Pittsburgh Certified Wildlife Habitat : Cleaning up

Since I got back from my vacation in Gatlinburg and Nashville I have been trying to catch up on weeding and cleaning the yard up. It has rained everyday since my return but in between the showers I get as much done as possible. Today I managed to wade into the pond and pull out all of the cat tails pickerel weed and Iris. I found a lot of my waterlilies have overgrown their pots and were rooted into the mess I pulled out. I learned a valuable lesson in all of this chaos. Leave plants in pots or tubs when in a pond otherwise they take over the entire pond. I have everything separated into nice sized healthy clumps and cleaned up all the dead parts. I rinsed off any snails or critters and have everything sitting in buckets for people from the Next Door Neighborhood web site to come pick up.
The pond looks so different with everything pulled out I also added fresh clean lava rock to my bog area to help in the filtering of my pond. Waste and particles flow through the rock and get trapped in it and then it gets absorbed and broken down further by the plant roots in the lava rock . It will probably take a few days to clear the water up because everything has been disturbed but it will be easier to maintain now that I have potted plants and added the lava rock.

The pond has been cleared out and is starting to get a new cleaner look.

These are just a few of the plants I removed and have to give away to other pond owners in the neighborhood.

This area had a ton of weeds and grass about three feet tall now it has been cleaned up so the plants I want can start to grow more.

I cleaned this area up before leaving for vacation and when I returned it needed cleaned up again. This is at the front of my wildlife habitat and it needs to have plants that people recognize as gardening plants. I read all the time about people having wildlife habitats and their neighbors or authorities complain that they need to remove or cut down the plants they have because they think of them as weeds. To avoid this I put some non native run of the mill garden variety of plants in my front yard and along the front of the wildlife habitat so they enjoy the plants they know while in the back ground I get to have the native plants I want.

A cutting I started of my Beauty of Moscow Lilac. I started this before I went on vacation and it is looking good.

The first of my roses to open. These are all along the top of the front stone wall to keep the kids from climbing on it.

My white flowering dog wood tree. I got back just in time to see it still in bloom.

Beauty of Moscow Lilac. This is planted at the corner of my front porch and I have another one next to the entrance to my vegetable garden on the opposite side of my house from the wildlife habitat next to my shed.

Lilacs at the front of my front porch. I trim these back every year as soon as the flowers fade so they have time to produce new flower buds for the next year.

Iris at the entry to the church parking lot next door. These used to be along my front porch where the lilacs are now.

Iris and Dwarf Alberta Spruce at the sunny side of my front porch I planted some climbing rose in the back of this border but so far it has not done much.

Re blooming lilac

Another re blooming lilac.

White re blooming iris.

Iris

Salvia

Painted daisy getting ready to bloom.

Columbine

I decided to try a new type of Hosta.

Sweet Shrub. I love this it smells like strawberry when it is in bloom.

Sweet shrub again. the flowers are not real showy but they make up for it with their smell.

Violet Freckles.

Violet Freckles

Bleeding hart. this was blooming when I left on my vacation and is still in bloom.

Lily of the Valley . This is another flower that fills the air with scent that is intoxicating.

Ferns always add to the look of a wooded and natural look of any area.

Coral Bells.

This is a grass that was given to me from a friend for my pond. I had it in a pot and it still spread out through the pond. I have forgotten its name but I learned through internet searches that it is invasive and causes a lot of problems in the great lakes.

Chives in a planter. These come back every year and if I am not carefull they self seed in the yard.

These are native Blue flag iris that I started from seed they have not flowered yet but I hope they will this year.

Centaurea this is also called mountain bluet and bachelor button along with being called Knap weed and many other common names that are also used for other plants.