Events

Talk // Planting for Diversity

Planting for Diversity was the first talk I’ve attended at Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum. A few years ago, I was at Spring Grove multiple times per week in nice weather and a few times a month in the winter. I went all the time! I think it’s one of the most beautiful, peaceful places in Cincinnati. My husband and I still like to go as often as we can to walk around and practice some photography.

I just recently realized that they offer talks on horticulture topics. I’ve done tree IDs with groups there before, but nothing officially given by Spring Grove staff. It was great! I’ll definitely be checking their calendar often to see what’s coming up. They have a lot of history, experienced people and land to manage, so there’s tons of good information to be had.

There was a lot covered in this talk! The first part provided some interesting information on the planting diversity problem we’re setting up for ourselves. The second part went into specific species that would be great choices for diverse plantings.

The Diversity Reality

We’re setting ourselves up for problems – like what happened with the ash & ash borer. Spring Grove was hard-hit by the ash borer. When the beetle first arrived, they had over 500 ash trees in their undeveloped acreage. They chose 200 trees to protect with routine treatments and now 7 years later have in the high 180’s of those treated ash remaining.

Landscapers and cities are using too many of the same plants and monoculture plantings. Two of the big ones right now are maples and blue spruce. Cities are particularly negligent, planting only a few types of trees in an large area. The average age of a city street tree is just 7 years. This is due to disease, improper conditions, not matching growing site to growing habit, etc.

Cities have their reasons for using what they do. A lot of time they are limited by what they’re allowed to plant and what looks good. Sometimes invasive species are chosen because they adapt to a site really well or are more robust than other options. We were given some examples of planting diversity in cities around the US:

NYC, NY: Lots of maple varieties, including the Norway Maple, which is invasive and spreading into the natural areas surrounding the city. Callery pears are common, and also invasive. 20% or more of what is planted in New York City is invasive.
Seattle, WA: Norway and Red Maple, Hawthornes, Flowering Cherries
Phoenix, AZ: Thornless Honeylocust, Arizona Ash, Chinese Elm, Arizona Sycamore, Chinese Pistachio
Cincinnati, OH: Crabapples, Honeylocust, Zelkova, Oaks, Maples, Elms

The big picture problem is that cities from the East to the West coasts are planting masses of the same types of things. Unfortunately, it’s the perfect setup for a major pest or disease event to spread rapidly across the county, like continues to happen with ash.

Recommended Choices for Diversity

So, what should we plant? There were SO many recommendations and details on special characteristics like fall color, soil conditions and size. I’ll highlight some of the families and notable mentions.

Large Trees

Quercus (Oaks)

“Can’t go wrong with Oaks”
Quercus coccinea (Scarlet Oak)
Quercus lyrata (Overcup Oak), cultivar “Highbeam”
- Good for wetter areas
Quercus muehlenbergii (Chinkapin Oak)
- White, hardy, tiny acorns so not as much debris
Quercus prinus (Chestnut Oak)
Quercus velutina (Black Oak)
- Shiny, pretty leaf, good for wetter areas

Carya (Hickories)

Carya ovata (Shagbark Hickory)
- Need to site correctly
Carya illinoinensis (Pecan)
- Great landscape and shade tree
Carya cordiformis (Bitternut Hickory)
- Native hickory, smaller fruit, good fall color
Gymnocladus dioicus (Kentucky Coffeetree)
- Note: May look pathetic at nursery when it’s small, but turns into a gorgeous tree. “Espresso” and other male clone cultivars won’t have as much mess to clean up.

Taxodium (Cypress)

Taxodium distichum (Bald Cypress)
Good for lake edge setting or clay hill
Deciduous conifer
If it’s not near water, it won’t get Cypress Knees (however they might if near strong irrigation/sprinklers!)
- Dawn Redwood or Pond Cypress won’t have knees even in water setting
Peve Minaret Dwarf Bald Cypress
- Much smaller version
Weeping varieties
- “Falling Waters”
- “Cascade Falls”

Small Trees

Ginkgo

Spring Grove Dwarf Gingko
- 30-40 feet with great fall color

Magnolia

Henry Hicks Sweetbay Magnolia
Northern Belle Magnolia
Saucer Magnolia

Redbud

“Covey”
“Lavender Twist”
“Appalachian Red”
“Ruby Falls”
“Hearts of Gold”
“Alba”
“Rising Sun”

