000 (depending on the type of project). Applications open in the fall and spring, but the documentation and guidelines for applications are accessible all year round. Check the website to learn more.

City-based grants:

The city of Ocean City, MD offers mini-grants for local property owners. These grants aim to support the establishment of pollinator gardens and other native plant gardens within the boundaries of the city. The grants provide up to $5,000 of funding, and applications for some of these projects are open year-round, while others have specific deadlines. Check the grants website to learn the specifics about each of these programs.

Free plants to establish gardens

Not every organization or institution has funds to establish grants such as those presented above. However, many cities and other non-profits give away plants at different times of the year. Generally, these giveaways happen in the spring and the fall, when plantings are the most likely to succeed. Below, I’ve included some examples for you. However, note that many local events happen everywhere, so if you’re interested in these giveaways, I strongly recommend that you search or keep an eye out for announcements in your area by the end of the winter or the summer.

Free native garden kits and plants:

The organization Nature Forward provides free native garden kits which include garden designs and the actual plants that go with them! Because this is directly associated with the Anacostia watershed, the geographical range of this program is restricted (check the map on their website). The sign-up is currently full, but you can still add yourself to the waitlist.

Sometimes, native plant nurseries decide to organize such giveaways. This is the case of Bona Terra in Friendship, MD, which created a “plant grant,” basically a registration-based plant giveaway. The giveaway can be for individuals or groups, and registration is required to receive either individual plants or trays. Check out their website to learn more and access the forms.

City-based plant giveaways:
Several cities provide free plants to their residents. An example is the City of College Park, which has been giving away native plants that support pollinators throughout the year at markets and public events. Check with your city or local government to see if such programs are available to you… and if they are not, you can always ask for them to be established!!

A Brilliant Fall Banquet for Birds, Butterflies, and Bees

November 6, 2024November 6, 2024Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

It’s that most glorious time of year in Maryland, peak autumn, a time of constant change where every day brings new explosions of color. Beyond leaf peeping along our morning commutes, changes large and small are detectable in exquisite detail, if we only pause to step out in nature to look, listen, and smell the fragrance of the season in the air.

Right now, migratory birds are coming and going, shrubs are blooming and berrying, bees of all stripes are scrambling for the last drops of nectar as fall flowers fade. With some surprisingly low-cost, low-maintenance strategies, you can begin right away to transform your local landscape into a brilliant fall banquet for birds, bees, and butterflies.

bumble bee on yellow flower — Pollinators continue to gather nectar from late fall flowers. Photos: S. Small-Lorenz

honeybee on a pink flower — Pollinators continue to gather nectar from late fall flowers. Photos: S. Small-Lorenz

At this time of year, wintering birds are beginning to arrive from the north, while some summer visitors linger to enjoy the bounty of fall. Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) are already returning from their northern breeding grounds. I spotted my first juncos of the season flitting about the raised garden beds on Halloween right outside of the Anne Arundel County Extension office.

cabbage white butterfly — Cabbage White (*Pieris rapae*) butterflies were introduced to North America and are common across Maryland. Their larvae are considered to be crop pests. They typically reach the end of their adult life cycles toward late October. Photo: S. Small-Lorenz

On the same day, Cabbage White butterflies were still mobbing blooming New York asters in the brilliant noon sunlight on a day of record-breaking late October heat. The viburnum berries had already been plucked, possibly by the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) singing nearby, and its outermost foliage had turned a deep Cabernet red on a chillier night. I suspect that mockingbird has now staked out the American holly berries ripening nearby, as he seeks to maximize his energy intake before winter sets in.

Northern Mockingbird. Photo: Matt MacGillivray, CC BY 4.0

At Howard County Conservancy the day before, I noticed winterberry shrubs loaded with ripening berries, where another singing mockingbird steadfastly stood guard. Native honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is flowering and berrying simultaneously, gracing the trellis archway into the native plant garden, and the common witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is blooming, our only witch-hazel to bloom in the fall.

red holly berries — Ripening American Holly (Ilex opaca) Berries.
Photo: S. Small-Lorenz

red flowers and berries on native honeysuckle plant — Ripening American Holly (Ilex opaca) Berries.
Photo: S. Small-Lorenz

a winterberry shrub full of red berries — Winterberry Holly *(Ilex verticillata). Ph*oto: S. Small-Lorenz

common witch-hazel tree in the fall - yellow leaves and flowers — Winterberry Holly *(Ilex verticillata). Ph*oto: S. Small-Lorenz

Taking cues like this from nature can be an excellent strategy for planning our conservation landscaping for year-round color. Planting native berrying shrubs and evergreens not only extends our color palette, it provides natural sources of food and shelter for songbirds like Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis), Northern Mockingbirds, Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum), Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis), Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata), Ruby-crowned Kinglets (Corthylio calendula), and thrushes as temperatures cool and extra energy is required to fuel up before, during and after migration.

