Encouraging People to use Native Plants in their Gardens

Hi Rebecca,

There are many groups that promote use of native plants across the world, but native plants are not a panacea. Our campaign takes the opposite tact and discourages the use of invasive alien plants. Because we now have so many invasive insect and disease pest in our area, many of our native plants are very pest prone and planting them creates a demand for pesticide application which we are trying to discourage.


Gary Fish
Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
United States
http://www.YardScaping.org

A good article is "Does variation in garden characteristics influence the conservation of birds in suburbia?" by G D Daniels and J B Kirkpatrick. Biological Conservation volume 133 (2006) pages 326-335.

Bernie Masters
environmental consultant

Rebecca,

Florida USA has the Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program that encourages natives in a politically savvy way that does not raise alarms by lawncare/nurseries. See http://fyn.ifas.ufl.edu/

One of my programs, called Adopt-A-Pond also heavily encourages natives both in aquatic environments and in the residential landscape. In addition to our own efforts, we also offer incentives to ppeople in our programs that complete the FYN process. See http://hillsborough.wateratlas.org/aap or contact me directly for more info.

j mcgee
Chief Environmental Scientist
Hillsborough County Specialized Services
United States

Hi Rebecca,
I hope you will look to the incredibly sophisticated body of knowledge from permaculture which originated in Australia in the 70s and continues to built upon on a daily basis. Founder David Holmgren's encouragement of use of edible plants in already altered human environments (suburbs, cities) means a fraction of the agricultural water use to produce same, usually no pesticide use, no greenhouse gas emissions/food miles (beyond trips to the nursery), public health improvement (exercise, child nutrition, child and adult mental health, vitamin D).

Drought-tolerant and attractive edible perennials are the best answer for persons in transition to a more labour intensive annual garden. There is a wide body of knowledge on sub-tropical and tropical perennial food gardens, and more recently on temperate perennial polycultures (Edible Forest Gardens - I&II - Dave Jacke; Perennial Vegetables; Permaculture, A Designer's Manual).

GARDEN AGRICULTURE: A REVOLUTION IN EFFICIENT WATER USE
First published as an opinion piece in Water, Vol 32, no8 December 2005, the journal of the Australian Water Association .
Download PDF (53KB)

"Permaculture continues to evolve as both a conceptual framework and practical
strategies for creative personal, household and community response to the energy
descent future. Garden agriculture is just one application of permaculture principles,
but one that has the potential to reshape how we think about agricultural and urban
water use.

Of course to expect such fundamental redesign of our food system just because
climate change is threatening to amplify our current problems with water resources
may still be politically and socially unrealistic but it is frustrating that current
propaganda from governments, water authorities and even environmental
organizations advocates minimal water use gardens of hardy natives instead of
maximising the opportunities to efficiently use reticulated and storm water for urban
food production."

For instance, here in Vancouver, Canada, there are many attractive native climate-appropriate edible berries which I see as a gold standard, especially for situations where lower maintenance is required (blueberries, salal, Oregon grape, cranberries, many other berries, wild strawberry as a groundcover). Non-native edible perennials such as edible kale, collard greens, asparagus, sunchoke, artichoke are other attractive edibles. Also many herbs - landcress, sorrel, etc.

The FOOD NOT LAWNS book and movement have excellent statistics and information on community shifts through demonstration community gardens in Oregon, USA.

Good luck with your project!

Angela Verbrugge
Permaculture Parenting
Canada

Rebecca,
Whoops, the Garden Agriculture PDF link was left off the last comment. It's http://www.holmgren.com.au/ and click Writings and scroll down to see it mid-page.

You may also be interested in this Tree Bee in Seymour Australia with the community planting native plants on reclaimed pastureland illustrated at http://permacultureprinciples.com/principle_1.php

Angela

Angela Verbrugge
Permaculture Parenting
Canada

Hi Rebecca,

The BC Naturescape program might interest you: http://www.hctf.ca/nature.htm

Best,
Cynthia

Cynthia van Ginkel
Canada

Rebecca,
In Mildura, Vic the local council residents are able to plant out their nature strip with natives. The resident needs to dig up nature strip, Council supply mulch, resident spreads mulch and plants. The plants are provided ny the council. The Council keeps records on what nature strips are garden beds and what species have been planted.

