Nurturing

  • Growth and Maintenance
    • If appropriate plant species are chosen, watering should only be necessary in the establishment stage or in extreme drought. After planting if necessary rain does not occur, supplement as needed until plants are established. Be aware that many upland herbaceous species only become established in wet spring years, so additional watering may especially be needed in early stages of establishment of herbaceous layer vegetation if it is not a wet year.
    • Examine all seedlings that pop up in order to become familiar with seed bank in your landscape. Early identification and removal of invasive and problematic species can save a lot of time and effort in the long run. Identification of desired native seedlings allows for transplantation when establishing new herbaceous areas.
    • Remove all invasive and problematic species as soon as possible to prevent spread. Be aware that even some native species, such as Beggarticks (Bidens alba) can crowd out more desirable herbaceous native plants.
    • For areas planned for fire dominated communities remove as much leaf litter as possible (though pine needles can still be beneficial if not so thick that they prevent re-seeding of desired herbs).
    • Allow herbaceous plants to senesce and die before removal to allow reseeding of herbaceous layer.
    • Collect seed of desired native herbs or even better yet, use to directly seed additionally created herbaceous plant areas (repeating planting practices for new herbaceous areas).
    • Remove dead plant herbaceous material after seeds have set and dropped to prevent build-up of an organic layer that will interfere with reseeding of desired native herbs in fire dominated plant communities.
    • Minimize trimming of shrubs to allow complexity of layering that is beneficial to wildlife habitat function. Limit trimming to that which is necessary to prevent desired plants from being shaded or crowded out and as is necessary to maintain access paths for working in and enjoying access to your natural landscape.
    • Be very selective in allowing vine growth in planned fire dominated upland plant communities, as in natural areas vines are generally limited by fire which often burns into the understory of adjacent wooded areas preventing vine establishment (however many vines do produce berries, flowers and leaves that are beneficial to a diversity of wildlife, so selective establishment is often desirable)
  • With close attention to processes in your natural landscape, long term care can be minimized. However, continued removal of organic material is necessary to maintain conditions conducive to fire dominated upland plant communities. In addition, once native plants become dominant and invasive and problematic plant seed sources are minimized it can be beneficial to occasionally scrape soils to maintain diversity of herbaceous plants that thrive in open low nutrient environments.