What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 62: southern bayberry (aka wax myrtle)

 Yesterday my super farm helper put in 23 of the 25 southern bayberries I ordered last spring. We’ve put them in in front of our front pasture fencing, where they will not only offer a native plant benefit to pollinators, birds, and other wildlife, they’ll also provide privacy screening for us as they grow. 

These bushes are evergreen, deer resistant, hardy once established, and they can grow up to 8 feet per year, which means you get your privacy very quickly. They can be pruned or let go to create a very thick hedgerow effect, and you can let them grow to the ground for a full shrub effect, or limb them up to get more of a single trunk/tree effect. 

Right now, I’m just thrilled they are in the ground, watered, and waiting for mulch. Up near the gate, we will put them in behind the fence instead of in front, to give a layered effect and keep the gateway from the road tidy and distinct. 

I love the idea of a dense thicket effect and spaced them such that they will definitely grow to meet in the middle unless we intervene. One more thing checked off the list!

We also finally had the barn electric box updated, a line run to the barnyard/camper, and new outlets installed in the barn aisle. I have more projects for the electrician in the barn and the house, but this was a full day of work, and got done what we needed for now. Check, and onward. 

More info on the bayberries:

Morella cerifera

Morella cerifera (L.) Small

Wax Myrtle , Southern Wax Myrtle, Southern Bayberry, Eastern Bayberry, Bayberry, Candleberry, Tallow Shrub

Myricaceae (Bayberry Family)

Synonym(s): Cerothamnus ceriferus, Cerothamnus pumilus, Morella ceriferavar. pumila, Myrica cerifera, Myrica cerifera var. pumila, Myrica pusilla

USDA Symbol: moce2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), HI (I), PR (N)

A wispy, 6-12 ft., multi-trunked, evergreen shrub, southern bayberry or wax myrtle can reach 20 ft. in height. The light olive-green foliage has a spicy fragrance. Pale blue berries occur on female plants in the winter. Handsome gray bark is almost white on some plants. 

Native from New Jersey west to eastern Oklahoma and east Texas, south through Mexico to Central America as well as through much of the Caribbean, this popular evergreen ornamental is used for screens, hedges, landscaping, wetland gardens, habitat restoration, and as a source of honey. Essentially a shrub, it serves as an excellent screen plant, with both standard and dwarf varieties available. Because there are separate male and female plants, if you want berries you must have male plants close enough to the berry-producing female plants for pollination to occur. The leaves are aromatic, with an appealing, piquant fragrance when crushed. Colonists separated the fruits waxy covering in boiling water to make fragrant-burning candles, a custom still followed in some countries.

A few farm photos

 My husband took this one the other morning and I love the foggy landscape, the redbud leaves now yellow, and a certain Bear Corgi showing off his home.

This is one large cluster of asters in the pollinator bed. There are two other large clusters as well, and I can tell you that if you want to support bees, whether honey bees, native bees or all of the above, this is a must-have for autumn forage. It’s covered on these sunny fall days.

Here’s one of our girls foraging, with already full pollen baskets!

I also noticed and took a photo today (but it isn’t loading on my ipad via icloud and I don’t have phone with me at the moment) of my climbing asters newly planted this summer. They kept getting nibbled back by bunnies until we fenced them off, and then they leafed out nicely. They now have buds soon to open! I’ll take a photo of the blooms when they open up. I’m happy they’re finally kicking off to a good start.

Clementina Pumpkin

 Every day I get photos like this in our fam chat and all I can think is - Clem needs her own calendar. :)

Spotlight on Clem and Baloo, again

 My daughter keeps taking stunning portraits of our dogs. Hello, Baloo:

And hello, Clementine and Baloo, best friends:

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 61: blue vervain

 

This little plant seems small and ground-hovering, but will grow tall and spiky next spring/summer. It will be lovely wafting next to the fuchsia bluebird box, I think! Imagine the color combination of purple + fuchsia + the blue and cinnamon of bluebirds! 

More info:

Blue Vervain can offer a strong upright accent to any perennial garden or prairie/savanna.  The small, tubular, blue-violet flowers bloom from the bottom up in July's heat.  The numerous crowning spikes of blossoms give a candelabra-like appearance to this graceful plant.

Livestock will not eat Verbena so it may be thought of as "weedy" by some who observe it in a pasture setting. In a natural prairie it is not aggressive.  In fact, it is a rather short-lived perennial that will not compete well with more aggressive vegetation.  It self-seeds readily and is very easy to germinate, so it is a common component of many drier prairie seed mixes.  The seeds are a staple for many small mammals and birds that depend on this widely-distributed plant.

As the alternative name Swamp Verbena suggests, this Vervain likes wet, even soggy, conditions but also will grow in medium soils.  Full sun to partial sun are its preferred sun conditions.