Backyard Conversation

Dogwoods (Cornus sp.)

Dogwoods are a versatile and varied genus of berry-producing shrubs and small trees. Two notable Ohio-natives are Cornus florida, the Flowering Dogwood tree, and Cornus amomum, Silky Dogwood.

Flowering Dogwood is a fairly small tree, topping out around 30 feet, that produces large white flowers in spring and clumps of red berries in fall and winter. Its tolerance to clay soil and adaptability to full sun or part shade make this tree a popular landscaping choice.

Silky Dogwood is a 6-12 foot shrub that prefers well-drained wetter areas, but can still tolerate drought. If left to its own devices it will happily form thickets, making it a great replacement for invasive honeysuckle hedges. A stunning winter shrub, new branches are reddish-purple with clumps of large blue berries at the ends. Thanks to its thicketing growth habit this shrub is a favorite for small winter songbirds like Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos.

Winterberry (Ilex verticilata)

No decorative native shrub article is complete without a nod to our native holly! The dense clumps of bright red berries are classic and a staple for any wreath-maker. Most varieties of this shrub don't grow over 3-4 feet tall, but wild types can reach 15 feet. If you have a wet area in your yard a clump of winterberries is a perfect solution, but they can tolerate drought and medium-wet growing conditions as well. This plant needs at least one male plant for each 6-10 female plants (The females produce fruits, males do not). Nurseries usually have the sexes labelled so you can plan your landscape accordingly.

American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens)

This plant is a little different from the rest in this article, because it's a vine, not a tree or shrub. It's a very managable twining vine and it will happily grow horizontally or vertically, making it well-suited for growth along walls, poles, fences and trellises. Like Winterberry, it needs both male and female plants to produce fruits. However, nursery varieties becoming available are able to pollinate themselves. The fruits of this plant are housed in brilliant orange capsules that pop open in late fall to reveal bright red fruits that are quickly eaten by Bluebirds and Robins. This plant is not to be confused with the highly invasive Oriental Bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, which has yellow, not orange fruit capsules and is still sold at some nurseries.

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)

Not a true Ohio native, but native as far north as Maryland and Missouri, this shrub is currently rocketing in popularity among native and traditional gardeners alike. Beautyberry lives up 

to its name with stunning clumps of bright purple berries in late summer. The timing of the berries' arrival lines up perfectly with fall warbler migration in Ohio, making this shrub a great option to attract the colorful little songbirds to your yard.

What do birds, pollinators, climate change and drinking water all have in common? If you’re up to date with current events your first thought is probably that these are all worrisome topics. Bird and pollinator populations are declining, while the effects of climate change increase, and our drinking water is under threat from pollution. Luckily, the one thing that ties all of these issues together is a simple solution: Native plants, especially trees.
One species of native tree can support hundreds of species of insects. Everything from caterpillars and leafhoppers to bees and beetles rely on trees for food and shelter. Pollinators depend on native trees. Early in the year, before many wildflowers are blooming, bees can be heard buzzing high in the tops of maple trees, whose thousands of small, nectar-filled flowers bloom as early as January. Every one of Ohio’s 200 bird species depends on insects that only live in native trees to raise their young each year. Native trees don’t just provide for wildlife, they provide for us too.
The large sprawling root systems of a mature native tree like an oak can absorb up to 100 gallons of water per day and release it back into the air. The evaporation of that water creates a cooling effect of ten room-size, residential air conditioners operating 20 hours a day! This means that areas with dense populations of native trees have less water pollution and erosion issues, and can be several degrees cooler than similar neighborhoods that don’t have as many trees. Stumped trying to find the perfect tree for your yard? Flip to page 28 of Cleveland Metro Parks' native plant guide. 

Black Gum, Nyssa sylvatica, is an underrated native tree that's rising in popularity. Also known as Tupelo, its flowers are an important source for pollinators in early spring. 

