Middleridge Audubon At Home (February 2005)

Winter Nature Hike on February 6

Burn off some calories before the Superbowl Game begins.  Join members of the Middleridge Audubon At Home group for a winter nature hike in nearby Woodglen Lake Park on Sunday, February 6 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.  Meet at the intersection of Kipp Court and Zion Drive.  We will walk to the Zion Drive entrance to Woodglen Lake Park, then along the lake shore.  Wear seasonally appropriate clothes (especially warm gloves) and bring binoculars if you have them.  We will look for signs of animal life in winter, examine plant seeds, find and identify birds and talk about the history of the area.  This walk on easy terrain will be appropriate for all ages.

Additional activities of the regional Audubon At Home group are:

Saturday, February 5, 10:00 AM to noon,

“Digital Photography and Nature,”
Laura Stephens,

Merrifield Garden Center (Fair Oaks location), 12101 Lee Highway, Fairfax.

Thursday, February 10, 7:30-9:00 PM,

“Natives - What To Plant; Where To Find Them,” Karen Rexrode,

Windy Hill Plant Farm, Packard Center, 4022 Hummer Road, Annandale.

Saturday, February 26, 10:00 AM to noon, “Butterflies and Dragonflies at Home,”
Dick Smythe,

Merrifield Garden Center (Merrifield location), 8132 Lee Highway, Merrifield.

Saturday, March 5, 10:00 AM to noon,

“Attracting Birds to Gardens,”
Kristen Uhrig and Paul Knight,

Merrifield Garden Center (Fair Oaks location), 12101 Lee Highway, Fairfax.

Saturday, March 12, 10:00 AM to noon,

“Creating Habitat for Butterflies & other Friends,”

Peg Bier and Perry Hershberger,

Merrifield Garden Center (Fair Oaks location), 12101 Lee Highway, Fairfax.

Saturday, March 19, 10:00 AM to noon,

“Water Gardens,”
Peg Bier and James White,

Merrifield Garden Center (Fair Oaks location), 12101 Lee Highway, Fairfax.

Middleridge Audubon At Home (Dec 2004)

Our November meeting was all about trees.   Hugh Whitehead of the Fairfax County Urban Forestry Division, Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, discussed a number of topics and answered our questions about trees in suburban yards.  Mr. Whitehead explained that the Urban Forestry Division frequently works with developers to determine what trees will be left on land being developed, but they also work to educate Fairfax homeowners about the best ways to plant and maintain trees.

In addition to their beauty, trees add value to your property in several ways.  Landscaped homes are worth 5 to 20% more. The exact value of a landscape tree depends on the type of tree, its size and its location on your property.  In addition, a properly planted deciduous tree will shade your home in summer, cutting air conditioning bills, but allow the sun’s warming rays to reach the house in winter.  Trees provide a sound barrier, screen objectionable views or lights at night, and act as windbreaks.  Trees produce oxygen and remove some pollutants from the air during photosynthesis.  Trees reduce storm water pollution by reducing the force with which rain hits the ground, store some water and their roots reduce erosion.  Trees may also provide food and shelter for wildlife.

To determine how trees on your property should be maintained, Mr. Whitehead recommended paying for a tree management plan from an arborist who is certified by the International Society of Arboriculture.  You can locate one by looking at their website, www.treesaregood.com.  An arborist will draw a map of your property containing an inventory of your trees, noting the type of tree, size, and any problems with individual trees.  Safety of your house and surrounding structures will be addressed first, and then whether individual trees need to be pruned to enhance their health and value.  Once you have a tree management plan and have acted on any urgent safety issues, you should view tree maintenance as an ongoing cost of owning your property, just like sealing your driveway or having your furnace checked.  Most trees should be checked about every five years and pruned as necessary.  Small trees can be pruned by the homeowner, once you learn how to make proper pruning cuts, but large trees should be professionally pruned to avoid injury to yourself or your property.  Mr. Whitehead provided attendees with a diagram of how to make proper pruning cuts.  Be sure to verify that anyone who works on your trees is insured and is licensed to work in Fairfax County.

