More About Native Plants . . .

Great article from the NYTimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/garden/30GARDEN.html

The book the writer speaks of, “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in our Gardens” (Timber Press, 2007), by Douglas W. Tallamy, is the book that inspired our recent native plantings as well. And I am fired up to start planting more. I noticed lots of native bees buzzing around the dandelions in the early spring. But S is allergic to them, so we have to pull them out. And no, dandelions are not native but all kinds of bees like them.

We are also being sure to leave some uncovered ground to provide nesting area for native bees. Most bees native to North America burrow in the soil or in wood and do not live in hives. So leave some portion of your yard unplanted, to give those sweeties room to roost. If you can't tell, I love bees and bees love me. I'm one of those weirdos who's never been stung. (Now watch me go get stung right now).

Here's more of why you (yes, you) need to put some native, flowering plants in your garden, if you haven't already:

"My Korean spicebushes (Viburnum carlesii) are also in full bloom, their clusters of pinkish-white flowers filling the air with the heady scent of cinnamon and honey. But it’s striking how few bees are sipping nectar from these Asian shrubs compared with my native redbud and sassafras trees, which are literally vibrating with pollinators.

It bears out the research that Gordon Frankie, an entomologist at the University of California, Berkeley, has begun in gardens around that city, where he and his students have surveyed 1,000 different plants, both native and nonnative.

“Only 50 were native plants, but of that 50, 80 percent were attractive to pollinators,” Professor Frankie said. “In contrast, only 10 percent of the 950 nonnatives were attractive to pollinators.”"

Go native, y'all!

More of What We Planted

So, we planted the native and drought-tolerant perennials by the walk to the front door.

We have:

"wild thing" sage (salvia greggii)
"coral canyon" twinspur (diascia integerrima - from S Africa)
desert beardtongue (penstemon pseudospectabilis - native)
sticky geranium (geranium viscosissimum - "utah's choice")
firecracker penstemon (penstemon eatonii - native)
mountain big sagebrush (artemisia tridentata vaseyana - native)
rubber rabbitbruch (chrysothamnus nauseosus - native)
heather queen/mosquito plant (agastache cana - ?)

All native plants were purchased at Western Gardens. Some even came with a cute "slow the flow" waterwise plant label with the "waterwiseplants.utah.gov" website listed.

Some of these are going to get too big for where we've put them. I'm hoping they will survive being dug up and repositioned later on - hopefully not till fall.

We also put in lavender by the steps to the front door, and lots and lots of alyssum. I think the walk will smell lovely, no? And be very bee friendly.

Garden Dreams

Shane & I have brought a whole lots of seeds and plants the past few weeks. It is so fun to have some land that we can grow in. We've bought two apple trees (a fuji and a jonathan red), an Italian prune (plum), blackberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, many herbs, spinach, etc. We have many seeds we are praying will sprout (a few radishes already have). We have also bought a bunch of native/drought tolerant perrenials for the front garden. Yes, we've gone a little plant crazy!

We've put the trees in the "back back yard," were the playhouse is. We are planning to put the popcorn back there this year as well, so it doesn't cross polinate with the flour corn we are putting in the regular garden. Eventually this area will be the mini-orchard, with the fruit trees and a beehive.

In the "back yard" we have the veggie garden and the compost. And the tire swing. And the clothes line. And, hopefully, the shade-loving wildflower patch.

In the side yard, were the massive roses are, we've put in all the berries. The herbs are in the kitchen window box.

We are planning to put the perrenials in the front yard, along with some lavendar by the front porch, to go with the smaller roses. We hope to have an almond and a walnut in the front yard, eventually. Shane's Dad has some great walnuts and he is going to start some saplings, and he's giving us one. I cannot even begin to thank him for all the help he's given us - including helping us prune like crazy when we moved here last fall.

Our dreams are probably bigger than our abilities--well, my abilities. But with Shane temporarily out of work and me working four 10's, we think we can keep up with it all. We think of it as an investment in our house and our family. We intend to stay here forever, but if we do need to sell, established fruit trees and vines, as well as the climate appropriate perrennials, should help the resell value. But mostly we are excited for the food and beauty! E is as excited as we are to grow our own food (M is mostly happy about strawberries). And that's a really good feeling.