Heartland Gardening recently talked with Eva Monheim, author of “Shrubs and Hedges” (Cool Springs Press, March 2020) about the under-appreciated hedgerow – its rich history, diversity and ecological value. Eva teaches at world renown Longwood Gardens as well as the Barnes Arboretum at St. Joseph’s University. She is co-founder of Verdant Earth Educators, a horticulture education and consulting firm, and was assistant professor at Temple University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture for over 12 years.
The valuable large trees in the ancient hedgerow provided valuable shade for early farmers as a place for rest out of the hot summer sun.
What is a hedgerow?
If we look back into history, hedgerows were first developed after humankind transitioned from hunter gathers to the agrarian lifestyle. Woodlands were cut down to create fields to grow crops and strips of the ancient forest were left to protect the crops from wind and other elements. Small narrow lanes were created between the hedgerows, so wagons could pull crops to local villages to store. So, when we think of hedgerows, they were first used for farming. They were also used to protect the crops from animals. As man began herding animals, they also used hedgerows for keeping animals in a field, while trying to keep other undomesticated animals out. More complex hedgerows developed – especially in England where pleaching was developed. Trees were cut halfway through and snapped. These half-felled trees began sprouting and then the sprouts were braided into an intricate lattice structure. This design further curtailed unwanted animals from moving in or farm animals from wandering out.
A farmer maintains a hedgerow in England.
What was their initial ecological appeal?
Early farmers knew hedgerow’s diversity provided pollinators for crops and habitat for birds. Hedgerows here in the U.S. are one of the most threatened habitats, especially by new constructions projects. The first thing to go is usually the hedgerow. Most people think they are junky, but they are anything but junky. They also are critical to prevent flooding downstream, protecting farmers from the elements, and providing additional food sources, like berries and other small fruits. Their structure contains large trees, layers of shrubs and ground covers, perennials, annual plants, and seed store.
Mixed hedgerows develop over time. They don’t have to be perfectly clipped in order to provide valuable services for wildlife.
How is it different from a hedge?
Hedges came about to define boundary lines other than fields. Hedgerows were a form of protection from the elements, keeping snow on the fields for deep watering before the crops were planted. Hedges came about as gentry began pushing farmers off the land and securing land for themselves. Usually one or two species were used to make a hedge of thick green walls impenetrable to passersby. Hedges are still used like this today as a delineation between me and you – owner and non-owner. In Europe, there is a crossover between hedges and hedgerows. Here, 600- and 700-year-old hedges are called “hedgerows” as they gain a mix of species over time.
What is the value of hedgerows today?
With the few hedgerow remnants remaining in the U.S., they are even more important today. If you are concerned about pollinators – hedgerows are critical for their preservation. Swarms of bees can live in hollowed out trees and old tree stumps. If there are no large woodlands around, these areas are even more valuable. The exposed sides of the hedgerow have valuable habitat for in-ground native bees and other pollinators like bats that roost in the trees. Old snags and logs become a haven for beetles that provide invaluable services for our gardens and crops. Birds also use these habitats for nesting and some birds can live their entire lives in the hedgerow which provides food and protection from the elements. I can go on and on about the value hedgerows – it’s the unseen that is the most valuable – the enormous opportunity for seed store that contributes to diversity. They should not look clean and tidy. They should be strips of diversity.
Where is a good place to add a hedgerow?
While a typical hedgerow can’t be built (it’s an evolutionary process), you can make a pseudo-hedgerow along a property line by creating a layered plant community or buffer. Start with trees. You can start all your plants out small and let them grow into place then slowly fill in with varied understory small trees and shrubs. It would be like building a woodland – but in a narrow strip 10’-25’ wide.
What shrubs do you recommend for a pseudo-hedgerow?
Depending on where you are building your buffer – along a stream or along a boundary, the species will vary depending on the site:
Hydrangea arborescens – smooth leafhydrangea and there are lots of cultivars too! (you can also use other hydrangea like Hydrangea macrophylla – bigleaf hydrangea and Hydrangea serrata – mountain hydrangea)
Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis or (syn. Sambucus canadensis) – American black elderberry
Aesculus parviflora – bottlebrush buckeye
Aesculus pavia – red buckeye
Rhus aromatica – Fragrant sumac
Rhus typhina – staghorn sumac
Some Trees
Maclura pomifera – Osage orange
Quercus imbricaria – shingle oak
Quercus stellata – post oak
Quercus phellos – willow oak
Quercus macrocarpa – burr oak
Sassafras albidum – sassafras
How do you go about installing a hedgerow?
