The newsletter summarizes what is growing at Maypop Hill Nursery during the winter months. While there are fewer flowers blooming, the nursery is using the downtime to catch up on reading about gardening. They discuss how Eastern Red Cedar trees produce pollen this time of year that can cause allergies. They also plant seeds for native plants like Buffalo Clover to help restore populations of bumblebees and butterflies. However, they have noticed a lack of frogs and bats on the property recently and wonder if smart meters may be negatively impacting the bats.

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The Maypop Hill Newsletter
The Maypop Hill Newsletter
An occasional report of what’s growing at Maypop Hill Nursery and the Miley
An occasional report of what’s growing at Maypop Hill Nursery and the Miley
homestead in Norwood, LA; to subscribe to the free newsletter, contact us by
homestead in Norwood, LA; to subscribe to the free newsletter, contact us by
email:
email: maypophill@gmail.com
maypophill@gmail.com. Website:
. Website: maypophill.com
maypophill.com
February
2022
Maypop Hill often sees winter temperatures that
can be 5 degrees lower (or more)
than the local weather channels say.
Do below-freezing temps mean there’s nothing to do in
winter, nothing pretty to look at, other than evergreen
trees like red cedar and longleaf pines?
Well, while we do have
a dearth of darling flowers to delight in,
we at least have time to catch up on our reading.
Two of our favorite garden writers recently featured
one of our favorite trees, the Eastern Red Cedar,
Juniperus virginiana.
In his Eat The Weeds online
newsletter about foraging,
https://www.eattheweeds.com/
newsletter-492-jan-25-2022/
Green Deane mentions using
“old blue Juniper “berries” to
make sourdough starter.
The berries are actually cones,
which makes sense since red
cedar trees are conifers.
Dearth of Warmth
We have lots of cedars here, and all over the South.
Birds find the sweet fruit, eat ‘em, expel the seeds,
which make new trees everywhere.
Unfortunately, as Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor,
informs us, red cedars can make pollen this time of
year, to add one more possible allergy, cedar fever,
for sensitive sinus sufferers
https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Dallas-Morning-Ne
ws-January-13-2022_vq14199.htm
The red cedar has another name, red stick, which is said to have been used by French
explorers to describe an Indian tribal marker along the Mississippi River → le bâton rouge
Which
is
which?
Pine
or
cedar
?
Which
make
cones?

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A favorite writer of environmentalists,
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), brought wildlife ecology to the attention
of a country which was quickly losing its natural plants and animals.
In A Sand County Almanac, Leopold observed a disturbing loss of
one of the birds he had always hunted, the American Woodcock.
In the chapter on these birds, which performed a ‘Sky Dance’
every evening, he decided he would have to limit his hunting of the
game birds, so that, “I must be sure that, come April,
there be no dearth of dancers in the sunset sky.”
No dearth of sky dancers
Dearth of
ground
cover?
So what
So what
will the
will the
pollinators
pollinators
eat?
eat?
Yay! It’s time to start planting seeds.
Yay! It’s time to start planting seeds.

Veggie seeds, wildflower seeds, even a few tree seeds.
Beekeepers plant Dutch White Clover (Trifolium repens) below, to feed
their honey bees, the European species which are kept in hive boxes.
Since Maypop Hill is trying to restore native
bumblebees and butterflies, we bought
hard-to-find seeds
from Florida to grow
Buffalo Clover,
Trifolium reflexum
.
Some botany sites
with range maps say
that it doesn’t grow in our area;
others do. So.............
You never know
which seeds will grow
in your garden row
until you sow, sow, sow.
A nifty low-growing
evergreen, Green and Gold
(Chrysogonum
virginianum),
has turned out to be a nice,
dependable ground cover.
https://plants.usda.gov/home/
plantProfile?symbol=TRRE2
Red Maple
(Acer rubrum)
blooms in late
winter to early
spring, just in
time to make
nectar and
pollen for
honey bees
and native
bees looking
for food
when temps
are over 50
degrees.. .
Dearth of seeds? No way
Dearth of seeds? No way!
!

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Dearth of Biodiversity?
This old file from Maypop Hill’s first book, My Yard, was an early attempt to learn how we
could make good use of worn out, badly eroded soil. We’ve incorporated many of the ideas,
had lots of flops, but some successes. A version of the pdf is online and downloadable on
our website, maypophill.com.

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Maypop Hill Nursery & Publications
4979 Spec Garig Rd., Norwood, LA
Betty & LJ Miley, specializing in native plants of the South
email: maypophill@gmail.com web: maypophill.com
Geaux native!
Dearth of Frogs
Toads, turtles, and the occasional
turkey have been spotted on
Maypop Hill in the last year.
But no little tree frogs
sticking to windows,
or bullfrogs singing in the koi pond.
Also, we’ve seen no tadpoles or pollywogs in
ditches where they used to be common.
Where have all the froggies gone?
You let a tasty
mosquito in.
I’ll get it,
ribbit, 2016
Croak, croak
You may hear me
but you can’t see me,
2015
Could the 2 smart
meters on our house
and shop be the
reason the bats quit
flying over our belfry
in the evening ?
https:www.smartmetereducationnetw
ork.com/smart-meter-environmental-
effects.php

Events we plan to attend
- Louisiana Native Plant Society
2022 ANNUAL MEETING,
February 4-6, 2022,
Wesley Center,
Woodworth, LA:
LNPS Winter Meeting
- the BREC Independence Park
Spring Plant Sale,
Saturday, April 9th, 2022 from
8AM to 12 noon,
7950 Independence Blvd.,
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Dearth of
Winter Color
?
A Winterberry Holly
(Ilex verticillata) outside
the front door has been
berry berry red since
October. Birds
are waiting for the fruit
to become soft and ripe.
A “Florida Sunshine Anise”
(Illicium parviflorum) in the
in the background has
been yellow all year.
Technically, the evergreen
foliage is chartreuse when
the plants get full sun.