What I've Learned So Far in Rewilding: Appalachian Ohio

Two things I have to share:

1) When manually watering plants on hot days, I've discovered a little hiccup. The next time I come back, leaves have been chewed on by some insect, or another. What I think the issue is is accidentally getting the leaves wet when doing so. It causes the leaves to give off a scent that attracts insects like a dinner bell, when they are the only wet leaves around. I guess the correct way to do this is keeping the water close to the base, or dribbling it in a small circle around the plant. I do wonder, though, if this would be effective tactics to weaken unwanted plants.

2) The cutting the bark in a ring around the Trees of Heaven does seem to have succeeded in killing everything above the cut. It also got a bad mold infection on the cut & I'm wondering if doing to will fast track an evolution which will give the trees a new natural predator, even if the trees themselves can't be wiped out. They did try to resprout just below the cuts, but I ripped those out & it has not thus far tried again. The tree now has mostly leafless branches, peeling bark in several places & I'd swear it looks like it has been severely dehydrated & got thinner. The only downside if that it took all year for it to work, it still had time to try to grow seeds & it's clearly still not completely dead yet, but the tactic, along with culling seedlings & keeping a watch out for attempted regrowth has thus far been very effective. Will be trying it on every adult Tree of Heaven I can reach next year.

So, I just got a chance to try Nannyberry/ Sheepberry &... I'm not really, entirely sure how I feel about it, right now.

So, these berries can only be harvested around the beginning of October. They start producing a green, sunflower seed shaped berry in summer, which grows to about full size, then plumps up into little green balls. Then, through August & September, they progress from green, to red, to black.

When I got to them, they were black & squishy. The insides seemed like they'd already begun to rot & were black sludge, albeit tasting pretty mild & sweet. I tried to find a firmer black one to see if they were better that way. It's insides were brown sludge & still somewhat bitter, meaning the squishy, black sludge ones were the ones I was supposed to be eating. There are other fruit species which are not supposed to be eaten until they begin rotting- Virginia Persimmons & Medlars come to mind. Did not think Nannyberry would be on that list. I can imagine that turning some people off, but, despite the texture, the taste was decent, so... Yeah, I really don't know how to feel about it, right now.

Anyone else tried Nannyberry before? What do people normally do with them?

I haven’t tried nannyberries because the place I know where they’re growing, I’m not allowed to collect them. (I could pick one and try it, but couldn’t fill a pail.) But I think typically they are cooked and pushed through a food mill.

Indian Potatoes arrived today, from Etsy.

Also saw the seller has hybridized American Chestnuts for sale. I did not realize that experiment was finished, already.

Well, they went in to replace ties under the roadway on the railway line I was planting at this month. Last I checked, they were well out of the way of everything I planted, but, unfortunately, I came through this morning to find that they piled rocks over top of several of my plants for traction while they were working, so it looks like all four plants I got to grow in that spot are all dead. That being said, I'm all stocked up to go again this year & it's starting to get cold enough for.me to chance it.

One of my groundcherries actually attempted to fruit, it just ran out of time before it got too cold.

you may have mentioned it’s identity elsewhere and know this, and if so, apologies, but all true ground cherries (genus Physalis) have a husk like a tomatillo. the plant in that last pic is some other nightshade, probably in the Solanum genus, and not necessarily edible.

Ah. I figured they were either too small for the husk to develop, or that fell off already, as the plant is trying to go dormant. The only other one that survived looks like it's already died back for the winter. Frankly, I'd be pissed if I ordered groundcherries & they sent me something else. I guess I'll have to see next year. If it's not, hopefully it's still something native. I have enough of that purple nightshade around here.

Ok, it being nice & cold, I think I'm going to try to go planting, today. I also want to attempt digging out my plants from last year from the rubble & seeing if they come back next year. The list of what I've been able to aquire this year is:

--American Hophornbeam
--American Spikenard
--Bearberry
--Black Cherry
--Black Chokeberry
--Black Tupelo
--Blueberry
--Buttonbush
--Cardinal Flower
--Celendine Poppy
--Common Hop
--Cranberry
--Cream Gentian
--D'Anjou Pear
--Deerberry
--Downy Wood Mint
--Elderberry
--False Indigo Bush
--Fire Pink
--Fringed Bleeding Heart
--Ghost Flower
--Goat's Rue
--Goldenseal
--Great White Trillium
--Hackberry
--Honey Locust
--Indian Potato
--Inland Sea Oats
--Jack in the Pulpit
--New Jersey Tea
--Northern Bayberry
--Oblong Leaved Sundew
--Prickly Ash
--Purple Pitcher Plant
--Purplestem Angelica
--Ramps
--Red Elderberry
--Red Puccoon
--Serviceberry
--Smooth Solomon's Seal
--Steeplebush
--Strawberry Blite
--Sweetflag
--Turk's Cap Lily
--Virginia Groundcherry
--Virginia Persimmon
--Wafer Ash
--Wild Cucumber
--Wild Ginger
--Wild Kidney Bean
--Wild Licorice
--Wild Trailing Bean

