Guest View: Going Native, Why and When to Choose Native Plants
(Lucas Harrison-Zdenek, Ferndale Permaculture, June 15, 2016)
Going Native: Why and When to Choose Native Plants Native Plants have been an important topic among gardeners for many years. Recently, with the advent of the “green” movement, many non-professionals have begun to take notice of topics like native plants, butterfly gardens, organic farming and localized planting for both food and environmental stability.
Native plants have taken up a specific niche in this new conversation because of the importance of pollinators and a recent shift in how we think about our urban and suburban yard spaces. Landscaping has been a common practice for centuries.
Well trimmed hedges and even green lawns have adorned manors and homes going all the way back to the 1600s in England when creeping thyme was used as an even, soft ground cover to create a “lawn”. Creating a space that is functional as well as beautiful is where native plants become important. A native plant is one that, while not always originating from the geographical area, has been in a location for a very long time and provides many important services for other plants, insects and animals.
Native plants are usually not invasive, although that isn’t always the case. They usually have multiple functions within the larger ecosystem. One important function is adaptation. Native plants are most often well adapted for their specific environment and, by thriving, perform every other function very well.
I have chosen seven native plants that perform many different functions in our southeast Michigan environment. Each one has several different uses and characteristics. What we find most in common between them is that they help to stabilize the ecosystem around them. This list is simply a start. There are many, many more to choose from. The Native Plant Nursery in Ann Arbor has compiled a larger database for our area. Their website was my primary inspiration for the choices in the following article.
Yarrow – Usually used medicinally, Yarrow is also an incredible companion to any garden. It repels harmful insects and attracts helpful ones, like predatory wasps. This plant also attracts ladybugs, which help many other garden plants by eating aphids.
Wild Strawberry – Wild strawberries are among the sweetest variety of strawberry. They are perennial, so no need to replant year after year. The flowers bloom early, are plentiful once the plants are mature, and pollinators love them.
Milkweed – We all know that milkweed is a “must-have” garden plant because of the Ferndale Monarch Project’s efforts in raising awareness of the plight of the Monarch butterfly. This “weed” is perennial and blooms in late summer, usually pink but some varieties are orange or yellow-orange. The milkweed plant is the only plant that a monarch will lay eggs on. The hatched larvae also consume the plant before metamorphosing into a butterfly.
Beebalm – Also called Wild Bergamot, this herb is excellent for a number of medicinal uses, like tea for headaches. It also attracts many native and non-native pollinating insects as well as hummingbirds. It is an excellent companion to plant with yellow coneflower and anise hyssop.
Black-eyed susan – In the same family as the coneflower, the black-eyed susan carries many of the same healthful and pollinator-attracting characteristics as Echinacea. These flowers are a different in a few ways. The yellow petals can be used to make dyes, the root has been used to treat earaches, and the plant can also be used as a diuretic for urinary issues. In addition to medicinal uses, the plant is beautiful and can be grown in pretty much any kind of soil. There are even a few vining varieties of this flower that will grow up a trellis like clematis.
Coneflower – Echinacea is a powerful plant in herbal medicine. While it is commonly used to fight infections and cold symptoms, it has also been known to act as an anti- inflammatory. The domed flowers appear in late summer and last through the fall, making this a must have in any butterfly garden to feed those latecomers. The petals fall off and the central dome goes to seed and feeds finches and chickadees through the winter.
Wild columbine – Sometimes called “Little Lanterns”, because of the way the blossoms grow, the Columbine contains plenty of nectar, which is sought by both hummingbirds and butterflies. Depending on the source, this plant is found to be a perennial or a self-seeding plant, which isn’t exactly the same as being a “perennial”, but it does mean that they don’t have to be replanted every year. As an early spring flower, these are excellent food for the emergence of bees. The blossoms are also edible for human consumption and can be added to salads.
In spite of how tempting it may be to jump on the native plant bandwagon and attempt to replace all your plantings with natives, remember that well-adjusted non-native plants have a place as well. In many cases non-native plants can harbor as many or more species of beneficial insect and animal as their native counterparts. Like everything in the natural world, it is about balance. If we went with native-only plantings, vegetable gardens would be quite bare in Michigan.
Similarly, as I mentioned before, some native species in the wrong kind of environment, can actually become invasive because they have no natural predators. Balance is the key to a happy and healthy ecosystem full of happy and healthy plants, insects, and animals.
For more info on gardening, planting, ecosystems, and sustainability, find me on Facebook or join my local group, Ferndale Permaculture.