While native trees do a lot of heavy lifting, native shrubs and perennials are beneficial too. If you have a not-so-green-thumb or don’t have a lot of time to spend in your garden, native plants are a great landscaping choice. They’re adapted to live in Ohio, so while non-native plants might struggle through droughts, or one of our infamous 40 degrees one day, 90 degrees the next weather patterns, native plants will be more resilient.
Reading about the benefits of native plants is the easy part, the hard part is picking out plants, digging the holes and getting them rooted into the ground. If you feel overwhelmed remember the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative’s slogan “All you can, where you can” and know that your yard doesn’t need to be a full blown forest to make a difference in your life and the lives of pollinators and other wildlife!

Do you ever notice the storm drains along the side of the street as you’re driving?  When it rains, water running off our roofs, driveways, sidewalks, and parking lots into our streets is directed into these storm drains and begins its journey to the nearest waterway.  Often this is a direct journey, with the storm sewer running straight to a river or stream.  Stormwater picks up oil, other automobile fluids, trash, fertilizer and other pollutants and in many areas is discharged untreated into our streams.  Even when this water passes through a pond or other stormwater feature, pollutants are not entirely removed and still make their way to our waterways.

We swim, wade, kayak and fish and in these rivers and streams.  Moreover, people rely on water from these water bodies for their drinking water.  The vast majority of people in the Columbus metropolitan area drink water taken from our rivers and streams.   The more pollutants that go into our streams, the more money we have to spend to clean the water for drinking.  

Reducing pollution is everyone’s job.  Keeping stormwater from polluting our streams depends on all of us.  Only rain should go down a storm drain.  It’s not just a saying or a good idea.  It is the law.  What can we do?

• Sweep grass clippings and lawn care products back onto the lawn.  
• Pick up trash.
• Wash your car at a commercial car wash.

• Absorb and clean up and auto fluid spills.
• Fix leaking automobiles.
• Use drip pans to catch engine oil and other pollutants while repairing cars.
• Recycle used motor oil.
• Sweep driveways clean instead of hosing them down.
• When walking your pet remember to pick up the waste.  
• Record and report illegal dumping down storm drains.
• Don't dump waste into storm drains.
• Water your lawn by hand, or adjusted sprinklers to avoid over-watering. If any water flows off your lawn, you're using too much water.

Pollution is not the only problem associated with storm drains.  These structures are designed to prevent our streets from flooding.  Debris doesn’t just pollute streams.  It can also clog drains and cause flooding.  You can help keep our storm drains doing their job and do your part to stop stormwater pollution. Only rain down the drain!  

Step 1: Assess your site

• Call 811, or use their handy website so you know where your property's underground lines are running and don't dig near them. 
• Figure out where the rain for your rain garden going to come from. Put on a raincoat or grab your umbrella during the next good rain so you can get an idea of how water flows over your property. If all the water running off of a driveway, patio or sidewalk is all headed in the same direction you can build your garden to intercept that water. For most people, the roof of the house will be the largest source of runoff, so you'll be disconnecting your downspout, or intercepting the underground part of the downspout that runs from your roof to the road.
• Make sure the area for your garden that's at least 10 feet from the foundations of homes and structures. Collecting water any closer to a foundation is asking for trouble in the long run. 

Step 2: Calculate The Garden's Size 

• Dig an 8" deep hole that's about 4" in diameter in the area you'd like to have your garden in. Fill the hole completely with water, let it drain then fill it again and return 24 hours later. The depth that the water has drained will be the depth that you will dig your garden. This simple step ensures that the water collected by your rain garden will be absorbed into the ground within 24 hours, which is not nearly long enough for mosquito (or any insect!) eggs to be laid and hatch. This step also keeps your garden from being too dry or too soggy which can affect the health of your plants and the functionality of your garden.
• In addition to the depth you'll want to calculate the correct area of your rain garden so that it doesn't remain too dry, or worse, flood over its edges. Take the area of whatever surface you're collecting stormwater from and divide that area by the depth of the garden to figure out what area the garden should be. Example: I have 240 sqft. of rooftop draining to a downspout I will disconnect. My test hole drained 4” in 24 hours. My rain garen will be 4" deep. I then divide 240 by 4, and my rain garden will be 60 sqft.

