Native Plants are a Win-Win
Summer is just around the corner, which means it is about the time of year when homeowners begin to plan their flowerbeds and landscaping for the season. There are so many plants to choose from that it can be overwhelming! However, there is an easy way to not only narrow your choices to a more manageable list, but also to help foster healthier habitats around you, at little to no additional cost! What is this easy way? It’s simple: Insist on going native!
Native species are those that historically occur or occurred in an area or particular habitat. Exotic species are any species – including its seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material that can propagate that species – that is not native to an area or habitat. Your local nursery will have a plethora of native and exotic species for you or your landscaper to choose from, and you should proactively make it known that you want natives!
There are many environmental benefits to planting native plant species that will help you as well as your neighbors. Native plants support the local flora and fauna, promoting both above- and belowground biodiversity. Natives do this by fostering the local conditions necessary to provide shelter, food, or other resources for the organisms around them.
A healthy habitat, which your local flower bed or yard can be, is high in biodiversity. As an example, promoting the biodiversity of local soil bacteria and microorganisms by planting natives can improve soil quality, which will result in reduced erosion and flooding – something all coastal homeowners can get on board with!
Because they are locally adapted, native plants should not require fertilizers, will generally require fewer pesticides, and should require less watering. This lowered maintenance cost is good for both your wallet and our communities. Fertilizers and pesticides can increase plant productivity, but do so at the cost of reduced biodiversity and altered habitat structures for you and nearby areas from runoff.
It is easy to choose to plant natives, and there are so many incentives to do so.
Goldenrod plants offer a great example of why choosing local is better. Goldenrods are beautiful plants boasting vibrant golden-yellow flowers that are hard for us and pollinators to ignore! Their nectar is an important food source for migrating monarch butterflies that can be seen in plumes flitting around the goldenrod on the dunes in fall!
Your local nursery will likely have a handful of goldenrod species to choose from, such as gray goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis), early goldenrod (S. juncea), and seaside goldenrod (S. sempervirens). As the common name implies, seaside goldenrod is native to the coastal area. As a native, seaside goldenrod is adapted to the low soil nutrients, moisture, and other stressors unique to the coast such as sandblasting and mobile soils. You can plant it in your yard in dirt or in sand. It does not look very different from other goldenrods, but it will do better in the local conditions and thus likely produce more flower heads and attract more beautiful butterfly visitors to your abode.
There are many native-plant options to choose from. Here are just a few to consider.
American beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata), which you have likely planted in volunteer dune grass planting events, is a great native choice that is locally important for dune stabilization, maintenance, and repair. It looks similar to the ornamental feather reed grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora), but it serves a purpose beyond just looking good! It is native to the area and so there are added benefits to planting it over other dune grasses that may also be available at your nursery, like sea oat (Uniola paniculata). Sea oat is not native north of Virginia and so will be very unlikely to survive, let alone thrive to produce the signature wheat or oat-like seed head that might entice you to consider planting it.
Some woody native species that you might not associate with the coast but that thrive in the area include American holly (Ilex opaca), which will bear beautiful red berries in winter and eastern red cedar (juniperus virginiana), whose clippings can really elevate a gin cocktail! These will also hold their leaves/color all year as evergreens and are important food sources for migrating birds.
For bushes, the leaves of Northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) will shine beautifully in summer, and beach plum (Prunus maritima) will bear tasty fruits, both with lovely spring flowers!
The Avalon Pollination Park is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon learning more about natives and getting inspiration for your own landscaping. In short, promoting and choosing to plant native plants is an easy way for you to be an environmental steward.
For more information on evasive plant species to avoid planting in your gardens as well as a list of those plants that thrive on the Seven Mile Beach, visit the Avalon Environmental Commission’s website, ec.avalonboro.net.