Memorial Weekend - last dash for planting
May 31, 2021. Last Wednesday I received an exciting care package from Prairie Nursery. My Mondo shipment of perennials purchased from the HOA funds has arrived at last!
Virginia Waterleaf (20 count)
Golden groundsel (32 count)
Wild blue phlox (20 count)
Common milkweed (11 count)
Wild strawberry (20 count)
The timing could not be better....the Memorial Day weekend was temperate and mostly sunny - the perfect conditions for planting and the weather forecast rain off and on through Tuesday to water them in. It was probably the last viable opportunity for mass planting before the summer heat kicks in (next weekend is forecast to be in the upper 80's). It is exceedingly lucky to have such ideal conditions at this point in the season.
I planted the milkweed on Saturday afternoon along the south face of the greenbelt bordering the walking path. Five on the west end and the remaining six towards the center. My hope is to establish colonies along the length of the sunny section of the walkway. The rest of the shipment was planted Sunday morning with the help of my friend, neighbor and trusty side-kick Pam Barry. The waterleaf was planted in a small clearing on the east end, set-back in the shade. The packera and phlox were planted nearer to the sidewalk flanking the chokecherry patch. The wild strawberry were planted on the east end on the south face in front of the little stream...just east of the redbud and roughleaf dogwood patch. MycoBloom was applied to some of the waterleaf plantings and all of the milkweed.
After the planting Sunday morning, I carried out some other chores grooming the overgrown turf grass missed by the landscape company and pulled a section of invasive Johnson grass and periwinkle on the west end by the Chokeberry bushes. Additional MycoBloom was injected into the soil on the west end in an effort to jump start some perennial growth. The coreopsis was blooming along with some remnants of downy phlox that self-seeded from my garden. I'm still looking for native blooms but it seems everything is off from the drizzly cold weather of late. All of the plantings were doing well, simmering in their sauce hopefully waiting for the summer heat to bust out.
In addition to this work, I also acquired a single columbine plant from the Westlake Ace Hardware store in Parkville, MO - where I hosted my first ever native plant workshop Saturday morning (Woot woot!). I have been concerned for some time over the appearance of columbine in the Greenbelt that has apparently self-seeded over from my neighbors yard. My old neighbor - who has long since moved away had a certain love of columbine and planted many cultivated species. All of these species have somehow morphed over the years into a burgundy red strain that may or may not be the native. I wanted a verified native columbine for comparison to decide if this rapidly spreading invader was the real deal or a potential problem. I have seen bees nectering on the invader so it does appear to support life. I will monitor these comparable species next spring to determine if the invaders needs to be maced.
But for now the stage is set for summer. Sit back and enjoy the ride.