Mr. Whitehead also discussed trees that tend to have weak wood and are susceptible to breaking.  He stated that Silver Maple, Tulip Poplar, White Pine and Bradford Pear are species that should be examined more frequently to minimize the chance that large branches will break off.  He recommended finding alternative species to plant near homes that would have stronger growth and be less susceptible to breaking. It’s a good idea to take pictures of your yard in case a tree is damaged and you need to prove its value for an insurance claim.

When asked about trees to plant as a privacy screen, Mr. Whitehead stated that Leyland Cypress are good because they grow quickly, but that they should be viewed as a temporary screen to be cut down after a few years when they grow too big.  He suggested  interplanting with slower-growing species that will not so quickly outgrow the space available.  He recommended using American Holly, Nellie Stevens Holly, and Forester Holly.  Where you need a relatively low screen, such as between houses, he suggested using large shrubs like Cherry Laurel, rather than all trees.

Mr. Whitehead said that the very best thing to do to care for your trees is to properly mulch around them.  He explained that 90% of the tree roots that take up nutrients are in the top 12 inches of soil, so tree roots are in direct competition with grass roots for nutrients.  Mulching encourages better soil formation and moderates soil temperature, thus optimizing tree growth.  It is best to have a wide mulch bed – as far out to the drip line of the branches as possible – rather than a deep mulch bed.  He recommended a maximum depth of 3 inches.  The type of mulch can be wood chips, shredded bark or chopped leaves.  Using chopped leaves would most closely resemble a natural forest habitat and would reduce the amount of yard waste sent to the landfill.  He noted that all mulch should be kept away from the trunk and the buttress roots of the tree to minimize animal damage and diseases that may attack the trunk if the mulch is resting on the trunk.

We all appreciate how the trees in our neighborhood contribute to the beauty of our surroundings.  With the numerous hints discussed in this meeting, we can help assure that the trees around us will be a source of pleasure for generations to come.

December Meeting

Audubon At Home Holiday Party

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Our December meeting will be a time to celebrate!  Join us for a review of what we’ve accomplished over the past 7 months and add your thoughts for where we will go next year.  Learn about exciting opportunities to help our local parks.  Handouts will be available for most programs.  If your last name begins with A thru M, please bring a savory treat to share and if your last name begins with N thru Z, please bring a sweet treat.  The Mayhew's have graciously offered to host this Holiday Party at their home, 10756 John Turley Place. 

RSVP to Sarah Mayhew 703-278-0103 or smayhew50@mindspring.com

Audubon At Home  (Nov 2004)

GARDEN TOURS

On October 3, 2004, the Audubon At Home group hosted tours of two gardens that incorporate several of the Audubon At Home principles of moving towards healthier backyards for people and wildlife.  The Reardon Family on Lindsay Street and the Rodero Family on Francy Adams Court have both reduced the lawn area of their yards with beds of native and other plants that attract butterflies and birds.  By reducing the lawn and using native plants, they need fewer fertilizers and pesticides.  This reduced use of lawn chemicals saves money and helps keep the groundwater clean.  In addition, they spend less time mowing and contribute less  to air pollution caused by lawn mowers. 

Middleridge residents fortunate enough to tour the gardens found two different approaches.  The Reardon home was landscaped to minimize weekly upkeep and to provide a “natural” look.  The Reardons have used wood chip pathways, stone walkways and larger wood pieces to highlight areas of their garden in ways that reflect their “close to the land” gardening philosophy.  The shaded back yard, with its original native forest understory left intact, provides relief from the hot summer sun.  Flowering shrubs, including a row of lilac, add interest throughout the year.  Dogwoods, American Holly and Japanese Holly provide berries that are eaten by birds and other wildlife.  Butterflies are attracted to Butterfly Bushes, Black-eyed Susans, Zinnias, Phlox, Monarda, Coneflowers and Salvia.  Tucked among the flowers are culinary herbs such as Rosemary, Basil and Sage.  The mulch for the extensive walkways was obtained free from Fairfax County at the Rt. 66 Solid Waste Transfer Station.  The wooden borders of the flower beds and extensive use of mulch makes the plantings look tidy and makes mowing easier. 

