Snakes in the Home Landscape - Respect them from a distance

The sun is shining, the days are getting warmer and in my landscape, that means that I need to be a little bit more wary about where I reach and step.

Although I love most critters that share my yard and gardens, I will probably always get a little creeped out when I see snakes.

On the one hand, I appreciate them because they eat rodents and other pesky critters. On the other hand, they are sneaky little boogers that can camouflage themselves very well and I often get surprised by their presence. Although I find many of them beautiful, I would just as soon have them stay out of sight while they carry out their rodent control duties.

Here are some facts and tips to help create a peaceful coexistence between you and snakes in your Metro DC area landscape. The highlighted information is from the Virginia Cooperative Extension Document: Managing Wildlife Damage: Snakes

1) The Northern Copperhead is the only venomous snake in the DC area (photo above). The information on this page from the Virginia Herpetological Society will help you learn all about this beautiful but venomous snake.

2) Large snakes provide an important service by helping to manage rodent populations (e.g., rats, mice, and voles) that can cause serious economic problems for homeowners, farmers, and businesses. In fact, farmers used to pay local kids a small “reward” to go out and collect ratsnakes to release around the barn and farmyard as a way to keep rodents in check. Many of the smaller species feed on insects and other invertebrate pests common to our gardens and landscape plantings.

3) All native snakes in Maryland are protected by the Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act. This means that native snakes cannot be killed without first acquiring the proper permit from the Department of Natural Resources.

4) It is illegal to kill any species of snake in Virginia unless it presents an imminent threat to one’s personal health and safety. Snakes are classified as nongame species and therefore are afforded full protection under existing nongame regulations, similar to all other species in this category.

5) Snakes can enter homes through very small openings. All possible snake entry places should be blocked. Galvanized screen can be used to cover drains or ventilators. Insulation can be used in cement cracks or where pipes go through outside walls. Places to concentrate your efforts would be where utility service (e.g., water, sewer, electric, telephone, cable) enters the home; where the clothes dryer vent exits the building; around doors, windows, and bulkheads to the basement or garage (including the gap under a large garage door); and where the house sits on its foundation.

6) Vegetation should be kept short around buildings. Mowed lawns near the house are less attractive to snakes and the rodents they feed on. A three-inch layer of pea-size gravel around the foundation will help plug small holes. Thin or reduce the amount of landscape plantings that exist immediately against the foundation of the home. Thick, lush gardens and layers of growth located against the home provide perfect cover and protection to both snakes and their prey.

7) To help keep snakes out of your yard, you need to take away anything that attracts their prey. This would include things like spilled bird seed, accessible pet food supplies, open containers of dry goods, and similar potential food items. Transfer all stored dry goods to metal or glass containers that cannot be chewed by rodents.

8) The most effective way to minimize or prevent a chance encounter with a snake outdoors is to modify the habitat such that the snake no longer can fulfill its basic life needs easily. Basic life needs, in this case, refer to food, water, cover, and space. By manipulating the habitat around your home, you can make it very difficult for a snake to survive there. Examples of actions that might be taken include: 

a. Eliminate, remove, or relocate brush piles, refuse, stored building products, stacked firewood, or other  materials that may provide useful cover and hiding spots for both snakes and the prey species they hunt. 

b. Thin out or selectively remove weedy or overgrown patches of vegetation that may harbor small prey animals such as rodents and provide cover for hiding snakes. 

c. In areas where small children or pets play, keep the grass well-mowed and maintain an expanse of well-cropped vegetation between the play area and the surrounding woods. Snakes usually do not like to be exposed in the open and away from cover. 

d. To create a snake-free play area, encircle the area to be protected with a fine-meshed (1/8- to 1/4-inch) fence, about 36 inches in height, that has been dug into the ground so that no gaps exist .

9) Although there are a number of commercially available products that have been registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use as snake repellents, research to investigate their effectiveness has yet to show any demonstrated success. Readers are reminded that use of any other nonfood-grade ingredients or “home-brewed” snake repellents made from chemicals for which an EPA product registration does not exist is a violation of federal law.

10) There are no chemicals or products registered or approved by the EPA for use as a means to kill snakes. Remember, it is illegal in Virginia to kill any species of snake and in Maryland to kill native snakes.

