Roll Call: Native Plants In My Garden
{ Click photo to enlarge }
Lately, like once a week, I hear about Doug Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home. First it was my Connecticut designer friend Scott Hokunson, then I noticed Tallamy was speaking at two conferences I wanted to go to, then again in the newsletter of Plants Nouveau president Angela Treadwell Palmer.
I’m accredited in organic land care through a program offered by the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) (Scott too, for potential CT clients), and it was through that accreditation course I first learned of Bringing Nature Home… Which I still haven’t read. (Shame! SHAME!!) I know, I know, I KNOW, I should’ve read it by now, it’s been on my reading wishlist for a year, but that list is as long as my plant wishlist, if you get me. I do, however, know the gist of it, it’s a big deal to me, and I’d like to pay the buzz forward over that gist here and now.
That is, the entire web of life, all the way up to us, depends on the little guys. I mean microbes in the soil, I mean earthworms, and I especially mean insects. Sure, these guys find exotic plants useful to a degree, but by and large, they’re from wherever you live, and they require plants native to where you live to meet their basic needs — food, shelter, procreation, etc. Think of an insect with native food needs in a mostly exotic garden like you, if you were wandering around a supermarket where most of the food was spoiled. Some people are eating it, and you know it’s food, but you can’t eat it! Instinctively, you can’t. But if you can’t find food, you’re outta luck. So are the little guys. Guess what? If their luck runs out, ours does too.
(In fact, I tried to explain as much last month on the Good Enough Gardening podcast; you may have been distracted by my podcast-long impression of Charlie Brown’s teacher.)
(I realize it’s a bit unfair to compare exotic plants to spoiled food, but I want to drive this point home. I HEART exotic plants, don’t get me wrong.)
Thus it came to pass that I said whatYOU talkin’ ’bout, Willis? I did an inventory of native plants in MY garden, and I shall share with you here. I’d encourage you to do the same, and to consider what other natives you could plant. There’s a crazy amount of debate over what’s native; for our purposes, this includes plants native to Massachusetts or, where noted, a neighboring state, and cultivars of those plants. (NOFA thinks cultivars count, Allan Armitage think cultivars count, so I think cultivars count too.)
Established native plants in my garden →
Natives planted/moved in fall, newly planted seed, or in the planting queue →
Natives still very young and subject to gobbling by INVASIVE winter moth →
So, what natives are YOU growing? Make a list! Put it on your blog! Pay natives forward!
Update: @timberpress gave me a heads-up that there’s a neat native plant picker thingy on Bringing Nature Home’s web site. Cool!
- Posted by AK on 2010 Mar 16 at 0513
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Andrew,
I love thie idea of posting native plants we’re growing in our gardens on our blogs…I’m going to take you up on the challenge and post on the topic tomorrow (or maybe the next day - still dealng with the aftermath of no power for several days because of the storm…). You MUST read Tallamy’s book if you are already in to natives. It will change the way you look at plants. I saw him speak in the fall at CT College and he was inspiring.
While looking over your lists I was struck by how I still view yucca as a non-native plant even though I know it’s not. You are growing many more natives than I am (a round of applause for you!) but I have deer to contend with. Do ouo? I would love to plant Rhus but don’t need another plant to protect from hungry deer.
I hope you’ll visit my blog later this week and check out my natives.
THANKS, Debbie, and awesome that you’re going to take the native inventory challenge! You make a really good point too — there are so many plants I’ve learned are natives I didn’t know were natives. I’ll absolutely check it out on your blog and let folks on Twitter know too.
No deer here, thankfully! Lots of deer around, but I have a buffer of quite a few other lots around mine and a fence in back. It surprises me that Rhus aren’t deer-resistant, but you’re right, I looked it up. It surprised me, since you see it growing all over the roadside. Deer fence?
I think I have to read Tallamy soon. I’ve got street cred to keep up. Or garden cred.
Andrew, I finally made over here today. Well, actually it is now tomorrow, but that seems to be the way things are going these days. Thanks for the mention today, and thanks for the shout out in your post. I appreciate it.
Now onto your post; That is an impressive list of natives! How big is your garden? I will make a list and post to my blog also, but that won’t happen for a little bit. It is a great a idea! The discussion regarding cultivars as native can be, shall we say “interesting”, but I think I will agree with you, NOFA and Mr. Armitage. I think Mr. Tallamy will agree also.
I also use non-invasive “exotics” (although I am starting to hate that term for it’s negative connotation) in many of my projects, but am using natives more and more. I am also finding clients wanting to natives more often. Maybe the tide is turning!
All the best!
Scott
I am so on a Tallamy kick right now. I saw him speak at the Perennial Plant Conference and wowser does it all just make perfect sense. One of his statistics totally floored me - did you know that 23% of a black bear’s diet is insects? I’m planning on planting for the bears now. Not sure how my neighbors will feel about that.
[...] have a blog to post your list of native plants, please leave a list in the comments here or on Andrew’s blog. (BTW - if you haven’t discovered Andrew’s blog yet, you’re in for a [...]
@Scott: Thanks re: the list! You’ll be amused to know my property is about a quarter acre. I… Just like plants a lot? Ha. I’ll be interested to see your list, and yes, it is too bad “exotic” is becoming a bad word. The truth is I’ll always love and plant non-native plants, but I do think it’s possible in terms of planting to weigh your options as to what exotic plants will most benefit the little guys, and plant accordingly. But that’s a post for another time. I’ll look forward to your post when you get to it!
