Native Plant Gardening is not One & Done

 

The places where we live are mostly artificial constructs. Those of us in urban/suburban areas are living in an environment of our own making. Someone cleared the land enough to build a house on it and the plants that we’ve chosen to invite into this space were—for the most part—our choices. I hope you’ve chosen native plants, as much as 70% if you can, either in what you planted or what you chose to keep. But you’re not done; you’re never done; just like with a garden that uses non-native plants, things change.

As many of you have done this spring, I spent time this week editing the garden. Sediment on the driveway had convinced the mountain mint (Pycnanthemum) that it had about 8-10 more inches of room so I reclaimed that space and potted up the extra plants. A tall annual grass had squeezed into all the extra spaces in the front bed (nature abhors a vacuum?) and I easily pulled much of it out so that what I really wanted to grow would have more room. 

I continue to monitor one 2x2 foot area of the lawn for a small new weed that appeared in 2022; these last two years I’ve been able to find and pull it before it blooms. I hope it will run out of energy eventually. I continue to monitor and pull false hawkweed (Youngia japonica) and the ever-present stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), mostly in the shady areas. And while I love the bright blooms of the native biennial butterweed (Packera glabella), I usually cut off the spent flower heads so that it is not the only thing in my yard every spring.

Butterweed seeks total domination!

I’ve written before about having to occasionally remove things – like trees that have grown so large that they shade out the space at the expense of a more diverse environment. The area where the tree was removed is now a large patch of mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), which thankfully the deer usually avoid.

Mayapple around the tree stump

Critters are a source of delight but also frustration when they destroy plants. While deer have done damage (both eating things and causing damage from antler rub), moles and voles have too. A pair of lilies that I featured in 2022—after writing that they survived moles—were destroyed the very next year by the same critters. A friend gifted me more of them; I will be planting them in wire cages in the ground!

So enjoy your gardens and your native plants and know that—native or not—our gardens are always a work in progress for a variety of reasons. Working in the wildlife-friendly garden is always interesting and helps to bring us close to many of the small reasons we do it.