Native Plants

Next summer, I'm planning on growing a native plant garden in my back yard. Does anyone else have one, or is interested in starting one?

I don't have a garden devoted to just native plants, but it's sort of on the back burner for something to that effect down the road. My native plants are interspersed with the others in several beds. I will never get purist about it though. Plants/seeds won't have to have been growing within a few miles of my area, or they may be an improved variety of the original. I have collected some seeds of really tall grass, some other interesting looking grasses, Columbine and a plant that looks like Thalictrum going by the leaves. May start some this winter. I have the usuals for my area - Purple Coneflowers, Prairie Smoke, Asters, Liatris, Anemones, Violets and probably some that I don't even know grew around here in the wild. There are wild roses at the edge of my property, but they will have to stay there, pretty as they are.

What are you going to plant?

My backyard has a lot of sun during the spring and summer months, so I'm thinking of going with a meadow theme. I might do a few patches here and there to start. I have a greyhound so I want to make sure she has space to get goofy when she's out there. I love the look of columbines. I'm in a newer subdivision, so I would like to invite some butterflies and birds back into the neighbourhood:)

I thought I was starting a native plant shade/semi-shade garden this past spring, but it seemed as though almost everything I went looking for was unavailable this year. So I have a mixture of natives, almost natives (native to eastern Canada, but not necessarily my specific area), and cultivated garden stock. My current plan is to replace the cultivated stuff with native species as I am able to find them, and if that takes a while that's okay. I'm in no rush :-)

--Ginny

I'm also going to incorporate some native plants into my garden. If you live in a rural area or are able to get out hiking, collecting seed is easy (incidentally, there are serious ethical issues regarding this type of behaviour so ensure that you tread very lightly on the land should you decide to go this route).

Here's a dandy website that will help you identify most of the wildflowers you'll ever encounter in ontario. There's little or no gardening-specific info but the list itself is so comprehensive as to make it indispensible. Note how many of "our wildflowers" are invasive species from Europe and Asia.

http://www.wildflowersofontario.ca/list.html

For the record, I find wild columbines so beautiful. I've found that you must freeze the seed to get them to germinate.

I find that some of the nicest looking "gardens" are in abandoned lots where the trefoil, primrose, chicory and blueweed has taken over, but, I guess that's a matter of personal taste.

Cheers and good luck

Steve

I purchased a book last weekend at Chapters, which was on clearance for $5.99.

It's called "Natural Gardens" by Canadian Gardening Magazine. It's pretty good for the price, if anyone is interested in native planting, I would suggest trying this book out. Thank you Steve for the link, it' very helpful :)

sugarshokt I have a few things in my garden and noticed that the Liatris is one butterfly magnet.
My mum's garden in Calgary has a wonderfull show of prairie crocus in her field lawn in the spring and they were there first.
Being that you are in the better zone you will have more choices than I so I will be looking forward to photo's.
Ann