Allison Mack’s Saratoga county property sits adjacent a wonderful, dark, swampy woodland area that has a bubbling stream. It’s an unintentional nature preserve right in her backyard. When we began adding native plants, the property became instant habitat- within seconds a complete ecosystem materialized. Everything wildlife need for their entire lifecycles is present: food, water, shelter and safe places to raise their young. There has subsequently been an observable increase in bird and butterfly presence and activity on the property.

We put together an edible habitat garden for humans this spring, with some annual herbs that can double as butterfly host plants. Herbs like Parsley and Dill are double fun- delicious in cooking and smoothies, unspeakably healthy for our bodies; and as annual butterfly host plants they can attract and sustain some butterflies while the perennial native host plants get established elsewhere in the gardens.

When I met Allison last summer, a Lilac the size of Shamu bordered the west side of her fenceline that a previous resident planted. Lilac is non-native and therefore is space better used with another species. Last year we cut the Lilac down to improve the site for habitat gardening. Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) was what we chose to replace the Lilac- a native species, Cup Plant may just be tough enough to be competive with the tenacious Lilac. Ally and all her fun activist friends will be able to sit inside the picture window and watch birds drinking out of Silphium‘s “cups” after the rain.

To be continued…..
Read continuation here: Celebrity Wildlife Gardening part II

I was invited back this spring, and we got an earlier start. Companion planting and other organic gardening methods were again implemented. I’m honored to have been a part of getting these kids into gardening, some of them really seemed to take to it.

A. Incarnata, aka Swamp Milkweed or Pink Milkweedwas the species we chose for this Queensbury garden; A. Tuberosa is another fine choice of habitat garden Milkweeds- A. Tuberosa can’t tolerate standing water the way Swamp Milkweed can.

It can take awhile for native host plants to really get established and get the attention of adult butterflies so we planted a handful of herbs that will behave as temporary host plants this year. Fennel, shown in the photo, is one good example of an annual herb that doubles as a butterfly host plant.

I just learned that Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) is butterfly host plant for the Black Swallowtail, a stunning butterfly I’d like to see more of around all the gardens in Saratoga.

The soil in this new butterfly garden in Glenville was some of the nicest I’ve seen- the homeowner used to keep his compost pile in this location.

Our vision for this garden design was to stack a taller layer against the back outside corners, which will frame the porch nicely. We used Cimicifuga racemosa (Black Cohosh) and Caulophyllum thalictrodes (Blue Cohosh) to achieve this height. Next to that, Podophyllum peltatum (Mayapple) and Geranium maculata (native Geranium) give a nice second forest floor layer feel in the garden on both sides.

Planting the two Trillium luteum (yellow Trilliums) was a spaz. Any encounter with Trillium is always breath taking, whether they are stumbled upon in the wild (and left untouched) or purchased from a reputable Trillium nursery. These two yellow Trilliums will bloom within a week, brightening the whole street for awhile.

Two species of Viola were planted as border groundcover, Viola pedata and Viola triloba. Viola is a butterfly host plant for the Fritillary species butterflies; it’s wonderful to add Viola to shade gardens because the Fritillaries are a federally listed endangered and protected butterfly family. Many of the other plants in this woodland style shade garden behave as host plants to other butterflies, and at the sunny edge of the porch we planted nectar rich Phlox maculata (native Phlox) and Scuttelaria incana (Scullcap) which will draw the adult butterflies in.

All the butterfly activity in the new woodland garden will be delightful for everyone in this Glens Falls family.

During installation of the habitat garden last year we had included some garlic in the side bed, partially to discourage browsing on new plants top growth, and partially to give the residents the opportunity to eat delicious, freshly harvested garlic and olive oil over pasta.

In the standard, non-permanent raised bed that we filled with excellent quality organic soil, we used companion planting strategy which includes pungent organic herbs and Nasturtium seeds. Nasturtium is a work horse in the edible garden; pest insects don’t like it’s odor and are naturally repelled, meanwhile predator or beneficial insects are attracted and gobble up stray pests.

