Mistakes I've Made
The Good News
The good news is that despite these mistakes, I still have improved my yard and have provided good habitat. You don't have to be perfect!
Another bit of good news is that you can learn from my mistakes.
Choosing cultivars instead of the "plain" species
While this isn't always a mistake, it can be. Sometimes cultivars are selected because they aren't don't have "messy" berries or because they are more ornamental in some ways. Some hybrids are hybridized for the same purpose. Unfortunately, if you're buying a plant because you want berries you may be totally disappointed. This happened to me when I bought my first Serviceberry, which happened to be the Glennform variety of Rainbow Pillar. Although it has some berries, it has only about 5% of the berries that my plain Serviceberry has. They're both Amelanchier canadensis, but Glennform is a cultivar that so far after about 4 years at least doesn't have many berries. To add insult to injury, the Glennform plant cost $125 while the "plain" serviceberry only costs $65 for a similar size plant! Here are some photos comparing the berry production as of late May.
It's a little out of focus, but you can see one berry in the upper right quadrant. There are only a handful on the whole plant.
This serviceberry is full of berries and this plant is one year younger than the Glennform!
Leaving every good plant
When you find out what the "good" plants are, it's tempting to leave every one of them.
For example, I have found that the hummingbirds and butterflies like cosmos flowers and that birds will eat the seeds. I also like these flowers, and they make nice bouquets. Cosmos are annuals, but they self-sow readily. Every year I have many new cosmos plants that I let grow. I really let it get out of hand this last summer, however. I let a number of them grow around two of my young winterberry bushes. (Because I have pretty good soil, the cosmos plants were more than 5 feet tall.) This winter I noticed a marked decrease in berry production and size for these two plants compared to the plant that was in full sun. The cosmos had been shading them too much!
Lesson: You can indeed have too much of a good thing! As much as it hurts to throw away perfectly good plants, it may be the wisest thing to do. Maybe a neighbor would like them.
Cutting down my dead and damaged trees
Following the legendary (in Central NY) Labor Day Storm of 1998, we had to get rid of all our heavily damaged trees. Unfortunately, I didn't know at the time of the value of dead trees (called "snags"). I wish I had just cut them down to about 12-15 feet so that could provide valuable habitat and still not be a danger to anyone. Hmmm, maybe I could kill one of our remaining trees . . .
One thing I am considering is to "plant" a tree or limb in concrete.
Relying on garden center's knowledge
Unfortunately, gardening for habitat is something of a new way of thinking about your yard, and garden centers haven't yet caught up. As a consequence, after a little study, you may know more than they do about such things.
For example, I bought some winterberry plants from a garden center and asked if they had the correct males to go with the ones I bought. They assured me that they didn't need a male. As a member of the holly family, though, they do need a male, so I had to research this myself and go elsewhere to buy the appropriate male. I hate to think of all the people who bought these, though, who are wondering why their winterberry plants have no berries!
The winterberry situation wasn't a mistake on my part, since I knew I could easily buy the correct male later. Where I did make a mistake, however, was asking the garden center whether the Blue Mist shrub (caryopteris) was a native plant. They assured me that it was. When I got home and researched it, I found it was native - but native to Mongolia, China, and Japan!
Not researching enough
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I came to think of viburnums as a good choice for a native shrub. There are indeed viburnums that are a good choice - but not all viburnums. I was disappointed to find that my doublefile viburnum is native to China and Japan! This may still be a good plant, but my goal is to use native plants.
Lesson: Do some research on the particular variety of plant you're planning to get.
This space is reserved for future mistakes
Other mistakes will be added as I make them - or finally realize that I have made them!
