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Environment Blog
04/01/10
Go Native! (It’s easier than you think)
When planning trips to the garden center this spring, don’t forget to put a few Minnesota native plants on your list. The popularity of using natives has resurged for great reasons:
Native plants are beautiful!
In our increasingly technology-filled and complicated lives we often feel an urge to simplify, return to our roots, get our hands dirty, enjoy our green surroundings, and appreciate and sustain our environment and its history. Gardening with natives is one way to work towards these goals.
Native plant species have been tried and true survivors of our Minnesota weather extremes for hundreds of years on the native prairies and wild woodlands. What more insurance policy do you need that these plants are tough and hardy here?
Native plants work cohesively with the other components of our local native ecosystems. They provide food and shelter for beautiful native birds, and also for bugs that do the underappreciated but vital job of pollinating our garden and field crops. These plant and animal species have been working together since long before we showed up and made ourselves at home in their backyards, the least we can do is help them continue to thrive in our yards!
Exclusively native gardens are wonderful (imitating Mother Nature is surely the best way to flatter her) but remember that you don’t have to go totally native with your landscape to use and appreciate these beauties. Native plants do play well with others! Blend them into your existing landscape right along with newer plant cultivars by adding some clumps of beautiful Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) into your perennial beds. You’ll enjoy the peaceful rustling of the foliage and seed heads in late summer and fall breezes. Or use some Glossy Black Chokeberry shrubs (Aronia melanocarpa) to make a nice hedge along the edge of your property. You’ll have beautiful white flowers in spring, glossy green leaves all season, and the birds will thank you for the tasty fruit later in the summer.
The native possibilities are endless! Visit your local garden center for more native plant suggestions and GO NATIVE!
When planning trips to the garden center this spring, don’t forget to put a few Minnesota native plants on your list. The popularity of using natives has resurged for great reasons:
Exclusively native gardens are wonderful (imitating Mother Nature is surely the best way to flatter her) but remember that you don’t have to go totally native with your landscape to use and appreciate these beauties. Native plants do play well with others! Blend them into your existing landscape right along with newer plant cultivars by adding some clumps of beautiful Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) into your perennial beds. You’ll enjoy the peaceful rustling of the foliage and seed heads in late summer and fall breezes. Or use some Glossy Black Chokeberry shrubs (Aronia melanocarpa) to make a nice hedge along the edge of your property. You’ll have beautiful white flowers in spring, glossy green leaves all season, and the birds will thank you for the tasty fruit later in the summer. 
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