Greenacres: Helpful Tips and Information
Considering Landscaping with Native
Plants?
Here are some helpful tips and information to get started.
Whether you are thinking about planting a small urban plot or a few
acres with native landscaping, you may have some questions about
getting started and what you can expect from your new landscape.
First, you need to decide what you want to do with your land. Are
you going to incorporate some native plants into your garden? Restore
an area to its original pre-settlement condition? Is your goal to
attract wildlife or to solve an environmental problem such as
flooding?
Next, consider the land and climate you have to work with. Is it a
sunny or shady location? Is the soil wet (a low point on your land, or
under a rain gutter spout), or sandy and dry? There are native plants
that were originally found in sunny prairies, shady woodlands, or
moist areas. It is important to choose native plants which will thrive
on the current conditions on your site. These specific plant types
will flourish without additional water or fertilizers once properly
established, because they are well-adapted to your particular climate
and soil.
To get started, it is a good idea to prepare the area to be planted
following recommendations from the nursery or garden supplier you
choose to buy from. Native plants take time to become established in
the landscape. Depending on whether you use seeds or plants, the
wildflowers or grasses may not be abundant for one to three years
because the plant's energy is directed towards developing the roots.
Working with nature takes patience, but it is well worth the wait!
You may encounter some polite curiosity' from neighbors who are
only familiar and accustomed to the extremely manicured and defined
lawn. You should talk to your neighbors about what you are doing, and
about why landscaping with native plants will improve the environment
in your neighborhood. Placing a border around the area you planted
with native flowers and grasses will help define the landscape. You
may also want to contact your local authorities regarding local
ordinances and weed laws. (For more information about things local
governments can do to promote the use of native plants, as well as
model ordinances and techniques, be sure to look at our Tool
Kit for Local Governments.)
Suggestions for native landscaping on residential properties:
- Draw your plan on paper
- Start out small, only do a little at a time.
- Tell your neighbors what you plan to do. Consider putting up a
sign (e.g. Jane's Wildflower Garden) to define your natural area.
This will help others feel more comfortable with a different
approach to landscaping.
- Talk with local officials to find out if there are any local
ordinances you should be aware of (e.g. restrictions on the height
of vegetation). If so, will they help you get a variance?
- You may even want to register your natural landscape with the
Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program of the National Wildlife
Federation or with the National Institute for Urban Wildlife.
There may also be other local associations available to assist
you.
(Be sure to look at the resources
section, and an informative brochure.)
Main information based on: 1.
The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front Lawn.
Written by Stevie Daniels. 2. Wild Ones: Natural
Landscapers, Ltd.
Native Plants Require Fire
Natural landscaping requires a different way of thinking about what
native plants really need to thrive. If you want to encourage native
plants, you must reestablish the ecological conditions under which
they evolved in your ecosystem. The key condition to recreate in most
ecosystems of North America is a pattern of regular burning.
As native plant communities evolved in North America, they were
subjected to regular fires from the lightning that occurred during dry
periods. Later, tribes which came to North America deliberately set
fires in prairies and savannas to help them hunt, to increase their
visibility to see those approaching their camps and to encourage plant
growth of herbs and medicinal plants. Over thousands of years, these
native plant communities have adapted to this periodic fire which was
usually conducted before European settlement by Native Americans in
the fall.
It is now in the genetic programming of these native plants to
respond to regular burning with vigorous reproduction and growth.
Without fire, native plants get shaded out by invasive brush species,
but with regular burns their genetic memory gives them a competitive
advantage over exotic weeds. For this reason, burns are needed to
establish and maintain natural landscaping.
Of course, you must do it safely, and in the right manner. The
appropriate conditions for conducting an ecological burn are written
in a document called a prescription. When a doctor writes a
prescription, it states the type, amount and frequency of medicine to
take to restore human health. Similarly, a written burn prescription
details the range of conditions under which a burn will restore the
ecological health of the native plant community and can be properly
controlled: wind speed, humidity, temperature, the crew and equipment
required, burn window, etc. That is why it is called a prescribed,
controlled burn, as opposed to a wildfire.
Properly trained volunteer stewards, as well as professional land
managers, conduct prescribed burns over thousands of acres of prairies
and savannas each year in North America. In fact, trained volunteer
stewards do most of the burning in the Chicago area, now called the
Chicago Wilderness by stewards, mostly because land managers can't
afford to hire professional crews.
Prescribed burns reduce the fuel available for dangerous wildfires
to ignite and rage out of control. Such a wildfire occurred in
Yellowstone National Park not so long ago. Prescribed burning can make
us all a lot safer by reducing wildfire hazards at the same time that
it recreates one of the key ecological conditions for native plant
communities to flourish in natural landscaping throughout North
America.
To learn more about prescribed burning see the following
publications:
Pauly, Wayne. R., How to Manage Small Prairie Fires Pyne,
S.J. 1982.
Fire in America: a cultural history of wildland and rural fire.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Wright, H.A.
A. W. Bailey. 1982. Fire Ecology: United States and Southern
Canada, John Wiley and Sons, NY.
Or call the Tall Timbers Research Station Fire Ecology Information
Service at (904) 893-4153, which provides an extensive list of
documents to the public on a fee basis.
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