The Hamden Land Conservation Trust (HLCT) has announced a new project called “Hamden’s Wild Yards” to highlight through photos Hamden properties that help enhance the town’s biodiversity and local ecosystems through planting of native and non-invasive, wildlife-attracting plants. “A picture says a thousand words, and this project will help teach Hamden residents to help improve habitat for birds, butterflies and other wildlife in an age where there is increasing pressure on these populations”, says HLCT President Andy Brand.
For more information or if you have a wild yard you'd like to nominate, contact the Hamden Land Conservation Trust at www.hlct.org
Bear Path School SuperScience Garden:
The first project highlighted is the SuperScience Garden at Bear Path School. The garden was conceived by HLCT Vice-President Jim Sirch, who received a Lowe’s Toolbox For Education grant in 2008. “Through the hard work of Bear Path parents, teachers and students planting and maintaining perennials and annuals, the garden is now alive with bees, butterflies and birds”, says Sirch.
Some of the Bear Path School parents, teachers and students who help maintain the SuperScience Garden.
Kyle Driebeek relaxes in the Bear Path School’s SuperScience Garden after doing some weeding. The Hamden Land Conservation Trust’s project Hamden’s Wild Yards highlights photos of yards that attract wildlife.
Al Gorman:
The second “Wild Yard” highlighted is Al Gorman’s garden oasis in Mt. Carmel. The garden contains herbs, tomatoes, green beans, squash, lettuce, eggplant and garlic as well as gladiolas and zinnias. On the border of the garden is a stand of rasberry bushes. A large grove of pine trees at the back edge of the property affords a natural habitat for many varieties fo birds.
Just before planting time, the garden is tilled and weeks and grass are removed. As plants are put into the soil, newspaper is spread to cover the soil. Grass clippings are then spread on top of the newspaper. This process creates a natural mulch, completely eliminates the need for weeding and retains moisture after rain falls, which dramatically reduces the need for watering and promotes growth by warming the soil. Congratulations Al Gorman! 
Dr. & Mrs. Bill Doheny:
The rocky and steeply undulating property purchased by Dr. Bill and Barbara Doheny 40 years ago would have been passed over by most gardening enthusiasts. Undaunted by the obvious challenges and with a vision of its possibilities few of us possess, the talented couple spent several years siting their house and working with the land. They immediately created nursery beds by buying seedlings of expensive plants. This long view has reaped enormous rewards. What has evolved from that vision and labor of love is a feast for the eye as well as a habitat for creatures, insects and birds. It has also garnered recognition as a ‘Wild Yard.’
One of many themed areas is this fragrance garden. Situated just outside a screened porch designed for summer use, two beds are filled with brugsmania (for evening fragrance), heliotrope, hibiscus, Japanese painted fern, fuchsia and low growing fruit bearing plants such as lemon, lime, orange and even pineapple. The pineapple takes about eighteen months to fully mature so it gets to spend the winter in the family greenhouse.
Hummingbirds and butterflies abound among these plants. The water feature and the bird bath generate lots of attention as well. This large bird bath is a re purposed bathtub found at the roadside and buried in the garden. Thank you Dr. and Mrs. Doheny for your devotion to the flora and fauna of Hamden!
Before you know it, the holiday season will be over and you will be faced with disposal of your Christmas tree. Will you leave it looking sad and forlorn on your curb for the town to pick up? Will you pay to have it recycled at a special facility? Will you try to find easy ways to break it down for mulch?
The Hamden Land Conservation Trust encourages residents this year to try an alternative and start with a live tree that can be planted outside after Christmas has passed. It’s a wonderful way to remember this Christmas for many years to come and to enhance your yard (or that of the local school or church or other public facility) for wildlife.
If you buy from a reputable garden center or nursery, they will be able to provide you with complete instructions on how to work with a container-grown or balled-and-burlapped tree. The following are some highlights.
• Make the transition to indoor life easier on your tree by adapting it forseveral days in a cooler indoor area such as an unheated garage or porch.
• Plan to have it in the house proper for no more that a week or ten days; longer than this and the low humidity levels and high temperatures will severely stress the tree and put its survival at risk. Keep the soil around the roots constantly moist but don’t leave the tree sitting in water. One way to do this is to place your tree in a second, larger container with a couple of inches of gravel on the bottom. The gravel will allow drainage of excess water and the second container will slow down evaporation. When the holidays are over, reverse the outdoor to indoor transition for a few days and then plant promptly. Remember that pre-digging the hole before the ground freezes will make planting much easier as will protecting the excavated earth from becoming wet.
