What's Up Magazines

Saving the Bay in Your Own Backyard

Right-As-Rain Gardens
Let Your Lawn Go Natural
Beauty, But Beware!

Right-As-Rain Gardens

by Julie Dunlap

It's hard to believe, after last year's record-breaking rainfall, that anyone would want to save storm water. But rain gardens-shallow, bowl-shaped plantings that catch and hold storm runoff-are a hot national landscaping trend.

Too often, rain that falls on roads, roofs and other impervious surfaces picks up oil, fertilizer, and other chemicals, then carries the contaminants to our waterways. Rain gardens are designed to capture that flow, allowing the water to percolate slowly into the ground. Just ask Zora Lathan, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Ecology Center, who is working on her fourth rain garden at the Center's Annapolis campus. In the Center's Rock 'n Rain Garden, for example, stones and gravel help slow the flow of runoff from the Center's driveway to nearby College Creek. "They have any number of benefits," says Lathan-primarily, reducing toxins and sediment pollution, and recharging the groundwater. "Rain gardens are a natural solution," she explains. They also eliminate the need for watering.

Stormwater management is especially important around the Bay, says Stephen Berry, environmental education coordinator at Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center. "The greatest problems in the Chesapeake watershed," says Berry, "are nutrient loading and sediment loading." As the use of Arlington Echo facility grew, Berry explains, development of cabins, classrooms, and parking lots meant that the nature center was part of the water quality problems it was working to solve. In response, the center created a system of bog-like rain gardens, fed by ninety-six rainbarrels that collect runoff from every roof on the property. Curb cuts also allow water to flow naturally from paved surfaces into the surrounding soil, rather than down storm drains. "We're trying to set an example here," says Berry. And their efforts must be working.

Nineteen Anne Arundel County schools have schoolyard habitat projects that include rain gardens or other Bay-friendly environmental features like Arlington Echo's.

Annapolis residents will get to see a rain garden take shape this summer and fall as the city continues renovations at Newman Street Park. Designed by Alice N. Mutch of BaySmart Gardening, the Newman Street rain garden is funded by a $50,000 grant from the Annapolis Rotary Club. The design for the urban oasis includes only native plants such as mountain laurel, inkberry, high bush blueberry, blue flag iris, and northern pitcher plant. "If you use native plants," explains Mutch, "they require less care, use less water, use no or minimal chemicals. Plus, they're beautiful." Arlington Echo's Berry especially recommends native plants for homeowners planning a rain garden. "Many natives are self-propagating. They'll have a long-lasting treasure in their yard."

Homeowners can create their own rain gardens with a little research and elbow grease. "It can be as easy or as difficult as you want," says Lathan of the Chesapeake Ecology Center. How to locate, dig, and shape your garden depends on your property and the amount of runoff you are collecting. Step-by-step guidelines and a list of native plants, attractive to local wildlife, can be requested from the Ecology Center. You can also seek advice from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Department of Natural Resources, and other professional or amateur gardeners. According to Berry, creating a rain garden pays landowners back in many ways, increasing home value, reducing maintenance costs and time investment. "At the same time, you're helping the environment," he notes. "It's a win-win situation."

For more information, visit the Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center at 975 Indian Landing, Millersville. 410-222-3822, www.arlingtonecho.org, the Chesapeake Bay Ecology Center web page at www.severnriver.org/CBEC.htm, or the Rain Garden Network at www.raingardennetwork.com.

Let Your Lawn Go Natural

by Ginny Stibolt

Did you ever notice how grass grows in places where you don't want it? It grows in driveways, in gardens and in between flagstones in patios and sidewalks. A natural Maryland lawn is made up of a diverse collection of these grasses and other plants that take to mowing. Without ever planting grass seed, you can have a lawn that you never need to water, fertilize or treat with herbicides.

