The mini wildscape at All Saints Episcopal Church in Cameron got some new plants and grooming, and the fight against the persimmons continues.
Chad Cryer, Liz Lewis, Alan Rudd, and Carolyn Henderson planted six new Mexican Sage bushes, pruned back what was still blooming and scraggly, and took out a few more persimmons trying to pop up. Alan was gone by the time we thought to take photos.
The wildscape is still supplying food to butterflies, bees, and Texas Spiny Lizards which all showed themselves once it started to warm up.
A small but intrepid group took on the fight of the non-native, invasive plants in the Wildscape – again. Chad Cryer, Alan Rudd, Liz Lewis, Phyllis Sheffield, Pamela Neeley and I implemented a new method to attempt to get rid of the seriously invasive persimmons and Tree of Heavens.
Small but mighty
I would call it isolated poisoning. Chad clipped the multitude of pomegranate trees, many that had managed to reach at least 5 to 6 feet this season. Alan then put a tree poison only on the cut limbs. We cut them back in February. Alan had already done it to the Tree of Heavens that weren’t as numerous.
The invasives elimination committee.
We put all the limbs in Alan’s pickup bed. The pile stood taller than the truck cab.
We also fought off the Tievine that had totally covered the Gulf Muhly grass among other things. We also removed the other invasives in the Wildscape. A good deal of what had been planted was there, but scraggly looking from being overshadowed by all of those. It knocked out a few completely.
The weeding committee
We vowed to be back in two weeks to evaluate our efforts.
On Saturday morning I took a side trip to the El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist City Wildscape to find a pleasant surprise in the overgrown mess. Queen butterflies had found the place. I counted about 20 that morning – all on the Gregg’s Mist. That is by far and away the Queens’ favorite nectar producer.
Not only had the Queens landed, American Bumblebees had also located nectar sources for themselves – mainly the Common Sunflower that planted itself in the city wildscape and reproduced many more this year.
I also saw Ligated Furrow Bees and Jagged Ambush Bugs. Those are pending identification verifications in iNaturalist. I also saw Oblique Longorn Bees – a second time for a new to me bee. They are very tiny and in near constant motion. All of these were on the Sunflowers.
Other things we planted were in bloom, but they are mostly overwhelmed by the terrible invasive “Tree of Heaven” and the Persimmons. Persimmons have taken over the right half of the wildscape (if you’re looking at it from the street) and the Tree of Heaven, an invasive from China, has the left side.
I met with the church directors Sunday morning, and they agreed to let us make a last ditch effort to eliminate both of those. Crape Myrtles also are spreading, which are not native to this area either. They have lots of pretty blooms, though. More Queens had arrived.
Alan Rudd has devised a plan to kill these invasives. We believe that we can do it without harming the Pecan tree in the wildscape, but there is no guarantee of that, so we needed approval from the All Saint’s Episcopal Church to do it. They were in agreement, since they also were dealing with the Tree of Heaven in most other parts of their landscape.
Liz Lewis is having the source of the Tree of Heaven, three trees nearby, removed, too. Otherwise, they’ll just come back. No one knows where the Persimmons came from, but we hope we can get them out, too.
Once that is done, the wildscape needs weeding. Good for volunteer hours, everyone.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 