Shrubs

Heptacodium

aka Seven-Sons Flower
Ugly at nursery but tough and rejuvinable
Pollinators LOVE it and late summer to fall bloom makes for good food timing

Lindera

Spicebush
Some native
“Willow Leaf”
Shrub-sized evergreen option, tan winter color

Weigela

“Poor man’s rhododendron”
Flower ok but great foliage
Tolerant of abuse, rejuvinable

December 21, 2017

Talk // Designing with Plants the Great Dixter Way

I recently had the chance to hear Fergus Garrett speak at the Mercantile Library. His talk, “Designing with Plants the Great Dixter Way” was really interesting. Garrett has been the head gardener at Great Dixter House & Gardens in Sussex, England since 1993. Great Dixter is the family home of gardener and garden writer, Christopher Llyod.

He started with some of the history of Great Dixter (built in the mid-15th century!) and the additions the Llyod family made there in the early 1900’s. Garrett talked about the “spirit of a place” and how he tries to understand a place’s history to be able to carry it forward. He likes to use plants that do well in an area in a style that suits them.

There were a lot of interesting anecdotes about the Llyod family and their gardening philosophies. I actually wasn’t sure what to expect before going to this talk but I ended up surprised by the inspiration I got from it. One of the biggest themes that kept coming up was how much Christopher loved to “play” in the garden. Although the gardens were mostly formal, he wasn’t afraid to break traditional rules. He constantly changed layouts and had little sentimentality towards his plants. There was a drive to constantly experiment and surprise. He grew plants from outside his planting zone, and then ripped them all up the next year. He put colors together that weren’t popular, like pink and yellow. There were archways, rooms and spaces created with plantings to give the garden sections different formalities and atmospheres. He made bold changes within the season and from year to year. Garrett continues those practices and you really can’t expect to see the same thing each time you visit Great Dixter, to quite a drastic extent.

The examples of experimentation in the garden were inspiring. It helped remind me that there are no real rules for your garden. There might be things that work better, or that most people do – but you can make your garden whatever you want it to be.

Other items in my notes are on some interesting practices I want to do more research on. Garrett mentioned that they seed “just in time” for transplants. They have one tiny greenhouse for all the plantings they do at Great Dixter, so they don’t have space to hold onto anything longer than needed. They must have an incredible planting schedule to have plants ready exactly when they need them throughout the season.

The other practice regarded their meadow maintenance. He said they mow the meadow twice a year, timed with seed germination. They also use a parasitic plant to clear out grasses in the meadow – which sounds super interesting, but I didn’t get any more details than that.

If you ever have a chance to hear Fergus Garrett speak, I would definitely recommend it! The photos and stories were great, and I definitely left feeling inspired.

November 14, 2017

Class // Kentucky Woodland Owner’s Short Course

We lived in Northern Kentucky for about four years before moving back to Cincinnati, Ohio a few months ago. I took my Master Gardener classes in Northern Kentucky and attended lots of events in the area. Cincinnati and parts of Northern Kentucky are very close, but I do have a 30-40 minute drive now to the places I used to go all the time.

I still hear about a lot of events in Northern Kentucky, and recently attended one called the Kentucky Woodland Owner’s Short Course.

The class was offered by the UK Forestry Extension along with Kenton County Extension office, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Kentucky Department of Fish ad Wildlife Resources, and many more! One of the most valuable parts of the course were all the resources and contacts that were there.

There were two tracks offered: the under 10 acre track and the over 10 acre track. They differed a little in the topics they covered, which I appreciated. I don’t have the same goals with my 5 acres as someone with hundreds of acres!

On the less than 10 acres track, we started the day with a field trip, which was across the street from the meeting area. It was the early morning of a soon to be hot day, but nice and cool in the covered woods. I learned about the Bradford Pear/Callery Pear and how it spreads through the area despite being “sterile”. We watched a demonstration on the best ways to remove bush honeysuckle, which, spoiler alert, is terrible.

A little further down the trail we talked about backyard woods and wildlife practices – nuisance wild animals, invasive insects and some resources for common questions.

After a lunch break, our group sat inside for the education part of the day. We had speakers on the following topics:

Tree Identification
Mushrooms and More from Your Woodlands (edible plants and syrups)
Wildlife in Your Backyard: Pollinator Habitat and Damage Control
How to (correctly) plant a tree

There were topics covered in the larger acreage track that I didn’t sit in on. They covered timber sales, trespass issues, hunting land leasing, and estate planning. I think having the two tracks was great to separate some of the topics that weren’t as applicable to both groups.