I would typically start by planting trees — both deciduous trees and conifers. Remember you are building a remnant of a woodland. There is no need to move or remove any soil or remove any lawn. Plant your trees as if you were planting them in your lawn and plant your shrubs in between. (Make sure to plant long-lived species such as oaks as well as short-lived species such as cherries.) When you have planted all that you can, use newspaper and cardboard over the entire area making sure all the paper products overlap. (There is an art form in doing this. Start at one end and work to the other. Mulch the entire area with triple ground hardwood or woodchips or combinations of mulch. Pine straw is great, too!) Allow the area to settle in for a year to kill weeds and invasive plants and then you can go in and plant additional shrubs and trees and plant bulbs, native woodland flowers and ground covers. Lay a few logs in the mix too for beetle habitat.
How do you expand the hedgerow?
When planting a hedge make sure to leave a well cultivated area around the hedge. They can be planted like the hedgerow (described above) leaving the lawn intact. Make sure to be generous and methodical about using newspaper and cardboard in between, in front and behind the hedge, and cover with triple-ground hardwood (no dyed mulch – too many chemicals in them). A more refined mulch will create a good sound cover. The following year, you can plant perennials, bulbs, or annuals or a combination along the edge to provide a more diverse habitat.You can also use several different types of plants to make your hedge and instead of creating a straight line of plants stagger them – in and out. Plant them the same way as you did the above. The following year, you can plant bulbs, perennials and annuals in the alcoves that were created, maybe even some shorter shrubs that will add different seasonal interest to the hedge.
With this week’s launch of Joanna Gaines’ book “We Are the Gardeners,” I’m reminded of the joys of reading garden-themed picture books. Their beautiful illustrations and engaging stories appeal to kids of all ages – including big kids like me. As a bonus, these books often weave in valuable life lessons like patience and environmental stewardship as well as more practical ones like seed planting and tending soil. Here are 14 favorites (including three additions from Deb) to enjoy with your own children and grandchildren. They also make great gifts.
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
Author and illustrator Lois Ehlert of Milwaukee, WI, draws in readers with her colorful paper collage illustrations. Her rainbow of flowers entices readers to plant their own colorful cutting garden. Other favorites by Ehlert include Leaf Man, Growing Vegetable Soup, Eating the Alphabet, Waiting for Wings and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (illustrated by Ehlert and written by Bill Martin Jr.).
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carl
While many are familiar with Eric Carl’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar about a caterpillar’s journey and transformation to a butterfly, his lesser known The Tiny Seed illustrates another life cycle – one of a flower through the adventures of a tiny seed.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein teaches the
value of giving from the perspective of a tree that gives and gives sacrificially
to a young boy throughout his life.
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
Chrysanthemum, the mouse heroine of this story, loved her name until she started school and her classmates teased her about being named after a flower. She eventually meets her music teacher Mrs. Delphinium Twinkle and suddenly blossoms.
The Secret Garden
An unlikely trio of children — an orphan girl, a nature-loving local boy and a spoiled boy in a wheelchair — make friends in a Yorkshire mansion’s abandoned garden where their friendship grows as they transform the garden.
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear – by Don and Audrey Wood
I’m always growing or harvesting local strawberries and even worked a summer on a strawberry farm, so I fell in love with Little Mouse who does all he can to save his strawberry from the Big, Hungry Bear, even if it means sharing it with the reader. Other berry-loving books include Jamberry by Bruce Degen and Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Based on a true story, Alice
Rumphius or the “Lupine Lady,” strives to make the world a more beautiful place
by scattering lupine seeds everywhere she goes along the coast of Maine.
Curious Gardner by Peter Brown
I’m moved by this young boy Liam’s quest for a greener world, one
garden at a time. While out exploring one day, he discovers a struggling garden
and decides to care for it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the
dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world.
Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole
Come to the garden
that Jack planted. With each new page, readers are introduced to more and more garden
treasures — seeds and seedlings, buds and leaves, and eventually flowers and
the birds, bugs and butterflies they attract.
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner
Messner shares the hidden world beneath the garden and its soil
teaming with insects, water, nutrients and plant roots. Readers will gain a new
appreciation of soil’s valuable role in the garden throughout the seasons.
The Carrot Seed by Ruth
Krauss
This delightful story shares the hope of a young boy. When he plants a carrot seed, everyone tells him it won’t grow. But he faithfully waters his seed, pulls the weeds, and waits… until a carrot plant triumphantly emerges.
Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork
This is a delightful introduction to Monet, Impressionism
and Giverny for pre-teens and older. For younger children use it more like a
picture book and skip most of the text. An older book, it can be found at used
book stores and in the library.
There’s a Hair in My Dirt by Gary Larson
When your teenager says that he or she doesn’t read kid’s
books, hand over this dark, comedic tale of nature and the assumptions we make
about how it all works. A tale of caution is told by Father Worm to little worm
and the tale’s ending has a twist. This book should be required reading for
every biology student. Warning: this is Gary Larson and there are one or
two off-color words in the captions.
Tales of Peter Rabbit and His Friends by Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter’s beloved stories are packaged many
ways. You can find anthologies and sets of small books – great for
little hands – of the individual stories. Whichever form you choose, be sure to
check that they are illustrated by Beatrix Potter. Her charming animal figures
beautifully accompany her short, sweet vignettes that relate the lessons of
life. These are stories that stay with you for your whole life.
Winter is a good time to curl up with a cup of tea and a good book. For your reading pleasure, I offer a diverse collection of books to add to your personal collection or to borrow from your favorite library.
In November I attended a lecture on plant “neurobiology” given by Dr. Stefano Mancuso*. The message of his talk: plants are intelligent and we need to understand that intelligence from a plant’s frame-of-reference. After taking four pages of notes, I decided that I needed to purchase his book Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence. Dr. Mancuso’s book is a mix of science and philosophy that is easy to grasp. When explaining how the roots act as the brain of a plant, Mancuso describes how roots make complex decisions for the “good of the plant”: discerning where nutrients and water are; avoiding or neutralizing toxic substances. In 173 pages, this book may change what you thought you knew about plants.
In my November 7, 2012, post I reviewed Daniel Chamovitz’s book What a Plant Knows. If you read it and enjoyed it, the above will continue that reading thread.
For a visual feast, take a look at Ken Druse’s The New Shade Garden: Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change. This is an update of his 1992 book The Natural Shade Garden which has held an honored place on my bookshelf and in my design classes. I find that updates are nice, but they often don’t offer much more than the original. This is not the case with The New Shade Garden. Druse discusses the issues of lawn, chemical use, the slippery classifications of native-local-nonnative plants, and sustainability. His guidance for matching plant combinations to garden conditions is excellent. He states, “The garden of the future will be a shade garden.” Why? Trees and their associated ecosystems are an essential part of our mature forests. Plus, they offer ecological services such as carbon sequestration, modifying temperature around buildings, stormwater control and more.
I have a tough decision to make: to buy or not to buy – my “review copy” is from the library. And if I buy, what do I do with my old friend The Natural Shade Garden?
Another library find was Toby Hemenway’s The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban and Town Resilience. You may be familiar with his excellent guide to creating a sustainable home garden: Gaia’s Garden: a Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. In The Permaculture City, Hemenway expands the scope of his first book; starting at the home garden – focusing especially on urban sites, then branching out into the community. His topics range from understanding, using and protecting water sources of the community to creating local money systems that sustain a community. The latter topic offers a different way to think about money and banks. As in Gaia’s Garden, Hemenway offers examples and practical applications of permaculture techniques and concepts.
There are many who believe that it will be our urban and suburban food farms that feed us in the future, and that robust local governance is important for a healthy world. If you wish to explore these ideas further, this book will be an excellent guide.
