It starts innocently enough.
A neighbor with a green thumb has an overabundance of Dames rocket (hesperis matronalis) and shares it with you. You decide to further brighten the landscape with fiery burning bush (euonymus alatis), purple loosestrife (lythrum salicaria) and yellow iris (iris pseudacorus), and throw in a little wintercreeper (euonymus fortunei) for ground cover.
Your garden ends up looking like a hardy riot of color and texture, but in reality, your beautiful yard is bad for the environment.
These species, as well as a host of others, are classified as invasives: nonnative plants that beat out indigenous ones for sunlight, space and nutrients.
While you may not be too concerned because the problem seems contained to your backyard, Emily DeBolt will tell you 80 percent of the plants used in gardens have exceeded their boundaries and taken over roadsides, wetlands and fields.
“With more development, more habitat loss, our gardens are part of the bigger environment, the bigger ecosystems. What we put in our gardens does matter; it’s not just our own space,” said DeBolt, co-owner of Fiddlehead Creek Farm and Native Plant Nursery in Hartford and the director of education for Lake George Association.
Invasive plants can be introduced into new environments in several ways.
Birds, for instance, might eat the berries off the burning bush in your yard and leave their excrement in the woods. Before long, new plants start sprouting there.
Seeds from invasives can be transferred by wind, water and humans.
DeBolt said she often finds dandelions growing along a trail in the high peaks likely tracked in on a pair of hiking boots.
Once they take hold, the effects of these plants can adversely affect the environment, economy and human health.
Such commonplace plants as garlic mustard (alliaria petiolata) threaten tree seedlings by expelling a toxic chemical into the soil.
The aforementioned burning bush, which DeBolt said hasn’t been sold in garden nurseries in Massachusetts for 10 years, is a big problem for maple syrup producers because the shrub takes over the forest understory — the area from under the tree branches to the forest floor — and prevents maple seedlings from regenerating.
Giant hogweed (heracleum
mantegazzianum), which originated in the Caucasus Mountain region between Europe and Asia, is listed as a “noxious weed” on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website. Coming in contact with its sap can cause severe irritation, blistering, scarring and blindness.
DeBolt recently attended a meeting of the Ecological Landscaping Association in London and listened to the serious issues caused by the highly invasive Japanese knotweed (fallopia japonica), which grows in dense patches along streambeds and crowds out native species, and in turn, wildlife. It’s a problem not only in Europe but also here.
The economic impact is tremendous, too. According to one report, plants of this nature cost the United States at least $137 billion annually.
Certainly not all nonnative plants are invasive, and according to one website devoted to invasive species control and management, only about one-third of the plants in New York are not indigenous to the area.
The problem is that 10 to 15 percent are aggressive enough to lessen the biodiversity of a region and wreak havoc on the environment and economy.
At Fiddlehead Creek Farm, DeBolt and her husband, Chris, carry only perennial flowers, grasses, ferns, groundcovers and shrubs that are indigenous to New York. These are the plants that were found growing in this area, typically before European settlement.
Such plants act not only as food and habitat for butterflies, birds and other wildlife, but they having adapted to our climate over time. They don’t need fertilizers or pesticides to stay healthy.
Working with the plants nature intended for your property also means you won’t have to spend money and time amending the soil.
Natives help protect waterways, too, because the deep roots absorb stormwater run-off better than turf grasses and the shallow root systems of ornamental plants.
While some people equate native plants with a wild, weedy look, DeBolt said there are so many choices, you can still have that meandering meadowlike field of flowers with bee balm (monarda didyma), bergamot (monarda fistulosa) and switchgrass (panicum virgatum) if you’d like, or you can cultivate a more defined, manicured appearance using lady fern (athyrium filix-femina), foam flower (tiarella cordifolia) and low-grow fragrant sumac (rhus aromatica) with mulch separating each shrub.
“It really is about having the right plant,” she said. “There are some made for clay and sandy soils, shade and sun. Natives live in extreme climates even within New York — high peaks, cliffs, thin soils, low moist wetlands, the coast. If you have acidic soil, have blueberries.”
DeBolt emphasized when buying plants, be sure to know the scientific name, because there are different species and some may not be native.
Certainly if you have established gardens full of invasive plants, you might be reluctant to pull out what you’ve spent a lot of money and effort sinking into the ground. DeBolt advised just to learn from your previous ways and buy native forever after.
“It’s really just not to have the invasives,” she said.
However, if you’ve decided you do want a more eco-friendly garden and wish to rid your garden of the offending plants, pull them out and place them in a black garbage bag. Let it sit in the hot sun until the plant material turns to mush, and dispose of it in the trash. Don’t put the plants out for waste pick up or in a compost pile, and check with your local department of public works for more disposal information.
And it’s still OK for gardening buddies to share plants; just make sure they are noninvasives.
“It’s part of the gardening culture. We just need to be a little more thoughtful,” DeBolt said.
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