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Senior Member
Gardening 2019
Lots of gardening work to be done this year. We're putting in an inground pool (the shell is in) and we took out five trees to do it. It just about killed me to take those trees out, but 3 were Norway maples—absolutely useless for birds and animals. One was the only surviving Scotch pine. I lost two in 4 years to nematodes. My neighbor is a pine near it that is just about gone, so I'm pretty sure that would have been next.
I'm plann8ng to replace with white pines, lindens (basswood), redbuds and other shrubs. All the deciduous trees have to be protected from our huge deer population. I learned that the hard way after the bucks shredded a few of my trees to death.
I'm also planning more lawn reduction and hope to plant native flowers. I have a pretty good sized raingarden with good success—little to no deer predation.
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Senior Member
Last year’s rain garden
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flower planter
Originally Posted by
Muriel
Last year’s rain garden
Gorgeous, I hadn't heard of a rain garden before.
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by
Muriel
but 3 were Norway maples—absolutely useless for birds and animals. .
Can you explain the reason why
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by
Cardinal TT
Can you explain the reason why
Birds and insects only inhabit the native species. Insects don't recognize non-native plants as food sources. Because there are no insects in these trees, the birds also don't inhabit them, make nests in them.
The reason for the popularity of Norway trees, Korean trees, Japanese trees (think Japanese maples) is because they don't have a single insect predator that eats its leaves or gathers pollen or other resources from it.
I feed the birds, and have been observant over the years. The Norway maples in my yard are devoid of life. The pines and other native trees are full of life: birds, bugs, etc.
Also, the deer don't eat the leaves of non-native trees. We have about 15-20 deer that go through our property daily. They never eat the non-native trees, but regularly browse on my native trees.
My oak trees (Michigan natives) are a host for moths, and some of the leaves get eaten. That's the purpose of trees. My redbud tree leaves are loved by deer, as are my serviceberry tree leaves. We obviously protect a lot of trees until they are able to endure the deer predation.
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Senior Member
We are managing waterflow around our detached garage/barn. This dumps into the rain garden. Here you can see marsh iris poking up. I collect the rocks from around my property, and from new home construction sites. I need to dig these rocks out and get rid of the built up sediment, but that’s a project for when it’s not raining.
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Senior Member
Here’s another shot
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Resident Chocolate Monster
Plant some green beans....you'll have deer in abundance.
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flower planter
Originally Posted by
Muriel
The Norway maples in my yard are devoid of life. The pines and other native trees are full of life: birds, bugs, etc.
They can really be invasive too, lots of people hate them:
Norway Maple makes "Most Hated Plants" List
http://www.ecosystemgardening.com/no...ants-list.html
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flower planter
Originally Posted by
Muriel
We are managing waterflow around our detached garage/barn. This dumps into the rain garden. Here you can see marsh iris poking up. I collect the rocks from around my property, and from new home construction sites. I need to dig these rocks out and get rid of the built up sediment, but that’s a project for when it’s not raining.
Great ideas. Does it stay marshy without rain or does it completely dry out?
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