Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day... Display your flag proudly. There is no other place I would want to live.

I am thankful  for my father, uncles and mostly recently my nephews Matthew Craig Asplin, USN and Bradley Charles Asplin, USMC who have served their country.

Did you know:

• The first flag was adopted on June 14, 1777 with the original 13 stars for the the 13 colonies.
• The flag has 13 horizontal stripes, alternating red and white, representing the 13 colonies forever. 
• In the canton or union, the 50 states are represented by 5 pointed stars on a blue field. 
• The current flag was first flown on July 4, 1960.
• When a flag needs to be replaced there are proper methods to do so.  
• The flag should folded and stored properly when not in use. 

The Pledge of Allegiance is what we have all been taught as children to salute the flag. 

The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States.

Enjoy your holiday weekend. Thank a vet or serviceman or servicewoman for their service.
                                                 God Bless us All!

Flowers of May

Allium Hooded 

Enjoying the flowers of May....

Meadow Rue

Clematis 

Allium 

Bachelor Buttons 

Clematis

Peony

Poppy

Spiderwort

I walked around the garden and so many beautiful flowers are blooming. Take a walk outside and enjoy your flowers too. I hope you enjoy mine.

What homeowners in the Bloomfield Hills, Eastover School district are doing to help the environment!

Each of the 120-2nd graders attending the Nature Scavenger Hunt, Marvelous Mulches and the Rouge River, on May 3, took home a core flyer, created by Lillian Dean and SOCWA "Tips for a Rouge-Friendly Landscape. Along with the flyer and cover letter explaining what the children had been taught that day about measuring grass height, how to correctly mulch a tree, how to identify and pull out the invasive Garlic Mustard and of course how to make compost and the benefits of using compost, a very important key question was asked of everyone, "which of the following will you do this spring? A list of questions were given.

Of the 120 or so packets sent home, around 43 were returned to the teachers and the responses are as follows:

• 13 people compost
• 15 have diverse native trees
• 20 have trees selected for the site
• 20 use natural mulch
• 19 have a vegetable garden
• 15 use compost as a top dressing
• 9 created a new garden by putting compost over newspapers
• 18 have a butterfly garden
• 10 have a rain garden
• 24 aerate their lawn
• 12 add compost to the garden
• 8 add compost to the lawn
• 23 mulch grass and leaves for the lawn
• 26 mow high
• 36 pull weeds by hand
• 24 use earth-friendly fertilizers
• 9 have rain barrels
• 29 cluster plants with similar watering needs.

Your comments are welcome. How many of these practices do you include in your gardens?

Freddie the Fish and Eastover Elementary School

                                                                                                                                                                             On May 3rd, I had the pleasure to be a volunteer at Eastover Elementary School's Nature Scavenger Hunt, Marvelous Mulches and the Rouge River. Hosted by Lillian Dean and SOCWA Master Composters, a group of volunteers and the 2nd grade class all participated in a program to bring an awareness to the children about plant growth, decomposition and composting, invasive weeds, storm water runoff, proper tree mulching and much more. 

Volunteers getting last minute instructions

The purpose of the event was to demonstrate ways the boys and girls could help improve water quality in the Rouge River Watershed. The Rouge River is getting cleaner.... but needs every one's help to keep it that way including the young 2nd graders.



Kendra Knorp and Freddie

The afternoon, a very warm 90 degree day, started off with Mary Koerner, Kendra Knorp and Lillian Dean presenting 'A Fishy Story' about Freddie the Fish. Freddie lives in a small northern branch of the Rouge River. As he starts from his clean home he meanders through the countryside, past forests and through subdivisions and city neighborhoods with commercial areas. Eventually the river and Freddie reach the fast flowing Detroit River, part of the Great Lakes system.

Mary Koerner and Freddie

Along the way, Freddie encounters constructions sites where the water is filled with eroding soils. He passes by a farmer's field and fertilizers are washing into the river. As Freddie passes through each of these areas, Kendra and Mary sprinkle soil, fertilizers, oils, chemicals and even dog poop, into the once clean water that Freddie started out in. The kids were asked "How do you think Freddie feels now?" How can they stop the pollution to Freddie and all the animals and plants that call the Rouge River home?  

Children watching the overflow from the
parking lot and impervious surfaces.

The children were then taken outside and the volunteers escorted them to the culvert in the parking lot that carries the storm water overflow from the asphalted surfaces to the river and eventually a pond running along the school and fire station property all part of the Rouge River system. As the firemen flooded the area the culvert was overflowing with debree carried along. The children could witness first hand how garbage and items that should never be in the water get there.

