Persimmon Island Update: Mother Nature Gives an Assist

As I perused my pictures and past blog posts this morning, I had to laugh at myself for all the "project" names I've created. It's Mr. Freeze's fault. I have to use unique names for our project areas to avoid any circular discussions with Mr. Freeze, otherwise, I find him just aimlessly driving the tractor around trying to find me. HA! But, I've found that using statements such as, "you know - meet me at THAT area where the multi-flora rose and autumn olive were taking over", just does not pinpoint anything, because we have so many problem areas with this stuff.

I am absolutely terrible at getting 'before' and sometimes 'after' pictures of our projects. But, last week, Bob decided to bush-hog a path through Persimmon Island, so we could see what was growing and finish eradicating any remaining non-native plants, if needed. After he cut a path, I was stunned when I walked through to get an idea of the effort.

WOW!

Flowers, flowers, flowers - lots of yellow flars everywhere! Removing all the non-native plants has allowed the native flowers to spread into the partial shade areas.

Native Indian Grass, Tickseed Sunflower (aka Bearded Beggarticks / bidens), goldenrod and New England Asters in bloom.

I was hit in the head repeatedly by the thousands of Pennsylvania Leatherwings flying through...for some reason they really love these flowers. The bumblebees are much better at avoiding my forehead.

A bumblebee on one of 11 varieties of sunflowers / bidens in Missouri

Today, I walked through to start a more targeted eradication. With all the flowers and native plants & trees in here, it is no longer an option to do broad swaths of herbicide application. So, I got out my treatment bucket, my gloves and my cutters. I started with the hundreds of new cherry tree sprouts. While the cherry trees are native, I have other goals for this particular grove: Silky dogwoods, spice bush, river oats, etc., so the cherry trees here have to go.

I cut all the sprouts and treated the cut stumps with a small paint brush and a highly concentrated mix of glyphosate. Using Tordon in this area is no longer an option, since the roots of everything in this small area are likely intertwined together and I don't want to kill the fragrant sumac, persimmons, plums, nor the hackberries that we worked so hard to liberate from the mess!

A small bucket with my herbicide, a paintbrush as an applicator and my chainsaw oil. This prevents me from turning over my main container and accidentally spilling any on the ground.

I practice very careful treatment with the paint brush when there are undesired trees growing up right next to stuff I want to keep like the fragrant sumac.

A rogue cherry tree growing up in the middle of the fragrant sumac. It had to go.

I was disappointed to find some winter creeper had re-sprouted, so I did have to bring in my sprayer and treat it. This stuff is a nuisance and almost as bad as Japanese honeysuckle. It hides on the earthen floor of shaded forest areas until there's such a large colony of it, and then it takes a lot of effort to get rid of it.

Winter creeper - a non-native climbing vine.

I also managed to do a few small sprays on some of the very small twigs of Autumn Olive that had re-sprouted after Bob's mow.

Autumn Olive - a non-native shrub.

After carefully re-treating the non-native crap, I was able to get my camera out and enjoy all the flowers and the bugs that were landing on them.

Pennsylvania Leatherwing and a bumblebee share a flower.

 

View from the south - before:

View from the south - after:
 

Goldenrod, New England aster and Indian Grass have now spread into the area we have removed multi-flora rose, Autumn olive, winter creeper, and Eastern red cedar trees.

View from the north - before:

Removed several large Autumn olive bushes in this area, along with multi-flora rose.

View from the north - after:

The bidens and goldenrod are starting to march into their new growing space!

There were a few people that didn't agree with our approach of removing the Eastern Red cedar trees, but we needed to clear them so that we could have better access to the earthen floor. That's the only way to remove ALL the invasive plants and to have more scattered sunlight for the stuff we'll be planting next fall.

View from the West - before:

View from the West - after (not exactly the same angle as I didn't remember the last photo I had taken from the West):

A large bank of bidens.

There were also some very pleasant surprises in the grove.

