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#1 |
Too Wild To Garden
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Franklin, Massachusetts, United States
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![]() My lawn is a weedy mess that I will be turning into flower beds over the years. One particularly challenging area intrigues me: a full-sun, shallow, sandy soil that gets baked dry on top of pure sand, and (on top of this) the snow-plow puts a ten-foot-plus deep pile of snow here every year (and churns up a good deal of the soil in the process.) This is in New England, by the way. So, it’s a desert. Or a beach! I wouldn’t risk planting shrubs in the spot, because the plow will rip them up. I do plan on trying native grasses. In addition to this, I would like to develop a seed mix of native flowers that can be spread here. If I can come up with a good mix, then I plan to give out these seed mixes as gifts, because hey, who wouldn’t like to grow some flowers in their messy post-snowplow roadside wastelands? So, what natives might work in such a mix? I can only think of one so far: Nuttallanthus canadensis, blue toad flax. Thanks! |
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#2 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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While you are looking at grass try sand dropseed/sporobolus cryptandrus.
potentilla,gaura,evening primrose,liatris aspera,ruelliis humillis,figwort,vetch,prairie rose,wild strawberry,rudbeckia hirta... Try looking at sandy barrens in your state. Isn't the terrace in Noah's garden planted from sandy pine barrens in your area? |
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#3 |
Carbon
Join Date: Apr 2009
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If the snowplow puts piles in the area then hopefully road salt won't just kill whatever you plant.
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#4 |
Too Wild To Garden
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Franklin, Massachusetts, United States
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#5 | |
Too Wild To Garden
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Franklin, Massachusetts, United States
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![]() Quote:
I wish I had time to "go look at" places for ideas. Gabe keeps me a bit close to home. ![]() |
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#6 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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'Noah's Garden' by Sara Stein
There was a wonderful picture of the terrace outside her home in 'Planting Noah's Garden' best completely native community (I think pine barrens) I have ever seen. Unfortunately she died a few years ago. I do not know if her wonderful gardens have survived. sand dropseed has a good salt tolerance rating. At 1 to 3 ft usually smaller with less water I thought it a good choice. Sporobolus airoides got a much higher salt torerance rating but is not native to your area so I do not know about hardiness that far north. Plus it gets from 3 to 6 ft tall. http://www.brettyoung.ca/professiona...d_Dropseed.pdf http://ag.arizona.edu/turf/salinity.html Table 1. Relative percent leaf firing (a measure of injury) under increasing salinity stress. Relative leaf firing indicates the change in leaf firing relative to control plants. Higher numbers indicate more injury. Sporobolus airoides NPIN: Sporobolus airoides (Alkali sacaton) |
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#7 |
Too Wild To Garden
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Franklin, Massachusetts, United States
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Thanks Gloria!
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#8 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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I live surrounded by a street and two alleys with a fire department for a neighbor. Street salt combined with sharp sand is heavy all winter long.
