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As a wildlife ecologist, I love to see moths, butterflies, bees, birds, toads and more in my somewhat suburban backyard. I even love snakes, one of whom lived for years in my vegetable garden, sunning daily on the black plastic that kept weeds out of my tomato bed. And I thought I was doing a pretty good job balancing my cultivated crops with native plants and wildlife habitat. Until I visited my friend’s native plant garden.
The garden hummed with life, with so many bees and butterflies mobbing the flowers the plants looked like they were vibrating. I was blown away by the volume of life buzzing and fluttering and zipping around the hearty, healthy native plants. It must be a lot to take care of, I commented. But my friend said absolutely not, it was the easiest garden she’d ever had, with little to no maintenance, watering or weeding needed.
I went home to my gardens and looked around. The hydrangeas, phlox, peonies, and hostas had little to no life around them, while the wild asters growing on the edge of the garden buzzed with life. What had I been doing wrong? My garden now looked sad and much too quiet. Change was clearly needed.
I was lucky and found a Wild Seed Project seed-planting workshop at my local library. I learned just how easy it is to sow native plant seeds and how little care they need to germinate. Unlike my showy cultivars that need grow lights and heating pads to germinate indoors in the spring, most native plant seeds are sowed in the fall and left alone through the winter and spring. I planted swamp milkweed and blue lobelia seeds in two small pots, took them home from the workshop, and left them in a shady spot in my yard. I did cover them with hardware cloth, recommended if you have a lot of rodents around, which I do. Other than watering them once in a while that fall and the next spring when we had prolonged dry spells, I left them alone. And like magic, I was rewarded with tiny sprouts in May.
The plants quickly outgrew their small pots so I transplanted them into larger pots later in the spring and let them keep growing. And grow they did! When I finally transplanted them into my garden a few weeks ago, they were sizeable plants with dense, healthy root balls. And in the few weeks they’ve been in the ground, even this late in the season, it’s clear they are thriving. I can’t wait to see what they do in the spring!
So now I’m off to get more native seeds and sow more magic! I’ll keep you posted on my progress. You’ll also be hearing more in the coming months about a LakeSmart effort to incorporate more native plants into vegetated buffers. The LakeSmart team is working on a buffer pilot project that will be building tools to help connect homeowners with the resources they need to find native plants growers, figure out which plants fit their site, and grow bigger, better buffers. We’ll even have a Wild Seed Project workshop focusing on germinating seeds that are good for lakeshores. Stay tuned for more on that project this winter, and in the meantime, here are a few resources to get you thinking about native plants for your own yard. The pollinators will thank you!
Selecting Native Plants: This can be one of the biggest challenges to getting started with a native garden. Part of the LakeSmart project mentioned above will be developing some planting guides for different site types. But for now, check on these other great resources:
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Maine Native Plant Finder: This site from Maine Audubon let’s you search a Maine native plant database to find plants that match your site conditions. They also have excellent information sheets for each species.
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The Native Plant Trust: This site has an excellent database of plants that you can search, including color, type of fruit, bloom time, and landscape use. Their plant information pages also include a map of where the species is found so you can see how Maine fits into their geographic spread.
A Guide to Healthy Lakes Using Lakeshore Landscaping: A wonderful resource from our colleagues at the Vermont Federation of Lakes and Ponds, this guide includes not only great information about growing and caring for native plants, but also many planting plans with suggestions for what to grow together to create a harmonious native garden. A perfect read for the fall!
Native Seed Sources: The Wild Seed Project collects seed from wild plants and has an incredible inventory of seeds for sale. Note that the seeds go on sale on October 3rd.
Resources for Growing Wild Seeds: Visit the Wild Seed Project’s resource page for excellent seed-sowing instructions.
Native Plant Growers: The Wild Seed Project has a current list of many native plant growers. Note that Maine Audubon still has plants for sale this fall. They can be ordered and picked up on Thursdays or Fridays at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth. FMI, visit their sale site here.
Happy sowing!
Susan Gallo
Maine Lakes Executive Director
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