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greenfish10

"Butterfly Playhouse" Reduce seed drift and angry neighbors?

greenfish10
9 years ago

My Project Idea: Playhouse to House Milkweed

I'm considering loading up my small playhouse with multiple varies of milkweed planted in pots. What i'm thinking is this: keeping milkweed in pots will prevent them from taking over our or/neighbors yard via root system and the 3/4 enclosed playhouse will reduce seed dispersion in our very windy area. From the picture you see there's an open doorway. There's also a side window facing east and a back window facing south. I'm not sure if this would be enough light as these windows are small.

Location:
-property adjacent to a high school + their football practice field.
-Across the street from Ottertail River
-VERY windy, located at edge of town

Issues:
(1) Live in a small agricultural community (milkweed = noxious weed as I understand it)
(2) Near HS: football is even w/ ag in its importance around here. I'm VERY concerned Re: destroying neighboring lawn w/ all my lovely milkweed.
(3) My mom uses riding lawnmower, HATES mowing around stuff, which is why i like this inside playhouse idea. I've also kicked around idea of planter boxes, but then we're back to seed dispersal issue.

THOUGHTS? 0.02? THANKS SO MUCH!

Comments (3)

  • bernergrrl
    9 years ago

    First, I think it's great that you are thinking about your neighbors (even if I don't agree with them). I see so much open land dominated by lawn, and I can just see how much life there could be if there were more native plants in this area, but that is out of your control. Just to let you know, I am someone who spends a lot of her time educating/promoting the use of natives in landscaping. :) I do love to use zinnias and Mexican Sunflowers too, so am not a purist in any way.

    Still I get irked that lawns get privileged over the life of other species that so desperately need habitat. We are facing the 6th great extinction precisely because we can't seem to understand that we need to share our yards and stop taking natural areas.

    I don't think Monarchs would make it into the playhouse, but you never know.

    You have things you can do to contain your garden and concomitant seed dispersal. So, here's my .02 cents. :)

    You can start putting a hedgerow with native bushes and/or small trees. This would help to keep thing in your yard to some extent (some seeds would of course get carried up and away). You would have many added benefits:

    --add beauty and year long interest and habitat
    --privacy
    --feed different kinds of wonderful moth/butterfly caterpillars and provide habitat for other beneficial insects and birds (especially if you choose shrubs that flower in the spring and offer berries in the fall)
    --windbreak for your butterflies and cover for them as well

    You could not worry about seeds too--mowing, etc will cut down the plants, and they would eventually exhaust from the roots.

    As far as spreading through root system, that is most likely the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, so you can just simply not plant that one. There are probably other milkweeds native to your area. Looks like A. tuberosa, A. incarnata, A. sullivantii, A.speciosa are all native to your area, and would be very well-behaved in a typical garden. You might get volunteer seedlings, but those are generally welcomed.

    Also, you can dead-head the seed pods, so that would eliminate the seed dispersal issue.

    Don't forget to plant some fall blooming plants too so that the Monarchs and other pollinators have something to fuel up on before they make their trip south.

    There are lots of organizations to help you. Perhaps the school itself would be interested in a pollinator/beneficial insect garden, very important for agriculture.

    I've included a link to a list of MN wildflowers, so that might be helpful. Then there are Wild Ones chapters too in MN:

    http://www.wildones.org/connect/chapters/minnesota-chapters/

    Thank you for taking care of the Monarchs, especially when you are beset by so many boundaries.

    Here is a link that might be useful: MN wildflowers

  • KC Clark - Zone 2012-6a OH
    9 years ago

    My experience is milkweeds that do well in pots are not a big worry when it comes to spreading by root system.

    As for seed dispersal, you can either cut off the pods or cut back the milkweed after flowering.

    At my second house, I raised common milkweed in a raised bed and did not have a problem with it spreading via the rhizomes. Even if it did happen, you could just mow it down (after looking for eggs/cats).

  • greenfish10
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you so much for the info bernergrrl and kcclark! I would have said thanks sooner, but I was relying on an e-mail notification that must have gone to spam.

    Bernergrrl, I share your philosophy and I commend you for your outreach efforts. I've been considering trying to work with the school. We also have a river across the street and over a dike. I wondered whether there has been any efforts to plant milkweed along dikes. If i were sticking around i'd be all for doing some policy work, but I won't be in the area long.

    I'm basically trying to come up with something that's pain free re: maintenance and stress.

    I'm going to continue to read and hope others will chime in. I'll post final pics of what I put together. I have to do at least something.....

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