It was an interesting day! The topics were broad and provided an entry amount of information. There were valuable nuggets throughout the day and the contacts and resources were useful. I walked away with packets of contacts for forestry and tree resources, lists of certified arborists, contacts of who to reach out to with questions, and a CD full of papers, books, articles and related information to go through as I need it.

November 7, 2017

Talk // Ohio’s Rarest Plants & Habitats

I recently attended an amazing talk given by Andrew Lane Gibson from The Buckeye Botanist Blog and Instagram. The talk was held at the Llyod Library, which unbelievably, was the first time I had ever been there! Definitely already planning a trip back to take a look around the library.

To a full audience, Gibson showed the most incredible photos of some of the rarest plants and habitats in Ohio, giving details and interesting back story on quite a few of them. I had no idea that Ohio had so many rarities: 617 native species of plants, mosses and lichens are currently listed as rare, including 47 species of native orchids and 1 native species of cactus. It was sad to hear that Ohio has lost 90% of its wetlands, I think he mentioned only one other state has lost more.

The images Gibson showed were really beautiful, and I would highly recommend checking out his blog and Instagram for some plant eye-candy. I want to share some of the habitats he covered, because I had never heard about most of them before and I think this list makes a great Visit Checklist for some of Ohio’s wild places.

PhysiographicRegionsOhio

He shared this physiographic region graphic and went into details on certain habitat types that occur in Ohio. Some of the habitat types are rare themselves, and some are home to rare species.

Boreal Fen
Cedar Bog State Nature Preserve

Prairie Fen
Owens/Liberty Fen State Nature Preserve
Gallagher Fen State Nature Preserve

Kettle Bog
Nutrient poor, very rare species, carnivorous plants. Just a handful of high-quality locations left in Ohio.
Brown’s Lake Bog State Nature Preserve
Triangle Lake Bog State Nature Preserve

Tall Grass Prairie
Interesting winter topography.
Bigelow Cemetery Prairie State Nature Preserve (Darby Plains)
Smith Cemetery Prairie State Nature Preserve (Darby Plains)
Trella Romine Prairie and Nature Preserve (Sandusky Plains)

Oak Savanna
Daughmer Savanna State Nature Preserve

Barrens (Cedar & Sand)
Cedar – edge of Appalachia, Sand – Northwest Ohio
Oak Openings Region

Old Growth Woodlands
Visits in winter may be the best!
Fort Hill State Memorial
Shawnee State Forest
Davey Woods State Nature Preserve
Goll Woods State Nature Preserve
Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve

Swamps & Wet Woods
Lawrence Woods State Nature Preserve
Cedar Bog State Nature Preserve

Alvars
Globally rare ecosystem, 5 acres left in state that’s privately owned by limestone quarry company. Some can be found in Northern Lake Michigan area. Pure limestone, looks like a parking lot, result of glacial activity.

Gorge / Bluff / Rockhouse
Hocking Hills Region
Clear Creek State Nature Preserve

Support Ohio’s Nature Preserves!

Tax Donations
Natural Preserves License Plate

Resources used while researching this post:

Ohio Department of Natural Resources
ODNR Rare Plants List
The Nature Conservancy – Ohio
Ohio Prairie Association – Region Map

October 3, 2017

Master Gardener Program Experience – Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky

I had the opportunity to go through the Master Gardener program in early 2015 at the Campbell County Extension Office in Northern Kentucky. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about local horticulture!

What is the Master Gardener Program?

According to Wikipedia, the Master Gardener Programs “are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and art of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as volunteers who advise and educate the public on gardening and horticulture”.

The Master Gardener Program in Northern Kentucky & Cincinnati

The Master Gardener program is offered through the extension offices of various universities. Northern Kentucky counties are extensions of the University of Kentucky and Cincinnati is an extension of the Ohio State University. In general, the extension offices are amazing resources for local farms and home gardeners. They offer services such as soil testing, disease and insect identification, classes on a wide range of topics and advice on pretty much anything plant-related.

The Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati programs are the same certification, just led by different universities. I’m not sure how the program is structured in Cincinnati in comparison to Northern Kentucky. I can tell you about my experience with the Northern Kentucky program, and pass along that I’ve heard the Cincinnati version is similar.

