Balancing native, non-native plants in a yard is a tough act
March 9, 2009
By Jane Garrison
All ecosystems, if untouched, are beautiful. Look at the high Cascades, the Sonoran Desert, the Washington coast, our woods here, and you find only perfection. Why are our yards so difficult? Why does my yard look like blight in comparison? I think the biggest problem is that many of us introduce non-native plants into our gardens, fully expecting Mom Nature to take care of them, and she doesn’t want any part of it. How do we introduce interesting species and coerce nature to help? It sounds sneaky, but really, it’s the secret to good gardening practice.
We all know that certain plants like specific conditions. Many books are available listing plants for dry shade, damp soils, hot sun, etc. The idea of putting the right plant in the right place goes a long way toward helping introduce exotics. Other lists include plants that please us in certain combinations for color, bloom time, texture, etc. If we could do both and get those plants to survive year after year, we would have it made.
As always, not knowing where to start, I turned to the master gardeners for naturalized combinations in their yards.
Don Morrow, our local rose expert, said he would never grow roses alone. He needs a mix of plants to keep diseases at bay. He grows chives around roses to repel aphids. Delphiniums and other flowers are used to attract lady beetles, lacewings, etc., because they eat aphids. Morrow’s garden is composed of difficult, disease-prone, show-quality plants that he manages, because he has figured out how to let nature help maintain his yard.
Danna Colingham, our clinic’s specialist with teaching gardens, likes plants that come in waves to take over an area in decline. In one space, she has early blooming narcissus, the dying leaves of which are then covered by corydalis, which fades in summer to give way to gladiolas.
Anna-Karin Svennson, our perennial expert, has naturalized several types of bulbs under late leafing, deciduous shrubs. She is unable to get tulips and narcissus to come back in her yard and likes nemerosa and blanda anemones, winter aconite and snow drops. She gets a wonderful early-spring show, followed by the shrub foliage covering the dying leaves of the bulbs, which then creates an umbrella to shield the bulbs from rain.
Maureen Paszek has Darwin tulips that have come back every year for 15 years. Amazing, because it’s difficult to get tulips to come back at all. The tulips grow in a sandy corner of her yard under a honey locust tree, which leafs out late, allowing light to get to the bulbs. After the bulbs bloom, the locust becomes an umbrella, keeping the soil fairly dry, which is good for tulips.
The beauty of natural landscapes inspires us, but many people don’t have time to maintain a garden. We’ll never get our yards up to Mom’s level, but we can improve our little corner of it by letting her do at least some of the work.
Jane Garrison is a local master gardener and landscape architect who gardens in glacial till on the plateau.
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