Any other gardeners out there like me, wanting to support pollinators and other beneficial wildlife but having a hard time keeping up with the advice about to DO it? Finding out it’s more complicated than you thought it would be, that the problem isn’t JUST that 3-word memes are wrong? I’m beginning to think the problem is that NOBODY KNOWS much. At least about gardening for wildlife.
That was my take-away from a talk (now on video) for the Four Seasons Garden Club in the Washington DC area. The speaker is Rachel Floyd, director of Quarry Gardens at Schuyler in Central Virginia, and her talk covers “The differences between native gardening and ecological restoration. How to recreate the original plant communities native to your site. With specific source URLs for geological, soil, and plant reference.”
What’s wrong with native plant gardening
Let’s start with what Floyd considers problems she sees with native plant gardening:
Native plants have become quite popular. They are a money-maker. I think there’s a lot of greenwashing going on in the native plant retail world….Sometimes when we’re trying to support native pollinators by using native plants, actually it does the opposite. There are a lot of studies that show that when you pick native plants without much knowledge behind what you’re doing and you pack them together tightly, you may actually be doing some harm to what you’re trying to support.
She mentions studies posted to a science-based Facebook group called The Thoughtful Monarch as “science around what we’re doing when we plant too many nectar-rich plants together to attract Monarch butterflies. Actually that has been shown in several studies to promote the spread of disease among the Monarch population because it’s unnaturally concentrating those Monarchs.”
Well, damn.
She goes on:
So there has to be more thought behind planting natives when what you really want to do is support a native animal like the Monarch butterfly. You can’t just fall prey to a plant tag at the garden center that appeals to your own human aesthetic needs and tell yourself that you’re supporting the Monarch butterfly. You actually have to look at the science and look at natural plant communities around you to see what actually supports native animals.
A parallel is drawn between gardeners buying native plants and kids buying candy.
Native plant gardeners are like “a kid in a candy store, where our attention goes to the bright colors, the shiny labels… If you’re picking out things that are pretty and showy [like the monarda and purple coneflower shown on screen], you may end up with a beautiful garden – it’s aesthetic, but it’s more for the human eyes though than it is for supporting native animals. So if your goal is to support biodiversity, that’s not going to do it.”
She uses this image of a naturally occurring wet prairie, with just two or three colorful plants out of the 70+ plants making up that ecosystem “that aren’t showy but are a huge part of why a natural setting like this supports so much plant and animal life.”
So many flaws in defining and grouping native plants
So Floyd suggests a definition of “native” that makes ecological sense: “Native plants are those that have evolved in a specific ecological area for long enough to have developed a multitude of complex and specialized relationships with other plants, animals, fungi, and communities of biota.” Though the devil is deep down in the details, like agreeing with anyone on what’s “long enough.”
I’m glad that she went on to prove that the common practice of grouping plants by their political boundaries is ridiculous, by offering this example local to her.
“Native to Virginia” doesn’t make much sense when you’re talking about what’s native or not in a specific location because Virginia – we have the coastal plain, we have the mountains, and then we have the piedmont and those different regions host completely different plant communities.
And that’s one smallish state! My state of Maryland, about half the size of Virginia, has six defined ecoregions, all further defined into subregions, and so on.
Your thesis-level assignment: “Natural Plant Community Modeling”
Experts like Floyd, with her 10 years experience doing ecological restoration, say the right plants to support native wildlife are those in natural plant communities for your site, which are determined using a very impressive (and daunting-to-impossible for most of us) modeling method:
- Assessment: project site qualities and conditions
- Find a match: identify natural plant community trajectory of project site and align with local natural reference site(s)
- Observe: reference site study, research, notetaking
- Design
The break-out of site analysis alone is awfully daunting and that’s just Step 1.
Know your Geology
Digging even deeper into Step 1 of Step 1, let your eyes glaze over these types of geology that could exist on your property, which you need to know to determine the correct plants to grow there.
How’s the humble DIY gardener ever to learn all this about their site? Here’s how (in theory): use the geology layer of Google Earth (which I couldn’t find). If you’re in the speaker’s Piedmont region, go to this website and navigate to “What and where is the Piedmont?” (which I couldn’t find). Or use an app called Rockd, which I tried and was rewarded with the following screen, which is far too geeky for the likes of me.
You couldn’t pay me to do this kind of research, which is geared toward professional restorationists, not the millions of DIY home gardeners or the millions more who are just starting their journey in gardening by planting natives and need basic gardening instruction. (I covered this notion recently in my review of matrix landscape design.)