11) If you really don't like the thought of snakes on your property, professional wildlife control operators may be available to help you remove them.

12) If you are bitten by a snake, seek immediate medical attention. Current recommendations for proper treatment, provided by health professionals at the National Institute of Health, can be obtained from this link: Snakebites. Print the information and have it on hand, but always call 911 first if you think you may have been bitten by a poisonous snake.

For more information

All About Snakes in Maryland

10 Most Commonly Seen Snakes in the DC Metro Area

Snakes in Virginia

Managing Wildlife Damage: Snakes

Volunteer opportunity this weekend

Join the Izaak Walton League-Wildlife Achievement Chapter and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission on Sunday, March 20th from 9am - noon, as they remove invasive weeds from trees and plant pawpaw, elderberry and pin oak seedlings to replace the trees that didn't make through the winter.

9 a.m. to Noon, Pigtail Recreation Area, 5400 Green Bridge Road, Dayton,MD.

For directions to the site - Contact Meo Curtis by email at meosotis58@verizon.net

Wildlife Wednesday - something to screech about

If you have followed this blog for very long, you know that one of the main reasons that my husband and I are "green" gardeners is because we like to share our landscape with the local wildlife.

We were rewarded for our efforts this weekend when we looked up and saw this beautiful little screech owl sitting in the opening of the large nest box we had built.

We built the nest box a few years ago when we saw a pair of barred owls hanging around. Although we have never seen the barred owls use the box, all sorts of other birds and critters visit or live in the box, from time to time.

This little screech owl is definitely the cutest!

For more information about gardening for wildlife, visit this post:
10 Tips for a Wildlife Friendly Garden or use the "Search this site box" to search for widlife, hummingbirds, birds, butterflies, etc.

Green Spring Gardens - Upcoming Events

Green Spring Gardens is a "must visit" for everyone in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. It's a year-round gold mine of information and inspiration for the home gardener. It's an outdoor classroom for children and their families to learn about plants and wildlife. It's also a museum, a national historic site that offers glimpses into a long, rich history with colonial origins.

3/19/2011

Urban Small Space Gardening (18-Adult)

Location: Green Spring Gardens Park

Start Time/Day: 10am Sat

Whether you have a townhouse garden or a small lot in the city, we'll talk about creative ways to cope and maximize the space. Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener Magazine's Editor/Publisher provides a glimpse at lovely gardens in the area, including Alexandria, Georgetown, Capitol Hill and Falls Church to provide you with ideas for your garden.

3/25/2011

Basic Gardening: Gardening for Birds

Location: Green Spring Gardens Park

Start Time/Day: 1:30pm Fri

The Green Spring Master Gardeners are here to guide beginning gardeners on a journey that never ends but gets richer and richer with each passing season. Join us for these intimate, informal classes that reveal gardening basics.

For more upcoming gardening and environmental activities, visit our new Events, Classes, Volunteer Opportunities Page for local calendars.

A Community of Gardeners - the movie

Wow! I have only seen the trailer of the new documentary, A Community of Gardeners, but it is awe inspiring! The film, directed and produced by Cintia Cabib, "explores the vital role of seven D.C. urban community gardens as sources of fresh, nutritious food, outdoor classrooms, places of healing, links to immigrants’ native countries and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods."

A Community of Gardeners Trailer from Cintia Cabib on Vimeo.

There will be a showing of this documentary on  Thursday, March 24, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm at the  National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave., NW., Washington, DC

Join other Sierra Club supporters in attending an Environmental Film Festival selection focused on D.C., "A Community of Gardeners":
Throughout Washington, D.C., people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are gardening side by side, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in community gardens. Some are looking for basic sustenance, others for a way to remember their homelands, still others for a place to find a respite from their troubles. Through the voices of young people, senior citizens, immigrants, garden volunteers and educators, this documentary explores the vital role of seven D.C. urban community gardens as sources of fresh, nutritious food, outdoor classrooms, places of healing, links to immigrants’ native countries and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods. The film also looks back on the history of community gardens in the United States, from the potato patch farms of the late 19th century, to the victory gardens of World War II, to community gardening’s current renaissance. Directed and produced by Cintia Cabib.

