Crow’s Nest: Legacy plantings

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager

I am not particularly fond of forsythia, the non-native shrub that has too-garish flowers now and is nondescript the rest of the year. It’s not supporting much wildlife, and I particularly detest it when it’s pruned into hedge balls or flat-topped umbels.

That said, I just moved into a house on the preserve that has a large clump of it along the road. I don’t hate it. When pruned by removing canes at the base, it can be a lovely, wispy sight much needed after a long winter. Or ignored as this clump is, it becomes a thicket that remains best ignored.

The new plantings I’m planning here are all native, chosen for their wildlife value. But this thicket screens the road and can stay for now, a reminder of landscapes past and appreciated simply for what it is even as it takes up space from that which otherwise could be there.