To help celebrate this special birthday, I decided to take a series of photos of 40 garden objects. This photo series was inspired by the blog Things Organized Neatly. My arrangements are not arranged as neatly as many photos on that blog, but you get the idea.

Here’s photo #3 – 40 green leaves from plants in my neighborhood:

40 Green Leaves from my neighborhood

Can You Identify the Plants?

Here’s my best guesses, although I am not a naturalist:

4. Virginia Creeper

6. Viola

8. Cabbage

9. Liriope

11. Hosta

13. Holly

14. Hosta

17. Holly

18. Wild Strawberry

20. Clover

21. Dandelion

22. Yew

25.  Maple

26. Iris

27. Maple

29. Clover

33.  Fern

You can see past 40 garden object photos:

• 40 Garden Tools
• 40 nuts nibbled by squirrels
• 40 flowers from my neighborhood

Share Your 40 Garden Objects Photos!

During Garden for Wildlife month, I’m going to keep taking photos of 40 garden objects. Would you like to join me? What will you photograph? Share your photos at our Garden for Wildlife Facebook page for everyone to see.

And if you haven’t already certified your yard as wildlife-friendly, certify your yard with National Wildlife Federation this month!

Photo by Lynne Lucas. 2010 National Wildlife Photo Contest entry.

Native Plants for Your Yard

Putting native plants in your yard is a great way to help wildlife and bring new life to your home. Learn some of the top native plants for your area >>

Four leaf clovers are actually a mutation of the typical three leaf white clover Trifolium Repens. White clovers are not restricted to just four leaf mutations—they can have five, six, or more leaves. In fact, a clover discovered in Japan holds the Guinness World Record of most leaves ever discovered on a white clover (18 leaves!).

The white clover is a non-native member of the pea family Fabaceae. I personally haven’t had any Irish luck finding four-leaved mutants, have you?

For some people, St. Patrick’s Day is customary pea-planting time. At NWF, we have our own take on the March 17 tradition—on this wild Wednesday, we’ll be thinking about planting native peas in our spring wildflower gardens.

There are many species of native pea that bring color and pollinators to gardens throughout late spring and summer. Peas are often pollinated by bees, and the plants will also attract Western and Eastern-Tailed Blues, Little Yellows, Cloudywings, and Orange Sulphur butterflies. In the article Gardeners Pick Their “Gold Medal” Favorites, you can see lots of photos of native plant champions for your garden.

Here are a few of the native peas that may bring luck to your wildflower garden this year:

Partridge Pea

Wild Indigos

Eastern and Western Redbud

Black Locust (but only in the Southeast; can be invasive in other parts of the country)

Silvery Lupine

Why garden for wildlife? Check out naturalist David Mizejewski’s video to find out. Have a wild, wonderful St. Patrick’s Day and National Wildlife Week! Come visit again tomorrow to read about Thursday’s Tiny Treasures.

References:

Guinness Book of World Records

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators’ List of Butterfly Species and Host Plants

Montana Native Plant Society

Matt Walker at BBC Earth News reports:

“The pitcher plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap.  During the same expedition, botanists also came across strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms they could not identify.  The botanists have named the pitcher plant after British natural history broadcaster David Attenborough.”  See full article.

Robin Turner from the Western Mail reports:

“A process invented thousands of years ago by Amazonian Indians could play a key role in defeating global warming, experts in Wales claim today.

The scientists from Swansea University have established a research group to develop the little-known but potentially planet-saving product Biochar. It is is made when vegetable waste is burned in the absence of oxygen, a process called pyrolysis.

The substance was first discovered in the Amazon where Indians used it to fertilise the rainforest’s nutrient-poor soil, between 2,500 and 6,000 years ago. It is an extremely good fertiliser, because it contains high levels of nutrients vital for plant growth, like nitrogen, phosphate, and calcium. It is also highly porous, which helps soil retain water, and provides a solid environment for various microbes that are beneficial for plant growth. Plus it locks carbon dioxide away, possibly for thousands of years.”

See full article >>