RESERVATIONS are encouraged for this showing and can be made by emailing reservations@nmwa.org or calling 202-783-7370.
Tickets: $5, General Admission; $4, Members, Seniors and Students.

For more information on the film visit: A Community of Gardeners

Washington Youth Garden spring volunteer orientation

The Washington Youth Garden will be having their annual spring volunteer orientation on Saturday, April 9th from 9am to 12pm. Volunteers are asked to attend an  orientation before they volunteer. If you can't make it on the 9th, they will be having more orientations throughout the season on the first Saturday of the month.

After you attend the orientation, they have volunteer opportunities every Tuesday and Saturday from 9am to 12pm.

Information about what the WYG does and directions to their site at the Arboretum can be found on their website:

http://www.washingtonyouthgarden.org/

For more information, contact:

Kacie Warner
Education Coordinator
Washington Youth Garden
Friends of the National Arboretum
office: 202-245-2709
www.washingtonyouthgarden.org
http://washingtonyouthgarden.blogspot.com

Fix a Leak Week - Mar. 14th - 20th

You probably didn't even realize that today is the first day of our country's 3rd annual Fix a Leak Week!

Okay. I admit it. I missed the first two Fix a Leak Weeks entirely, but now that I am trying to be more eco-conscious, it seems like a great idea to pass along.

During the week of March 14th – March 20th, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Watersense Program encourages all citizens to check their home plumbing for leaks and get them repaired.

Every Drop Counts 

Did you know that an American home can waste, on average, more than 10,000 gallons of water every year due to running toilets, dripping faucets, and other household leaks?  

Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year. That's why WaterSense reminds Americans to check their plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems each year during Fix a Leak Week.

 

What this means for gardeners:

The following information is provided on the EPA website for outdoor water leak problems and solutions

Outdoors:

• If you have an in-ground irrigation system, check it each spring before use to make sure it wasn't damaged by frost or freezing.
• An irrigation system with pressure set at 60 pounds per square inch that has a leak 1/32nd of an inch in diameter (about the thickness of a dime) can waste about 6,300 gallons of water per month.
• To ensure that your in-ground irrigation system is not leaking water, consult with a WaterSense irrigation partner who has passed a certification program focused on water efficiency; look for a WaterSense irrigation partner.
• Check your garden hose for leaks at its connection to the spigot. If it leaks while you run your hose, replace the nylon or rubber hose washer and ensure a tight connection to the spigot using pipe tape and a wrench.
•  Or hire a WaterSense irrigation partner to inspect things  for you. These professionals have passed a certification program focused on water efficiency. They will not only help you detect and correct leaks in the system, but also maximize its efficiency.

USDA encourages Public to Sign-up and Show their People's Gardens

WASHINGTON – March 11, 2011 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today urged people across the Nation to start People's Gardens in their communities and to register their gardens in the new People's Garden database, a tool for USDA partners to showcase their People's Gardens on an interactive map. This past year, thousands of USDA employees and partners heeded Secretary Vilsack's call to give back to their communities by volunteering their time to participate in the department-wide People's Garden initiative. 

"Real and effective change starts small and it starts in our own communities, and through the People's Garden initiative, people can be engaged in their own towns and neighborhoods to promote access to fresh, healthy food, as well as sustainable practices," said Vilsack. 

With the opportunity for the people to enter their People's Gardens into the database, they will be able to describe each garden, identify who is involved¸ where it is located as well as attach photos and add the contact information for their partners. For those who start a People's Garden, they can ask to have a People's Garden sign shipped to them. To view the interactive People's Garden map and access the database, go to www.pubinfo.usda.gov/garden.

Click here to read full news release.

Free and low-cost compost and mulch

In response to a request for a good place to find low-cost soil or compost, Dodie Butler, DC area realtor and gardener, provided this info on a local forum:

Here is a link to the page in College Park's website that describes it's 'Smartleaf' Compost, likely some of the prettiest 'dirt' around. It can be picked up or they will deliver, and it may not seem cheap, until you picture what a couple of cubic yards looks like compared to a few bags of 'soil.' While Takoma Park's composted leaves are chopped up, good for 'mulch' but not really 'compost,' College Park really manages its composting by mixing leaves and grass and turning their piles and producing true compost. Super clean (no glass or paper bits), rich compost. 