Garlic Mustard  Alliaria petiolata

Next stop was informing the children about the invasive plant 'Garlic Mustard'. It was enlightening to see how many knew of the plant and several even had participated in garlic mustard pulls in their subdivision. Garlic Mustard is an invasive biennial plant that can produce up to 3000 seeds per plant. Garlic Mustard seeds remain viable for many years. It chokes out native wildflowers, depletes the soil nutrients and destroys the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. The kids learned to gently pull and try to get as much of the root, and as we walked through the woods, they spotted several plants and were eager to pull them out.

Composting demonstration

We walked through the woods surrounding the school and looked for decomposers, under logs and under the leaves on the ground. As we walked the children collected the leaves to use in making compost.  We shared the benefits of composting and how the soil helps the plants and even our lawns. It was discussed how to correctly cut lawns leaving the height of 3-4 inches. Surprisingly, several of the children knew about the lawn height. Though all too young to yet cut the lawn, they expressed they would share this with their parents.

Lillian and the children mulching
the trees.

The last stop was tree mulching. It was explained how trees and their roots are very important to water absorption and erosion. We then correctly mulched around several of the trees. First adding a layer of newspapers to kill the weeds and then placing compost and the mulch several inches thick over the newspapers. It was explained that the tree roots grow in the top 18 inches of the soil. A 2-4 inch layer of mulch over these roots provides the benefits for tree growth and health to the tree. Mulch helps keep lawn mowers away from the roots.

A wonderful learning experience was had by all. Volunteers, children and teachers shared a day outside being reminded how fragile and important the water we so dearly need is important to keep clean.

Auburn Hills Beautification Advisory Commission, 20th Annual Perennial Plant Exchange

Hello everyone, I am sending this posting, to remind you all that the city of Auburn Hills and their wonderful Beautification Advisory Commission is holding its 20th year Perennial Plant exchange. It is held at River Woods Park on Squirrel Road south of M59.

I will be there with my native plants to exchange and will be speaking about the benefits of using native plants. I can hardly wait to tell everyone of the success we have had in our garden with the natives we have planted.

We are seeing more butterflies, birds that are nesting in and around our garden. Even my next door neighbor said she spotted the Baltimore Orioles and thinks they are nesting.... she has included natives so much so that they and are the neighborhood Monarch butterfly nursery. Her Swamp Milkweed plantings have been the start of many Monarch that they raised and released.  It will be great to share success stories.

See you tomorrow, 11-1 p.m. Don't forget your plants!

Removing Phragmites

Now that you can identify the plant and understand the reasons for removing it, let me explain the ways to remove Phargmites. There are several theories and recommendations for removing Phragmites.

Phragmites and its root system

Herbicides, mowing, disking, dredging, flooding, burning and grazing are methods used. I would like to give you the pros and cons of each method.

• Mowing, disking and pulling are methods that have been tried to remove this invasive plant. Because Phragmite's root system is a rhizomes system, this method encourage the spread of Phragmites it does not kill it. The rhizomes, even the smallest pieces can produce a plant. The rhizomes can spread up to 12-14 feet a year.
• Flooding is an option. If you are able to cut the plant below the water line and if and only if the water line remains above the cut plant, the plant will eventually drown. It may take a season or two, but because the plant needs to have leaves above the water to feed the root system, it can be drowned. This is the best control method other than using herbicides.
• Burning or cutting is another option. In Europe where Phragmites originated, goats and sheep have actually been used to graze an area that is infested. This method does not eliminate the plant is just keeps it from leaving 6-15 feet high stands that can be a fire hazard. Burning a well established stand can be tricky, There is so much biomass of above ground plant, depending on the size of the stand, one should have lots of help on hand. The material burns quickly and hot and can spread to areas surrounding the stand. Again, because 80 % of the mass of the plant is below ground, burning only rids the area of the upper leaves until the next growing season. 
• Cornell University has been working with fungi and insects that could control Phragmites. Four wasps have been found which might be of some use, the studies will not be conclusive until 2014 or later.
• After attending many instructional seminars by Bob Williams, who has started a war against Phragmites on his property on Harsens Island, the use of cutting the stalks and applying the herbicide containing glyphosate sold as Aqua Star or Shore Clear is the best method. Depending on the size of the area that you are working with, removing the plant and roots can take 3-5 years. But it is not this easy just to apply the herbicide with the-cut-and-dab method. One must contact the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to determine if a permit is required. Understanding how to mix the chemicals and the safety concerns for persons and the water and it other inhabitants of the water is of much concern. Proper education and training is a must. There are qualified companies that can be used to help you in your quest to rid MIchigan wetlands of Phragmites. Please check the Resource tabs for more information.

Karen Workman and The Oakland Press are asking for your help. If you see a stand of Phragmites, please take a picture and email or with your phone send the picture to Karen@oakpress.com  and she will create a active map to share with the MIchigan Department of Natural Resources or any other agency or persons interested in seeing the enormity of this invasive plant in Oakland County alone. Together we can bring awareness to the agencies and people that can help us rid MIchigan wetlands of Phragmites. I will be posting further information as I receive it on classes for individuals and groups, so we all can be working to get rid of this plant.