Dozens of plant species will grow naturally in a Maryland lawn. Some plants are tolerant of dry seasons, and some will grow better in wet ones. Some will be the target of a particular grub, but others will not. So the mixture of plants in your lawn will be dynamic and will depend upon current conditions. A diverse lawn is its own ecosystem - it all works together. By definition, this type of lawn is not a meadow because it is mowed more than once a year.

What will it look like?

A self-sustaining lawn area could host more than 50 different species of plants including several grasses, onion grass, wild garlic, veronica, chickweed, wild strawberry, violet, blue-eyed grass, clover, buttercup and if the soil is acidic, various mosses. One of our native plants that might sow itself in your lawn is the Star of Bethlehem; a week after it appears, you can mow for the first time. There may be dandelion and crabgrass at first, but they should be crowded out eventually and the rest of the plants will shade them. As a rule of thumb, if it's green and takes to being cut a few times each year, then it should be a welcome part of a natural Maryland lawn. If you discover invasive plants like English Ivy and honeysuckle, you'll need to pull them up once a year or so. In the fall, rake the leaves to use as compost, but that's it for care.

First, reduce the size of the lawn area

Limiting the size of the mowed area is a good goal. It increases the interest in your landscape, provides cover for birds and other wildlife, and reduces runoff. Choose the sloping areas and back corners to remove from your lawn first. Include mulch paths or stepping-stones and interesting features such as a pond or bench. (One of the hints to make the non-lawn landscaping work is to make some of it useable.) Increase diversity by planting a good variety of native Maryland trees, shrubs and shade-loving perennials. Again, a diversity of plantings makes your landscape eco-system self-sustaining, no matter what the weather conditions.

Escape the "Poison and Fertilize" cycle

The recommended chemicals used to produce golf course-like, mono-cultured lawns include broad-leafed weed killers (herbicides to kill plants that are not grasses), crabgrass killer (a herbicide specifically for crabgrass), and broad-spectrum insecticides to kill bugs or other organisms that burrow under the grass. Fertilizer is often added.

Because this mono-culture is so unstable, this cycle must be repeated over and over to keep the one type of grass growing and keep everything else at bay. All those poisons and nutrients from over-fertilizing will eventually empty into our waterways.

To stop this cycle, set your mower on a high setting - 3 to 3.5 inches or more. Don't mow as often - four or five times over the whole growing season. This will save time and reduce smog (gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers are big polluters.) Using the higher setting will encourage other plants to start moving in.

No watering, no fertilizer and no pesticides…will this work? Yes, but be prepared: it will take some time to develop the biodiversity. Your lawn will have some dieback, and it will be weedy looking for a while. If you can't resist doing something for the dead areas, in late September, use an iron rake to loosen the top of the soil and sow only native grass seeds: Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Sheep fescue (Festuca ovina), Crinkled hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa) and Red fescue (Festuca rubra). Grasses that evolved here have a better chance of surviving without extra watering or fertilizer.

Lawns offer outside living space for people. Healthy, diverse lawn areas offer living space for birds and animals, too, while preserving and protecting our natural environment.

Bay-Wise Gardeners

The Anne Arundel County Master Gardeners Bay-Wise Committee offers tips for making a cleaner, healthier environment right in your own back yard. Master Gardeners are trained volunteers who consult with homeowners, answer questions and provide information on creating an environmentally friendly landscape. Contact them at 410-222-6757 or by e-mail at BayWise2004@aol.com.

For more information and sources for native plants, visit www.fws.gov/r5cbfo/Bayscapes.htm

Arlington Echo, Anne Arundel County Schools' Outdoor Education Center, has developed a program for residents shows how to restore natural habitats by using examples displayed on its grounds, including bogs, native gardens, and natural shorelines. For information, see www.arlingtonecho.org

Beauty-But Beware

Tall trees and high winds don't mix
by Sanford M. Morse

"Tulip" poplar trees and a lethal combination of drought, record rain, a hurricane, and multiple windstorms turned many area neighborhoods into virtual lumber camps this spring, as residents and utility companies struggled to repair damage and avoid future problems.

