r/OhioGardening

I delineate wetlands for a living, and Ohio clay yards show a lot of the same signs I look for in the field. If a spot in your yard keeps killing plants, check for these:

1. Water still sitting 24 to 48 hours after a normal rain.
2. Sedges, rushes, or moss moving in on their own where grass used to grow.
3. Gray soil a few inches down, often with rusty orange streaks or spots. That pattern forms when soil stays saturated for long stretches.
4. Little mud chimneys from crayfish burrows.
5. A sour or rotten egg smell when you dig.

If you're seeing two or more, fighting it with fill or drainage is often a losing battle. Planting for wet conditions usually works better, and a lot of great Ohio natives want exactly that spot.

Happy to help if anyone wants to describe a problem spot in their yard.

I’ve been converting my Columbus, Ohio yard into a habitat garden for the past few years, and one thing I’ve been paying a lot more attention to is when things bloom, not just what I’m growing.

I kept noticing that even with a lot of plants, there could still be periods where very little was flowering.

So I put together a free Bloom Gap Finder using bloom-period data calibrated around Columbus/Zone 6b.

You can select plants you’re growing and see where your potential gaps are, then explore plants that could help fill them.

I’d love to get some feedback from other Ohio gardeners. Is this something you’d actually find useful when planning a garden?

https://gilletteshabitatgarden.com/bloom-gap