Depending on your specific location and site conditions, consider planting Maryland native berrying shrubs to enhance your fall bird banquet. These could include northern bayberry, maple leaf viburnum, red osier dogwood, native honeysuckle, black elderberry, native hollies (American, inkberry, and winterberry), huckleberries, and red chokeberry.

Leaving fall seed heads standing into winter also provides resources for a whole array of seed-eating birds like sparrows and finches. Even as flowers begin to wilt and fade, they still provide essential nectar resources to native insects that are beneficial for their pollination and pest control services, not to mention as songbird prey.

So if you are considering what you can do right now for nature and the environment in your own neighborhood, here are a few low- to no-cost fall strategies to get you started right away:

Map out one or more locations that you would like to dedicate to a native shrub planting area. Make note of conditions (wet/dry, sunny/shady, soil type) so that you can select the right plants for your site when the time comes. It isn’t too late to plant native shrubs in most parts of Maryland, but if you choose to wait for spring, you can still start preparing the bed and browsing for fall-berrying shrubs now (see #5)! If you don’t know your soil type, this is the perfect time to do some home soil analysis. Observe where stormwater flows off of your property, and consider planting a mulched stormwater buffer using arborist wood chips and native plants to absorb rainwater which can both help reduce downstream flooding and improve water quality while beautifying your landscape.

Pledge to leave the leaves this fall. Raking a thick layer of leaves into your designated shrub planting bed will almost immediately start to create habitat, retain soil moisture, and build rich living soils. I call this “Raking by Design.” Think about this – who rakes the leaves in the forest? Towhees, sparrows, jays, bats, squirrels, deer, and many more wild residents…a reminder that leaf “litter” is an important habitat component for many creatures, and it puts essential nutrients back into the soil as the leaves decompose. If you’re concerned about leaves blowing around, it’s fairly easy to contain whole leaves with low garden border fencing, but it isn’t entirely necessary. Consider designating a portion of your yard a ‘no-rake’ wild zone, where you leave the leaves undisturbed, right where they fall.

leaves piled in a garden with a leave the leaves sign — Leave the leaves for healthy soil and habitat. Photo: S. Small-Lorenz

Leave your native flowers standing well into winter, beyond peak bloom. Birds, bees, and butterflies will benefit from the stems and seed heads well into fall and early winter.

Use fall prunings, cuttings, logs or stumps to create shelter for overwintering birds, bees, and other wildlife. Recycling your “yard waste” is one of the easiest, low cost ways to start building healthy soil and creating habitat to benefit biodiversity in your local landscape. This can take the form of a brush pile, wood pile (situated well away from your home’s foundation), leaving a natural stump instead of stump-grinding, or building a simple “bug snug” like the one pictured here.

sticks piled into a pyramid to make a bug snug shelter for insects — A “bug snug” made with cut woody stems, seed heads, and leaves will provide a shelter for overwintering insects, stem-nesting bees, and birds. Photo: C. Carignan

Browse options for native berrying shrubs to plant this fall or next spring that would be right for the conditions in your yard. While browsing native plant resources like Alliance for Chesapeake Bay’s Native Plant Center, also make note of whether the shrubs you choose are dioecious or not, meaning that you may need to consider planting female and male plants near one another in order for flowers to be fertilized and berries to form. Finding native plants locally right when you want them can be a bit challenging when getting started, so take some time to familiarize yourself with Maryland native plant material sources via Maryland Native Plant Society’s native plant shopping resources.

Which of these low-cost, low-maintenance strategies are you planning to try to enhance your fall living landscape? Which berrying shrubs might you consider adding to your fall banquet? Leave us a comment below, and don’t forget to let us know which wild visitors are enjoying the fall feast in your neighborhood!

By Stacy Small-Lorenz, Agent, Residential Landscape Ecology, University of Maryland Extension. Read more posts by Stacy.

Spreading the Native Plant Love: Fall Seedheads and Perennial Divisions

October 9, 2024October 7, 2024Maryland Grows1 Comment

I recently visited a splendid Bay-Wise demonstration site at Baltimore’s Cylburn Arboretum with Maryland Extension’s Native Plant Specialist Lisa Kuder. We dropped in on a workshop with Cylburn staff about dividing perennial plants and visited the Arboretum’s rain garden, brilliant with colorful fall native plants.