I would start with a pile of the good compost and maybe mix in some sand to better approximate 'dirt.' Or add some dirt, but not much. Don't just buy bagged garden soil, it's not nearly as good as this compost. 

(BTW, while many of us find the smell of fresh compost to be lovely, when first delivered it can be pretty strong. First time I had it dumped in my driveway it didn't occur to me that there would be a smell. I had neglected to engage my neighbors in the plan and the smelly mountain of compost sat right under their kitchen window. I was mortified, but fortunately persuaded them to take a bunch of the compost. So aroma at initial delivery is a good reason to try to engage neighbors in compost purchases. The compost smell goes away quickly with exposure to the air.)  

To also pitch Takoma Park leaf mulch — anyone can go dig at their mulch piles and take the chopped leaves away for free. (I went into the public works office there a few years ago and asked a human before I believed that my D.C. plates wouldn't cause me to be challenged for taking mulch, but was assured it was OK.) Their chopped leaves are also quite clean and superb as mulch. If you really want to kill weeds, surround the plants you want to keep with sheets of newspaper and then cover with the leaf mulch.  

Takoma Park's website tells how much they charge for filling people's trucks with mulch and has the following prices for out-of-TP deliveries:  

Outside The City Price

3 yards delivered $65

7 yards delivered $105

10 yards delivered $105 

With either the College Park or Takoma Park deliveries, consider doing a group purchase with nearby neighbors, then the cost goes down to almost nothing.

Dodie Butler, Realtor

Long and Foster Real Estate, Inc.

Dodie, thanks for giving me permission to reprint this great info. I've got a few more locations listed on the Links and Resources page.

Favorite Native Plants ~ Thomas Rainer

Today's list of Favorite Native Plants comes from Thomas Rainer, a landscape architect by profession and a gardener by obsession. Thomas has worked on projects such as the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and The New York Botanical Garden, but is happiest puttering in his small garden in Washington, D.C.

Picking my favorite natives is like picking my favorite foods: I love so many; it’s hard to know where to begin. But I think I’ll focus on a few underappreciated natives that make great garden plants. 

Most gardens have shade and these areas are typically the areas of our garden we neglect the most, or fill with invasive groundcovers. My absolute favorite fern is Dryopteris x australis or Dixie Wood Fern. This plant is a naturally occurring hybrid that is found in moist areas from Louisiana all the way to Virginia. The plant has strikingly upright fronds that grow three to four feet in height. What I love about this plant is how vigorous it is. In places where Ostrich Fern or Cinnamon Fern have limped along, Dixie Wood fern thrives, covering the ground in dense, glossy foliage. Plus, this fern is semi-evergreen, holding much of its form during winter. Combine this fern with other perennials with contrasting foliage such as hostas, Solomon’s Seals, or native sedges. You won’t be disappointed.

My favorite grass at the moment is Sporobolus heterolepsis or Prairie Dropseed (click here for photo). This plant is finally getting the attention it deserves. Low, neat clumps of fine textured grass hug the ground for most of the growing season. During late summer, the grass adds fine inflorescences that smell a bit like coriander (or burnt popcorn). The grass has lovely orange tones in during autumn. I love to use this plant in large masses, particularly against the edge of a lawn where it gives the look of a ‘rough.’ And because this plant is so low and fine-textured, it is an excellent plant to interplant flowering perennials into. A lovely, drought-tolerant, and tough grass. Chanticleer has a large mass of this grass at the edge of a large lawn . . . it’s stunning. 

Finally, last year I fell in love with Monarda punctata or Horsemint. This low perennial sports hot pink whorled leaves just below the flowers that dries into a lovely silver color that glows in the moonlight. Unlike most Monardas, this plant tolerates poor soil and drought. Pollinators love this plant. Since this plant can get a bit gangly by itself, I plant it in pockets on the edge of the border, or better, interplanted into a matrix of low grasses like Sporobolus, Schizachyrium, or Elymus. Last year, I easily grew this plant from seed and it bloomed during the first season. 

You can read more of Thomas' views on gardening and landscapes on his blog, Grounded Design