It looks like "Gary" - our resident groundhog - has decided to move in now. Not sure if he's still living here, but he certainly enjoyed the area for a time. And we name all our groundhogs, "Gary", so yeah, we're sure it's "Gary" who moved in.

Gary the Groundhog's home.

I also found a couple of new native plant volunteers - White Vervain, that has started growing since we cleared here! Yay! 

White Vervain - Verbena urticifolia - native

And these, "Whirling butterflies"

Whirling butterflies - Oenothera lindheimeri - native

After finding winter creeper and Autumn olive still growing in here, we probably need to wait another season before re-planting with native shrubs. I really want to get everything in this fall, but that would be too risky. Patience grasshopper...patience!

For tracking my progress, I've added links to my videos we've taken of this area as we've progressed.

Persimmon Island - Phase 1 - December, 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9gjH0lJ2RY&t 

 

Persimmon Island - Phase 2 - November, 2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzGbzB9XfHg&t 

 

Persimmon Island after clearing everything out during the winter 2022-2023.

https://youtu.be/kVbbQLVKCPM?si=iZVviIRt7eIlyEgS

 

 

 

Dear Prairie - While You Were Sleeping

Winter is our time for burning, planning, planting and clearing even more areas to prepare them for the native plantings of forbes and grasses. With over 23 acres of soil available, we have an endless canvas where we can plant and then later, enjoy the summer blooming parties that result from so many varieties of plants.

Each fall, as all the trees are starting to shake off their summer leaves and the flowers are starting to make seeds, I start visiting the Hamilton Native Seed and Missouri Wildflowers websites and perusing their catalogs. This year, I found a new educational resource - I signed myself up for the Missouri Prairie Foundation's webinars via Zoom and yowza, are they fantastic! With Covid-19 lockdown and winter encroaching, now's the time for me to educate myself, read everything I can and discover new planting opportunities so we can provide more diversity in our native plantings. Thanks to MPF and Missouri Wildflowers, this year we decided to try something new - we now have over 40 new shrubs planted - wild hydrangea, ninebark, and witch hazel planted & hunkered down under leaf-mulch...waiting to spring their beautiful flowers on us this spring.

And thanks to Hamilton Seed and my own seed-gathering techniques (which consists of one step -  outrun the birds), I have over 4 oz. of a variety of coneflower seeds (at 7,000 seeds/oz., I'm pretty proud of myself!) and almost 1 full pound of my full-sun native wildflower mix too (see the hand-written labels on the bags in the picture below). These orders I make are my Christmas presents to myself...thousands of wildflower seeds. Thousands...maybe millions. Gazillions...all to be planted this winter.

This is another quarter-acre area that we cleared - where one bag of the above wildflower seeds has already been spread. And it's right outside my home-office window!

We've also started tackling the non-native Japanese honeysuckle. Ugggh, what a pain it is. Below is a picture of a sprout (probably Sumac) that finally gave up. The honeysuckle had wrapped itself so tightly around the trunk that it created these permanent twists in the trunk. Behold the strength and the impact of the non-native, for they are indeed impressive, but now, we need to rip it out.

I love winter, almost as much as I love fall. I can walk all the trails, even when covered with ice or snow and not be attacked by chiggers or ticks. It's a time when I can see everything from a different perspective. The ice-laden branches of the sandbar willows create their own beautiful reflections over the pond.

The cedar trees whine about the ice & cold as their branches droop, threatening to snap off, as the surrounding Sassafras and Ash trees stand tall and proud, bragging that their branches stand UP to such brutal weather, while simultaneously laughing at their sagging evergreen neighbors.

As I walked yesterday, I recalled the pictures I took this past summer and thought it would be fun to compare the summer versus winter pictures from the same perspective. Winter is part of their normal cycle - the plants take time to rest, the soil re-saturates from the rainfall & snow (measured in feet here in the fall, winter & spring), the ground heaves and contracts to absorb the seeds dropped by all the plants and the seeds that need it, as they are stratified, in preparation for growing a new plant in the spring. It is a time to shake off the past year, renew and change things - to try again to do better in the New Year.