Let's hope a good chunk of these end up working out.

well way back on page 1 (!) you were wondering about some native wild rose seeds, i just thought to add - roses take 1 - 2 years to sprout even in great conditions. the way its gone for me to sprout roses from seed, which i have managed to do, after much patience...giving up on the pots only to have them sprout finally along the fence or where i tossed out the pots! so yeah...dont give up on your roses from seed..it may just take a long time and like most perennials grow really really really slowly at first. it is the sort of thing that probaby is best just to get plants with good roots and some years on it, or try from cuttings...but i enjoy growing some species type roses from seed.

of course the easy way is to plant a ton of seed directly where you want them and then forget about them for 2-3 years until you may finally see some small plants are finally in a "leap"year

anywho- good luck with your growie projects

additionally in regards to --
" 4) when certain seeds are recommended to "press lightly into the soil" what is meant is for you to just throw the seed on the ground & not bury it at all. This is most common for wildflowers. Nature will take care of the rest, albeit you're leaving things entirely to chance as to whether they will be eaten before they can sprout. The specific germination instruction was given under the assumption that you are a trained botonist or garden specialist & are growing these plants in a controlled environment &/ or for transplanting/ resale. "

yes it is very difficult to sow these types of seeds directly in place...this is also known as "sow under glass" and can sometimes be written that way, or also "surface sow". it does definitely work best to start these types in controlled environments, with proper seed starting type fine "soil" nonsoil...really its best in nonsoil...coco coir or a peaty type fine mix. when you do this inside its best to wet the medium completely BEFORE you plant the seeds, either mist or use a humidity dome....or at least be regularly babying them with extra watering and making sure you have that kind of moist environment.

it is definitely possible to sow these outside directly -but with some care in timing it with light rains (too heavy rains will carry them and wash them away or bury them, or interfere with them when they are tiny sprouts)...and also on nicely prepped up soil...enriched or fine soil, rather than just throw them any old spot with competing weeds/low organic matter content/compacted soils.

some have to be done this way, and direct carrots come to mind, you cant really transplant carrots and its very tricky to time it with good light rains or frequent light misting waterings.... and they are a surface sow type seed. the trick is in keeping the top of the soil sufficiently moist, not too wet, not too dry, when that top surface layer of the soil likes to dry out so much quicker.

strawberry, chamomile, carrots, sage, tobacco varieties, most berry types, are some in this group and also they are "positively photoblastic" meaning they need light to germinate. there are several ways to work around this. one is to soak in a bowl of water, under saran wrap or wrapped in a clear plastic baggie, in a bright sunny spot inside on a window...you may or may not change the water a few times, but generally just wait, use clear glass like jars or glass bowls....and they will sprout right on top of the water.
with other stuff like wildflowers, chamomile, and again back to carrots -- the best way may be ooddles and oddles and epic amount of seed broadcast. whenever you direct sow like this it is good to throw down at least ten times more seed than you would start inside in controlled conditions.

Ok, so I've been able to add a couple more. I got some Hogpeanut off of Etsy & just finished putting them out. I mostly put them in the forested area with the bad soil, but I threw three into the good forest, as a control, to ensure they come up.

I also went down the entire railway line to the south end of the city to see what I could find & was surprised by a large patch of Winterberry Holly, another species I was looking for. So, now, I don't have to buy any of those.

Digging out those plants the road crews destroyed looks like a no-go. They didn't just throw rock & old rail into that corner, they bulldozed it hard into the bushes & forced up the dirt & grass underneath. I mostly want to focus on wildflowers & ground cover plants next year, depending on how this planting ends up doing, though I guess I'll have to get some more beech, Sweetshrub & Allegheny Plum to replace to the loss, if they can't force themselves back up through the rock & rubble. I'm, at least, certain the beech is gone, since it's been struggling all year, after the first road crew mowed it down in May.