Northern Kentucky Master Gardener training rotates among the three counties, Campbell, Kenton and Boone. You don’t have to be from that county to attend – anyone from the Northern Kentucky / Cincinnati area can apply. There’s an application process with references, a fee (which you can earn part of back by completing volunteer hours in a timely manner), and a background check. The background check is for the volunteer portion of the program, since you may be working with the public, children, etc.

The Northern Kentucky training involves about 80 hours of classroom learning. We had classes on Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. starting at the beginning of December and wrapping up at the end of March (16 weeks). This classroom time covers a lot of material, and it can definitely be a lot to take in. There’s a test at the end to pass the training that shouldn’t be taken too lightly!

At the beginning of the classes you receive a hefty 3.5″ binder with study materials. It’s about a third full when you get it, but every class you add more and more to the binder until it’s completely full by the end!

The topics covered in these classes are:

Basic Botany
Plant Identification
Plant Propagation
Soils & Fertility
Composting
Plant Diseases
Diagnosing Plant Problems
Insects
Integrated Pest Management
Pesticides & Pesticide Safety
Your Yard & Water Quality
Care of Woody Plants
Annual & Perennial Flowers
Lawn Management
Growing Tree Fruits
Landscape Design
Organic Gardening
Vertebrate Pest Management
Weed Management
Selecting & Planting Woody Plants
Vegetable Gardening

After the classroom training, you start on the volunteer portion of the certification. Hours can be completed the same year, or you can take a full year to complete them to graduate the next year. There is a higher hour requirement and more of them have to be fulfilled at the extension offices for that first certification year. All following years are considered recertification and require fewer hours and are a little more flexible on where they can be completed. There are many approved locations both in Northern Kentucky & Cincinnati to complete volunteer hours. There is also a process to submit new places for consideration as an approved site (provided they meet requirements like being a non-profit, have community impact, etc). In addition to volunteer hours, during recertification years you have educational hours that need to be fulfilled (the certification year training counts as all the education you’ll need that first year). All of the extension offices offer interesting classes pretty regularly, or you can count classes taken at places like the Civic Garden Center or the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

My Experience and Common Criticisms

One of the criticisms I’ve seen about the Master Gardener program is that because they are taught with connection to the bigger commercial agriculture universities, there’s not much knowledge or focus on organic or ecologically-friendly practices. While I can see this happening (since the extension agents deal with many farmers looking for answers with chemicals), I always felt like we were presented with an organic option, if there was one. I would say MOST of the participants of the class used organic practices. Actually this leads me to one of the things I really liked about the class… you learn a LOT from the participants of the class as well. Many of the participants in my year had been farming and gardening for decades and had a wealth of knowledge to share. I was usually just as busy scribbling notes during conversations and breaks because they had experimented with so much specific to our area.

The other criticism that I hear come up is that a few hours of classes and some volunteering doesn’t make you a Master at anything. People get really bent out of shape about the name of the program. No one who has gone through the program feels like they know everything, we still look stuff up in our enormous binder, Google or ask friends. It may be a lofty name, but I see it more as the commitment to continuing education, community and volunteering. Everyone in the class is interested in sharing horticulture knowledge with others, often at schools and public events, or just quietly weeding and slowly improving grounds for our favorite non-profits. You may hear about Master Gardeners giving out incorrect information to the public – well, so does the internet. I personally have never encountered anyone in my hours of volunteering purposely giving out false or misleading information. Gardening is an art and a science (and maybe even part folklore) and to be honest, sometimes we get asked really specific or off-the-wall questions. We do the best we can, like everyone else.

My continuing experience with the Master Gardener program has been wonderful. I’ve had a lot of fun volunteering at different sites with other plant nerds. I find the classes for the continuing education hours interesting enough that I’d take them even if I didn’t need them for recertification.

As for the actual classroom training, I found it incredibly useful in a number of ways:

1) We covered a lot of topics a little bit, which then let me deep dive into what I was most interested in on my own after the classes.

2) All the information presented was tailored to our regional or even super local growing area. Four seasons, clay soil, high humidity… the actual conditions we deal with in the garden around here. With topics like vegetable gardening, fruit trees, brambles and lawn management – you’ll hear specific recommendations based on plant trials and performance in our area. These recommendations usually come from the printed materials (university research), the instructors (extension and personal experience) and fellow participants (what they’ve tried in their garden and how it turned out).