The Sandbar willows on the pond:

Winter:

 

Summer

 

The Goldenrod and Indian Grass - Winter:

 

 The same patch this past August / September:

The West Trail around the pond, Winter:

 

The same West Trail, this past August / September:

   Part of the prairie, Winter:

The same part of the prairie was rioting this summer in June & July with coneflowers, prairie blazing start, Wild quinine, compass plant, etc.:

To some, this winter perspective may look like quite the dreary landscape. But for me, this landscape it quite exciting and holds a lot of secrets that will be revealed in the spring. 

Rest & renew, Dear Prairie. Bob and I have been busy this winter, so make sure you say, "Hello" to your new neighbors this Spring and let them know how much you love your happy home here on Gobbler's Knob.
 

Feed the Bees: Let Sleeping Logs Lie

Along with posting about Purple Martins and our native prairie restoration efforts, I'm starting a new series here on my blog, called, "Feed the Bees". With the recent reports of the decline in the insect populations, it's becoming more & more imperative that we start taking a look at what we can do in our own micro-environments to help maintain or restore the insect populations. All life depends on our pollinators and if they die, we die.

I used to think the Virburnum, dandelions and wild plums were the first bloomers in spring. But this year, I was delighted to find this wee little flower growing all over my yard. It's called, Houstonia Pusilla - or more commonly:

Tiny Bluet, Small Bluet, or Least Bluet

As I've driven around Missouri in search of other purple martin sites and talked with people about their resident birds, I've seen a lot of man-made lawns and hay fields that really don't support the insect populations we need to sustain pollination.  But, I'm only one person.  I understand to some people, it can be daunting to try to figure out how to change a lawn into an eco-friendly garden that will support so many types of wildlife. With this blog, I'm hoping to encourage others to take baby steps towards supporting our insect populations, including ALL our pollinators, as well as reduce the back-breaking work that people do to maintain these sterile lawns.

Our "extended" Savanna - we were going to burn it this year (it's 4 years old), but life happens and we didn't make the window. So instead, we mowed down the dead stuff and mulched all the leaves. It's ready to be a bee-haven again this year.

 

We currently own 23 acres here in Licking, Missouri. For a long time, I was focused on picking up the dead branches that had fallen from some of the trees. It was back-breaking work. It was hard. And during the summer, it was hot and, even after spraying myself with Deet, I would still end up with a tick or chigger bite as my reward for my hard work. We would wait for it to rain, and then when there was little chance of a fire spreading to the neighbor's hay fields, we would burn all the old, dead and decaying wood.

We planted 50 of these wild plums as mere twigs(purchased from George White Nursery) in 2008 / 2009. I still remember crawling through the ragweed that got taller than the twigs and cutting it back to let the small trees get some sunlight. Today, 32 of them survived and on average they stand at approx. 14-15 feet and have a plethora of blossoms in the spring, providing a lot of early pollen & food for the bees.

 The plants in the southern fields have started to turn green.

The western half of the southern field - mowed and raked - will possibly be burned again next year. It has been planted for 7 years.

The eastern half of the southern field. mowed & raked to remove the duff. Also planted 7 years ago.

After reading more about bees however, I have learned that some of them actually NEED this dead, decaying wood in order to survive.  They also need undisturbed soil, covered with dead leaves, etc.

When Bob mowed the fields, he accidentally killed this black snake. It makes me sad when a snake dies, but we left it in the field for any scavengers to partake. Poor guy...wondering why he didn't hear the thundering of the tractor and get out of the way.

So, no more bonfires here on Gobbler's Knob to burn limbs or dead trees. From now on, we'll be piling up the dead wood and letting it decay. The larger limbs from these piles will be used to create new brush piles and cover for the resident quail (and other incidental wildlife that takes advantage of the refuge.

