Symes’ little house on the prairie attracts butterflies By Tricia Goecks Editor BELVIDERE – When Steve and Sue Symes were house hunting in September 1999, they fell in love with a little house on the prairie. They Symes purchased the house at 7777 Shaw Rd., Belvidere from Roger and Mary Storm who planted a native prairie plants in the front of their property in conjunction with their son and daughter in-law Max and Cathy Storm who lived next door. It took the couple two years of watching the full cycle of the property to realize what plants they had on their property. “They put in the prairie, and the prairie is shared across the property line. There is quite a bit of fully native landscape prairie,” Steve Symes said. “Max taught me a lot.” The Symes home was one of seven properties throughout the Stateline area that were part of a tour organized by Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes Rock River Valley on July 26 and 27. The purpose of the Wild for Monarchs, Inviting Nature Home Lecture and Landscape Tour was to teach visitors how to include native plants in gardens, schools and churches to help butterflies and birds. The Symes, who have been married for 48 years, live on 5 acres at 7777 Shaw Rd. in Belvidere. Their land includes three wooded acres and one acre of prairie. “I wanted to extend the prairie but there were oak trees so I had to plant plants that were appropriate for an oak savannah which is a prairie with more shade,” Symes explained. “I cleared the area, seeded it, watered it, put straw on it all the things you do when you start a lawn from grass seed. It turned out to be really nice. We really enjoy it. It also provides a lot of fall color.” Each spring before the daffodils emerge from hibernation, Symes does a controlled burn of the prairie. He learned about controlled burns through one of Cathy Storm’s relatives who worked for the Boone County Conservation District and attended course on prescribed burn management programs. “The prairie’s biggest maintenance effort is the burn in the spring. It takes care of most of the invasive things that come up. If you see something you don’t like, go after it,” Symes explained. “A few years ago we had Canada thistle. We could identify it maybe six weeks after the burn when the other plants weren’t hiding it and got it with Round Up.” The Canadian thistle is an invasive weed that has spread readily throughout the area. “If you go up Perryville it would be a lot better to have the native plants in there rather than the Canadian thistles they have growing. Canada thistles are very difficult to kill,” Wild Ones volunteer Dick Gambrel added. “What happens is (that) most localities allow Canada thistles to go to seed and then they mow it so they break all of the seed head up and disperse the seed and spread it to all of the neighbors.” “The prairie has a lot of personality. It has personality from season to season. It has personality from year to year. What is a good year for some plants seems not to be a good year for other plants. It is fun to watch it,” Symes said. “The fun growing plants is see what the hybridizers have done sometimes starting with the baptisia and the prairie dropseed, extending the color palette and size range. In some cases, making it much more suitable for a home gardener who has a small garden.” “We extended the native plants to the rest of the property. We have only put in native plants. We took an exception with the circle in front of the house and the plantings closest to the house. We gave native plants a preference but we would plant what was appropriate. More of the plants closer to the house might be more colorful than some of the prairie plants. In addition to the natural beauty of the Echinacea, Coreopsis of Zagreb variety, Penn sedge Jersey tea, rattlesnake master and prairie dropseed, the prairie attracts a wide variety of birds and colorful butterflies and the sounds of song birds fill the air at the Symes home. “We get quite a few butterflies. The cone flowers attract quite a few butterflies,” Symes explained. “Monarch butterflies need milkweed to feed on and to lay its eggs and to hatch the larvae. The emphasis has been now since there has been such a dramatic decline in the monarch is to get more habitats out there which for monarchs means more milkweed. It has been eradicated from most property in most ditches.” “Monarch butterflies, which embark on a 3,000 annual migration to Mexico, are endangered in North America due to loss of habitat in its wintering area in Mexico, pesticides, and a dramatic decline in native milkweeds. “An ecosystem is made up of all the living things that evolved there together. The health of that ecosystem depends on a rich biodiversity which, in turn, depends on the native plants supporting that habitat,” Ginny Watson, co-president of Wild Ones said. “We take the richness of nature for granted yet it represents such a delicate balance; one that is easily upset by the removal of even a few species from the ecosystem.” “Monarchs are just an example of the declining health of our biosphere. This is a situation we cannot afford to ignore, especially when there is so much we can do to correct it,” “Cornfields and soybean fields are all deserts to nature,” Wild Ones volunteer Kyle Kuranz from Roscoe added. The native plants offer additional benefits to landowners. “We’ve noticed with the prairie we don’t’ get water runoff. The prairie acts operates like a giant sponge and takes in that water. Prairie is one of the techniques that many areas use for storm water irrigation,” Symes said. “They could use prairie in front of Schnucks, and Target and Hobby Lobby that perennial flood and it would pull in a lot of that water. That is one of the advantages of using the deep rooted prairie plants is their ability to absorb water and store it.” Symes encouraged others to plant native plants on their property. “More nature you can have so you can enjoy it, the better,” he said.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 16:52:10 +0000
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