Burning Silo

A few days ago, I posted some notes and photos of the species of lady beetles that I have found here at my farm. In the comments, Troutgrrrl asked, “Do you think we could all find this many different lady beetles if we looked carefully or is your farm likely to attract more diversity?” In my reply, I mentioned that I would probably write something about some of the changes which have occurred since we moved here almost thirty years ago. The following is just a beginning. I’ll try to follow up with more notes and photos from time to time.

The above photo is one view of my backyard, taken a couple of years ago. As you can see, there are trees all around, and tall meadow grasses and native as well as non-native wild plants such as the Queen Anne’s Lace in the foreground. However it wasn’t always this way. Let’s crank up the time machine and go back almost 30 years to how things looked when we were putting in the weeping bed — which you can actually see the slope of to the right in the above photo. This is how it all looked the first summer that we came here. My, how things have changed. (-:

What you see above are the fields that surrounded the site where we built our house. The land consisted of roughly 60 acres, most of which was very depleted pasture growing on sandy topsoil with a deep layers of soft sand just a few inches beneath. Much of the land had also been used for growing potatoes for several decades. The front two-thirds of the farm had a few fences with a bit of fencerow vegetation (mostly wild raspberries and meadowsweet), and two very lonely Ash trees. The only other trees on the farm were some Sumac growing around ruins of an old barn to the west side of our land, and a small grove of Black Locust at the very back of the farm. The back third of our land had some succession forest - mostly Poplar and Paper birch with a few White Pine here and there.

During our first few years at the farm, we planted trees whenever we had the time. Instead of trying to do the usual “conifer plantation” thing, we decided to try planting a mixed forest with small groves of certain trees here and there on the property. For example, we have a tiny grove of about 20 Tamarack (Larch) in one area, White Cedar in a couple of locations, and mixed pines and spruce in other areas. We’ve allowed birch and poplar to take over certain fields and they are now of substantial size. New trees are now growing among them — Sugar Maple, White Pine and the odd oak. The Sumac grove around the old barn has spread out into quite a large stand. Similarly, the Black Locust at the back of the farm now covers an area of about 3 to 4 acres. Manitoba maples, which are considered a nuisance tree in this region, grow here and there around the farm - mostly at the back where the ground is a bit soggy.

As mentioned, we’ve planted mixed seedlings around the farm — White, Bur and Red Oak, Black Walnut and Butternut. We also have a couple of large nut trees (Butternut and Black Walnut) that bear good crops every second years - these were nursery stock that were a few years old when planted. We have a couple of American Elm that have grown from tiny trees that just started on their own many years ago. It’s probably worth mentioning that, when trees have “appeared” on their own, we have tried to protect them and let them grow. So, in effect, we have groves of trees that were planted growing alongside trees that appeared here by some means or another. We also toss in the odd acorn collected during our walks. Gradually, over time, sections of the land are developing into what might be called a forest.

However, we’ve also tried to maintain some oldfield meadows for the benefit of Woodcock and other ground-nesting birds — and also for the insects which I like to photograph. For the first 20 or so years after we came here, we kept a large herd of goats which roamed around much of the farm, keeping the Meadowsweet and other brush at bay. The first few years, we did grow crops here — about 20 acres of oats, but later seeded most of the fields to pasture grasses and mixed legumes (clover, alfalfa, trefoil). However, we have not seeded any pasture in about 15 years, so now the fields have become naturalized with various native and non-native grasses, legumes and other plants such as several species of Goldenrod and Asters, along with Yarrow, Common Milkweed, St. Johnswort, Queen Anne’s Lace, etc…

Another “feature” to the landscape, is that there are a couple of wide drainage ditches cutting across the fields. When we came here, they were bare, sandy troughs with little vegetation. We did nothing to them, but let them grow in with cattails, a few species of scrubby willow, Red-osier dogwood, as well as plants that prefer soggy habitat, such as Marsh Marigold, Boneset, Joe-pye Weed, Blue Vervain and others. The ditches have become like small creeks or minature wetlands, and are home to a good number of Wood Frogs each spring, and also to Spring Peepers and Leopard Frogs. Recently, we saw a Painted Turtle crossing the road near one of the ditches, so it seems that there must be a few living in there now too. Red-winged Blackbirds, Mallard ducks and the occasional Bittern nest in the ditches most years.

Bird habitat is now excellent and we see everything from warblers, to cardinals and orioles. In summer, many warblers move among the shrubby willows and along the fencerows which we have now let grow wild. Wild raspberry and chokecherry grow along the old fencelines. Virgin’s bower, bur cucumber, Wild grape, and Hedge bindweed vines grow overtop of everything. In winter, there are many blue jays, chickadees, and nuthatches around the gardens. Both Hairy and Downy woodpeckers are commonly seen around the gardens and woods, and we occasionally see and hear Pileateds in the succession forest and sometimes even in the garden. Each year, a pair of Northern Harriers usually nests in the wetter area at the back of our land.

As I do a great deal of insect photography, I like to see much plant diversity. Over the years, as the ecology of the fields, woods and gardens have changed, I’ve seen comparable changes in numbers of species of insects. The fields are now filled with bees, beetles, seed bugs, grasshoppers and spiders attracted by oldfield plants. The gardens attract many butterflies and bees due to an abundance of both wild and cultivated flowers. The Spider Garden part of the yard is allowed to grow rampant with wild vegetation and is home to dozens of huge Argiope aurantia and trifasciata spiders each summer.

Of mammals, we regularly see Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Red Fox and Red Squirrels around the gardens and nearby fields. Snowshoe Hare, Porcupine and White-tailed Deer live in the woods. We have Coyote around the area and often hear them howling at night in the fields behind our barn.

Next time I write, I’ll try to say more about some of the plants which we have either planted, or encouraged to grow, in order to create greater plant diversity, or to provide food sources for wildlife. - bev

Tags: wild gardens, landscape ecology