Step 3: Excavation

• Determine the shape of your garden and mark it using spraypaint, rope or a garden hose. Re-measure the area of the garden to make sure it matches your calculations from the last step.
• Dig down 2" BELOW the depth you found from your test hole, then till or loosen the top few inches of soil at the bottom to offset compaction
• Add 3-4" of compost to assist with water infiltration (You can get this delivered after you've dug the initial hole to save some work!)
• Make sure the bottom of the hole is graded evenly. The easiest way to do this it to use a 2x4 as a large level.

Step 4: Plants (The fun part!) 

• Choose plants that can tolerate drought AND having their feet wet once in a while. Here is our extensive list of rain garden plants.
• Design first, buy second. Visiting nurseries to see their stock is ok, but generally you want to have a design made before you buy your plants to get the best-looking garden. General landscaping rules are: Keep short plants in front and tall ones in back; If using flowers, try to have something blooming in spring, summer and fall; Plant perennials in groups of threes or fives for maximum attractiveness. Here are some of our favorite design ideas.
• Always use potted perennials, trees and shrubs. Annuals don't have the deep root structure necessary for rain gardens and starting seeds in a rain garden is very complicated.
• Plant native plants. There are some non-native perennials that do well in rain gardens, but native plants will usually survive better AND provide habitat for wildlife. Pepper in non-natives as accents if you're set on certain species, or trying to maintain a theme in your landscape.
• Don't forget that native trees and shrubs will fill a lot of space in your garden with less effort than planting swaths of perennials. 
• Once you're done planting mulch the garden with 2" of of double-shredded hardwood mulch. 

Step 5: Route water into the garden (Notice this is the very last step!)

• This is probably the most difficult part of the process. There are several methods for getting water into your rain garden including:
• Conveying water with a swale or dry creek bed
• Installing a pop-up drain
• Disconnecting your downspout and routing it into the garden 
• No matter what you do, make sure you have a contingency plan for if you receive a very large rain event that your garden can't accomodate. Where will the excess water go? A nearby vegetated area or the rest of your underground downspout can serve as good locations for overflow water. Use the videos above to use swales or tubing to get the water where you want it to go once it reaches an overflow point.

That's it! Maintaining a rain garden is very similar to normal garden maintenance. Your plants will need water weekly immediately after planting, but after a growing season should have deep enough roots to not need water. Make sure the area where water enters your rain garden doesn't get blocked by debris like fallen leaves. 
For more resources and a map of local rain gardens you can visit for ideas visit our website: www.centralohioraingardens.org. You can also download a printable version of this step-by-step guide here. 

Snow and ice removal is a balancing act between safety and cost. When freezing weather hits, sidewalks and driveways can become dangerously slick. Salt has been used on roadways for snow and ice removal since the 1930’s and remains the most cost-effective de-icer. However, without proper use, it can easily be transported by melting water to groundwater or stormdrains. Because rain and snowmelt are moved through stormdrains straight to rivers and streams without treatment, chloride ions are often delivered to receiving streams in concentrations that can harm aquatic wildlife.  Even runoff that is directed to vegetated areas is not safe for surface waters. The chloride ion remains in ground water as it moves through the soil profile and can contaminate streams months later when the stream receives ground water as base flow.

So what are the alternatives for safety, cost, and environmental sustainability?  Alternative chemicals include magnesium chloride, potassium acetate, calcium chloride, calcium magnesium acetate, potassium chloride, and agricultural by-products (ABP) but alternative de-icing chemicals can also have environmental drawbacks, so it becomes a matter of doing less harm rather than no harm.

Knowing that doing nothing is just not possible, we find ourselves asking, what can be done to at least minimize runoff concerns?

