We would like to landscape our property with planting native to the Catskills. Currently, it has a healthy crop of ragweed, which we could live with if none of us proves allergic! But it would be more fun to do more with the land!
Resources and Inspirations
Native Plants Form a Meadow-Like Habitat (from Dwell magazine article)
This project used native NYS plants for the landscape:
Maybe Dan Sternberg was half-joking when he said, "I don’t want to own a lawn mower," but landscape architect Jamie Purinton took him seriously. After she heard his wish, she wandered the former horse pasture he had bought in the Hudson Valley and five hours later came back with a fistful of little bluestem grass, penstemons, goldenrods, and asters. From that moment onward, her mantra was: "Let the meadow be the star." Dan signed on without hesitation, as he would to many of her out-there ideas.
Native Wildflowers
The Catskill Mountain Club has a page dedicated to native wildflowers
Where to buy NYS Native Plants
Check out Native Gardening resources from the U.S. Forest Service for many links!
Classification of Soil according to the Soil Survey of Sullivan County
Our soil is classified as MnB - Monguap Loam, 3% - 8% slopes, very stony. We have bedrock at roughly 2 to 3 feet below the surface of the soil. The soil is classified as 6s, which means that it has "severe limitations that make them unsuitable for cultivation." The "s" means that the soil is shallow, droughty ("having little or no moisture; dry or arid"), or stony.
Map Unit Composition
Mongaup, very stony, and similar soils: 85 percent
Minor components: 15 percent
Estimates are based on observations, descriptions, and transects of
the map unit.
Setting
Landform: Hills, mountains
Landform position (two-dimensional): Summit
Landform position (three-dimensional): Mountaintop, crest
Down-slope shape: Concave
Across-slope shape: Convex
Parent material: Loamy till derived from sandstone, siltstone, and
shale
Typical profile
H1 - 0 to 3 inches: loam (7-27% clay, 28-50% silt, less than 52% sand)
H2 - 3 to 22 inches: gravelly loam (more than 15% rounded gravel, not more than 3" in diameter)
H3 - 22 to 26 inches: unweathered bedrock
Properties and qualities
Slope: 3 to 8 percent
Surface area covered with cobbles, stones or boulders: 1.6 percent
Depth to restrictive feature: 20 to 40 inches to lithic bedrock
Drainage class: Moderately well drained
Capacity of the most limiting layer to transmit water (Ksat): Very low
(0.00 to 0.00 in/hr)
Depth to water table: More than 80 inches
Frequency of flooding: None
Frequency of ponding: None
Available water capacity: Very low (about 2.8 inches)
Interpretive groups
Land capability classification (irrigated): None specified
Land capability classification (nonirrigated): 6s
Hydrologic Soil Group: C
Hydric soil rating: No
Other Information from the Soil Survey
Our planting will also be impacted by temperatures. In the Soil Survey document, there is a page dedicated to showing temperatures in Liberty, New York, which is not far from our property. It can get cold up there!