The Rodero Family landscape is more formal, but just as beautiful.  One of their main concerns was to screen the backyard of their corner lot from the street.  They have done this with a variety of evergreen plants, including Japanese Boxwood, Japanese Holly, American Holly, Mountain Laurel, Rhododendron, Dog-Hobble, Juniper and Hinoke Cypress.  They have incorporated a plastic compost bin behind their garage, where they can easily add kitchen vegetable peelings and yard wastes.  This year the Roderos enlarged the flower beds in the front and side of their house.  They are planting ground covers in various shades of green and with different leaf shapes to provide an interesting texture to the beds throughout the year and to stabilize the soil where they have water runoff issues.  As the new plants mature and fill in the space, some will provide nectar for butterflies or berries for birds.  After the Roderos and their guests planted the new flower bed during the October 3 workshop, the Roderos spread a two- to four-inch deep layer of mulch to discourage weeds from growing and to reduce erosion.  

GARDENING TIPS:

When spreading mulch, it is important that it not be more than an inch or two deep around the base of trees or shrubs, where it can cause the woody bark to rot.  Many landscaping companies place mulch eight to ten inches deep unless you instruct them otherwise.  If you want the look of a deep mulch bed around a tree, make it a “donut” shape with a trough in the middle around the tree trunk.  Just be sure the tree bark is not covered by the mulch.  Since termites are a problem in this area, you should not place mulch directly against the foundation of your house, where it could provide a pathway for termites to invade.  Instead, keep mulch a foot away from the foundation walls or, better yet, place a 12- to 18-inch wide gravel or river stone-lined trench against the foundation of your home to discourage termites.  Line the trench with landscape cloth before placing the stones to allow water to penetrate but to discourage weeds from rooting in the stones.

OCTOBER MEETING:

The October meeting of the “Middleridge Audubon At Home” program was held at the William’s home at 10800 Broadwater (on the pipestem).  The purpose was to learn more about the “Backyard Wildlife Habitat program sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation” from a family that had successfully completed the required certification.

Though the weather was a bit rainy, there was good attendance and our wonderful host and hostess, Steve and Karen, were very helpful in answering our questions about the program, how they got started, and how they set up their yard.  We also discussed the details of the application and talked about specific issues related to our particular yard. 

After talking with the Williams, certifying your backyard as a “wildlife habitat” isn’t as hard as it might seem.  You must address four key areas to have a successful backyard wildlife habitat.  First is food.  What kinds of food sources do you have?  Berries, seeds, or feeders?  The second item was water.  Wildlife need a clean source of drinking and bathing water.  Third was cover or shelter.  What does your yard offer wildlife to shelter them from the weather and protect them from predators?  And the last item was a place to raise their young.  Where can they raise their youngsters?  A check-the-block type of form, the National Wildlife Federation application walks you through the whole process pretty easily.     

Thanks to Sarah Mayhew for providing the “door prize” plants.  They offer the participants another opportunity to beautify their yards while recognizing their participation in this fun Middleridge program.

November Meeting:

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

NOVEMBER MEETING:

Our November meeting will be held at the Mayhew’s house at 10756 John Turley Place. 

Our topic will be "A Tree Grows In Fairfax: Should This Tree Be Saved?"  As the gardens in Middleridge have matured, many homeowners are faced with trees having outgrown their space or presenting problems of disease.   We wonder whether we should have the trees pruned or hire the guys with the thick country accents to just cut the trees down and pray they don’t land on our houses in the process.  After the experience with Hurricane Isabel in September, 2003, many homeowners are opting to remove the trees.  If you do, what can be planted that will be a better choice for our Middleridge lots?  Our November speaker, Fairfax County Urban Forester Hugh Whitehead, will discuss tree care in general, proper location of trees on suburban lots and types of trees that are good to grow in residential neighborhoods.  This is a must-come meeting for anyone considering removing a tree, planting a tree or who just wants to maintain the trees already growing in your yard.  Bring your questions and, if you don’t know what kind of tree you have, some leaves to allow for tree  identification. 

