ONE OF MY TOP BIRD-GARDEN PICKS (and not bad from a gardener’s-eye view, either) has been stealing the show the last few days. It’s crabapple season here, so I wanted to be sure to invite you to stroll through my slideshow on them, which includes lots of tips and links loaded with crabapple information as well. (That’s a detail of ‘Prairifire,’ by the way.)
THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
Here on the West Coast we have only a few crabapples, and even though I am a gardener, I didn’t recognize the blooms when I saw them in the Okanagan.
Love the colors, totally worth growing just for that hot pink color.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
We don’t know which species crabapples (there are two) we have because the landscape was a year old when we bought the house. But we have a terrible with them suckering, sometimes to the point that I’m not sure that a few weeks’ glory :(
I love that one. I have two sargenti and it was hard finding variety in the local nursery that were a size we could afford. I had two crab apple trees in the garden of the 1st House we bought. They were in full bloom forming a canopy over the deck of this Flushing, NY house when we first saw it. My ex always kidded that we bought the house for those trees, he may have been right.
I really like how the fruit look on Bob White. When you say for the birds, is this a variety that the fruit is small enough for the birds to eat?
Beautiful — the one pictured and the slide show. I can’t claim to have any like your other guests; however, I did get stuck in the “crotch” of a lovely old one as a youngster. It was quite the ordeal to get me out!
Thanks for the crabapple post! We moved into a house 5 years ago with a whole row of crabapple trees along the back fence, 10 I think. They are about 30-40 years old and have not been maintained (other than the electric company’s tree trimmers showing up one day to butcher the tops). I’ve been working on them with some success. However, for the first time in 5 years the suckers are appearing in the lawn up 5-7 feet away from the base. How can I get rid of these? I looked through the slide show links and didn’t see any advice on this.
I’m with you Annabelle! I have a ‘Prairifire’ that has been suckering every year but just around the base. I keep cutting them down but I would love some information on how to stop it. I hate it!