*Rain garden at Cylburn Arboretum. Photo: Stacy Small-Lorenz*

Along the way, Lisa and I discussed strategies that can be practiced to expand herbaceous native plant coverage, as we admired the Arboretum garden grounds and mansion. We noticed right away that the gardeners wisely left the post-bloom common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) standing in all their wilted majesty throughout the otherwise manicured gardens as the seed pods developed and cracked open to release seed.

*Milkweed seeds. Photo: Stacy Small-Lorenz*

To seed or not to seed?

Cylburn horticulturalists are allowing the milkweed to go to seed and expand by putting out runners and sprouting new growth along the edges of their otherwise traditionally immaculate garden beds. Garden Educator Ron Roberto explained that they prefer to allow the milkweed to spread throughout the gardens by seed or rhizomally, by sending out runners, rather than dividing and transplanting (although I have personally had some luck transplanting “rescue” milkweeds from dense patches a few times).

*Milkweed sprouts at Cylburn. Photo: Stacy Small-Lorenz*

In days past, people may have viewed common milkweed as a messy weed to be eliminated from such stately grounds, and some still may. Now its importance to the rapidly declining monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and other beautiful pollinators is more widely recognized, but it is important to note that the stems and seeds of the plant have ecological value beyond its prime bloom time. Common milkweed flowers are boisterously showy and fragrant, but keeping the sturdy stems, fading leaves and seed pods standing after blooms’ end is an important ecological practice and requires us to expand on what we consider beautiful to encompass more aspects of our ecosystems and all of the wondrous life cycles contained within. For small-space gardeners, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a somewhat more demure but also beneficial and beautiful native milkweed to consider planting, but research has shown that monarchs lay the most eggs on common and swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata).

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). Photo: M. Talabac

Allowing plants to reproduce by seed maximizes genetic diversity and helps avoid having monocultures in your landscape, an important sustainable landscaping principle. Genetic diversity is required to allow plant populations to adapt to variable and changing climate conditions. Too much of the same genetics can result from strictly practicing vegetative propagation from cuttings or plant divisions, leaving plants vulnerable to things like disease, pests, reproductive failure, or climate extremes of drought or flood. So let those fall milkweeds stand and go to seed. There’s a good chance that the stems will also become host to beneficial pollinators like native bees over the winter, as well.

Why divide perennials, then, you say?

Well, divisions are necessary to keep some perennial plant species healthy, to stimulate new growth, reduce crowding, and sustainably manage garden beds. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants writes, “Our elders taught that the relationship between plants and humans must be one of balance. People can take too much and exceed the capacity of the plants to share again. That’s the voice or hard experience that resonates in the teachings of “never take more than half.” And yet, they also teach that we can take too little. If we allow traditions to die, relationships to fade, the land will suffer. These laws are the product of hard experience, of past mistakes. And not all plants are the same; each has its own way of regenerating.”

Carefully dividing perennials can be a sustainable and economical way to expand your native plant coverage in your landscape and keep your plants healthy. Native plant exchanges across neighborhoods are one strategy to boost genetic diversity if you’re interested in spreading the native plant love beyond your own yard by safely sharing your native plants. We look forward to establishing a Bay-Wise Native Plant Exchange via social media in the near future, so watch this space for more details to come.

When should I divide perennials?

In general, you’ll want to avoid dividing plants while blooming. The cooler temperatures of spring and fall also help reduce heat stress on the plant. It will be easier to dig and separate out plants at the roots following a rain. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend! I have a sprawling patch of woodland sunflowers (Helianthus divaricatus) along my driveway that were a veritable AirB&Bee all summer long that have now gone to seed, so it’s time to thin them out and expand my sunflower bed to absorb more of our stormwater runoff.

*Red-banded hairstreak butterfly on woodland sunflower. Photo: Stacy Small-Lorenz*

If native grasses are your thing, cool-season grasses are best divided in the early fall, warm-season grasses in early spring. More details about when and how to divide different types of perennials can be found on Clemson University’s website.

The great divide

To get started, you will first need to decide if you are going to pot or immediately relocate your divides. If you are potting up your divides, set up a simple potting station nearby with small pots, a transplant tool or knife, loose, clean soil, and compost or leaf mulch. I like Leaf Gro because it is a Maryland sustainable product made from locally collected leaves. You may want to have a water mister bottle or some wet cloth (burlap or a light cotton towel or damp sheet will do) or paper to protect the exposed roots, as well. If you are relocating the divides elsewhere in your landscaping, prepare your planting hole ahead of time by digging double the volume as the root ball and sprinkling in layers of leaf mulch and loose soil.

