Visit Remnant Native Landscapes!
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What does ecological restoration mean to you?
Natural Shore is all about ecological restoration, which includes creating and improving a wide variety of Minnesota habitats. It’s really fun to pause and think about what “restoration” includes and how we best define and communicate what this word means to us.
In the purest sense, practitioners and enthusiasts may consider “ecological restoration” bringing back vegetation communities in natural areas to pre-settlement conditions. Around the Twin Cities, land types that existed early in European colonization of the region included a mix of forest, oak “savanna” type woodland/prairie mix, river floodplains around waterways, and prairies. While the largest prairie corridors of Minnesota generally lie west of our region, smaller parcels of prairie have always been a part of eastern Minnesota. These land types would have hosted a great variety of plants ranging from tall dry prairie grasses to aquatic emergent plants growing along the banks of our rivers and lakes.
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Two-spotted Long-horned Bee
(
Melissodes bimaculatus
)
These dark-colored native bees are about 11-15mm long, active from May-October, and found mainly distributed throughout Eastern United States. The males have long antennae, giving them their genus name, Their latin species name,
bimaculatus
, is refers to their two small white patches at the very ends of their abdomens. They forage on a number of native plants including purple coneflower, anise hyssop, bergamot, turtlehead, grey-headed coneflower, oxeye, milkweed species, and more!
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Retail Nursery:
Mark Your Calendars!
Come Visit Us!
(Please wear a face mask)
Here are our upcoming retail dates:
Fri. July 17th
Sat. July 18th
Fri. Aug. 21st
Sat. Aug. 22nd
For more information visit:
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Our Online Orders are Currently Closed
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But our retail nursery is still open on the above dates. Need beautiful shrubs? Visit our retail nursery during our sale dates for a large selection of native shrubs! Plant them for bird habitat and stunning fall colors!
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Available Shrub Species
($15 each in one gallon pots)
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Common Ninebark
Black Chokeberry
Common Chokecherry
Nannyberry
Red Twigged Dogwood
American Plum
Swamp White Oak
White Pine
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Our retail nursery demonstration garden is also BURSTING with blooming, full grown native flowers. Visit us to see them full grown and thriving!
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Non-native Species of the Month Common Plantain
(
Plantago major
)-
Common plantain is a weedy plant from Europe, often called "Englishman's footprint" because during colonization, it popped up wherever early settlers traveled. It grows between 0.5-1 foot tall and has deep green leaves oriented as a basal rosette. There is a native plantain, Rugel's plantain, that is almost identical, but with red basal stems. Flowers are on a tall spike and are very small, turning into brown seed capsules after maturation. Management strategies include hand pulling or consistent mowing. Look for it on a future Forager's Fix, as this plant is edible and used commonly for medicinal purposes.
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Native Plant of the Month-
Wild Lupine
(
Lupinus perennis
)
Wild lupine is a popular prairie plant with hairy stems, compound leaves and strong, deep taproots. It's a cool-season, long-lived perennial. This amazing native plant is a legume, meaning it can tolerate poor soils since it's capable of fixing nitrogen to enhance soil fertility. Their flowering stalks are heavily clustered with blue, pea-like flowers. Fruits are small hairy pods that upon maturity can forcibly eject the hard-coated seeds some distance from the parent plant. Grows best in full sun and in well-drained soils. Found in dry, sandy, open woods and dry prairies. Wild lupine is larval food for the rare and endangered Karner Blue butterfly. Other common names are sundial lupine and old maid's bonnets. A similar looking and highly invasive lupine, Large-leaved Lupine (
Lupinus polyphyllus)
has invaded the north shore, pushing out native plant species. Large-leaved lupine is bigger than Wild lupine and has more leaflets, up to 17 compared to the natives' 7-11.
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We love to read books about our natural world, and want to share our favorites with you! Every few months we will feature three books in our newsletter with dates where we will discuss them on our
Facebook Page
.
Here are next three!
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Five Plants For- Lots of Blooms!
Instead of one flower on a single stem, these plants are bursting with color! You get dozens of flowers on just one plant!
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(
Baptisia australis)
3 ft. tall
blooms May-July
moist soils
full sun or partial shade
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(
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)
1-2 ft. tall
blooms August-October
dry soils
full sun
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(
Physostegia virginiana
)
2-4 ft. tall
blooms July-September
wet or moist soils
full sun or partial shade
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(
Polemonium reptans
)
0.5-1 ft. tall
Blooms April-June
moist soils
full sun to full shade
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(
Liatris ligulistylis
)
1-3 ft. tall
Blooms August-September
moist soils
full sun or partial shade
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Forager Fix
Burdock root is used frequently in Japanese cuisine, and can be pickled, stir-fried, or boiled for delicious results. The sweet, mild roots of first-year rosettes can be harvested any time of year, and should be scrubbed and peeled prior to use. Thick slices make a great addition to hearty soups, or cut into matchsticks and saute with other vegetables.
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