The Bancroft community in Arnold, nestled around Chase Creek, was among the hardest hit. Bancroft property owner Efrem Potts had more than 20 poplars uprooted, mostly during Isabelle, but several in the following week's winds. His neighbor, Sally Coulton, was rudely awakened on the morning of November 13th by a 125-foot poplar breaking over the ridge of her home, piercing a cathedral ceiling and demolishing the ceiling of the master bedroom. Within hours, while neighbors were helping to clear away Coulton's debris, another immense poplar crashed across the road into next-door neighbor Diane Julian's backyard. This was Julian's fifth tree encounter in three years, one of which demolished the center portion of her home and caused over $100,000 of damage.

Coulton counted over 25 poplars that morning that could fall and further demolish her house, many in worse condition than the apparently perfectly healthy tree that split her home in two. The three Bancroft neighbors, with the permission of an understanding Anne Arundel County Department of Environment and Cultural Resources and the employment of several area tree services, cranes, and logging trucks, have since removed a further two dozen poplars. Many, many poplars still remain, however, and what were once seen as the most stately denizens of lovely wooded lots are now viewed as killer trees every time northwest winds blow over 20 knots.

What's going on here? Why have healthy trees that have stood for decades suddenly come crashing down? And when, if ever, will it stop?

The Yellow Poplar (Liriodendron tulipfera), also called the tuliptree or tulip poplar, is a member of the magnolia family and the state tree of Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. It has been described as one of the most attractive and tallest of the U.S. hardwoods. It can reach heights of 150 feet and can live forever, as witness Annapolis' most famous tulip poplar, the Liberty Tree, said to have been 400 years old. The poplar wood has a high commercial value because of its versatility, and is used as a substitute for increasingly scarce softwoods in furniture and framing construction. The poplar is also valued as a honey tree, a source of wildlife food, and a shade tree for large areas.

The poplar grows the fastest on the north and east aspects of stream bottoms, sheltered coves, and gentle, moist slopes¾a perfect description of the Chase Creek environs. It overcomes much competition because it produces numerous seedlings and sprouts, and grows very rapidly. It is also unusually free from damage by pests when compared to other commercially important trees.

Be that as it may, local tree experts, such as Bill Rees, BG&E's Supervisor of Forestry and Right of Way Management, and Ken Bringley, of Severn Tree Service, describe the tulip poplar as a nuisance and a danger¾fast-growing, shallow-rooted, top-heavy and relatively weak-wooded. Since its crown towers over other trees, Rees explained, it is susceptible to the higher winds aloft. Its shade intolerance weakens lower limbs that then present a constant threat to power lines.

What's to be done, other than await a return of more normal weather patterns? Complete removal is one obvious approach, although numbers and size make this an expensive and property-devaluing proposition. And if you are within 1000' of the water, you need to check first with the county for any necessary approval. Jim Johnson, the Environmental Planner for the Department of Environment and Cultural Resources, explains that permission comes easy for trees that are obvious threats, but never for the sake of improving water views.

Short of removal, Johnson recommends getting an expert arborist to check for any obvious structural damage, such as from lightning strikes, fire, or damage from other trees, and to remove deadwood on a frequent basis. Any heavier limbs that might influence the direction of a fall, particularly if it's towards your home, should be removed. He does not, however, recommend topping.

The root systems need to be protected by avoiding any construction within 20 feet of the base, Johnson advises. A fertilization program might strengthen the root system, Severn Tree Service's Bringley states, but then you might counterproductively encourage a tree to grow even faster. Johnson would reserve fertilizer only trees that have been stressed. Bringley also suggests watching out for carpenter ants around the trunk base, a sure sign of internal rot. Everyone agrees on the importance of eliminating all vines encircling the trunks, however picturesque. Once you've done all of this, pull out your home owner's insurance policy and check for any special wind damage deductibles, tree removal and landscaping limitations, and make sure your dwelling coverage limits account for today's escalated replacement costs. Then move to the basement when the winds howl, and be ready to duck.