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Keystone plants are native plants that support a significant number of caterpillars (butterfly and moth larvae). Planting keystone plants helps build complex food webs by forming the essential foundation —native plants and insects — that provide food for other organisms, directly and indirectly.
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Soft landings are diverse native plantings under keystone trees (or any other regionally appropriate native tree). These plantings provide critical shelter and habitat for one or more life cycle stages of moths, butterflies, and beneficial insects such as bumble bees, fireflies, lacewings, and beetles. In addition to plants, soft landings also include leaf litter, duff, and plant debris.
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KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY
Always ask if a tree has been treated with systemic insecticides. Don't purchase any plants (including trees) treated with systemic insecticides. These insecticides are often persistent in woody plant tissue and can also be expressed in leaf tissue, pollen, and nectar. Insecticides can harm the pollinators and beneficial insects you plan to support with your Soft Landings planting. |
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING TREATING A TREE WITH INSECTICIDES, FUNGICIDES, OR OTHER TYPES OF PESTICIDES:
It's important to weigh the benefits of tree pest and disease treatments against the ongoing harm the treatment can cause to beneficial insects that access nutrients from both the keystone tree and Soft Landings plantings under the tree. For more information, please download this handout by the Xerces Society. |
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Ostrich Fern
Pennsylvania Sedge
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Pennsylvania Sedge and False Solomon's Seal (foreground)
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KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY
Always ask if a tree has been treated with systemic insecticides. Don't purchase any plants (including trees) treated with systemic insecticides. These insecticides are often persistent in woody plant tissue and can also be expressed in leaf tissue, pollen, and nectar. Insecticides can harm the pollinators and beneficial insects you plan to support with your Soft Landings planting. |
IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING TREATING A TREE WITH INSECTICIDES, FUNGICIDES, OR OTHER TYPES OF PESTICIDES:
It's important to weigh the benefits of tree pest and disease treatments against the ongoing harm the treatment can cause to beneficial insects that access nutrients from both the keystone tree and Soft Landings plantings under the tree. For more information, please download this handout by the Xerces Society. |
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PROTECT THE HEALTH OF YOUR TREE
Many trees have shallow roots so you need to be careful and avoid damaging the tree while planting. Buy small plants (plugs or cell packs) and use a small trowel to carefully dig the holes. Avoid using a shovel or digging large or deep holes. Alternatively, the area can be seeded once competing undesirable vegetation is removed. Stay Away From the Tree Trunk Avoid planting within three feet of the tree trunk to prevent damaging the primary roots and root flares. Plants will fill this void once established. Keep natural materials—leaves, twigs, and plant debris away from the trunk of the tree to avoid excess moisture leading to bark rot. Smother Existing Vegetation or Turf Do not dig out the existing turfgrass under the tree. You could damage the roots and trunk in the process. If you still have turf under the tree, in autumn, smother the turf by laying cardboard on the turf, then add a thick layer of leaves and small branches to hold it in place. Your soft landings will be ready to plant the following spring! Enhance What You Already Have
If you already have plants growing under the tree, remove any invasive or undesirable non-native plants and augment the planting with new native plants. |
START BUILDING THE DUFF AND LEAF LITTER LAYER
In autumn, rake excess leaves into the soft landings or dripline of the tree. Weigh down the leaves with small branches. Do not add any soil or compost on the root system of the tree. Tree root systems are 'lungs' and need to be able to breathe! Cover the soil under trees with natural materials—leaves, twigs, and plant debris. DON'T CREATE A RAISED BED UNDER THE TREE It is important not to add additional soil or compost (create a raised bed with or without edging) in your soft landing. Adding soil on top of the tree's root system may affect the health of the tree. Add leaf litter, bark, and small branches or twigs to build soil health and a duff layer under the tree. |
Photo courtesy of Michelle Detwiler
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Photo courtesy of Michelle Detwiler
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I designed this soft landing for a client under a beautiful, mature red oak tree that previously had lawn grasses growing to the trunk. The matrix of native plantings includes foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia), Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), striped cream violet (Viola striata), mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), crinkled hair grass (Deschampsia flexulosa), woodland poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica). The site has average moisture conditions in part-sun in the Northern Piedmont ecoregion. It's been a joy to watch the plants spread and re-seed and to know that the critters using this important keystone tree might find respite in the plantings.