And I’m throwing no shade on the garden club for hosting this speaker; she knows her stuff and blew my mind, in a good way. It left me thinking: “More power to any of the much-smarter-than-me scientists who might be succeeding at ecological restoration.”
But wait! There’s still more to picking the right plants
At the end of all that research to find plants that are native in an ecologically meaningful way to your site, you still have to account for change – in the climate, in your local deer population and in the presence of harmful introduced plants*, to mention three powerful change agents. So again, more power to anyone who can do all that research And see long-term success with their results. I’m betting they’re restoration professionals, not regular pollinator-loving homeowners.
There’s such a thing as TOO much milkweed?
The same week my mind was blown by that garden club talk, I spotted a post on the Bees in your Backyard Facebook page about a study called “Secondary Compounds in Milkweed Nectar Negatively Impact Thermal Tolerance in Bumble Bee” published in the “Ecology and Evolution Journal. Like the title says, researchers found that nectar in certain milkweeds reduces the heat-tolerance of bumble bees, so they recommend that milkweed not be the main component in a pollinator garden and that we grow a diverse set of flowers.
The importance of diversity is something we’re increasingly aware all, but it poses still another dilemma for the square-footage-challenged gardeners like me with my little townhouse yard. That’s because we’ve also learned that we need large enough clumps of each pollinator-attracting plant for the beneficial critters to spot them.
Is it just me or is anyone else feeling both overwhelmed with information about gardening for wildlife AND wanting more of it – if it’s applicable to us amateurs with suburban- and urban-size yards.
*I’m trying to avoid the increasingly controversial term “invasive.”
Thank you for this, Susan – I feel better. I love the term *introduced* as opposed to invasive. I have been actively trying to expand my few plants of swamp milkweed, which were found by monarchs this past summer – this article gives me permission to stop working on that. Not sure what else I want to put in or expand upon to help the bees. Any further thoughts on this are appreciated.
Introduced and invasive do not have the same meaning. You might be thinking of the term non-native for which the term introduced is an acceptable replacement.
It’s true that many have been led to believe all nonnatives (introduced) ARE invasive, but I used the term “harmful introduced plants” which is I believe the term that Rebecca McMackin is hoping will replace the xenophobic term “invasive.”
Very interesting read, Susan. Methinks that I’ll just continue gardening in a way that makes ME happy! That method has worked for 60 years and, at 80, I’m not sure I have the energy or stamina left to change.I seem to have a wide variety of bugs and birds living on and visiting my quarter acre suburban gardens, which pleases me. Let the future generations fine tune this process!
YES!
Having gardened with wildlife in mind for some 40 years, that being before it was “popular” with lots of people making money off if it, I have two tips. One is to go to local public gardens and nurseries at different times of the growing season and pay attention to which plants are attracting bees in large numbers. And for folks with smaller gardens, pay attention to which plants are attracting several different species or sizes of bees. Once you start noticing those plants, think about bringing some of those species into your own gardens. Over the years, you can be noticing how the plants are behaving with each other and expect to see jockeying for position. Watch for which of these plants are attracting numerous bees in your own gardens and make decisions about whether you want to intervene in the plantings and how. In late fall, after leaving your stalks standing, you can start paying attention to which birds are taking seed from which plants, as well. Over time, you’ll becoming an informed wildlife gardener just by learning from your own observations. Of course reading can help, but books and other resources don’t take the place of becoming intimately familiar with your own patch of earth and the life that comes.
Thank you, Ann. I know the finches are very fond of my echinacea, especially the old fashioned, tall prairie ones. I love how they perch on the seed heads, in an impish way.
Terrific advice Ann. –MW
Susan,
Your piece is a nice contribution to our hobby. Thank you!
There is perverse comfort in realizing that the interplay of natural life, including animals, birds, insects, soil life (fungi, bacteria, and other macro and micro biota), plus climate (moisture, temperature fluctuations, wind), and geology . . . is WAY beyond our ability to comprehend fully. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up.
The complexity and wonders of our world are there to appreciate . . . even in limited measure. It should, however, give us pause before we sternly lecture each other about which are the “correct” choices among the various natural and aesthetic approaches to gardening.
We don’t know as much as we like to think.
Truer words….! Thanks for joining the convo.
It’s not just you.
Such a thought provoking article! It affirms my growing suspicion that we need more and better restoration projects wherever they can fit and let gardeners simply garden. I’ve alway felt that getting more gardeners started is key, and all the lecturing potential gardeners see online and elsewhere is overwhelming and discouraging. Once started, new gardeners invariably become increasingly responsible as they learn and garden more, which is where the need for encouraging, empathetic, digestable, and easily accessible good information comes in.
