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Plan Next Year’s Staycation Garden Safari
Eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar making an appearance in a wildlife garden. Photo by Francine Oulette.
Why go on a safari when a safari could come to you? Imagine yourself sipping lemonade on your lawn chair while strange and marvelous creatures entertain you. This is what you experience when you turn your yard into a wildlife sanctuary. Fall is the time to put in the native plants that will bring this parade to your door.
Most perennials and shrubs and some trees do best when planted in the fall. The cooler, wetter weather puts less stress on the plants while their roots continue to grow well into winter. If you want to enjoy butterflies and birds, choose native plants, as those are the ones that support our local wildlife.
Many parts of the country are lucky to have native-plant only nurseries, as well as other commercial nurseries that label their native plants.
For more inspiration to plant natives in your garden now, check out PlantNOVANative’s “Staycation” video.
Why Choose Native Plants
Native plants have formed symbiotic relationships with native wildlife over thousands of years, and therefore offer the most sustainable habitat. A plant is considered native if it has occurred naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without human introduction.
Exotic plants that evolved in other parts of the world or were cultivated by humans into forms that don’t exist in nature do not support wildlife as well as native plants. Occasionally, they can even escape into the wild and become invasive exotics that destroy natural habitat.
Native plants help the environment the most when planted in places that match their growing requirements. They will thrive in the soils, moisture and weather of your region. That means less supplemental watering, which can be wasteful, and pest problems that require toxic chemicals. Native plants also assist in managing rain water runoff and maintain healthy soil as their root systems are deep and keep soil from being compacted.
Take Action: Find the best native plants for your location with our native plant finder and happy planting!
*Thank you to Margaret Fisher of PlantNOVANatives for sharing native plant inspiration.*