— Michelle D., Penn Valley, PA |
Photo courtesty of Linda McCaughey
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I have a magnificent northern red oak that is between 150 and 200 years old, whose branches extend past my front yard. The soft landings planting required little site preparation other than adding shredded leaves from the tree. Some plants in the planting include Stylophorum diphyllum, Mertensia virginica, Asarum canadense, Tillium grandiflorum, Aquilegia canadensis, and Polemonium reptans. — Linda M., Overland Park, KS |
Photo courtesy of Diane Stauner
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Our back yard had been lawn including weeds under 3 White Pine trees. Over 30 years, I've gradually removed the lawn, turning over the sod shallowly. Now the White Pine needles stay where they fall and weeds are few.
During many winters, I cold stratified and germinated flowers, sedges, grasses and shrubs. I also purchased seedlings. Wild geranium, Jacob's Ladder, Sweet Black-eyed Susan, Joe Pyeweed, wild ginger, and Yellow Coneflower have spread, and beebalm, foxglove, Canada Anemone, Pasque Flower, purple coneflower, cup plant, buttonbush, Ironweed, asters, and sedges do well. The variety enables blooms throughout the season. Our front lawn is almost gone, people walking past tell me it's beautiful and thank me whole-heartedly. Young couples ask me where to start, and I tell them to start small, recognize the leaves. — Diane S., New Hope, MN |
Photo courtesy of Joe Carter
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This project started with 10 small Arbor Day bare root trees (red and white oak, tulip poplar, red maple, and sweetgums) in 1988 on new home bare clay hard packed soil. It is now a small urban forest in our front yard. In 2012 we started to let the leaves lay on the ground. It has been a slow process to have the soil build up. We continue to add native plants to this area both Ephemerals and other native perennials.
A few years ago we started to add an understory: Paw Paw, Spicebush, Redbud, Dogwood, Buckeye. Spring ephemerals include Jack- in-the-Pulpit, Bellwort, Virginia Blue Bells, Wild Ginger, Mayapple, Troutlilly, Ramps. Other native plants such as yarrow, partridge Pea, Bluestem Goldenrod, Wood Phlox, Skullcap, Oxeye Sunflower, Golden Alexander, Blackeyed Susan, Ohio Spiderwort, and Wild Geranium thrive here. — Joe C., Dublin, OH |
Photo courtesy of Vicki Bonk
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The pin oak was planted around 1997, at the same time we were transitioning our small yard to mostly natives. Initial plants were in mostly smaller sized pots. Planting new species has continued over the years. Many plants have spread over the years nicely filling in the spaces. The species that do the best are the same ones we can see going along the nearby Mississippi River in wooded areas. These plants include Solomon's Seal, Wild Geranium, Wild Columbine, Blue Violet, Canada Violet, Wild Ginger, Ostrich Fern, Bishop's Cap, Pennsylvania Sedge, Bloodroot, Red Baneberry, Jack-in-the Pulpit, Maiden Hair Fern, Meadow Rue, Jacob's Ladder, Heart-leaved Aster, Zig Zag Goldenrod, Woodland Starwberry, Yellow Bellwort, Large-leaved Aster and more. Spring and fall are the showiest in blooms, attracting a variety of pollinators.
— Vicki B., Minneapolis, MN |
Photo courtesy of Regina Spotti
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We have been living in our home for nearly 12 years and that time has been spent removing invasive plants and restoring our 1.5 acres with native plants. We do also use annual flowers and a few "old-fashioned" perennials (peony, iris). Our plantings were prepared by hand, and all of our plants were nursery propagated. We have existing oaks, cherries, tulip trees, hemlock, and hackberry trees. We have been poisoning the existing Norway maple as they are growing on a slope and nobody will remove them for us. (We are very, very careful!!!!) The plantings beneath the cherries (P. serotina) are mostly spring flowers—woodland phlox, celandine poppy, hepatica, trillium, and bloodroot. Once they pass, it's all up to beebalms, goldenrods, asters, Pycnanthemum species, sedges, ferns, coreopsis, liatris...and more! I've taken more photos of the bugs and insects in our yard than I have of the yard!
— Regina S., Monongahela, PA |
Photo courtesy of Paula Diaz
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Many different places I've created soft landings for clients as well as my home. I have always explained I'm a lazy gardener-hate time wasted mowing & weedeating. So many people start off saying- Nothing will grow there. When I ask what have you tried, it's inevitably various times of trying to grow turf grass. Lots of things will grow in shade, but turf grass is not one of them.
Pussytoes, wild geranium, phlox, wild ginger, packera. Small starts of shrubs will grow too-wild hydrangea, shrubby St. John's wort, American beautyberry, roseshell azalea, mock orange. And I use a fine textured, rare mow, fescue in larger areas. Under a cluster of large shade trees, seed the fescue mixed with seeding monarda, black eyed susans, asters, gray headed coneflower etc. Only mow a couple of times per year to keep tree seedlings at bay.
— Paula D., Raymore, MO |
