The Far Reaching Benefits of Native Plants
Picture for a moment a huge, great sugar maple (Acer saccharum) or an oak (Quercus) with wide strong branches. Think of what those trees have seen over their lifetimes. Think of how many squirrels and birds have nested in their branches. How many caterpillars and insects have called those mighty branches home. How many of those caterpillars and insects became food. How many leaves have fallen to feed the soil that the beautiful tree grows in. How many seeds or nuts have been scattered as food or for procreation. Now take that majestic tree out of the picture. What is in the same space? It’s a stark image.
We all love to have beauty in our garden. We want colour and texture. We want style and simplicity. We want what’s easy to maintain. We want birds and butterflies in our yards. We want, we want, we want. What do you suppose all the rest of the creatures on the planet want?
What’s the difference between a bug and an insect?
We often use the term “bug” to mean every creepy crawly. A true bug is a specific type of insect with piercing, sucking mouthpieces.
Food and shelter, the same basic needs as humans. What do you think will happen if we do not provide the food and shelter needed for all those creatures? Think about the food chain for a minute. I know, we all learned about the food chain back in what, grade 3? When was the last time you really considered the consequences of not providing for all the creatures in the food chain? Start right down in the soil with the microscopic bacteria consuming the remnants of leaves that have fallen or been eaten by an insect. The insects that are either on/in the ground or on/in the plant are food for birds or other insects or animals such as skunks. What about birds that feed their babies worms and insects, but also need fruit and berries to eat?
All of our native creatures have evolved with the native plants. They have evolved to feed and raise their young using the plants that were around them. We all know that monarchs need milkweed (Asclepias). Did you know that it is specifically the monarch caterpillars that need milkweed to grow and build their cocoons? Milkweed is toxic, but monarchs are immune to the toxic glycosides and store them in their bodies. This is a classic example of species that have evolved to co-exist.
We have been told that we need to plant flowers for our pollinators. While it’s true that many flowers provide nectar for butterflies and other insects, they may not provide food for other stages of the insects’ life cycle.
The female won’t lay any eggs if there is no food available for the caterpillar. To attract butterflies, we need the plants that evolved with that butterfly. Before colonization, there wasn’t anyone planting Zinnias (Zinnia) for the butterflies. Don’t get me wrong, Zinnias are beautiful flowers, I love them. They just need to be planted alongside native species for a more diverse buffet.
How about our native bees?
Did you know that we have over 800 native bees in Canada?
400 of those are in Ontario, and only 16 of those sting when threatened. The other 384 species of bees don’t have stingers.)
There has been a lot of media attention around the loss of honey bees. Do you know that the native bees are declining just as fast? Our native bees are more efficient at pollinating than honey bees and are just as susceptible to pesticides. However, native bees do not live in hives the way honey bees do. They need natural habitats to build their nests in. Humans are continually destroying these habitats. Some bees need wood to burrow into, some build nests in the ground and some live in hollow plant stems.
So what can we do?
We can put more thought into what plants we surround ourselves with. We should make an effort to make sure that the majority of plants in our garden serve some sort of function. Beauty for us is not enough. We should be carefully choosing plants that feed something or provide a home to something. A variety of native plants will always fit the bill.
Native plant definition:
A plant that grew in your region before colonization.
There are many beautiful native plants around. I wish I could give you a magic list of the perfect native plants to add to your garden. Truth is there is no perfect list but there are many perfect plants. Native species have evolved in every growing condition we have. It takes a bit of research on your part to find out what is native for you. The good news is that this is becoming a hot topic. More and more nurseries have native species sections, even some of the big box stores are realizing there is a marketing opportunity for them. There are some nurseries dedicated exclusively to native plants. Many of them deliver too.
If you are looking to have gardens designed for you, be sure to ask your designer to include native plants. Imagine if we all converted our gardens to have 50-75% native species. That would do wonders for the biodiversity around us. Some of you might be picturing a wild, un-kept mess as the only way native plants can be used. While that is common, it is most definitely not the only way to add them to your yard. You do not have to convert your whole space to a meadow. By all means, if you enjoy the look, go for it! You can also strategically plant flowers and shrubs just as you would any other perennial border.
Okay, I said I wouldn’t give you a list but I will give you a couple simple examples:
- Instead of a Lilac (Syringa) (which has no value to anything, even the pollinators don’t touch it), plant a Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis). You will still have lovely blooms in the early spring which the pollinators will love followed by berries late spring early summer that the birds will love, then beautiful fall colour. They grow in the same conditions as Lilac. Serviceberries may not have the nostalgic Lilac smell but that is a “we want” characteristic.
- Instead of Forsythia (Forsythia) (again no ecological value), plant a Shrubby St. John’s Wort (Hypericum prolificum). It has nice bright yellow flowers the same as Forsythia a bit later in the season that are very attractive to pollinators– especially bumble bees. In the fall the foliage turns a beautiful orange. St. John’s Wort will also grow in the same conditions. Forsythia is also one of those plants that can escape cultivation out competing other understory plants in the forest.
- Instead of the TERRIBLY invasive Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) (if you have one you should remove it! They are destroying our forests), plant a Chokeberry (Aronia). We love the Burning Bushes for their outstanding fall colour, but Aronia also has bright red fall foliage with the added bonus of flowers in the spring for the pollinators and edible berries late in the fall. I’m told the berries are tart but good for jam making. I have yet to have the opportunity to try them. The birds seem to get to them before I do!
All three of these examples are easy to grow and adapt to many growing conditions. Simple additions or conversions (well not so simple if you have a mature Lilac) to what you might be planning or may have. These are all manageable sized shrubs that can easily be added to any city lot.
Need a couple more?
- How about Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). It’s a member of the milkweed family with wonderful bright orange flowers. (Just because weed is in the name doesn’t make it a weed!)
- Or a Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). Lovely pale purple flowers that pollinators and hummingbirds flock to.
- Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) for a tall back of the border plant. If the conditions are moist it will rapidly expand though. Butterflies and bees love it.
- If you like grasses, there is the nicely shaped Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). A smaller, denser little sister to Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) which is wonderful for larger spaces where it can really expand.
Adding natives is an easy thing to do. I’m not saying that you need to rip everything out and start over. That would be fantastic, extremely costly and a lot of work, but fantastic. Instead, when something dies, replace it with something native. Consider replacing a shrub a year. Or, if you are expanding an existing border, try to design it with as many natives as possible.
Food For Thought (pun intended)
Think back to when you were a child. Do you remember riding your bike through a cloud of bugs? Do you remember how many insects were squished on the grill and windshield of the car? How often do you have to clean the bugs off now? Have you really thought about what it means to have less of those annoying insects buzzing around us? Less insects means less food for other species higher up in the food chain. We need to do everything we can to increase the number of annoying insects.
Greater numbers of native species in our cultivated landscapes both, small and big, will increase the biodiversity immensely. Increasing biodiversity does mean accepting more chewed leaves and more annoying insects, but it also means the number of birds and beneficial insects will also increase because we are feeding them and sheltering them. And guess what, they will eat the annoying ones!