Simple Gardening: Native Plants

Have you always dreamed of having a beautiful garden? Did you always think that once you got your new house you would go out into your brand-new yard and create some floral masterpiece; the likes no one has seen since Victorian era floral gardens? Did you then look up from Pinterest and realize you neither had the time or the inclination to not only set that up but also that you neither have the skill or the theoretical know how to pull it off? Did I mention upkeep? Do you know how to maintain a garden like that? No? Cool, we’re all on the same page.

That brings me to the point native plants. No, I’m not telling you to go plant dandelions. I’m talking plants indigenous to America. I’m talking about gorgeous orange Butterfly Weed, Dainty looking Arkansas Bluestar that you can get in the palest blues and vibrant yellows and oranges. I’m talking about beautiful, (this is a weird thing to say about flowers) natural looking flowers. Flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds… a little bit of wildlife. On top of all that, they’re easy to take care of.

Since native plants are NATIVE they’re good for the ecosystem, there’s nothing invasive about them. You won’t have to do much in the way of soil adaptation if they’re from the same landscape. You won’t need to water them as much because they’re used to the climate and the amount of water, they would usually get from just the groundwater and the rain. It would eliminate seasonal maintenance because they’re natural cycle would be synched up to the seasons and would die or hibernate and come back by itself without much interference.

The care of these plants would be minimal. The brunt of the work would be arranging location and putting the plants into the ground. You need to think about how sun loving the plants may or may not be. If they’re meant to be in the shade, full sun or half and half you need to plan to plant them under a tree or on the side of your house that gets sun half of the day and is in shade the other half.  Young plants or freshly moved plants tend to need more water. You need to either remember to water young plants regularly for a year or set up a system especially for the hotter, drier summer months. Then put down mulch, mulch will cut down weeds which will mean cutting down on weeding.

So,  there it is! I always suggest you go to a local nursery. The people there will be able to answer your questions and help you figure out what you want. They should know the difference between native and exotic plants. Also, the plants from a nursery should come with all the plants general information. Good luck!