When it comes to attractive plants on lawns and in flower gardens, beauty doesn’t have to be imported from elsewhere. Native varieties work well, too.
Many of the grasses and flowers that adorn our yards are exotic species — plants that were brought here from other parts of the world. Maintaining the beauty of these plants is often a high-maintenance job. Many exotic species require high amounts of water, fertilizer, pesticides or some other type of labor-intensive chore that takes more of your time — and money — than you originally intended.
An increasing number of people are realizing that native plants can be just as beautiful to look at and a lot less trouble to grow.
Native plants are a good choice for landscaping whether you have a small plot in the city or large acreage in the country.
Increasing environmental awareness, a desire to connect with nature on a personal level and limited time to devote to home landscape and land management projects are reasons to turn to natural landscaping alternatives.
The plants and patterns that occur naturally in our prairies, forests, savannas, wetlands and glades can give us good landscaping ideas.
There are many benefits associated with a well-planned, diverse native landscape. One of these is wildlife attraction. The songbirds, butterflies, small reptiles and mammals that you go to parks and other publicly owned facilities to see can often be enticed to your backyard with the proper plantings.
These plants provide food, nesting and other habitat essentials required by these animals. Those instinctual needs will draw a variety of wildlife to specific plants whether they’re growing at a nature center or in your backyard.
As mentioned above, native plants usually require much less care than exotics. The reason for this is simple: Millions of years of evolution have adapted these plants to the conditions found here.
Exotic plants have few of these inherent adaptations and, as a result, can often only be sustained through extensive “life-support” procedures such as heavy watering, fertilization or pest-control applications.
Native plants come in many shapes, colors and forms. Those interested in growing indigenous plants have a wide variety of flowers, shrubs, grasses, small and large trees from which to choose.
The best natural landscaping plan is one that involves a mixture of plant types, but space can be a limiting factor and, if it is, that’s still all right. Native plants can work for you whether you have 10 acres on the edge of town or a single flower bed alongside your driveway.
Some people shy away from native landscaping techniques because they think a native-plant landscape will have a rougher, “woollier” appearance than the well-manicured flower beds to which they’re accustomed.
That’s not necessarily a fair criticism because you still control the neatness of your plantings. Just because you have native plants doesn’t mean that you can’t mow, trim, edge and do all of the other aesthetic maintenance procedures that are done with exotic plantings.
People can learn more about native plants and their landscaping benefits on Saturday at the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Naturescaping Symposium and native plant sale at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center.
No registration is required for this event, which is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Grow Native program, which is supported by the Missouri Department of Conservation and public and private organizations, also contains excellent information about how native plants can fit into your backyard design schemes.
More information about the program can be found at your nearest Department of Conservation office or on the Grow Native website, www.grownative.org.
Francis Skalicky is media specialist for the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Southwest Region. For more information about conservation issues, call 417-895-6880.
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