Now you are ready to divide the plant. If the soil is damp, this whole process will be easier on you and the plant. Gently dig up an outer portion of your native plant, working your way around the entire section with the shovel, assessing root depth as you go. Try to get all the way under the root tips before lifting the plant out of the ground. Think vertically rather than horizontally. Our aim is to divide the root system but not to cut the roots short.

When dividing or transplanting any native plants to transplant within your yard, you may want to keep some of the soil that the plant is currently rooted in, as the roots tend to establish important relationships with local soil microbes and fungi. If you wish to share with your neighbors and Bay-Wise Community, though, please be mindful of not spreading weed seeds or pests like invasive jumping worms! Don’t share soil from your yard if you know jumping worms or other invasives to be present. If you are unsure about the presence of invasives in your yard, bare root plants in sterile potting soil instead, to be safe. Mindfully sharing divided perennials is just one way of spreading the native plant love for a climate-resilient and healthy Chesapeake Bay landscape!

After digging up a small portion of the plant, gently knock off chunks of soil back into the hole you dug it from with your planting tool or fingers. Shake loose soil right back into the hole with some leaf mulch to repair the garden bed and gently work excess soil out of the roots with your fingers.

*Woodland sunflower, bare roots. Photo: Stacy Small-Lorenz*

Keep the roots moist as you work, using your damp cloth, paper, or mister bottle, and have your new planting hole prepared for quick relocation. If immediate relocation isn’t your goal, have your planting pots and tray, clean water bucket, sterile potting soil, and compost ready at your planting station.

You’re now ready to divide the root ball with a transplanting tool or knife into smaller sections, being careful to wear good gardening gloves, or you can gently work the roots apart with your fingers if you’re working with small clumps. At this point, you can remove any dead vegetation and trim the green portions back to about 6 inches. Re-pot in clean, small pots with loose, sterile soil and a sprinkle of leaf mulch.

Now you have native plants to safely share or relocate to expand your pollinator or rain garden!

QUICK TIPS: Try to get photos of your plant in bloom to share in your plant exchange or for your own garden design needs. Label the pots or mark your garden map so that you don’t forget what you have over the winter!

By Stacy Small-Lorenz, Agent, Residential Landscape Ecology, University of Maryland Extension. Read more posts by Stacy.

Sustaining Hope: How Will the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Weather the Next Helene?

October 1, 2024October 3, 2024Maryland Grows4 Comments

The news out of the southeastern US following Hurricane Helene is heart-wrenching. Up to a foot of heavy rain fell on saturated soils across mountainous western North Carolina, in the fallout of a hurricane that made landfall in Florida but dumped 40 trillion gallons of rainwater across several states.

Aerial photo of Tropical Storm Helene flood damage in North Carolina. Photo credit: Sgt. 1st Class Leticia Samuels, US Army National Guard

Inland communities were not spared from this coastal storm that sent torrents of water through mountain towns, leaving a wake of wreckage in its path. Roads, bridges, and buildings have collapsed under the force of debris-laden flood waters throughout the region.

Airlift rescues and supply drops are underway, but many residents remain cut off, and countless are yet unaccounted for across the region at the time of writing. The Federal government has issued Major Disaster declarations for areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Marylanders hold all affected by this powerful storm in our hearts and stand ready to support their recovery.

Extreme precipitation events like this are becoming a new norm, brought about by increasingly powerful storms carrying more water, driven by the heat energy of warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures. Hurricanes and tropical storms forming over warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico contain more energy and hold more moisture, with the potential to bring record amounts of rainfall anywhere throughout the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and New England regions. Tropical Storm Helene reminds us again that inland and upland regions can still be devastated by coastal storms. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed is no exception.

Animated satellite image of Hurricane Helene. Source: NWS/NOAA

It is with all of this and more on my mind and in my heart that I assume the new role of Residential Landscape Ecologist at University of Maryland Extension. I look forward to advancing green strategies that reduce flood risk and pollution from stormwater runoff into the Chesapeake Bay while enhancing biodiversity. This work is vital to addressing the most extreme impacts of climate change like floods, heavy precipitation, heat waves, and drought. We can do it in ways that reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well and bring a great deal of joy to our lives and communities while we’re at it. The Maryland Bay-Wise Landscape Management Program encourages widespread and strategic uptake of nature-based practices that improve water quality and reduce flood risk.

