Native plants are timesavers
Many of you are probably wondering how to get out of some of the spring yardwork you’ve created for yourself. All those beds, borders and lawns seemed like a good idea at the time, but now their beauty has been replaced with weeding, watering, deadheading and pruning. It’s time to think about using more native plants in your landscape.
Native plants are all around us in the forests and fields, and the nursery industry has been working hard to bring the best of them into cultivation for our gardens. Because they are already adapted to our summer heat and dryness and winter cold, including them in garden landscapes can help reduce the work and the watering. Including natives in the landscape is fairly easy and doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite conventional plants completely.
Begin thinking of your landscape as a series of circles. The first circle is the area close to the house, areas of the yard you use a lot or those that are close to water. Here you can plant your favorite high-maintenance plants because you can keep an eye on them and tend them easily when you need to. This is where I plant my rhododendrons, the holdovers of my Western Washington roots. Tea roses would fit this category.
The second ring should include a mix of lower-maintenance conventional plants and natives that have particularly showy characteristics. This is the ring for the shrub roses, conventional plants that need average watering and some of the new cultivars of native plants. Examples of these include the colorful Dart’s Golden and Diablo ninebark, pink-flowering snowberry, red- and yellow-twig dogwood and mock orange. Perennials can include penstemons, blanket flower (gilardia) and its cultivars, ground covers like evergreen kinnikinnick and grasses like Idaho fescue and cultivars of blue fescue.
The outermost circle can be mostly native plants or conventional plants that can take the least care and water. This circle will be in the corners of the yards away from heavy use areas, along the fences and in corners behind other plants. It is often the area that gets missed or underwatered by the sprinkler system. This is the perfect place for plants like oceanspray, ninebark, service berry and snowberry.
Using native plants does not mean you will not have to water and care for them. Most natives in a garden setting benefit from some regular watering to look their best especially the first couple of years as they get established. Once they are established, though, you may need to water them regularly only during the hot parts of July and August. They won’t need regular fertilizing and most are fairly resistant to bugs and diseases.
Look for native plants at area garden centers or check out Plants of the Wild (www.plantsofthewild.com) in Tekoa; Firwood Nursery, 8403 W. Burroughs Road in Deer Park, 276-8069; or Desert Jewels Nursery, 9809 E. Upriver Drive, 893-3771, (www.desertjewelsnursery.com). Call or e-mail ahead for hours as they are seasonal businesses.