Phragmites australis, The Problem Plant

Yes, there is a native variety in MIchigan of Phragmites australis.  The native Phragmites is a part of the well balanced ecosystem. It has co-existed in this area for eons. Native Americans used native Phragmites for arrow shafts, musical instruments, ceremonial objects and the leaves and stems were used for constructing mats.

The non native Phragmite australis is nothing like our MIchigan variety. It is a much denser and taller plant. Brought to the United States in the early 20th century from European ships, this plant was thought to be first entering our area through the packing materials and ballasts discharge into the coastal wetland areas. The non native, once it gained a foothold here, had the edge over anything native because the insects, diseases and forging animals that normally would keep it in check were not present. The once rich wetlands along the eastern coast line became barren and unfriendly areas with little value to wildlife or water quality: a modern day travesty, a monoculture, quickly spreading westward to the Midwest.

Phragmites spread quickly due to its rhizomes root system, which can spread more than 6-8 feet in every direction, each year. Cutting, disking or pulling only exacerbates the problem, because broken or fragmented rhizomes quickly grow into new plants. 80% of the plants biomass is under ground. Each July, purple-brown seed headed plumes, capable of producing up to 2000 seeds are formed on the 12-15 foot high plants.

Newly formed stands spread quickly and aggressively. The best time to stop the spread is on the newly forming areas because larger areas require intense and costly measures. Because the problem of Phragmites has been neglected for so long, it has amassed huge areas in the State of MIchigan. Choking out once viable wetlands, hunting and fishing areas and lakeshore and waterfront views, ditch and water catching basins, these plants are changing the landscape in Michigan.

Current methods used for removing Phragmites are:

1. Glyphosate based herbicides.
2. Fire
3. Mechanical removal.

These methods will be further discussed on Friday's blog.

Phragmites vs. Wetlands

Last week, I met with Ian Ballard and Karen Workman, Community Engagement Editor of the Oakland Press, to do a video on how and why Ian and I want to rid the area of Phragmites. From the meeting, Karen Workman with the Oakland Press,  created a website for anyone to report sitings of phragmites throughout Oakland County. These findings will be shared with the DNR and any one else who is interested in seeing how invasive this plant is becoming in Oakland County.  In my crusade against the Phragmites or Common Reed plant, I am so excited about how everything is falling into place about getting the word out, in every media available to this area, on this very invasive and destructive plant.

While describing this project to friends and neighbors, I came to the conclusion, I have been putting the cart before the horse, when it comes to trying to get people to understand the need to rid our wetlands and some dry areas of the invasive plant, Phragmites australis or Phragmites, the Common Reed. They just don't know about the plant.

1. I am learning that more people than I thought have no idea what a Phragmite plant is. 
2. Even more don't know why this invasive plant should be on every ones number one hit list for removal.
3. Even more disturbing, to me, is that the they don't understand how this invasive and non-native plant is impacting MIchigan wetlands.

So, I am going to try and educate those who don't know about this monsterous  plant by starting with the Wetlands, the areas that the Phragmite plant is single handedly destroying in MIchigan.

 MIchigan is the Great Lakes State. One of MIchigan's greatest resources is its water. As important as the huge bodies of fresh water of Lakes MIchigan, Huron, Erie, Superior and St. Clair are to the recreational industry in the state of MIchigan and the surrounding states and Canada, the hundreds of wetlands, rivers and streams are the equally as important for over all water quality. They are the work horses of our fresh water world.

Wetlands without Pharamites

Wetlands are lands that are wet, they are lands that are saturated with water. They can be continually wet or at different times their level of water can be fluctuating or even dry. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. Rain forests, coral reefs, waterholes in Africa, fens or moors in Europe are all Wetlands.  Important to the areas where they are found because they contain and filter water. They all are the foundations of varied ecosystems.

Wetlands comsumed by
Phragmites

In MIchigan, wetlands are home to salamanders, frogs, toads, fish, birds, waterfowl, turtles, muskrats, beavers, mammals, plants and wildlife too numerous to list them all. Though, not one being more important than the other, for they all interact in this ever changing and living ecosystem called a wetlands.

Just close your eyes and try to remember what you saw or heard as you walked by a pond, swamp or lake, a wetlands? Now take a walk by a stand of Phragmites... listen and observe. Make some of your own conclusions.

Wetlands are not useless wet areas to be filled in or destroyed for more farm land or development. They are complex, working and productive ecosystems. Wetlands serve many roles in our environment. Humans depend on wetlands more than wetlands depend on humans. Since European settlement, humans have literally destroyed over 1/2 of all North American wetlands.


Wetlands are the 'kidneys' of the life cycle of the precious water all life on earth needs.