Pictured is a live tree at Broken Arrow Nursery looking forward to spending the holidays at a good home and then becoming part of a “Wild Yard.”
Hamden’s Wild Yards is a project sponsored by the Hamden Land Conservation Trust to highlight efforts that enhance the town’s biodiversity and local ecosystems via planting of native and non-invasive, wildlife-attracting plants.
Barbara Schlein
Not just a catch phrase on Hamden’s recycling buckets: reduce, reuse and recycle are words by which Barbara Schlein lives her life and educates others to do the same.
A member of Hamden’s Clean and Green Commission, Schlein has created a lovely patio on her property using stones given to her by friends over several years. This patio grows annually and with each growth spurt, eliminates a little more grassy lawn which is a strong desire of the gardener.
Schlein’s patch of wilderness is being recognized this week by the Hamden Land Conservation Trust as one of “Hamden’s Wild Yards.” The Trust’s Wild Yards project aims to highlight through photos Hamden properties that help enhance the town’s biodiversity and local ecosystems through planting of native and non-invasive, wildlife-attracting plants.
All of Schlein’s property’s hardscape is designed to be permeable. Rainwater doesn’t run off the land but is absorbed into it. The water conservation idea is carried further witht eh use of 55 gallon barrels for rain collection and eventual distribution to gardening beds. The barrels can be acquired for free from local arborists. The barrels contained dormant oil used for the elimination of the woolly adelgid. Outfitted with a diverter ordered online from SavetheRain.com and a hose attached ot the bottom where a hole has been drilled, this gardener saves lots of water each year.
Filled with native plants, this Certified Wildlife Habitat, is chemical free; only certified organic products are used.
From the vantage point of the house, you would not think you were in a residential neighborhood. The terraced rear yard with fish pond (dug by the homeowner) stepping stone side yards banked with foliage plants and front yard filled with trees and shrubbery (but without a blade of grass) block signs of traffic and the real world. Some the othe homeowner’s favorite plantings are a “Winterthur” Viburnum Nudum whose foliage is the fall is deep red and has berries which turn many different colors and a Mt. Cuba Estate selection, a yellow twig dogwood “gold and silver.” The plantings selected here are testament to the glories of autumn in Connecticut.
In addition to saving water, the thoughtful homeowner also makes use of a large mulch pile and saves 30 percent on her electric bill with the use of 29 kilowatt rooftop solar panels.
The Hamden Land Conservation Trust is dedicated to enhancing the town’s biodiversity and local ecosystems through the planting of native and noninvasive, wildlife attracting plants. This series is intended to highlight Hamden homeowners who believe in and live by these principles.
Tom and Moira Stavovy
Tom and Moira Stavovy use native plants in their yard for their esthetic beauty and value as a wildlife habitat. In this way they can compensate for habitat loss in the wild. The land on their property available for native plants is about .02 of an acre, or 9,200 square feet – equivalent to 58 asphalt parking spaces.
The Hamden Land Conservation Trust has selected the Stavovy property as a “Wild Yard.” The Hamden’s Wild Yards program aims to highlight through photos properties that help enhance the town’s biodiversity and local ecosystems through planting of native and non-invasive, wildlife-attracting plants.
“A picture says a thousand words, and this project will help teach Hamden residents to help improve habitat for birds, butterflies and other wildlife in an age where there is increasing pressure on these populations,” said HLCT President Andy Brand.
The Stavovys look for ideas about how native plants grow together by taking guided walks at Brooksvale and Sleeping Giant parks and land trust properties. The goal is to represent all levels of the forest from tall tree to under story to ground cover. Of course the oaks planted today will not reach maturity in our lifetimes but are planted for the future. The native landscapes is a work in progress.
An important goal in planting native species is to provide a complete food supply for birds. The food types include berries, seeds and nuts, as well as insects. Tall oaks not only provide acorns but also support more different types of insects in their wood and canopies than any other North American tree genus. Migratory birds need the plentiful insect food provided by oaks to survive.
In response to climate change, the Stavovys planted the sourwood tree which is common in the southeastern United States and has a distinctive summer bloom and fall foliage. To diversify the population of oaks, a swamp white oak, which does well in or wet or dry soils and has an interesting bark and leaf, was also planted. The native species enhance the habitat and esthetic interest.