3) So many recommendations on resources! Everyone’s favorite places to order seed, the best brand of garden tools, the best brand of wood mulch… there are recommendations for everything. I particularly loved finding out about local places to get soil & compost, garden supplies, and favorite nurseries.

If you’re thinking about going through the program, I would definitely say go for it!

Helpful Links

NKY Master Gardener Association: membership network organization for those who have gone through the program

Campbell County Extension Office

Kenton County Extension Office

Boone County Extension Office

Cincinnati Extension Office

September 2, 2017

Farm to Vase at Morning Sun Flower Farm

This Earth Day I attended an event at Morning Sun Flower Farm called Farm to Vase. I invited my mom as an early Mother’s Day gift, since she also loves cut flowers!

My Mom and Me!

At the event, we talked about how she had worked at a florist in downtown Cincinnati in the 80’s, including while pregnant with me. With no training, she worked her way up from sweeping the floors to creating arrangements, and wanted to make it her career. When I asked why she decided to leave, she answered, “the hours”. It seems there were a lot of working weekends, and also some stories about working till 2am if things got busy!

To get to Morning Sun, we drove an hour north from Cincinnati towards Oxford, Ohio. Although the forecast said rain for the day, we never saw a drop. Away from the city, blue skies popped out over open fields of lush spring green. The drive was gorgeous and it was hard not to stop for pictures quite a few times. There were many tranquil scenes full of alpacas, cows, and horses. We saw beautiful old barns that made every property look like it belonged in a magazine.

Arriving at the farm, we were welcomed by some amusing and friendly animals. Large, beautiful chestnut-colored horses grazed around the white fencing near the entrance. A particularly friendly one named Beloved walked over to see if we had treats. Our next greeter was a bulldog named Tank. He sat in a bright red utility vehicle watching everyone wander in. We later observed that the varying vehicles were the dogs preferred way of travel. We all had a great time watching them jump in and out, or chase one when they felt left behind!

After parking, we walked to the lower field towards the check-in table. We received a beautiful little apron bundle with clippers and a schedule for the evening. A buffet and long tables were set up under a giant white event tent. There was also a drink table, Porta Potty and soothing live music.

MorningSun_FarmtoVase-3

To our inner flower nerds’ delight, an entire table full of blooms shared the tent with us. After grabbing sweet teas (our drinks of choice, although there was a tempting whisky signature cocktail option), we went exploring. The farm included a high tunnel bursting with colorful ranunculus and anemones. When the event kicked off, we grabbed dinner and chatted with our table-mates. One of the women we talked to had worked with Two Little Buds for her wedding about 9 years before. She had wonderful things to say about working with them and the bouquets she received.

Mindy and Alice own and run both Two Little Buds and Morning Sun Flower Farm. Two Little Buds is a boutique floral design company with a store in Bridgewater Falls. They are a mother-daughter team, and it was fun to hear a few personal stories of how they got started. Morning Sun Flower Farm supplies Two Little Buds with fresh, organic and local flowers. Two Little Buds has been around for about 10 years and Morning Sun Flower Farm for about 2 years.

I loved hearing about the slow flower movement and how they started the farm to reduce their need for imported flowers. They’ve also been adding perennials to the farm, with plans to add more over time.

I couldn’t believe that they trained at the Floret Flower Farm workshop! I just finished the Floret book, so it was exciting to encounter a connection in Cincinnati!

After dinner and a quick arranging demonstration, they let us loose to raid the beds and high tunnel. We picked buckets of blooms and brought them back to the tables to create our masterpieces!

Farm to Vase Bouquet

Farm to Vase Buckets of Blooms

Before cutting flowers, the atmosphere had been quite relaxed. Now though, everyone stood focused at their workspace while we cut, stripped and bent flowers into vases. Slowly, the arrangements started taking shape and then – it was over! We could have stayed all night in that beautiful setting with the flowers and puppies. My mom and I both bought a shirt to remember the wonderful experience.

Table Full of Blooms

The event was so well done. I recommend going if you get the chance! I found out about the event from their Instagram account (which is beautiful!) and it sounds like there may be future Farm to Vase events in the works!

You can find Morning Sun Flower Farm / Two Little Buds at:

Website / Facebook / Instagram

My Arrangement

I was still so inspired the day after the event, I decided to do a photoshoot with my flowers and t-shirt! I may or may not have gone into a flower photography black hole for a while!

Farm TShirt

April 25, 2017