Native Plants with Adams Garden

When designing a landscape a lot of effort is put into plant selection.  Getting the right forms, colors and shapes, proper placement and repetition to establish rhythm and flow throughout the d...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2024/04/plant-fertility-as-factor-in-landscape.html

As I think about the landscapes that I have idealized from an early age, they are green and full of life all year long.  But I grew up in an area that did not have four seasons and at a time whe...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2024/02/groundcovers-do-they-need-to-be-green.html

For the past few months I have been preparing a talk for the Lovettsville Historical Society in Loudoun County, Virginia.  This talk focuses on the importance of native plants to the functionin...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2023/11/botanical-history-of-northern-loudoun.html

  A weakened garlic mustard.  Arrows pointing out insects on the stem and leaf and a weakened flower stalk. While out evaluating the effectiveness of winter spraying and pulling up garli...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2023/05/spring-finds-2023.html

 2022 was a particularly bad year  for me in the vegetable garden.  Conversely it was a great year for our local ground hog and rabbits.  The chicken wire fencing that I had sunk in around th...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2023/03/plans-for-2023.html

This is a pretty typical scene when English ivy gets established in a tree.  This ivy is robbing light from the tree and also weighing  it down, leading to limb breakage.  Cutting a sect...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2023/01/dealing-with-invasives-in-winter.html

When we first moved to this relatively spacious property in Maryland just over 10 years ago I knew that I wanted to grow more native plants that could provide food, primarily for wildlife, but al...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/12/what-to-do-with-wild-persimmons.html

Lawn maintenance consumes an incredible amount of time and money.  But what is the purpose of a lawn, and could those resources be put to better use? Let’s first start with the question:  W...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/11/why-lawn.html

I write a lot about dealing with Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum.  I do really feel like I am making progress, but the  work is very tedious and the rewards are often delayed.  One ...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/09/stilt-grass-discovery.html

 Yes Pull!  Now is the time to pull out Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum.  This invasive species is rampant in the eastern U.S. from Georgia to Massachusetts and west to the Mississi...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/08/pull-pull-pull.html

 Smooth hydrangea, Hydrangea arboescens, is a North American native shrub with a native range is from New York and Massachusetts, south to Florida and west to Oklahoma and Kansas.  In the wi...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/07/smooth-hydrangea.html

Mulching garden beds has been a consistent ‘must-do’ for many gardeners.  Mulching reduces moisture evaporation, suppresses weeds, adds nutrients to the soil, reduces erosion and in many cas...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-living-mulch.html

This is pretty typical of an 'invaded' tree with Japanese honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet  twining among its branches. We’ve been on our central Maryland property for about 9 years no...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/03/managing-invasives-2022.html

For 2022 I have a smaller list of plants that I will be adding to my landscape than in years past.  There are a number of reasons: I’m running out of space to tuck in new plants, I’m moving ...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/02/plans-for-2022.html

Our squirrels have figured out how to get into the bird feeder that was hanging from a branch of a tree. This was despite a series of impediments that I put in their way. It was a somewhat tolera...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2022/01/squirrel-baffle.html

 I’ve noticed that I’ve been having less success growing vegetables from seed in my garden over the past few years.  That is particularly the case for small seeded crops like lettuce and ch...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/12/why-wont-my-garden-grow.html

WHAT ARE NATIVARS? Nativars are the subject of much discussion in the native plant community right now.  The comments I've seen have ranged from mild interest to deep concern.  I originally fo...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/10/nativars.html

As summer is peaking so is the time to focus on removing Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum.  At this time (beginning of August) in the Mid-Atlantic region this invasive grass is putting...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/07/its-stiltgrass-time-again.html

For a long time I’ve wondered why the great interest in exotic barberries and no mention of our native species, American barberry, Berberis canadensis.  From the design standpoint, Japanese ba...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/07/i-planted-what.html

The ubiquitous black-eyed Susan, Rubeckia hirta, can bloom in its first season from seed but may persist for up to 3 years. A little over 10 years ago I kicked off this blog with an introdu...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/05/native-annuals-revisited.html

When I think of planting ferns I usually think of shady, moist conditions.  But that’s not all.  There are ferns that do well in dry conditions and some that can handle a fair amount of sun.�...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/04/picking-right-ferns.html

My battle against Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum, is a nearly year round effort.  To help me focus my efforts I’ve prepared the following table to remind me of where I will get the...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/02/getting-ready-for-stiltgrass-2021.html

The New Year brings new opportunities for trying new things in the garden as well as continuing projects from last year.  One project that I will be continuing from last year is removing and ...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2021/01/plans-for-2021.html

Seems like so many of my blog posts are about removing invasive species.  That is a big part of gardening and landscaping, editing out the things that don’t belong.  That said, the more excit...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-year-in-review.html

Late last winter I began testing the effectiveness of spraying garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, rosettes with glyphosphate.  Spraying in late fall through winter has the advantage that most n...

https://adamsgardennativeplants.blogspot.com/2020/11/garlic-mustard-in-offseason.html