Certain invasive species which had crowded out native plants and reduced plant diversity were removed when the couple purchased the house. The most damaging of these were Norway maple, Japanese barberry, and Asiatic bittersweet. Keeping these species at bay is an ongoing effort. But as the diverse population of native species becomes more firmly established, the invasive plants cannot take root so readily.
This is a partial list of trees, shrubs and ground cover providing shade, flowers, fruit, nuts, insects, nesting sites and fall color. Particularly useful attributes are shown in parenthesis.
Tallest: Oak (acorns and insects), Pine Hickory (nuts), Red Maple (spring color), Sugar Maple (fall color);
Mid-Story: Sassafras (spice bush, swallowtail butterfly), Green Ash, Yellow Birch;
Under-Story: Hackberry (foliage, insects), Redbud (flower), Sourwood (flower, fall foliage), Leatherwood, Witch Hazel (early flower), Mountain Laurel (flower), Rhododendrum (flower), Azalea (flower), Dogwood (flowers and berries), Persimmon (fruit), Serviceberry (flowers and berries), Filbert Viburnum (berries), High-bush Blueberry, Native Holly (berries);
Ground: Wild Ginger, Allegheny Spurge, Low-bush blueberry, Huckleberry, Woodbine, Bugbane, Fern.
Winter Creeper - Not Welcome in a Wild Yard
“Euonymus fortunei, aka Winter Creeper.” It sounds harmless enough and its evergreen foliage is a welcome sight in the dead of winter, a reminder of the spring to come.
But it is a weed gone wild, an invasive introduced from Asia about a century ago, and though it is not yet listed in the official Invasive Plant Atlas of New England, perhaps it should be. The very things that make it attractive such as its fast growth, evergreen leaves and hardiness also make it dangerous.
Without the natural controls found where it originates, winter creeper reproduces rapidly and outcompetes indigenous vegetation. As a dense ground cover it can so infest an area that it smothers native understory species and restricts the growth of seedlings. As a climbing vine it can choke and kill shrubs and small trees.
Furthermore, a single plant is said to live up to 75 years. All of these features make it a formidable foe of forests.
Pictured is a Hamden Wild Yard experiencing an outbreak of winter creeper that has taken over a section of backyard, crowded out desirable ground cover, and started to climb the trees. The homeowners want to avoid chemical treatment but it will be an uphill battle. Young plants, roots included, are easily pulled by hand but mature roots will resprout and must be dug out completely.
Then everything needs to be bagged for disposal to prevent spreading the infestation. Hopefully strenuous grubbing out followed by repeated monitor
An enormous pile of leaves — what do you see when you look at it?
The joy of autumn? The chore of leaf raking? Something to jump into for fun?
How about a free source of mulching material and soil conditioner? Yes, you can turn your leaves into a wonderful asset for your “Hamden Wild Yard” by making them into leaf mold.
Leaf mold is the dark brown crumbly humus produced by the action of fungi on dead leaves. It is a “cousin” to traditional compost made from bacterial decomposition of kitchen waste or lawn clippings. Although leaf mold is less rich in nutrients than is traditional compost, it can be used to improve soil and to mulch plants. Well-aged leaf mold makes excellent potting soil when mixed with regular compost, sand, or loam.
How can you take advantage of this autumn bonanza? The first step is obviously to collect the leaves. Any deciduous leaves will do; just be sure to avoid conifer needles or evergreens. It is also a good idea to remove tree branches and small sticks as these break down much more slowly than do the leaves. Then pack them into some kind of large container.
Large plastic bags with air holes punched into them, your old garbage can with the broken bottom, a cage made of chicken wire, anything that will allow the leaves to be moistened but will not leave them in standing water. Even a secluded corner of your yard where the wind will not blow them away will work. Wet them down occasionally or let nature do that for you during the winter nor’easters. If you are ambitious, turn over the pile every few months to mix the top and bottom levels. Or simply leave it alone. In a year or two, presto — you will have leaf mold ready to use!
This rough and ready leaf collector in a sheltered area against a retaining wall produced many bucketfuls of beneficial humus for the owner’s yard this past summer using leaves from the previous autumn. What an easy way to deal with the fall yard cleanup and help with the next growing season at the same time!