Lastly, I'm going to attempt one more acquisition before I call it quits for the year. I found a potential seller for three rare edibles- American Lovage, Canadian Honewort & Indian Cucumber. I will buy next month & tell how that whole process goes. The Lovage is an endangered species & I'm looking forward to frying up some Lovage & Ramps, a quick little recipe I heard of that sounds good, this spring or the next one. Indian Cucumber isn't endangered, but is threatened due to unsustainable harvesting. So, I hope this seller is legit. I'll definitely update everyone if they are, so we can all get some.

I feel like I should give an update, since December is over.

The site I wanted to order from makes you order everything over email. I contacted the guy & they said they'd be on vacation for two weeks. I think he forgot about me, or something, because it's going on 3 weeks, now, so no seeds, yet.

Anyway, weather is being schizophrenic again this year & I'm worried about plants not getting the proper winter exposure to sprout in the first place, as well as animals eating my seeds. Don't know how it's going for everyone else. I may have to learn how to start doing things manually, just in case. A few of them should be fine, but I'm not an expert on exactly which ones need what circumstances.

They guy finally got back to me. Looks like I won't be able to buy from them, anyway- they only accept Paypal. They were out of American Lovage, but still had the other two plant seeds & said it would come to $14 with shipping included.

If anyone else wanted to try, the site was https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/seeds

If you don't already have them growing on your property another great native that does very well in Ohio and also provides a tasty fruit is the pawpaw tree. It's also one of the few host plants to the Caterpillar of the zebra swallowtail butterfly. They also do well in partial shade so if you have an area that already has an over story of trees you could plant them underneath the canopy.

Well... I don't really know what I did or if I was responsible, but a huge patch of Japanese Honeysuckle on the railway line appears to be spontaneously dying this week. We did have an extreme blizzard & very low temps for a few days, but so far as I am aware, the plant is extremely cold tolerant & doesn't go dormant in winter. I did try clearing out a small portion of it a couple weeks ago, before the cold weather really hit, but barely got more than a couple feet in. (I was more preoccupied with pruning low the Multiflora Rose Bushes & Domestic Grape Vines, anyway). Today, I walked past the same patch on the street side, opposite of where I attacked it on the railway side & all the leaves seem to by dying. No matter what the cause is, I really hope they do. Saves me a job & protects a lot of the native honeysuckle & Viburnum bushes I know are under that mess somewhere.

Ok, got my tax return & am starting to collect seed for next year. So far, I've managed to find:

American Cranberrybush Viburnum/ Viburnum Trilobum (Hobbyseed)

American Lotus/ Nelumbo Lutea (Prairie Moon Nursery)

Baneberry/ Actaea Pachypoda (Prairie Moon Nursery)

Blue Mistflower/ Conoclinum Coelastinum (Prairie Moon Nursery)

Cucumber Magnolia/ Magnolia Acuminata (Etsy)

Eastern Sweetshrub/ Calycanthus Floridus (Hobbyseed)

Jacob's Ladder/ Polemonium Reptans (Prairie Moon Nursery)

Kentucky Coffeetree/ Gymnocladus Dioicus (Etsy)

Poppy Mallow/ Callirhoe Triangulata (Prairie Moon Nursery)

Royal Catchfly/ Silence Regia (Prairie Moon Nursery)

Tamarack/ Latin Laricina (Etsy)

Yellowwood Tree/ Cladrastus Kentukea, Cladrastus Lutea (Hobbyseed)

Almost all of these are rare or extirpated from my area. One I'm seen in the county before, just not around where I live- the Mistflower. The Yellowwood Tree isn't considered native to my area, but will grow here & is the only species of it's kind on the continent, so I figured, why not. Cucumber Magnolia will be interesting. A native species of sandalwood called Buffalo Nut will only grow underneath it. Not sure what I'll end up doing with the Lotus, yet, but I'm sure I can think of some good options.

OK, so damaging the Japanese Honeysuckle in just one area killed most of the Japanese Honeysuckle to die off for about 1 mile in all directions, but, for whatever reason, it only killed off what was exposes to open air, while all of the plant which had been hidden under the snow survived intact. Continuing to make small breaks seems to be causing another die off, though, so hopefully I can get rid of it all soon.

Also started girting (removing bark in rings around bottom of truck to kill everything above it) on as many Trees of Heaven as humanly possible today. I think I got to about 10 trees, give or take in 2 hours, so it may take days of repeating this before I've gotten just all the ones in the interior of the one block. Hopefully, it works.