Full Disclosure: I was sent The Allergy Fighting Garden: Stop Asthma and Allergies with Smart Landscaping by the author, Thomas Leo Ogren, to peruse and review if I felt it was worthy. I enjoyed the author’s previous book Safe Sex in the Garden and Other Propositions for an Allergy-free World (2004) and was curious about his next step. In The Allergy Fighting Garden, Ogren combines and expands his two earlier books:Allergy Free Gardening (2000) and Safe Sex in the Garden. He offers a concise presentation of his rating scale, OPALS (Ogren Plant Allergy Scale), for allergen producing plants and a comprehensive list of garden plants that are rated for their allergen-producing potential. His rationale for his scale is based on solid plant science and is easy to understand. The scale is 1-10 with 1 being “least allergenic” and 10 being “most allergenic”. For example: boxwood rates a 7 because the male flowers need to make enough pollen to reach the female flowers, via the wind, that are on separate plants (boxwood is dioecious-having different sexed flowers on separate plants). Ogren also notes that boxwood can cause a dermatitis reaction for sensitive individuals.
While we can’t get rid of all pollen – and we don’t want to – this book offers an allergy-sufferer a way to design a garden that decreases potential allergic reactions.
So begins my season of reading; enjoy yours!
* Dr. Mancuso the director and founder of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Florence, Italy and is also the founder of International Society for Plant Signaling and Behavior.
NOTE: On Jan. 10, catch our blog’s favorite author Debra Knapke at the P.L.A.N.T. Seminar presented by the Perennial Plant Association and The Ohio State University Master Gardener Volunteers at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. With her talk “Garden Design Informed by Ecology & Place,” she will join an impressive line-up of speakers including Stephanie Cohen, Kelly Norris, Jason Reeves, Gene Bush and John Friel.
After I’ve worked in the garden, I like to brew a cup of tea and sit and read. Depending on my mood, I choose fiction or non-fiction. In the non-fiction world I see books as being light, medium or heavy “reads”.
For the light read, pick up the The Big, Bad Book of Botanyby Michael Largo. This is a selective encyclopedia of plants that define the plant kingdom. While there are some similarities with Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants – many of the plants have poisonous attributes, there is more about how plants have evolved to carry on the business of surviving in all types of environments. I found myself flipping through the book to my favorite plants, like lavender, and then searching out plants that were new to me. I was amazed to learn that rattan, which I think of as a component of outdoor furniture, has been developed into a bone substitute that is not rejected by the human body.
One little nit-picky point: fungi are included, and technically, they are not plants as they reside in their own kingdom. But, the illustrations are intriguing, and Largo’s writing style is easy to digest.
For a medium read and for inspiration, check out Deep-Rooted Wisdom: Skills and Stories from Generations of Gardenersby Augustus Jenkins Farmer or “Jenks”. The table of contents exemplifies what this book is offering: Building Fertile Soils: Encouraging a Healthy Web of Life, Stop the Tilling Cycle: Harnessing the Natural Powers of Worms and Mushrooms, Saving Seeds: Treasuring Heirlooms for Genetics and Nutrients and more. I started with the last chapter first: Finding the Spirit: Telling Stories through Your Garden. In my own garden, I am greeted by stories every time I am in it, and I was curious to see Jenks’ interpretation of this essential part of the garden.
Each chapter showcases two teachers who explain their techniques and where they learned them. Jenks then explains how that wisdom is expressed on his organic farm and nursery. I am not done with this book as it takes time for each chapter to settle into my own gardening philosophy. The pictures are gorgeous, and the text is poetry.
If you want to understand the opportunities and threats to sustainable development from a worldwide perspective, this is the book you need to read. For instance, a nation has an advantage if it has coastal areas, access to freshwater, good medical care, benevolent weather and energy resources. A nation will be disadvantaged, if it is landlocked, water stressed, has a heavy disease burden (e.g. malaria), has natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes, typhoons) and has a lack of energy resources. The maps and charts are an excellent addition to the text. Without them, I’m not sure I would be able to navigate this tome.
The first two books are more personal or local in nature, while the last book offers a global view. This falls right in line with the phrase: Think globally, act locally. Isn’t that what all gardeners do?
Planning a romantic dinner for Valentine’s Day? Well, seek out garden writer Helen Yoest’s intriguing book, Plants with Benefits for some helpful advice and titillating recipes.