• Wetlands controls flooding by absorbing excess water from rain, storms, snow melts and storm water runoff.
• The massive and complex system of roots, leaves, fibrous plant materials act as filters for the everyday pollutants humans allow to get into these areas.
• Water coming from the wetlands continues on into streams and rivers or eventually our aquifers for our drinking water. This water has been cleaned and purified through this amazing natural filtration system.
• Wetlands also provide habitats for fish, insects, amphibians, turtles, birds, waterfowl, host and food plants for numerous species.

To Be continued. . . . on Wednesday's blog.

Flowers after the Rain

Ants on the peony blossoms

After it stopped raining yesterday, I grabbed my camera and walked through the garden.

The Columbine,only a bud in the morning is popping! 

I wanted to see what flowers would be emerging after the gentle rain. To my surprise, several flowers that were mere buds in the morning, by evening have started to open. 

Celadine Poppy

Meadow Rue almost opened.

Columbine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

To my surprise, many of the flowers were waiting for the rain to push open their buds.

 

Enjoy the flowers of May.

Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas W. Tallamy

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy. This book changed my life. I can not say it enough. This  book  changed  my  life.

I was newly retired and looking for something to fill in the free time I thought I would have, (be careful what you ask for)... In the weekly Master Gardener email sent to my husband, there was mention of a composting class being offered through SOCWA and Lillian Dean. My husband, at that point, was the master gardener and with our type A personalities we did not need two master gardeners in this household. So I signed up and I went. . . make Gardener's Gold or compost. I had a lawn, I had flowers and with a little fertilizer and water, they were doing fine.  So I thought.... the class was life changing.

I have told Lillian, numerous times, her class filled all the holes in my wanna be gardener/environmentalist existence. I have lived in Oakland County all my life. I have lived in Independence Township for 44 of those years. I have been witnessing such a huge change of the landscape, I hardly recognize some areas.

Phragmites prevalent throughout the county and the state overtaking the wetlands, turning them into monocultures. I don't see butterflies as numerous as they used to be and I read about the alarming reduction rates of our birds and wildlife. I mentioned in an earlier posting how I used to pick bouquets of Hepatica, not around this house, would I be able to find enough, if any, to pick to fill a small vase.  Shame on us.... shame on us for letting this happen and turning the proverbial eye to look the other way.

The class reading list suggested the book,  Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy.  I bought it and started to read.... I couldn't put it down. Why is his message not front page news and gone viral on the Internet?  It makes me sad. No it makes me MAD. The world and the landscape and all the creatures and critters I grew up with are in trouble.... and we have no one to blame but ourselves. . . and we need to take a stand and start changing the way we look at our surroundings. I took full responsibility for myself.  I am trying to get the word out. I am planting natives to balance the non-natives in my yard and have started providing food, shelter and nurseries(host plants) for wildlife, birds and insects. . I have started a blog. I have joined Wild Ones North Oakland Chapter and other organizations, please refer to the reference tabs above, to expand my contacts and learning opportunities.

Traditional lawn and landscape

I hope more of us will start listening to people like Tallamy. Let us each look around and see how our own yards can make a difference. Go buy the book, you won't be able to put it down either. I will bet that when you are looking at your yard (and your neighbor's yard), you will look at it with different eyes.What is it sustaining, who is it feeding, housing?  Try looking at it through the eyes of the Monarch butterfly, or the grasshopper, the vocal Spring Peepers and the soaring Cooper's Hawk, who all make up this beautiful and diverse landscape.

I often give the book as a gift. It is changing others. One back yard at a time.... and that is the next book I will share with you that has made a huge difference in my garden choices.  Noah's Garden, Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards, by Sara Stein.

Go walk around your yard. See if you can find a butterfly, listen if there is a singing bird.... what are you sustaining in your yard? What is missing?

Midwest Invasive Species Information Network need everyones help.

Phragmites

Midwest Invasive Species Information Network would like for individuals to report sitings of invasive plants to a their website.

Navigating the site I learned how to report such findings.

1. I logged in and set a password.
2. I was then led to an area to choose an invasive.
3. Informed that I would be quizzed on the material and pictures I would be shown in order to be able to be certified to report my findings I wrote down all the information.

Did you know that the Phragmite has long hairs on its ligule? Like other grasses, its ligule is a collar like structure and found at the junction of the sheath and the blade. Something one might want to remember when a quiz about Phragmites is in their future.

I ventured on to the quiz. I will caution you, study the pictures, they are tricky. I did pass the test. So can you.

The reason I am interested at all to having you all participate in this is because I need numbers.We collectively, can start flooding the MISIN with Phragmite sitings and see what the results may be. I will let you know what I learn in the follow up.

So go ahead, follow the website and write and send me a comment with your results. I am serious, we all have to take a stand against this very invasive plant.