As usual, we would appreciate RSVPs so we know how many chairs to set up.   Phone:  703-278-0103 or email smayhew50@mindspring.com.

Groundcover Alternatives to English Ivy

Plants which evolved in other parts of the world do not have insects or diseases here that slow their reproduction, so they can grow larger faster and produce more seeds than our native plants, explained Margaret Chatham of the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) at the August 19, 2004 meeting of the Audubon At Home group.  A wonderful discussion of  gardening with native versus non-native plants followed.  Ms. Chatham began by discussing a number of non-native plants that have created problems for all gardeners by becoming invasive pests. Examples include Kudzu, Porcelainberry, bamboos, privets, exotic honeysuckles and multiflora rose.  She explained that these plants take over an area, crowding out all the native plants that serve as food and shelter for our  wildlife.

In addition, some of the non-native plants mimic the scent of native plants that serve as butterfly host plants.  When the butterflies lay their eggs on the exotic plant, the caterpillars that hatch are poisoned by chemicals in the exotic plant and do not develop, thus killing that generation of butterflies.  One butterfly has been wiped out in areas where an exotic plant called garlic mustard has become established because of this caterpillar toxicity. Ms. Chatham also encouraged use of native plants as once established they do not require watering in summer or pesticides, because they have evolved with the local insects.  She explained that native plants provide food for the insects that birds must have to feed their young, in addition to producing fruits and seeds eaten by birds later in the year.  Many exotics do not provide food for wildlife.

One invasive plant that has attracted the attention of the VNPS is English Ivy.  It is commonly used as a groundcover for shady areas.  Ms. Chatham explained that it becomes a serious pest when allowed to grow up into trees, where it begins to produce berries that are eaten and dispersed by birds.  The bird droppings fall into natural areas and spread the Ivy far from its original location.  In the long run Ivy can kill the trees it climbs by causing bark rot and can encourage blow-down, especially in winter storms.  Ivy on the ground prevents young trees from growing to replace old ones, stopping regeneration of the forest.

Ms. Chatham described and showed slides of a large number of native plants that can be used to replace English Ivy as a groundcover in shade and semi-shade.  Among the plants discussed was Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera), Green-and-gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), Wild ginger (Asarum canadense), Golden ragwort (Senecio aureus), Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), Wild stonecrop (Sedum ternatum), sedges, ferns, herbaceous plants, etc.  The complete list can be found on the Virginia Native Plant Society website at http://www.vnps.org/ALTERNATIVESENGLISHIVY.htm.

A few fortunate attendees received door prizes of native groundcovers, including Wild ginger, Golden ragwort, Wild stonecrop and Partridgeberry.  To round out the lessons on native plants, Ms. Chatham displayed books and provided a list of resources for identifying invasive exotic plants and native wildflowers, and for growing native plants.  She invited all Middleridge residents to the VNPS plant sale on Saturday, September 25 from noon to 4 pm at the Green Springs Garden Park on Braddock Road near the intersection with Little River Turnpike.  Several of the attendees made plans to attend the sale.

Audubon At Home With Lawns

By Sarah Mayhew

The Audubon At Home program encourages us to reduce the amount of lawn we have in our suburban yards by replacing grass with native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife.  Doing so provides us with birds and butterflies to enjoy up close and with more time to enjoy watching them because native plants require less time-consuming care than lawns.  That said, another program goal is to keep the remaining lawn healthy to discourage erosion and weed growth.  Virginia Tech experts recommend that we spend some quality time with our lawns * during September, so let’s look at what the experts say.