Cranbourne botanical gardens I have spent alot of time there over the years - I moved from Cranbourne to Mildura 4 years ago.

Good Luck

Andrea

Andrea Clifford
Mrs
Mildura Regional Waste Management Group
Australia

Hi Rebecca,

Check out the National Wildlife Federation's "garden for wildlife" at:
http://www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife

Steve

Steve Gorzula
United States

Hi Rebecca,

The state of Minnesota has been encouraging the use of native plants in back yard landscaping and public landscaping for about 15 years now. As with any new idea it was hard going at first but picked up speed with public acceptance. Now native plant nurseries can't keep them in stock. I have included a link to the Department of Natural Resources site which is full of very practical information.

My own experience with my gardens is that as with any type of gardening you need to do a little research to figure out what will work in your specific growing conditions.

Even a small plot will attract very different bugs, birds, and small animals than a typical urban/suburban landscape.

Once established true native plants will do very well and crowd out weeds and do well in dry conditions but native gardens take water and weeding at first.

People here are quite used to native gardens now but in the beginning you need to have "cues of caring". That is, you need to let people know that this is a intentional garden not a patch of weeds. So signs, small fences or edgings, plant identification signs or educational pieces let people know what you are doing.

This goes back to weeding. When a community group planted native gardens around our local library about 12 years ago, we made sure there were no dandelions in sight. People may not have known what a Spiderwort lily was but they sure know what a dandelion looks like, any weeds and people are put off.

If you can get public entities to use native plants you can really make some headway. Our city, county , state parks departments use native plants and have become great advocates. They have also learned practical lessons that they pass on. Out Department of Transportation for example, uses native plants along highways and right-of-ways.

Here is the link: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/nativeplants/index.html

Good luck!
Cathy

cathy jensen

Hi Rebecca,

The Shire here encourages local native plants through the supply of a shade tree per verge, a yearly native seedling give away and through advice to people seeking to develop their verges. The Shire is now leading by example through using local native plants in their town and new subdivision landscaping. Native plants are also provided free of charge to community groups. Native plants have often not been used in town for fear that their roots lift pathways and roads and interfere with drainage structures. There was also no availability of local natives unless you collected the seed and grew them yourself for your property. It will take time for people to switch from palms and exotic tropical plants that often become weeds to local native plants that require less water, less fertiliser, are often pest and cyclone resistant and attract wildlife whilst providing amenity and shade.
Feel free to call me if you want to discuss. The Shires website is www.thelastfrontier.com.au
Regards

Katya Tripp
Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley

eo 

I am struck by the use of the term "weeds" in this context, and my sociological antennae are twitching. It appears as if values other than preserving as much of the natural flora and fauna as possible may be operating even if we may be consciously unaware of these values. If a dandelion is native to an area it sounds like it is possible it would be termed a "weed" and targeted for elimination. Thus it appears that the question is not "how do we preserve native plants that require less input to survive" but "how do we preserve native plants that have some positive value to us, and also might reduce inputs compared to non-native plants."

Mel Tremper
United States

Keep in mind dandelions are not native to the United States, whether they are weeds or food is in the eyes of the beholder.

Just because a plant is not native does not make it inherently bad. What makes a plant a negative entity depends on whether it spreads on its own and destroys existing habitats.

Some plants like Japanese barberry, Asiatic bittersweet and Purple loosestrife either spread rapidly form natural seed dispersal or from animal movement and then overtake existing native habitats leaving behind an inferior habitat with lower nutritional values for the local fauna.