In this position, I will work closely with university colleagues, agency and NGO partners, and Maryland residents to promote sustainable landscape practices that contribute to a healthy and climate-resilient Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Efforts to retain, slow down, and filter stormwater using native plants and landscaping strategies like rain gardens, pollinator gardens, forest conservation, and riparian buffer strips can help reduce the overall amount of water running off from lawns and impervious surfaces like rooftops and asphalt. Allowing more rainwater to be absorbed where it falls reduces and delays flood peaks downstream while ensuring cleaner water for aquatic species and habitat for beneficial insects, declining songbird populations, and other Maryland wildlife.

Here in this space, I look forward to sharing perspectives on emerging science and trends in climate-resilient sustainable landscapes, environmental horticulture practices and gardening for wildlife, and dialogues with bearers of traditional knowledge – getting my own hands dirty along the way as I share some of my personal experiences with conservation landscaping in my wild corner of the Earth.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to join you and my Extension colleagues on this important journey, as there is vital work to be done to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for Maryland communities.

If you would like to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene, Charity Navigator has compiled this list of highly rated organizations providing relief assistance for those affected. Emergency resources for those in the impacted area and their families can be found at FEMA.gov.

By Stacy Small-Lorenz, Agent, Residential Landscape Ecology, University of Maryland Extension.

Delicate Wildflowers Signal Spring

April 13, 2024April 12, 2024Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

Each spring I delight in my first glimpse of dainty spring wildflowers scattered along my hiking trails. Welcome, friends.

Called spring ephemerals, these native wildflowers emerge when the sunlight hits the woodland floor before the first tree leaves unfurl.

They are called ephemerals because their beauty is fleeting. They come and go in just a few short weeks, dissolving back into the ground in late spring or early summer.

Why? They must bloom, be pollinated and set seed before the tree canopies steal their sun. But oh what a show until then.

It starts with a dusting of tiny pink-striped spring beauties (Claytonia virginica). Time rolls back as I remember the lawn of my childhood home awash in pink. Even their pollen is pink.

a single blossom of spring beaty peeping through a leaf — Spring beauty *(Claytonia virginica).* Photo: R. Rhodes, University of Maryland Extension (UME)

Among the beauties, Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) pop up here and there looking like someone left white pantaloons out to dry.

Intermingled are the nodding white bell-like blooms of cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata).

Boldly marching through the waves of more delicate wildflowers are the hefty trillium, named for their trio of pointed flowers and leaves.

I’m partial to the splotched leaves and red-brown flowers of toadshade (Trillium sessile) but there are lovely purple- and white-flowered forms.

I also am partial to these wildflowers’ poetic names: spring beauties, Dutchman’s breeches, toothwort, toadshade, and trillium.

In my own garden, I’ll smile over a sweep of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). Its white many-petaled blooms dance in the slightest breeze over large hand-like leaves.

a group of bloodroot flowers in bloom — Bloodroot *(Sanguinaria canadensis*). Photos: C. Carignan, UME

bloodroot flowers opening — Bloodroot *(Sanguinaria canadensis*). Photos: C. Carignan, UME

And don’t get me started on my mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum). Dangling a single lovely white flower, their splotched umbrella-like foliage hangs on until mid-summer.

mayapple flower — Mayapple *(Podophyllum peltatum)*. Photo: K. Baligush, UME

But wait. There’s more.

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are just starting to edge the trails with a froth of blue and pink. My father’s favorite, they show pink in bud, then open fistfuls of sky blue bells.

close up of Virginia bluebell flowers — Virginia bluebells *(Mertensia virginica)* are lining many local woodland trails. Photo: Joan Willoughby

All spring ephemerals grow low. Since they must withstand early spring vagaries of weather, they must be tough. Growing low protects them from fierce winds.

I encourage you to bend low for a closer look. Most ephemerals have delightful details you don’t notice from on high such as pollen held at the bunched bottoms of Dutchman’s breeches.

How can these spring ephemerals look so good so early? Most have thick rhizomes (thickened underground stems) or bulbs that hold energy stockpiled from the previous year.

Ephemerals’ enduring qualities mirror their ecological benefit. As native plants, they naturally support a healthy ecosystem and provide vital pollen and nectar to early native beneficial insects.

I hope I’ve inspired you to look for wildflowers on your walks and consider adding some to your landscape. But please don’t harvest them from the wild. Look for them at native plant sales and in seed or plant form in catalogs.

Happy wildflower hunting.

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension.

This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.