Valuable Spring Maintenance Tips
Although occasional snow flurries are still being spotted, it seems like we have done it once again- survived a Minnesota winter! Birds are chirping, grass is turning green, trees are flowering and starting to bud out, and countless other indicators are pointing to another glorious spring season. Our maintenance crew has started spring work again and here are a few of their keen observations:
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Columbine
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1. Native perennials are turning green and starting to pop out of the ground. A few species already spotted are pasque flower, Jacob's ladder, bottle brush grass, bergamot, columbine, and golden alexander. They might be small now but before we know it they will be growing quickly and providing blooms for our pollinators and seed for our songbirds.
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Burdock
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2. Weeds are starting to poke up already too! A few that are taking advantage of the sunny days are Canada thistle, winter cress, reed canary grass, burdock, and curly dock. If you are eager to get out and garden, some of these weeds are ready to be controlled.
3. We are seeing wildlife making their way back to
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Red- Breasted Merganser
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Minnesota as well. We are noticing a variety of duck species, trumpeter swans, and Canada geese flying back to lakes. We are also seeing and hearing more songbirds in prairie restorations and lakeshore edges. These are tell-tale signs that spring is here!
Perhaps you are eager to get out into your restoration area and do some work? Below are a few valuable tips straight from our maintenance crew:
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1. Conduct a survey. Do you see any bare areas? This past winter was pretty mild but that doesn't mean that a few plants might not have made it through the few stretches of severe cold. Now is a great time to make a list of plant species to try in your restoration. You can also think about observations you made last year. For example, maybe you were missing some yellow in your restoration last year? Fill in the open spots this spring with black-eyed Susan, sneezeweed, or grey headed coneflower.
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Pollinator habitat
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2.Take on a spring clean-up. Natural Shore has re-
evaluated our practice of "spring cleaning" a few times in the last several years ; fine-tuning our approach to benefit our native pollinators. Consider leaving dried flower stalks from last year. Our native bees use the stalks to overwinter. If we mow down vegetation, we will leave a good portion of it on site as a natural mulch and bee nesting habitat.
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Dandelion
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3. Keep some of the Dandelions- Do you
flinch and run for your weeding gloves each year at the first sign of this classic yellow weed? Might it be possible for you to learn to tolerate annual weeds like Dandelions? But why? Well, this classic weed turns out to be an early blooming flower that can actually help pollinators out this time of year. Maybe a few dandelions in hard to see places is worth considering?
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Garlic Mustard
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4. Go after the invasive weeds - On smaller restoration areas, hand digging Canada thistle, reed canary grass, burdock, and garlic mustard makes sense. Spring is a great time of year to get aggressive and show these weeds who is boss. Getting an early start will reduce the chances of these weeds growing quickly and setting seed.
In case you find some bare spots this spring and want to replant, please come out and visit our new retail nursery location opening March 19th! We have locally grown pesticide free Minnesota native prairie, shoreland, and wetland plants that will add diversity to any restoration area.
Looking at your restoration this spring and feeling a little overwhelmed? That's ok! We can help with maintenance, just give us a call at 612-220-4178 or email our Maintenance Coordinator Tracy at [email protected]. We offer site surveys, spring mowings, hand weeding, careful herbicide treatments, and many other services as part of our maintenance program.