Just got some endangered Great Lakes Sand Cherry seedlings in today & planted those while I had the chance. The bushes have 3 subspecies & most often, you usually see the Western Plains variety being sold. I've seen one or two places with the east coast variety, but his is the first group with the Great Lakes variant (Prunus Pumila Pumila).

The people I bought them from are Ohio based Leaves for Wildlife. Their site is a bit awkward & they have some rules to what they are & are not willing to ship, but they seem legit. Bushes were $3 a piece, plus $16 shipping. I also hope to get some pincherries & Eastern Hemlock from them at a later date. Figured I'd share for anyone else who is interested.

Also found what my phone swears is Oregon Grape. Not know in Ohip, but they are a known invasive in PA &, as I've said a few times, I'm very close to the border, there.

agreed, definitely looks like oregon grape

That'll be interesting, then. The Oregon Grape has been there the entire time I've been searching the area, but it's never produced fruit. I'll have to look into how long it takes before it starts producing.

Also, got a chance to try cattail shoots at my brothers' place, yesterday. Internet wasn't lying. Tastes exactly like cucumbers when raw.

Finally having some luck with the seeds I scattered this fall. Found my Ramps. They got blown away from where I initially put he seed, but all seem to have managed to have ended up in roughly the same spot. There's more than enough of the things, I think I can manage to cross those & Elderberries off the list. Also found a single, pale sprout, which the first suggestion my app gave was Ghost Flower. I did attempt to put out some of those... the only problem is I buried all the spores at the base of a tree on the complete opposite side of the wood where I found this. We also don't have any beeches back there, which I've been told are crucial to their growing, however I thought I did see the fungus that it's symbiotic to throughout the dirt there, regardless, so... maybe one of them took. No clue how it got to where I found it, though.

A few other things might be coming up, but I'm not 100% sure yet. I know everything won't be showing up all at once, but I don't think I'll be able to get it off my mind until I have an accurate idea as to what I have. Someone also donated me an Ohio Buckeye sapling on Easter & I think the Beech that managed to get mowed down by road crews twice miraculously survived. Sand Cherries still haven't budded, but they both seem to be alive. God knows they've been getting enough water.

Sadly, I haven't seen anything from the Indian Potatoes or the Hogpeanuts so far. I assumed those would've at least sprouted by now. Hope they aren't drowned/ eaten. Anyway, pics:

That’s awesome! We are having a late spring here, so it’s nice to see green things growing.

It looks like my work with the Trees of Heaven is beginning to have an effect on weakening them. Last year, I'd attempted to take out a thickly ingrown colony of them at one point on the tracks by ripping out seedlings by hand, breaking them off low to the ground if that was impossible & cutting down a few of the thinner, tall trees on the outskirts.

I went back in today. A lot of new seedling to remove, but some of the broken trees that resprouted I was actually able to rip out of the ground by the roots. Not all, but some. There were also a lot of new seedling scattered underneath which were not Trees of Heaven, but other species. This time, I chose to also girdle many of the trees, as was the overall plan this year. I've been slowly working my way through the area whenever time allows & I think I've gotten about half of the trees in the interior of that block done so far, but there's still a lot more to go across the whole area.

I've also been finding a few seedlings popping up in the middle of the tracks. In case they were things I planted, I decided to experiment with digging them out & moving them to the sides before the railway line starts up operations again for the year & decides to kill them.

I had been a bit worried that someone took the Pipsissewa I found in the good woods, but it turns out that it blends in with the ground surprisingly well. Even knowing exactly where it is, it takes me a minute to find it.

Anyway, I believe my Solomon's Seals & Wild Cucumber are coming up, my one plum tree managed to break through all that crap the road crews piled on top of it, though, sadly, not the sweetshrub. I might have a few other things, too. And, my Sand Cherries seem to have both taken & are beginning to leaf. I think my Groundcherries were just beginning to come back up as well- at least, one of them.

Only things I'm edging on in my learning experience in dealing with clay soil & trying to figure out why most wildflowers don't seem to want to come up. A few things look to similar to other plants for me to be able to tell if I have any- Ginger, Bleeding Hearts, Inland Sea Oats, Sweetflag, etc- but there are a few things I don't think I've gotten any of & I really can't figure out why. Also, I haven't seen a single Bellwort this year & can't remember if there were any last year, either. Deer might have eaten them all & I'll have to manually replace them next year.