@Kris: I think I may have read that! See what I mean? I’ve hearing so much about Tallamy right now I can’t keep track. PPA was one of the conferences I read he was speaking at, but I just couldn’t make it. Was the week I got my taxes done, thus spending to travel to CT seemed a bit imprudent. I would *love* to hear about your “bear garden,” and to see your neighbors’ expressions when you tell them.
What a great, thought-provoking post this is, Andrew! I have read Tallamy’s book, and like it, and personally have been growing native plants since the late 70s. They aren’t all perfect, of course, and some are more demanding than others, just like with introduced plants. Where I get exasperated is with those who think natives are all easy, or are the only things we should be planting.
I will take your challenge though it will take me a few days; assignments are demanding this week and I actually have to go out and look around our property at what all is here. I’ll return with a URL when I have something useful to contribute.
@Jodi: Awesome, I can’t wait to read your list, and thank you! Yes, I know exactly what you’re saying about some natives being just as demanding, and frustration over natives being billed as zero-maintenance magic bullets in the garden. If there’s one thing I say to clients over and over again, it’s that while I do believe there are low-maintenance plants (some of which are native, yes), the zero maintenance garden is by and large a myth. You should read Angela Treadwell Palmer’s post I linked to — it’s a fantastic, also thought-provoking post, and she’s in total agreement here!
[...] | March 17th, 2010 I’ve decided to take the Native Plant Challenge issued over on Garden Smackdown. Andrew Keys (@oakleafgreen … do follow, you won’t be sorry) created a roll call of all [...]
You’ve now peaked my interest in Tallamy’s book. I have yet to consider how the microbes feel about my plant choices, but let’s say I am sympathetic to their needs. I’ll have to add “Bringing Nature Home” to my ever expanding list.
I decided to take you up on your native plant challenge and publish my rather small list on my blog. It was a good experience. I’ll have to keep my eye out for more compatible natives in the near future.
@Kat: Thanks for commenting AND taking the challenge! I left a comment for you on your blog. Re: more natives for you, can we say Annie’s Annuals? Y’all have some natives I could only dream of. (And do dream of, in fact.)
I have been actively wildflower growing the better part of 40 years, 25 in this acre where I live now. Just a quick walk-thru gave me a count of some 250 native plants and wildflowers, some I have actively cultivated, some were native and already here. Not counting trees and shrubs, or “naturalized” plants like Japanese honeysuckle and Hemerocallis fulva, or the many varieties of wild native mosses that I have collected. A complete list would take me days, so I probably won’t do that, but I might put a partial list on my blog. As you can tell, I LOVE native plants! I also plant a lot of non-natives (especialy hostas, which are descended from Japanese natives) and a lot of native cultivars. You have piques my interest inTallamy’s book, I will have to add that to my library. Glad to find another native plant lover!
@Sandra: Thanks for commenting, and WOW! According to Tallamy’s measure, you’re giving back a very laudable amount to your local ecosystem! I’ll look forward to that partial list — I bet you’re growing some things I haven’t heard of that are native to my area too.
This is a great idea, but I suck at the Latin names!!
I can, from my back window right now, see the bluebonnets are about to bloom. And then we’ve let the backyard pretty much naturalize. I’m all up into that natives without really even trying in the beds. Credit Lady Bird Johnson. =)
@Pamela: Oooooooooh, bluebonnets. Sigh. I’ve only ever seen photos. What about Indian paintbrush?? Do you know ocotillo? You need to grow some of that! I tried to convince Vicky of that very early on in our friendship, and she thought I was insane.
I’ll take this challenge. May take a couple of days but it’s a fantastic idea. Thanks for starting it. I heard Tallamy speak at our native plant society last year. He was an engaging speaker.
@Karyl: Awesome! I will have VERY high hopes for the number of natives your garden! I know it’ll be great — look forward to it!
OK, I put a list on my blog! Come check it out!
http://chaosinature.blogspot.com/
I took the challenge - you can see my list, with comments at:
bigeastern.com
This was an excellent exercise too, really made me think about what I’d like to do with native plants in 2010.
@MartyL: That’s great! I’m glad you found it productive, and I’m reading your list now. Lucky you for having sassafras, I love that tree. And yes, I agree with you that gardening is more fun when it’s less controlled. (I am a designer, yes, but as a gardener, I go for controlled chaos.) Thanks for reading and commenting!
I was surprised how many natives I have, since I always feel I don’t have nearly as many as I’d like. I’ve posted the list to my blog.
@Rosemary: Great list — thanks for playing! I left a comment on your blog.
[...] Keys at Garden Smackdown has issued a challenge for us all to take an inventory of the native plants in our gardens. This is a great way to become familiar with the place of origin for all the plants in our gardens. [...]
I really appreciated your idea here. I knew that I grew a lot of natives and have struggled as a non-professional to understand the eco-system of my own backyard and to make biodiversity a goal. The learning curve has been huge. While I have spreadsheets of data on my plants, having species listed out helped me to understand that I am achieving my goals. This can be very hard to see while my garden and woodland understory is in it’s infancy in many respects. Sometimes it can be discouraging, but finally I got to sit back and say, “Damn, I’m good.”
@Karyl: “Sometimes it can be discouraging, but finally I got to sit back and say, ‘Damn, I’m good.’” — THAT may be one of the most fulfilling things I’ve accomplished with this blog yet. I’m so glad! I know what you mean, especially when plants are small, and you’re trying to establish a TRULY natural environment, the plants might not be so garish or colorful, at least at first. I’m so glad this was encouraging. It was encouraging for me too, and it’s also made me look at how I can increase a lot of these on my list. I have plenty of space to fill, and lots of these plants are still polka dots.