• One consideration often overlooked is the design of parking lots and sidewalks. Pervious paving systems have been shown over the last decade to withstand the rigors of northern winters and to reduce the need for de-icers. During the day when snow melts from sunshine, the water moves through the paving material leaving a drier sidewalk that won’t re-freeze when the sun sets.
• Another option to reduce the risk of de-icing chemicals is implementing the correct storage. Leaving an uncovered pile of salt in the corner of a parking lot or storage area allows melt water to carry dissolved salt to the nearest storm drain inlet. This practice can also lead to a citation for illicit discharge to a storm sewer system
• Anti-icing or pretreatment has been shown to reduce the amount of de-icing chemicals used. Applied before a snowfall, pretreatment prevents bonding between snow and paving, and makes snow removal quicker and easier.
• Most importantly- proper usage! Use the minimum amount of deicer or anti-icer. It’s only supposed to break the bond to make shoveling easier

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Do You Have a Stream on Your Property?

• Plant native plants along stream edges. Turf grass roots are quite short compared to native grasses or landscaping shrubs and trees. You have probably pulled up a clump of grass growing into a flower bed; it wasn’t that difficult was it? Turf grass roots don’t hold streambank soils as well as longer-rooted plants do.
• Do not dump grass clippings or other yard trimmings down the bank of a stream. The clippings will kill whatever vegetation they cover and eventually leave the streambank soil exposed to erosion.
• Plant native shrubs and trees along the stream. You can also plant non-native landscaping plants, but they may require more nutrient input and pruning to retain the desired appearance. If you plant with native plants you will receive the added benefit of many hours of wildlife watching. Birds and butterflies will appear when you plant their favored food and nesting plants.
• If much of the stream bank is already exposed, plant dormant live stakes such as willow or elderberry. Live stakes are two or three-foot long sticks that will root along the stem once planted. They tend to form thick mats of intertwined roots that hold soil in place.

Non-point Source Pollution Reduction is a Group Effort

• Cover bare soil to prevent it from washing into our streams-  Grass, mulch and gravel can be good for reducing erosion where the water is flowing across the surface of the ground.  Native plants work well to help water soak into the ground and hold soil along stream banks.
• Pay attention to what you’re sending down the drain- Lots of everyday activities can send pollutants down a storm drain!
• Contain leaking car fluid Sweep yard waste and excess fertilizer off of hard surfaces
• Wash your car at a car wash or in the lawn instead of a hard surface like your street or driveway.
• Pick up and responsibly dispose of pet waste
• Report pollution- Water pollution is a crime! For example, construction projects are required to make an effort to reduce soil erosion and protect storm drains and waterways from sediment pollution. If you see large amounts of sediment-polluted water that’s going into a storm drain, or a waterway that’s not a storm water pond, call the appropriate contact. Other water pollution crimes include dumping anything directly into rivers or storm drains. You can find our list of water pollution contacts through Be The Change for Clean Water!
  

• Keep debris off of the streets and out of storm drains. Grass clipping, leaves and trash can all clog storm drains, resulting in runoff backing up onto streets, parking lots and adjacent properties.  

• Reduce rain runoff from your property by planting a tree.  Trees provide multiple benefits to our communities, including reducing stormwater runoff.  They capture rainfall with their leaves and help rainwater infiltrate into the soil.  

• Planting a tree that can handle periodic wet periods in a depression and directing downspout runoff there enhances the stormwater impact of that tree, allowing it to function like the native plants in a rain garden (click here to learn about woody rain gardens.)  

• Install a traditional rain garden (click here for instructions.)  

• Put in some deep-rooted, native plants in areas around your property, especially where water tends to runoff your lot, if there is such a location.

• Protect bare soil from erosion with vegetation and/or mulch, reducing runoff as well.  

• Replace hard, impermeable surfaces (e.g. cement or asphalt) with more permeable surfaces (e.g. pavers, mulch, stepping stones or crushed rock).  

• Put in and use rain barrels.  If you do not empty your rain barrels between rain storms, they do not help reduce runoff. (This rain barrel video will show you everything you need to know about installation!)

Full sun- sun touches the spot for the vast majority of the day

Part sun- is sun for a little more than half the day

Part shade- shade for a bit more than half a day

Full shade- shade most of the day

Full sun- sun touches the spot for the vast majority of the day

Part sun- is sun for a little more than half the day

Part shade- shade for a bit more than half a day

Full shade- shade most of the day