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Michael Warren Thomas

About Michael Warren Thomas

https://naturallygreenflx.com

Michael Warren Thomas lives in Rochester, New York where he offers consultation, maintenance, and education to those looking to transform their lawn into a vibrant, natural landscape.

Posts by Michael Warren Thomas:

Bald-faced Hornets Nest

Bald-faced Hornets – Friend or Foe?

Bald-faced hornets are friends! These creatures have an intimidating name and they look rather fearsome, but they are very unlikely to sting you. Unfortunately for all wasps, bees, and hornets, it is the Yellowjackets that give them all a bad name. This is not a scientific number, but I would guess that 99% of all stings are from the Yellowjackets. Honey bees will only sting you if you step on them (can’t blame them) and Bumble bees only seem to get aggressive when you dig them out of their home in the ground. I’ve done that, and now I know where the term “a bee line” comes from. I can also attest to the fact that their sting (in my neck) doesn’t hurt any more than a Yellowjacket even though the Bumble bee is much bigger. A Bald-Faced Hornets Nest in Genesee Valley Park The Bald-faced Hornets that built a home next to the Tupelo shelter in Genesee Valley Park must have done an exceptionally good job, because it was still hanging there until recently, months after most other nests have fallen to the ground. I love examining their nests in detail, from the octagonal combs where they raise their young to the paper like wood pulp that they use to cover their combs. If you look closely at the nest, the colors are woven together like a piece of art. The queen will survive the winter in the ground, and all the other Bald-faced Hornets will die in the freezes of late fall, so there are no hornets to worry about in the winter. I also found a nest on the Riverway Trail just south of the Ford Street Bridge on the west side of the river. Our Backyard Hornet Nest Several summers ago we had a small baseball size nest appear in our apple tree, only about 5 feet off the ground and within 12 feet of our outdoor dining area. I’ve seen dozens of nests over the years but only one other nest that was within 15 feet of the ground. Rather than remove the nest, I used it as an opportunity to watch the hornets up close. Because my dog likes to try to eat bees or anything that happens to fly by, I had to create some barriers to keep him from walking underneath the nest. He gets a funny look on his face when he gets stung in the mouth by a Yellowjacket but has no negative consequences. If I hadn’t noticed the nest, I would never have known there was one in close proximity. I usually see a couple of Bald-faced hornets in our vegetable garden and amidst our grape vines, but I didn’t notice an unusual number of hornets that year. Identifying The Bald-Faced Hornet It won’t help you in Scrabble but it has a delightfully challenging Latin name – Dolichovespula maculata. Bald-faced hornets have white and black bodies, somewhat larger than Yellowjackets. They are scavengers, but apparently don’t like the sweet […]

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Tree Canopy In the Finger Lakes Region NY

Native Plants Feed Our Ecosystem

I’ve been interested in native plants for a long time but I always looked at ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials from other parts of the world as valuable additions to our landscapes. After reading Doug Tallamy’s books (Nature’s Best Hope, Bringing Nature Home, and The Nature of Oaks), I’ve realized that every non-native plant that we use in the landscape is a lost opportunity to feed our ecosystem at a time when that local ecosystem is struggling to sustain itself. I won’t immediately remove all the non-native plants in my yard, but I will not plant any new ones. All those berries that you see on some non-native plants might not feed any of our native creatures. The fact that my non-native plants have almost no signs of caterpillars or other insects eating the leaves is no longer a positive characteristic. Those pristine leaves are a sign that those plants fail to provide food for caterpillars which are essential food for our birds.  Invasion Of The Aliens Sometimes non-native insects like the Spongy Moth (formerly Gypsy Moth) overrun our forests but that is precisely because the native birds don’t eat them, or at least not very many of them. The sticky tape that people use to keep the Spongy Moth caterpillar from climbing their tree will also keep other caterpillars from reaching the ground to pupate, so once the worst of the Spongy Moth infestation has moved out of our area, you should remove that sticky tape. The Superpower Of The Mighty Oak Now I understand several key reasons for the decline in insects and therefore birds because the landscapes around us are filled with mostly grass and non-native ornamentals. Lawns are a virtual monoculture of a few varieties of grass, and support only a few moths, butterflies, and birds. Robins love the worms if you aren’t using pesticides and the larvae of the June Bugs (European Chafers) love to eat the roots of your grass, but that is about it. In contrast an oak tree might host over 550 different species of moths and butterflies in our region. The caterpillars from these species are a key food for migrating birds and nesting birds like Chickadees. A pair of Chickadees will catch 6,000-9,000 caterpillars to raise one clutch of eggs.  Start Small Perhaps, But Start Soon You don’t need to have acres of land to create a natural habitat and have a significant impact on our ecosystem. In the past ten years I have raised over 1,000 Monarchs from eggs that were laid on the Common Milkweed and Swamp Milkweed that are intermixed with all the other plants in my City of Rochester 1/10 acre yard. You can feed the ecosystem by planting a few pots, eliminating grass in a portion of a side yard or backyard. Nature will appear almost overnight.

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Michael Warren Thomas at Horning's Greenhouse in Penn Yan

Get Reacquainted With Naturally Green

Naturally Green is embarking on a third phase! I started as a lawn and landscape design company in 1989. Then in 1994 things moved to the airwaves and the Naturally Green radio show began. Weekly the hour-long show talked about all things gardening in the Rochester area and ran twenty-six years. During the lawn and landscape phase, I maintained over a hundred lawns for quite a few years. Lawns require a significant amount of maintenance when they have sun and decent soil, but even more work when poor soils, shade, tree roots, lack of rain, and pests challenge the goal of a green carpet. I regularly encouraged people to do something else in shady areas or on steep slopes. (The seed companies should really market the “shady” grass seed as “less sunny” grass seed, but of course they would sell less of it.) My Own Lawn-lessness When we bought our house in 1992, it had the traditional lawn with a couple of shrubs along the foundation of the house. Immediately I used newspaper covered with mulch to smother the grass and let it compost in place. I wasn’t trying to create a nature sanctuary then–I just didn’t want to mow the yard 25-30 times a year! Through my landscape business I found trees and shrubs that needed a second chance and brought them home for a new life. Our Hinoki Cypress and Japanese Maples were being thrown away by a nursery and the Kousa Dogwood had to be replaced with a new one for a landscape customer. My favorite plant in our front yard was a gift from a lawn customer. I mentioned how beautiful their Ironwood (Carpinus Caroliniana) was in their backyard. It was easy to recognize because a nursery owner in Rome, NY (Parker Scripture) had planted one of these in my parent’s yard sometime around 1975. I loved watching that tree change throughout the seasons. Several years after I noticed the Ironwood my clients found a seedling of the tree and gave it to me. This 3-4 inch seedling thrived amidst the Goldenrod and wild Asters, as well as St. John’s Wort, Siberian Iris, and Sweet Woodruff, but you couldn’t see it for most of the year. Twenty-five years later it is thirty feet high and has forced the Goldenrod to move out to the tree belt. I didn’t set out to create a landscape that would change so drastically over several decades, but I’ve grown to love the changes that have transpired. For the past 10-15 years I have only watered the front yard a couple of times if we were experiencing a severe drought. Even though last summer was extremely dry, I didn’t need to water at all. There are virtually no weeds because the ground is covered with plants. My tree lawn area has some field grasses in it that have been hard to remove because they are grown intertwined with lots of daffodils, Black-Eyed Susans, and Common Milkweed, but these grasses fit in […]

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