In the fall we had cut down the non-native Lilac tree and replaced it with native species Silphium perfoliatum or Cup Plant- which has an assertive growth pattern. One never needs to feel guilty about using Cup Plant as a cut flower because it can spread from seed with extreme ease. We had treated the Lilac, as classic organic gardening method would suggest, with white vinegar to kill the non-native plant’s roots energy. Though it stifled growth considerably, we can now see the Lilac fighting for it’s life, sending out buds and water sprouts. Epsom Salt may be the next organic gardening tool we pull out of our arsenal for stifling Lilac.

A partial shade garden at the front of the property is going to pay dividends being adjascent to the backyard edible garden- this shady bed holds 6 Zizea aurea or Golden Alexanders. Golden Alexander is in the Goldenrod family and it is a host plant for the Black Swallowtail butterfly. It supports a lot of native insect life, many, many pollinators will be drawn into the micro-ecosystem, particularly native bees. This additional pollinator carrying capacity will add muscle to our edible gardening effort in southern Saratoga county: it will result in larger and better formed tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, eggplants, cucumbers, melons, squash and any other open pollinated plant.

The south side of their home has sandy soil so we decided to plant a flat of 48 June-bearing strawberries. These will tolerate the dry soil and sunny exposure. Organic gardening is often just about working with what is already there, playing the hand nature deals you.

Along the back property line we planted a native Lowbush Blueberry, a native Flowering Raspberry and an Everbearing Raspberry. These will make a nice edible garden border and by leaving the area a little messy we encourage habitat development of wildlife. This is a smart perennial organic produce system; planting perennial edible gardens ensures fruits for smoothies, juice and pies in future years.

The benefits of composting our food scraps and using them as soil for the edible garden are well known. Composting with worms is considered a more varsity level sport in the gardening world, but it can be very simple. The best worms to use are our native red worms, Eisenia fetida. The native red worms co-evolved with our ecosystem so they can withstand our upstate New York winters compared to the European wigglers, who die when the weather turns cold.

Any way you want to look at it though, these worms got a better deal than they expected. They were for sale at the fishing bait store, poised to get a sharp hook jabbed through their soft bodies until a trout or sunfish ate them. Instead, we released them into a huge pile of herbacious organic food waste: their favorite place to be on Earth. These worms have voracious appetites, they are workhorses. I expect they will level this compost pile into delightfully useful worm castings (aka, “brown gold”) within several weeks. And my vegan friends will rejoice at the worm’s happy end in this story.

Worm heaven.
Last year, at a rain gardening conference I heard Paul Tukey challenge the audience to mention an activity that gives back to the Earth more directly than composting. We take and take and take from the Earth’s top layer through big agriculture, erosion, building roads and other construction. We have lost so much top soil in the past 50 years; keeping a compost pile actually regenerates a precious resource. Many people who compost with worms make it an elaborate process, but it can be as simple as adding worms to your current compost pile like we did here.

Composting with worms and choosing native plant species in the garden are two solid ways we can return the Earth’s generosity, whether it happens to be April 22cnd, Earth Day, or any other date on earth.

Ticks are out and biting now. This handsome fella had two ticks just on his head a couple days ago. In the duration of time I’ve worked as a landscape designer in Saratoga and the Capital region, I’ve been bitten upwards of thirty times. Lyme disease has affected every human in my household.

That’s 100% of us.

This is about half of our daily supplement regimen.
Fortunately, I been successful in keeping ticks off myself the past two summers of garden design work. The photo at the top of the page is my personal arsenal; essential oils of Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Cedarwood and Geranium make me invisible to ticks it seems. (A funny side effect is people tell me frequently how nice I smell. Not that it matters, repelling ticks naturally is what I care about.) Alternatively, many colleagues treat their clothing with permrethrin and speak highly of the effectiveness of this, “botanically sourced insecticide.” Apparently permrethrin can be applied to clothing and remains an active insect repellent through six wash cycles.
Prevention of problems is much easier than solutions to problems. This is true in garden design and health issues, of course. Debbie Roberts, garden writer with Nativeplantwildlifegarden.com, has some thoughtful and provocative insights into our complicity of the current Lyme epidemic, and some accessible backyard natural solutions from the ground up.