In conjunction with our native landscaping project, we have collected some local native seeds. To give them the cold treatment that they need to break dormancy, we are planting them up in milk jugs which will be left outside. This will mimic the cold treatment that the seeds would be exposed to in their natural setting. This is called stratification. We have planted up Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), American Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia), American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), PawPaw (Asimina triloba), Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), and Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina). We are normally very careful about adding plant material to our woodland, but are making an exception for this Native Planting. We are treating this more like gardening, and less like a restoration. We would welcome comments and suggestions about this project, and would appreciate hearing from people with more experience than us. We all benefit from the input of others through the comments. We would encourage those that are interested in Native Landscaping to check out our previous two videos in this series. There will also be more to come.

Oak Haven is a 60acre private woodland in Southwestern Ohio near Cincinnati. Jim and Julie Varick both have degrees in Botany and over thirty years of experience in managing natural areas. They enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for the natural world and would like to build relationships with likeminded people to share knowledge and resources.