Why Native Plants?

Last fall I attended a lecture at the Delaware and Raritan Greenway by Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware. He wrote a book called Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens, which I read, and which gave me many more reasons to plant native plants. His lecture was inspiring and added even more information from his latest research. Dr. Tallamy autographed my book and was gracious enough to pose for a photo with me. He has a website (see below) which you should visit to learn why it is important for us all to plant native plants.

Here is a summary of his arguments. We have developed the USA so much that only 3 to 5 percent of the land remains undisturbed as habitat for native plants and animals. Where land is in isolated patches the biodiversity decreases, so we need to provide food and other habitat for native plants and animals around and between nature preserves. Some native animals, such as deer, can eat a wide variety of plants, and some, such as raccoons, eat our garbage. However, most of the food chain comprises animals that only eat native plants, and the animals that eat them and the animals that eat them, and so on. Insects do the most consuming of plants, and are in turn eaten by other insects, birds and other animals, so we need to provide the plants that insects need to eat. For example, each type of caterpillar has to eat a certain native plant or family of plants, or maybe a few families, in order for it to survive (think of monarch butterfly caterpillars which can only survive on milkweed leaves). Each native plant supports its own ecosystem of insects and sometimes other animals that rely on it for food, and cannot eat anything else. These insects are in turn eaten by birds or turtles or frogs. Butterflies, which most people love, cannot exist without first being caterpillars, so if you want butterflies, song birds, turtles, etc. you should plant native plants. And the birds that are attracted by your butterflies will keep the caterpillars under control, just like a balanced ecosystem.

If my summary doesn't make sense or isn't persuasive, please visit the website or read the book. On the website you will also find lists of the native plants that support the greatest number of native insects, and please note that the top 21 woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody vines) each support more insects than the highest herbaceous plant (which happens to be goldenrod).

As you plan your garden this spring, or choose trees to replace the trees that fell over in the windstorm or snow storm, please select plants that are native to the place you live, because there they will be found by the native insects, birds and other animals that need them. For information on plants native to your area, you can visit the website
http://plants.usda.gov/checklist.html, or look at the Native Plant Society of New Jersey website http://www.npsnj.org/ In future posts, I will be showing you photos of some of the plants I am planting, as well as some I've planted previously or found in the wild as they come back to life this spring. I will also be showing some native plants at the Native Plant Society of NJ table at Montgomery Township's Earth Day Fair on Sunday, April 25 from 12:00 to 4:00 at Montgomery High School on Route 601.

I think spring may be here

Montgomery was bloodied but unbowed--we survived the winter with its snowstorms (first photo), and we survived the rain and wind storm (second photo). Suddenly the weather is beautiful, and flowers are now blooming that came out in January or February last year (snowdrops, third photo). Buds are starting to open and frogs are calling from vernal pools.

My husband ordered seeds for his vegetable garden in January with a friend who gardens. Now there are trays of seeds germinating on the coffee table and other trays growing in the basement under a fluorescent light. He has been poring over gardening catalogs for months and calling local nurseries, searching out the best flowers, shrubs and trees and the best sizes and prices for his garden and for community planting projects. I have been researching native plants.

But it's still not too late for you to plan your garden! When you do, please consider native plants. They benefit the ecosystem and are well-suited to the local soil and climate.

If you lost some trees, think about replacing them this spring. Be sure and ask advice about the right type of tree for the spot you have in mind. There is no point fighting Mother Nature by planting a wetland tree in a dry place, or a sun-loving one in a shady area.

Whatever you do, please DO NOT plant any invasive exotic species. These are non-native plants that spread from cultivation and grow in the wild, taking habitat away from native plants and the wide variety of native animals that depend on them. Common examples are Bradford pear, Norway maple, burning bush, barberry and English ivy. Bradford pear trees have weak branching structure and they sustained a lot of damage in the recent windstorm (fourth photo), so you will be doing yourself a favor if you don't plant them.

Montgomery Township is picking up branches curbside on Monday, March 22, and they will chip them up and add them to their wood chip pile. It would be even more sustainable for residents to compost as much as they can, or use it as firewood (fifth photo). I have seen shrink-wrapped firewood for sale that has been shipped over from Europe, and if you use firewood you would do best to buy local. We found a friend who heats with wood and is happy to have pieces of our fallen sugar maple branches.