This line in the first paragraph hit home: “I’m beginning to think the problem is NOBODY KNOWS much.” Nature is such a complex web. Gardening a bit less so, and yet getting from zero to 60 is still so much for the typical homeowner and casual gardener. Hell, even for the impassioned gardener. We need to realize that we are just at the very beginning of figuring out “gardening for wildlife.” We’re off to a decent start, but it’s pure hubris to think we’ve strayed very far beyond a scratch on the surface.
1,000%. But about “the lecturing potential gardeners see online and elsewhere is overwhelming and discouraging,” as someone who’s in the communications game, how do you think we could get basic gardening information to the native-gardener-wannabees out there who aren’t getting the knowledge they need to succeed? I’d love to see at least some of the content be geared to beginners and not JUST covering the hot eco-issues. Over and over again. I’d love to see a course called “Gardening for wildlife (or native-plant gardening) for people new to gardening.”
…alternatively, you could just take a walk in your local woods and see for yourself what’s natural. Around here, it’s basically oak/hickory/pine, with very little else. No garden!
So do as you please, since you’re in a developed location, not living in a shack in the woods. Problem solved!
Thought I’d play devil’s advocate.
Terrific article Susan agree 100% with Scott — and glad to see a shout out for my garden club Four Seasons! –MW
Great article, expressing a frustration many of us have felt.
However, I’d like to distinguish between the goals of “ecological restoration” and “backyard native gardening”. The former aims for a specificity of plants that match the ecosystem: geology, soil, land shape, etc without respect to the human element. On the other hand, the backyard native gardener, while still striving for right plant right place, might relax those very strict limitations, seeking instead to find a balance between their plant’s ecosystem services and their services to the humans in their habitat.
In response to Tova-Salix Discolor, commonly known as Pussy Willow has attracted more bees than any plant I have ever grown. It is an early pollinator here on Cape Cod, it’s catkins shining in the sun in mid to late March. It is oftenn hard to get near the plant to take cuttings.
Thank you! Very much appreciated, Penny! Now to check to see if it is tolerant to the juglone tainted soil in my garden from it’s proximity to a stand of mature black walnuts (main offenders) plus a hickory and a Siberian lilac (also juglone extruders).
Agree! Everyone in MD lives within half a mile of a stream, I’m told. Your local woods have all the geology and other site qualities. Only research needed consists of walking in your local woods and observing.
Sadly, so often the local woods are covered with those aggressively spreading introduced plants formally known as invasive. And honestly, what native plants there may be there I probably would not be able to recognize.
But you can learn. Join a Weed Warrior workday or a MD Native Plant Society field trip, and don’t forget your local Wild Ones group
I expect many of your readers are gardening in fill material anyway. We definitely don’t want people to become discouraged and give up. I think diversity and layers in smaller gardens are key. In larger areas remove the invasive species and keep and promote the good stuff that pops up. The speaker is associated with a consulting firm so there is that as well.
Interesting subject, Susan. Thank you for sharing. The key to successful wildlife support, as Floyd mentioned, is to observe thriving local plant communities and note the insects/animals you see benefiting from them. I’ve noticed in Texas prairie remnants and roadside rangeland how milkweed is scattered, rather than massed, so when I put it in gardens, I do the same—never occurred to me that this might be nature’s way of controlling virus spread. I suppose planting for wildlife can be as complicated or as simple as the landowner wants. Nerds like me may wade through the fine print (Check out the 2nd edition of Hitchmough & Dunnett’s Dynamic Landscape). A more pragmatic option might be to narrow down a list of keystone regional plants and see which ones align with cultivation considerations and design preferences. Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park has done much of the work for new gardeners. They have tons of good information https://homegrownnationalpark.org/get-started-planting-native/ A YouTube search for Doug Tallamy will bring up many of his helpful talks, as well. All in all, I think that the more research-based information out there, the better for both nerdy and new gardeners.
While I agree that doing the research that the author describes is way beyond most of us, I would argue that there are resources out there to help us plant native gardens without being a botanist or geologist. Here are some of the ones that I use in my area of southeast Michigan. One is that I am a member of my local Wild Ones organization which has garden tours and presentations that are very helpful. Other local native plant groups can be a very useful source of information. Another is resources from your local land grant college, like this, the Michigan State University Natural Features Inventory (https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/services), books, like this one for Michigan: A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan, by Cohen, Kost, Slaughter and Albert, and Landscaping with Native Plants of Michigan, by Lynn Steiner. Native plant nurseries in one’s area can also be very helpful. Botanical gardens are moving to include native gardens in some areas. Don’t give up!!