Dandelions however naturalized throughout the US 100's of years ago and the local animals have adapted to them. They are only weeds when they are somewhere someone doesn't like them. As you say Mel, that is all a social decision, not an ecological decision.

Changing that social norm is a huge hurdle many of us are trying to knock over. I believe it will take many years to make that social change.

Gary Fish
Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
United States
http://www.YardScaping.org

www.BlueThumb.org - A Minnesota based program to encourage homeowners to plant native gardens, raingardens and shoreline plantings to help improve water quality.

The program is about 3 years old now and growing in leaps and bounds. There are 50+ partners, including private nurseries, government agencies, non-profits and community groups. We've planted hundreds of native gardens, raingardens and shoreline plantings in the past three years due to this successful outreach program. The website has almost all of the program info.

Angie  Hong
Water Resource Educator
Washington Conservation District
United States

Hey Rebecca,

There are a few programs in South East Queensland, where local councils educate, encourage and assist the community with revegetating their gardens with native plants. In my Council like most in the area we provide community members with an amount of free native trees per property per year. A few of the other Councils in the area have wild back yard type programs, where a council officer will assess a property and advise the landholder on what is a weed and what is native, in these programs they also get additional free natives.
If you want any more info feel free to contact me - [email protected]

Cheers

Rachel Booth
Logan City Council
Australia

The RI Wild Plant Society holds an annual native plant sale at The University of Rhode Island, as well as posting information on their website about native plants. URI always has a green directory that links to several University sites, and to the RI Wild Plant site, offering lots of good information. See http://www.uri.edu/greenlinks/

Jill Diehl
Grants and Contracts Specialist
University of Rhode Island
United States
http://www.uri.edu/greenlinks/

Hi,

I'd advise that care be taken when choosing native species and suppliers. My local uni has a native planting policy, but they are planting "native" Australian species that don't naturally occur anywhere near here, at the expense of indiginous local species, and completely overlooking some rare and engangered species. It's all to easy to artificially restrict the species range being planted and this is dangerous if people think they are "replacing" lost bushland when they plant, or particularly when landscaping following a development in a previously naturally vegetated area.

Lorna Jarrett
university of wollongong
Australia

Hi Rebecca

Check out http://www.kaipatiki.org.nz/bbp.htm. Kaipatiki is a small restoration focussed communtiy project in Auckland New Zealand. They run a programme called Nature for Neighbourhoods which encourages people who have properties neighbouring bush/forest to plant natives in their back yards. Contact them for more info.

Best Regards

Julia Lindesay
Genesis Energy
NewZealand

Hello Rebecca:

I thought that this study looking at the barriers/motivators to individuals naturalizing their gardens was quite interesting and something that is not always understood prior to initiating outreach campaigns:

http://www.sustainabletechnologies.ca/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/9_Market%20Barriers_%20Opportunities_%20Tracy%20Patterson.pdf

In theory the information from this research should be used to determine the best way to message to this particular target audience, with the qualifier being that it should not be used to create a 'blanket/generic' marketing campaign!

Good luck

Kate

P.S. This may also be relevant/of interest in your research: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104447716

Kate Hayes
Savanta Inc.
Canada

An excellent article on the importance of native plants in preserving biodiversity is "Gardening for Life" available for download on the Wild Ones website at www.for-wild.org/download/gardeningforlife.pdf.

The author is Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware. He's also the author of Bringing Nature Home, an excellent discussion of the role of home and public landscapes in preserving biodiversity. It's science-based, but addressed to a general audience. Can't recommend it highly enough! An educational and inspiring book.

There's a difference between just discouraging invasives and actively promoting natives. The difference is that native insects -- the basis for healthy ecosystems -- can mostly eat only native plants, the plants with which they co-evolved. For example, phragmites, which has been in the US for hundreds of years, still only supports a small handful of insects here compared to the hundreds it supports in its native range. It might as well be plastic for all it contributes to our ecosystem. For a more thorough explanation and suggestions for incorporating native plants, please read Tallamy's book!

Janet Allen
United States