From arugula to watermelon, she compiles an uninhibited guide to 45 aphrodisiac plants and cleverly uses this sexy topic and a good dose of humor to share the history and science lessons behind each plant.
After reading her account on lavender, I’ll definitely be planting more of this intoxicating perennial to my landscape. From historic days, women like the Queen of Sheba and Cleopatra knew the power of this alluring scent as they doused themselves with this love potion. More recently, Yoest says a food aroma study proved the scent’s seductive power among men. In fact, the fragrance of lavender increased participants’ blood flow by 40 percent compared to pizza (5 percent) or popcorn (9 percent).
While the book’s lavender cookie recipe might make a good addition to a Valentine’s Day menu, I’m thinking I’ll start with a basil pesto spread. Yoest says the herb was used as a love token thousands of years ago in Malaysia, Iran and Egypt, and its aroma still “drives us wild” today.
For the entry, I’ll serve up my husband’s favorite tenderloin steak with a flirtatious side dish of asparagus and morels. Yoest praises asparagus for its suggestive qualities and hormone-boosting power. Morels, once named Phallus exculentus by father of taxonomy Carl Linnaeus, is praised for its warming effects much like cayenne and its power-packed nutrients.
And of course, for dessert, chocolate may be the classic choice, but I think I’ll have more luck with a honey treat, like Honey Apple Crisp. Yoest writes how Cupid, the trickster, dipped his arrows in honey before aiming at lovers.
Check out Plants with Benefits for planning your own Valentine’s Day menu and planting a love-filled garden.
“A plant that helps us to love is a plant worth having,” says Yoest.
It’s another cold evening and instead of curling up with a good book, I am writing about two good books that I have had the pleasure to peruse.
Garden-pedia
We use words to communicate, but one person’s definition may be greatly or ever so slightly different from another’s. And, there may be several meanings for a word. Capturing and documenting the meanings of words and concepts is what drives the creation of dictionaries and encyclopedias. The Ohio team of Pamela Bennett and Maria Zampini offers us a lexicon for the modern gardening world in Garden-pedia.
All entries have a concise definition, and most include an expanded explanation of the term or concept. This is the fun part, because here Pam and Maria discuss controversies and variations on a theme. Here is where the book shines. Anyone can write a definition, but it takes years of experience to offer concise, accurate information and advice for the beginner to intermediate gardener. And, that they have in abundance.
For instance, there is a lot of discussion over the definitions of the words/concepts: native plant and nativar. They are, respectively: “a plant that occurs naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without human intervention” and “a cultivar or hybrid of a native plant”. The definitions seem straightforward, but the “story” behind them isn’t. Nativar is a recently coined word and one that has riled some designers and ecologists who work with native plants. Check out Garden-pedia for the short backstory.
The pictures are excellent and add to the overall attractiveness of the book. This isn’t a book you take out of the library once; it’s a book to own.
The New American Herbal
Another beautiful book is Stephen Orr’s The New American Herbal. A common, but unwarranted, complaint about herbs is that they are not beautiful or colorful. This book counters this with artful pictures of herbs and mouthwatering images of herb-filled food. I can’t wait for late spring when my green garlic is up as it is an essential ingredient for the Socca Pancake on page 190. And in summer I will make the Baked Stuffed Tomatoes with Oregano with fresh, sun-warmed heirloom tomatoes.
The first sixth of the book covers general topics and specialty herb groups. The rest of the book is plant portraits and recipes. The usual species are covered along with a sampling of herbs that less represented in general herbal books like muitle (Justicia spicigera) from Mexico, ngò om (Limnophila aromatica) from Viet Nam and Indian hemp/marijuana (Cannabis sativa). Each herb is categorized as to its basic uses, safety and growing tips. Other content varies with respect to its history, expanded use information and available cultivars.
This book seems to want to be everything herbal. And as much as I enjoyed reading it, I feel that a beginner might be overwhelmed by the amount and organization of the information. And, if you want pictures of the whole plant, you will need to look in another reference or log onto the internet. This book appears to be for the more advanced “herbie”. Although, it could be one of those books that you grow into.
A final thought
Both are references books, both display the voices of the authors and both go well with a cup of tea.
