If your school mulched an area for naturalizing in the spring, now is the time to start planning for planting! Fall is the best time to plant perennials, including woody plants, in much of North America. In the Great Lakes area, aim for the second half of October.
- My recommendation is to to treat your mulched area as a habitat restoration project, which affects what plants I recommend first of all.
- The second factor that affects my choices is toughness: since their home will be at a school, the plants need to be able to survive a lot of handling and play.
- The third consideration is safety; none of the plants I recommend have poisonous parts.
In your mulched section, be sure to plant in the soil, not in the mulch! Dig through the mulch down to the soil and make the hole for the shrubs, trees and plants in the soil. Backfill with mulch to make a sort of cone around the new planting, so that the mulch doesn't touch the stem or trunk.
The first plant I recommend is native wild roses. Plant an odd number of them about 3-5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters)
apart. These shrub roses are tough, so they can handle whatever a
school might throw at them. On the other hand, they also have thorns, so children will
probably leave them alone. Native wild roses are one species that shows up soon after land has been disturbed or abandoned.
Add at the feet of the roses some Johnny jump-ups (wild pansies) which I referred to in the Kindergarten Science Field Trips III post.
This is the beginning of plantings of mainly shrubs and trees as opposed to perennial plants and grasses, and these are the reasons why:
- First of all, prairie-style school gardens with grasses and perennials are higher maintenance; I've seen a number of those that don't look that good after a few years.
- Secondly, shrubs and trees will eventually allow for shelter, nooks and crannies, great play places for kids.
- Thirdly, shrubs and trees are what naturally grows in many parts of North America.
But if your school is able to do more this fall, trees can be planted among the roses. I suggest a stand of birch or quaking aspen trees inside the protection of the rose canes, about 5 feet (1.5 meters) apart. That may seem very close together, but trees of the same species can not only handle that, they support each other that way!
Birches and especially aspen are easily grown from seed, which has advantages. It's a cool project for your students to do, and trees grown from seed don't suffer transplant shock. However, it is complicated to time growing and planting around school holidays. On the other hand, the larger the tree, the longer it takes for it to become established in a healthy way. My recommendation is to find small saplings, and plant them among the roses. They are cheaper, they will adjust easily and grow fast, as I said. (I once planted a knee-high tree sapling during the same spring that a neighbor planted a 7 foot tall tree of the same species. A few years later, they were the same size.) With the thorny rose canes around them, students are not as tempted to bother the newly transplanted trees.
Also, bury a bunch of locally found acorns under the mulch on the edge of the rose/birch/aspen stand about 12-15 feet (4-5 meters) apart. That's a long-term investment of course. But with the decomposing wood chip conditions, you are able to imitate, but also speed up, the natural succession processes on your school grounds. Like your early succession trees, oaks need bright conditions to grow. If, however, your new planting is near the school building, DON'T add the acorns. Oak trees are notorious for causing foundation damage.
Entomologist Doug Tallamy advocates planting oaks because a native oak tree can support the caterpillars of over 500 species of butterflies and moths. Those caterpillars are a critical food source for over 96 percent of songbirds. For example, a pair of Carolina chickadees requires between 6,000 and 9,000 caterpillars to successfully raise just one brood of young! So you can imagine the consequences of those caterpillars not being around.
Lastly, you can add some ground covers in addition to the Johnny jump-ups in the form of scented plants. Mint is a toughie that, once established, will ramble and be up to the handling of little hands. Perhaps choose a variety of the mint native to North America: wild mint (Mentha arvensis). North American insects are adapted to those better than exotic mints (mints from elsewhere in the world). Other suggestions are wild chives (wispy, grass-like versions of the chives you know), and lovage, not native, but a perennial that will be the size of a shrub two years from now. It tastes like celery. Each of these plants, including the Johnny jump-ups, are edible, flowers and all. They come back every year (once they survive this fall). Their flowers attract beneficial insects. Can you imagine the fun and Wonder that the kids (of all ages) will experience sampling them?
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| Mentha arvensis -wikimedia |
The end result of your fall planting is not going to look that newsletter-worthy. The first thing that this new naturalized area is going to teach students and teachers is patience... Gardening is good for that! Both kids and adults may come running for the first few days and weeks to look for any changes. They will be disappointed, because this fall, it's all about the roots. Underground is where the initial changes are happening. It's not until after the long winter that above-ground changes can be seen, and those changes won't even be that impressive. However, this small start already provides many educational opportunities for class time or recess time. More about that coming up.
Native roses: Rosa carolina (Carolina Rose), Rosa palustris (Swamp Rose) both native to Eastern North America from the Atlantic to Nebraska. Rosa palustris prefers wet ground. Rosa blanda (Prairie Rose) is native to the entire prairie region in North America. In the west, Rosa woodsii (Wood's Wild Rose). Along the upper Pacific coast from Alaska down into California, a famous wild rose is Rosa nutkana (The Nootka Rose). Rosa californica, native west of the Sierra Nevada. "Native American Roses are wild flowering shrubs that provide full spectrum pollen for bees, nesting places for birds, and seclusion for small mammals. Their fruits or hips are tasty treats for wildlife as well as a powerhouse of important antioxidants for humans. Native roses are important components of food forests and land restoration projects." (davesgarden.com)
Native birch: (Don't get Betula Pendula -the European White Birch that offers no ecological benefit to North American creatures.) Betula papyrifera (Paper Birch), Betula nigra (River Birch or Black Birch), Betula alleghaniensis (Yellow Birch), Betula lenta (Sweet Birch).
Native aspen: Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen, Trembling Aspen, Mountain Aspen, Golden Aspen, American Aspen -it has lots of names...)
Native oaks: There are 58 species of oak trees native to North America. In the Great Lakes region where I live, we find Quercus alba (White Oak), Quercus macrocarpa (Bur Oak), and Quercus rubra (Red Oak).