A dead tree. It was struck by lightning and then the insects and woodpeckers finished it off. We'll push it over and it will be at the base of the rest of the pile, providing food & cover for the bees & insects to make use of it.

We trimmed some of the lower limbs on our trees for two reasons: 1) Bob can mow under the trees now without getting slapped in he head by a low limb and; 2) the hawks that come after my martins won't be able to use them as cover. They will be piled on top of the dead tree log above and given over to nature's use.

Small limbs & rubbish will be piled up for the insects to make use of.

This will take a little bit of muscle, so Bob will use the tractor to push it all up together. Then, we'll make a nice brush pile for quail cover next to it. I can't wait to see what kinds of insects move in!

More limbs to add to the pile.

Supporting the Ground Nesters

How can we support ground-nesting bees and other ground-nesting insects?

1. Protect existing nesting sites (insects can be observed entering ground tunnels, small piles of soil often surround the entrances)
   • Do not disturb the soil (avoid tilling, digging, vehicular traffic)
   • Do not cover soil with mulch
   • Maintain existing vegetation, which is usually sparse, by removing strong-growing plants (shrubs, invasive weeds)
   • Nesting sites can be protected from predators like skunks and raccoons by covering the area with chicken wire
2. Create man-made nesting sites for ground-nesting bees
   • In gardens, areas can be dedicated for nesting sites. Rock gardens are ideal as they usually have well-draining soil and low vegetation. Some areas need to be kept free of vegetation. Rocks and clumps of perennials are helpful as orientation for bees to find their nest entrances. Bees choose sunny locations for their nesting sites and prefer slopes exposed to the southeast, which warm up quickly in the morning.

Supporting Tunnel-nesting Bees

How can we support bees nesting in wood tunnels and hollow stems?

• Leave dead trees standing as long as they are not a safety hazard.
• Do not remove dead wood and fallen trees from forests
• Pile up logs from cut trees (especially those containing burrows) to allow larvae of beetles, wood wasps and horntails to complete their life cycles, and to provide abandoned tunnels for nesting bees.
• Do not remove plant stems of dormant perennials and grasses from garden beds until early spring, and leave removed stems in a loose piles for as long as possible to allow young bees to hatch from their nesting material.
• Do not mow wild meadows more than once a year, ideally in early spring.

Shelter for Overwintering

It’s important to provide shelter for overwintering insects:

• As much as possible, keep leaf litter in woodlands and garden beds where it falls.
• Create stone, brush and wood piles as shelters for overwintering insects.
• Wait to cut down old stems and clumps of perennials until late winter or early spring.

Table 1. Nesting locations of common bee and wasp genera
Ground-Nesters:
Bare patches of well-drained soil, most often sandy or silty loam that does not collapse when dry and is soft enough for digging, but some species nest in pure sand, others in river banks that are periodically inundated	Mining Bees	Andrena
	Minute Mining Bees	Perdita
	Cellophane Bees	Colletes inaequalis
	Slender Sweat Bees	Lasioglossum
	Dark Sweat Bees	Halictus
	Green sweat Bees	Agapostemon, Augochlora, Augochlorella
	Digger Wasps	Sphex
	Horse Guard	Stictia
	Spider Wasps	Entypus
	Sand Wasps	Bembix
Wood and Stem-Nesters:
Tunnels in trees, logs, rotting wood, and also hollow stems of herbaceous plants and grasses, as well as wooden structures and old masonry	Mason Bees	Osmia
	Yellow-faced Bees	Hylaeus
	Carder Bees	Anthidium
	Leafcutter Bees	Megachile
	Large Carpenter Bees	Xylocopa
	Small Carpenter Bees	Ceratina
	Resin Bees	Anthidiellum, Dianthidium
	Mason Wasps	Euodynerus
Cavity-Nesters:
Abandoned mouse nests, cavities in the soil, in trees and buildings,	Bumble Bees	Bombus
	Paper Wasps	Polistes
	Yellow Jackets	Vespula