As gardening season ramps up, experts weigh in on how to choose and care for native plants, how to best incorporate them into your yard or garden, and why they're important.
Native plants -- plants that are indigenous to a particular region -- do wonders for local wildlife, supporting insects, birds and other creatures with food and shelter. As gardening season ramps up with the Memorial Day Weekend, experts say the best way to begin incorporating natives into your yard is to simply give it a shot.
From there, he encourages gardeners to think about their space through the lens of all four seasons: You can include plants that flower early in the spring, plants with long summer blooming periods that you can build around, plants that undergo foliage changes in the fall, and plants with unique branching structure to provide some winter interest.
by signing up you agree to our terms of service Campbell said starter native flowers include shooting star and woodland floss for the spring; cream and white wild indigo, butterfly weed and pale purple coneflower for the summer; and sky glaciers, white purple prairie clover and any blazing stars in the late summer.
The environmental benefits of adding native plants to yards and gardens are due primarily to their support of local birds and insects. The same can't be said for foreign plants, such as the turf grasses that cover most of our lawns, because animals don't know how to benefit from them. Thus, these plants don't play a role in the overall local ecosystem.
Most insects have a similar story, each one depending on a network of native host plants. In turn, insects perform a necessary ecosystem function by decomposing organic matter, acting as an essential food source for birds and driving the production of seeds, fruits and vegetables through pollination.
"A healthy environment can be tiny. It can be a couple milkweed plants or a couple of other native plants that encourage other native pollinators," she said."We sell tons and tons of milkweed, which makes me happy because that's a really good jumping-off point for people. Seeing butterflies is an outward and visible sign that you can make a difference, and that's a great way to introduce kids to nature.
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