Barriers like a wooden fence help keep out the salt spray mix. But in front where plows sometimes leave snow, only grass grows. Along one side an open fence allows salt spray to enter, it is also shady and dry. So we grow Symphoricarpos albus/common snowberry. Considered aggressive(not invasive) this is a good trait kept in check buy the conditions. While not showy it is hardy and the bees love the all summer long covering of nectar and pollen rich tiny flowers. I like hearing what others do to combat salt problems, so please keep us informed as you go. Intersting information... Hort-Pro - Salt Tolerant Plants Wetland Plants Salt Tolerant Plant List SULIS - Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series: U of MN. Herbaceous Plants with Moderate Salt-Tolerance Scientific name Common name Aquilegia micrantha Cliff columbine Calamagrostis acutifolia'Karl Foerster' Karl Foerster reed grass Dianthus pulminarious'Allwood' Helen Allwood pinks Dianthus x 'Little Boy Blue' Little Boy Blue pinks Dianthus gratianopolitanus Spotti pinks Lotus corniculatus Bird's foot trefoil Machaeranthera xylorrhiza Common woody aster Schizachyrium scoparium Little bluestem Waldsteinia fragarioides Barren strawberry Scientific name Common name Artemisia schmidtiana 'Sliver Mound' Silver mound Festuca 'Elijah Blue' Elijah Blue Hosta spp. Hosta Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro' Stella d'oro daylily Hemerocallis fulva Tawny daylily Helleborus orientalis Lenten rose Heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple' Palace Purple coral bells Oenothera caespitosa Evening primrose Sedum spectabile 'AutumnJoy' Sedum 'Autumn Joy' Sphaeralcea coccinea Prairie mallow Yucca glauca Soapweed CSU Cooperative Extension Tri River Area Flowers and their salt tolerances High to Moderate - 6 to 8 mmhos Aquilegia micrantha - Cliff Columbine Machaeranthera xylorrhiza - Common Woody Aster Psilostrophe bakerii - Paperflower Stanley pinnata - Prince's Plume - a good indication that the soil is high in selenium Moderate Salt Tolerance - 4 to 6 mmhos Fallugia paradoxa - Common Apache Oenothera caespitosa - Tufted Evening Primrose Sphaeralcea coccinea - Scarlet Globemallow Yucca elata Soaptree - Yucca Yucca glauca - Small Soapweed Slightly Tolerant - 2 to 4 mmhos Argemone species - Prickly Poppies Calochorutus species - Mariposa Lilly Chyrsopsis villosa - Hairy Goldenaster Gallardia pennatifida - Cutleaf Blanketflower Mentzelia species - Blazing Stars Physaria australus - Twinpod -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grasses and other Ground Covers and their salt tolerances High tolerance - 14 to 18 mmhos Agropyron elongatum - Tall Wheatgrass Agropyron smithii - Western Wheatgrass Distichlis - Saltgrass Elymus triticoides - Beardless wildrye Lotus corniculatus = Birdsfoot trefoil - a legume Puccinellia - alkaligrass Sporobolus airoides - Alkali sacaton Moderately High - 12 to 8 mmhos Bromus marginatus - Mountain brome Lolium perenne - Perennial ryegrass Melilotus alba - White sweet clover Melilotus officinalis - Yellow sweet clover Trifolium fragiferum - Strawberry clover Moderate - 8 to 4 mmhos Agropyron cristatum - Crested Wheatgrass Agropyron riparium - Streambank Wheatgrass Agropyron trachycaulum - Slender Wheatgrass Arrhenatherum elatium - Tall meadow oatgrass Bromus inermis - Smooth brome Buchloe dactyloides - Buffalograss Dactylis glomerata - Orchardgrass Elymus giganteus - Mammoth wildrye Elymus junceus - Russian wildrye Festuca arundinacea - Tall Fescue Medicago sativa - Alfalfa Phalaris arundinacea - Reed Canarygrass Low salt Tolerance Alopecurus pratensis - Meadow foxtail Festuca rubra - Red fescue Festuca elatior - Meadow fescue Poa pratensis - Kentucky Bluegrass Trifolium pratense - Red clover Trifolium repens - White clover Problems with sand in salt mix. Local News | Sand on roads worse than salt, scientists say | Seattle Times Newspaper More cities skipping the sand when salting roads |
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#9 |
Administrator
Join Date: Nov 2008
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Many Artemesia are introduced species. Some are on noxious weed lists.
Artemisia schmidtiana 'Silver Mound'
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#10 |
Unicellular Fungi
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Winona, MN
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I have some native plants growing around a sandy area around my mailbox by a road that gets dumped with sand and salt every year - the plants are in year 4 and still doing well! They are: Asclepias tuberosa, Aster ericoides (but really weedy!), Opuntia fragilis, Liatris aspera, Aquilegia candensis, and Petalostemum purpureum. good luck!
Last edited by Aster; 04-24-2009 at 03:45 PM. Reason: wasn't done writing :) |
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Tags |
disturbed, england, native, new england, plants, roadsides, sandy |
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