First, look over your lawn to see if there are any glaring problems, such as patches of dead turf caused by insects or disease, thick clumps of weeds where grass used to grow or bare patches.  Try to determine the cause of the problem.  For example, a dead patch of turf that pulls up easily like rolling up a carpet is probably caused by grubs eating the roots below ground.  If there are weeds, try to identify them.  If you don’t know what they are, you can take a sample to the Fairfax Master Gardener clinics held at the Burke Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning or at many community libraries.  The Master Gardeners are great at identifying plants and insects and solving garden problems.

Once you have reviewed the condition of your lawn, you can decide if you need to take drastic action (50% or more of your lawn is dead or choked with weeds) or just maintenance actions.  Drastic action means killing off the entire lawn and starting over with new seed.  If you need this, consult with the turf experts at the County Extension Office or one of the local garden centers for specific instructions.  Recommendations for maintaining a healthy lawn follow.

Test your soil to determine what fertilizers it needs.  Test about every three years.  Soil test kits are available at the public libraries or at the Audubon At Home meeting to be held on September 14.  Add lime, if needed.  Top dress your lawn with organic matter up to mid-October.  You can add lime and organic matter at the same time by top dressing with a product called “ComPro.”  If you don’t need to add lime, a natural organic material  available locally is “Leaf-Gro,” made of composted leaves.  You can ask at your local garden center for other brands of composted organic material.  To incorporate the organic matter into the soil for best effect, aerate the soil with a core aerator when you spread the organic matter.  This machine pulls plugs of soil to the surface and allows the organic matter to work its way into the holes.  If you need to overseed your lawn, September up to mid-October is the best time to do it.

Almost everyone needs to add nitrogen to their lawns.  In fact, the soil tests don’t give nitrogen results, but tell you to add it periodically because it leaches from the soil quickly.  Cool season grasses benefit most from nitrogen applied from late September through the end of November because that is when they are growing stronger roots to survive the winter.  Use a fertilizer that has 50% or more of slow-release nitrogen (WIN) to avoid polluting the Chesapeake Bay.  Yes, what we put on our Middleridge lawns does end up in the Chesapeake!  Be careful to use only the recommended amount of fertilizer.

More is not better and may kill the grass with “fertilizer burn.”  Virginia Tech experts recommend applying 1.5 pounds of slow-release nitrogen fertilizer per 1000 square feet between August 15 and September 15, with a second application at the same rate between October 1 and November 1.  If you have applied organic material to your lawn, you can skip one of these applications because the organic material adds nitrogen, too.  Be sure to sweep up any fertilizer that falls on your driveway or sidewalk so it will not wash down the storm drains and pollute the water.

Weed control is an ongoing job with lawns.  The best way to discourage most weeds is to mow high, use sharp blades and a mulching lawn mower that leaves the clippings on the lawn.  The taller grass shades the soil and many weed seeds won’t germinate without sunlight.  Hand pull weeds that come up easily and spot treat weeds with an herbicide specifically designed for use on lawns.  You may need to spot treat twice to kill the weeds.  One expert recommends lightly fertilizing the lawn with quickly available nitrogen a week before using the herbicide because it kills more effectively if the weed is growing quickly.  Be careful when using granular pre-emergent weed killers.  They are not effective against all weeds and must be put down when the weed seeds are germinating to be effective at all.  Weed seeds typically germinate in early Spring or Fall.  A few species such as Violets, Ground Ivy, and Oxalis do germinate in late Spring.  Spreading pre-emergent weed killers in summer is a waste of time and money, even though that is when the weeds become most obvious to us.  Spreading pre-emergent weed killers that control weeds that you have not identified in your yard or your neighbors’ yards is a complete waste of time and money.

By following the advice of Virginia Tech’s unbiased lawn care experts and encouraging strong, healthy grass, you can have a thick lawn with a minimum of effort.  So, enjoy the cooler September weather by working on that lawn.

* Because most Middleridge residents maintain lawns made of “cool season grasses” like Bluegrass, Fescue or Ryegrass, this article is aimed at them.  If your lawn is made of Zoysia or Bermudagrass, please contact the County Extension Agent for different guidelines.

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