Water, Full Sun, and Invasive Plants – A Timeline for Transforming a Property

"Shade is an old lady gardener's best friend", my native plant mentors schooled me when I bemoaned the limitations of my oak tree canopy. Now that I landscape on a spring-fed, south-facing slope in full sun, I would add flat terrain to that list of friends! Our 6.7-acre property is on the headwaters of the Perkiomen in Upper Milford Township, Lehigh County, and offers a lifetime of opportunity and challenge to a landscaper: field, forest, orchard, springs, pond, and historic stone buildings. Over the past three years, I have come to realize that sun and water increase plant palate choice along with invasive pressure. Here are some tools I have been using to keep up with the hopes that someone else may find these methods useful on their property.

Spring 2017

The only native herbs noted in stream and woods were Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, Celandine Poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, Sensitive Fern, Onoclea sensibilis, New York Fern, Thelypteris noveboracensis and Wild Lettuce, Lactuca canadensis. The wooded edges of the lot are an impenetrable wall knitted by a shrub and vine mass of bush honeysuckle, multi-flora rose, Rosa multiflora, and burning bush, Euonymus alatus, intertwined with wild grapevine, Vitis riparia, poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, and oriental bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus that extends into the canopy. This first spring we cut 2 and 3" caliper vines and sprayed stumps with herbicide to liberate trees. The remainder of saw & chipper time addressed over 30 dead or fallen trees, brush, and debris that hindered access to manage areas with overwhelming tick populations and more invasive challenges.

Invasive removal is prioritized to the top of the property, a south-facing slope, to remove the view of Japanese Knotweed, Fallopia japonica, from the house and road approach and deplete invasive seedbanks above the 6 acres of land and over a half acre of water.

Fall 2017

Eighty genera of native seed collected on the Brandywine Conservancy is purchased. A Staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, colony is removed from the greenhouse, broken glazing, a vent motor, and fan are replaced: staged for progress in 2018!

Spring 2018

The pond hosts a brood of 7 wood ducklings! Encouragement to improve our algal pool. We began flame-weeding the invasive Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria, to avoid chemicals near waterways. Deep sediments prevent invasive work within the pond. Time to research sediment reduction, aeration, another argument for solar energy.

Fall 2018

November the new roof is on the barn to accept solar panels. Powered up in January.

Spring 2019

Aeration fountains installed in May and the first treatment of beneficial aerobic bacteria added to pond sediment in June. Eight wood ducklings this year! Four eggs in each of our bluebird boxes, a Christmas gift from our deer hunter. Considering converting the wet edge of the agricultural field to a wet pollinator meadow. Our property is subdivided from land held by the county in farmland preservation and parkland with a large fishing pond. The community appreciates the open vista. A wet meadow habitat would preserve the quilted farmland vista. As promised, Jason Ksepka from Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve phones the day the weather permits their wet meadow seeding. Rush to Bowman's Hill to observe and interview installer. Incredible year for dragonflies, damselflies, and fireflies.

Fall 2019

The Wildlands Conservancy was invited onsite to consult or partner in our planning. Their restoration specialist warned against taking a field edged in reed canary grass, Phalaris arundinacea, out of corn/soy rotation and installing slow maturing meadow matrix. The wet meadow edge will wait, the Wildlands has included us in a grant to increase forested streamside buffer acreage. This tree installation will put competitive pressure on the reed canary grass or at the very least provide companionship while we work at removing the P. arundinacea. Deer Hunter stops hunting on our property this season as all 4 deer stands are curtained in mile-a-minute vine, Persicaria perfoliata. Never has a property with so many layers of invasive plants impacted so many design and management plans - indulged in a moment of despair and tears in the fall of 2019.

At the 2019 Forest Landowners Conference, Pete Smallidge, New York State Extension Forester, Cornell University presented Flame Weeding Technology to Control Invasive and Interfering Woodland Plants. We crawl, and bushwack our way to the crowns of bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and burning bush. Dave recommends a 50-second treatment to effectively cook the cambium layer of a multi-stem shrub. Norway Maple, Acer platanoides, were also flamed if under 3" dbh, the flame was applied at that 4.5-foot dbh height.

Spring 2020

The aeration and multiple bacteria treatments of the pond allow tentative work within the pond edge. Large mats of watercress, Nasturtium officinale, are harvested late winter and early spring to the chickens' delight, early chicken greens, invasive removal, and lower nutrient load in the pond, a win-win-win! The field edge is more accessible, and we scout for low water opportunities to mow the reed canary grass runway for tree installation and prevent seedheads. The dead shrub mass knitted into the severed vines is more easily disentangled and removed to brush piles on top of reed canary and Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum. Intentions are to burn after nesting season when the grasses can be torched/wilted to prevent seedheads. We now enjoy a view of a small waterfall from the west side of the house. Under the invasive shrubs and garlic mustard that the deer avoid, small populations of wildflowers remain: Meadow Rue, Thalictrum sp., Bellwort, Uvularia sp. Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, and Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canancensis. Welded wire cages will be staked around some areas to protect plants for seed production.

After three years, rewards are emerging, pushing back invasive edges may require incrementally raising expectations and standards, putting the process that permitted these invasive layers in reverse. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture has confirmed that our Mile-a-minute weevils, Rhinoncomimus latipes, will ship in July, an exotic we will welcome. May we do more good than harm. Stay tuned!

Dawn Stelts, Master Gardener Coordinator and Master Watershed Steward Coordinator, Montgomery County, PA