Oh that’s so pretty. My pipsissewa is a different species (C. umbellata) and doesn’t have that stripe down the leaf. Nice spring beauty you have growing with it too. Have you tried eating the corms yet or letting it establish more? I have not eaten them because they tend to be pretty sparse here, but driving through Illinois last week, I was stunned to see spring beauty just carpeting the ground. I wish I had a thick spot like that where I could harvest. You probably will soon if you don’t already!

Hope all the rest of your plant babies show up in the next few weeks!

I have never attempted to eat springbeauty before, no. Though, I do have a lot of it. Vast majority of the groundcover that was already around here before I started this is Springbeauty, Canadian Sanicle, Trout Lily, Cutleaf Toothwort & Mayapple.

Oh wow. Have you tried any of those? Well not the sanicle but the others?

Only the Mayapple, so far. I did eat a toothwort leaf, but I haven't gotten a chance, with the root. I've also got  a few different species of violets, some avens & what may be American White Chervil, or something else that could be dangerous.

Only things I've tried so far other than that were Basswood leaves, A raw leaf from a Wintercress, cattail shoot, some meadow garlic chives, whorled mountain mint, sumac tea & most of the fruit. I need to look up some recipes, or something.

I do want to try to make tea from the Redbud flowers, since they're in bloom right now, though.

Found something growing in one of the bare clay areas which I may have planted. First entry the app gave was black chokeberry. Kind of surprised.

Wanted to put up some videos of the good forest & bad forest to give a idea of the difference. I suppose I'd have to just upload to YouTube & link it. I think I'll just settle for pictures, it'll take me a good minute, though.

Anyway, Chokeberry.

OK, good woods vs bad woods

Did we finally achieve hogpeanut?

Got a bag of bits of Partridgeberry plants for $15 on etsy. Was a bit awkward to dig them in, as they're ground hugging vines which root in multiple places & were a bit fragile. Some, I must have put in improperly, & at least one was dug up by a animal & played with. Luckily, even though a lot of them were dying after day one, it looks like I managed to get a few to take by day four. It was mostly the ones which had only rooted once &, in a few cases, I tried burying, not just the roots, but the entire Vine, or ripping them into one-root pieces. I also scattered a few of the berries I found in the bag, so maybe we'll get some more.

Fun little wrench to throw into me trying to get rid of domesticated grapes. After comparing this to other plants, the only species its leaves remotely resembled in any way was the native Northern Pigeon Grape.

In case anyone was wondering, yes, these ones are edible.

Well, I couldn't find any that I planted, but went up the biking trail tha runs through our town today & found a massive patch of what my phone seems pretty adamant is hogpeanut. It only gave me one other option & it doesn't really even look like the other one.

I’d say it is! What’s that divided leaf with it?

I'm not 100% sure. I'm not very good at Ellington plants with those kinds of leaves apart.

Well, it looks like much of what I did was now for nothing. The trailer park on the far end of my forested area just went up for auction today. Even though property line maps seem to have indicated that the forest was a separate property from the trailer park, I'm pretty sure it's being included in the sale. It now, very likely, faces the potential of being bulldozed & paved over with something, which will be God awful for everyone living in that area, because we all live on the edge of a plaza center it's the only spot offering us any relief from the heat in summer.

Don't really know what to do, now. I literally bought seeds that I ca only put in that area. I haven't found another spot capable of harboring certain endangered species.

Well, I went ahead & ordered a serviceberry bare root from Prairie Moon. Not 100% sure what I will do with it, but there are some surprisingly fertile spots scattered here & there along the railway. I only ordered one, as I assume the ones I found downtown will be close enough to cross pollinate.

Secondly, I took a day trip to explore some nearby nature parks- went to Towner Mill outside of Kent & was surprised to find tons of Squawroot that was seeding. I gathered about 7 of what I thought were the seeds. Turns out they are seed pods. I burst them with my thumbnails & got a great big pile of little seeds from those. All they require is forest & oak trees, so I should be set with those. After that, I went to Nelson Ledges for an hour or so. Pretty nice out there, but no unique plants to report that I couldn't find anywhere else, though there were plenty of False Solomon's Seal in full fruit, as well as some early dewberries & blackberries. Waterfalls were impressive, though. I still mean to check out the other hiking park up by Erie, PA.

Do you know about state seedlings sales? May save you a lot of $$$ getting plants. Google "state seedlings sales" and put in states like Missouri, Virginia, Iowa, etc. Missouri sales start September 1st.