Author: Ann Geyer

The Importance of Native Plants in Local Ecosystems

Native plants are more than just beautiful and familiar sights in our local parks and gardens. They play a crucial role in the health of local ecosystems, providing numerous benefits to wildlife and the environment. In this blog post, we will explore why native plants are essential, how they support local wildlife, and practical tips for incorporating them into your home landscape.

What are Native Plants?

Benefits of Native Plants

Native plants offer a range of benefits for the environment and our communities. Here are some key advantages:

1. Supporting Local Wildlife

One of the most significant benefits of native plants is their ability to provide habitat and food for local wildlife. Many species of birds, insects, and mammals rely on native plants for sustenance. For example:

• Birds: Native berry-producing plants, like the Pacific blackberry, provide crucial food sources for birds during breeding seasons.
• Pollinators: Native flowering plants attract essential pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, which are vital for the reproduction of many plant species.

High angle view of a diverse native plant garden showcasing the variety of plants that support local wildlife.

2. Promoting Biodiversity

Incorporating native plants into landscapes promotes biodiversity, which is vital for a healthy ecosystem. Biodiversity helps ecosystems remain resilient to diseases, pests, and environmental changes. When native species thrive, they support a more diverse community of organisms, contributing to the overall health of the ecosystem.

3. Enhancing Soil Health

Native plants are adapted to local soil conditions and can contribute to soil health. Their root systems help prevent erosion, increase water infiltration, and maintain soil structure. This is essential for promoting healthy landscapes and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

4. Water Conservation

Native plants often require less water than non-native, ornamental plants. They are adapted to local rainfall patterns, which means they thrive with minimal irrigation. This makes them an excellent choice for sustainable gardening, particularly in areas prone to drought. Additionally, by using native plants in landscaping, individuals can contribute to water conservation efforts.

5. Reducing Maintenance

Native plants generally require less maintenance than non-native species. They are adapted to local conditions and pests, which means they typically require fewer interventions such as watering, fertilizing, and pest control. This not only saves time and effort but also reduces the environmental impact associated with maintaining non-native gardens.

How to Incorporate Native Plants into Your Landscape

2. Design a Native Plant Garden

When designing your garden, consider the following:

• Diversity: Plant a variety of species to create layers of habitat for different animals.
• Sunlight and Shade: Group plants according to their sunlight requirements.
• Watering Needs: Group plants with similar water needs to create efficient watering zones.

3. Use Native Plants in Landscaping Projects

When planning landscaping projects, such as installing a new garden bed or renovating a yard, consider using native plants. Not only will this support local wildlife, but it can also enhance your property's visuals and appeal.

4. Educate Others

Share your knowledge about the importance of native plants and their role in local ecosystems. Engage friends, family, and neighbors in conversations about sustainability and encourage them to consider native plants in their own gardening practices.

The Role of Native Plants in Climate Resilience

As climate change continues to affect ecosystems across the globe, native plants play a crucial role in promoting climate resilience. Their adaptability to local conditions means they can respond more effectively to climate variations. This resilience is essential for maintaining the ecological balance in local environments.

Furthermore, planting native species can mitigate the impacts of climate change, such as flooding and heatwaves. They can enhance soil health and water retention, which helps buffer communities against extreme weather events.

Final Thoughts

Embracing native plants in our landscapes is more than a trend; it is a vital step towards fostering healthy, sustainable ecosystems. These plants support local wildlife, improve biodiversity, and enhance the overall health of our environment.

Adapting Your Garden to Coastal Weather Conditions

Gardening along the coast presents unique challenges and opportunities. The salty air, unpredictable winds, and shifting temperatures require specific strategies to create a thriving garden. From selecting the right plants to understanding when to plant, adapting to coastal weather conditions is an essential aspect of effective gardening. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, discover how to make your coastal garden flourish.

Coastal Gardening: Understanding Your Environment

Coastal gardening differs significantly from traditional gardening due to various environmental factors. The primary challenges include high salinity, strong winds, and specific soil conditions. Coastal regions often have sandy soil that drains quickly, making water retention a key concern. Understanding these factors will help in choosing the right plants and implementation of effective gardening techniques.

One effective way to adapt to coastal weather is to use windbreaks and barriers. Planting shrubs or erecting fences can shield your garden from harsh winds. Moreover, these structures can also help in retaining moisture in the soil. Native plants are often more resilient to coastal conditions, so look for those that naturally thrive in your area.

A coastal garden thriving with native plants in a protected environment.

Selecting the Right Plants for Your Coastal Garden

Choosing the right plants is crucial for the success of your coastal garden. Opt for native species that have adapted to withstand salt, wind, and drought. These plants not only survive but also enhance the local ecosystem. Consider incorporating the following types of plants into your garden:

1. Beach Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) - This hardy plant produces delicious berries and thrives in sandy soils.
2. Sea Oats (Uniola paniculata) - A grass that stabilizes dunes and adds beauty to your garden, it provides natural protection against erosion.
3. Lavender (Lavandula) - With its drought-resistant qualities, lavender performs well in coastal areas and attracts pollinators.

In addition to native plants, consider perennial varieties that can handle the temperature fluctuations often seen in coastal environments. These plants will return year after year, providing reliable color and texture.

When to Plant on the Oregon Coast?

Timing your planting is essential for thriving coastal gardens. The Oregon coast has a distinct growing season influenced by maritime climate. Generally, the best time to start planting in this region is between late April and early June after the risk of frost has passed.

Keep in mind that the coastal weather can vary significantly from day to day. Be prepared for unexpected temperature drops, which can affect young plants. Using row covers or cold frames can protect them during unexpected cold snaps in the early spring.

Additionally, fall planting can be a good option for certain perennials and bulbs. Ensure you choose plants known for their hardiness to guarantee survival through the winter months, as coastal winters can be mild but wet.

Watering Techniques for Coastal Gardens

Coastal gardens can face water retention challenges due to sandy soil. Adjusting your watering techniques can make a significant difference in plant health. Here are some tips to ensure your garden stays hydrated:

1. Use Mulch: Applying a thick layer of organic mulch around your plants can help retain moisture. It reduces evaporation and keeps the soil cool.
2. Drip Irrigation: Consider installing a drip irrigation system for efficient watering. This method targets the roots directly, ensuring that water doesn’t wash away in sandy soils.
3. Monitor Rainfall: Keep an eye on rainfall patterns. Coastal areas might receive significant rain, which can be beneficial but can also lead to overwatering.

Adjust your watering schedule based on weather conditions, ensuring plants receive adequate hydration without drowning their roots.

Enhancing Soil Quality in Coastal Areas

1. Add Organic Matter: Incorporate compost or well-rotted manure to enrich the soil. Organic matter improves soil structure, enhances nutrient availability, and increases moisture retention.
2. Soil Amendments: Test your soil to determine nutrient levels and pH. This can guide you on which amendments to use, such as lime to adjust pH or sulfur for acidity.
3. Cover Crops: Planting cover crops during the offseason can improve soil health. These crops prevent erosion, add nutrients, and enhance the soil's ability to retain water.

By focusing on these practices, you'll create a nutrient-rich environment that supports healthy plant growth even in challenging coastal conditions.

Embracing the Challenges of Coastal Gardening

Coastal gardening can be challenging, but embracing these challenges allows you to create a unique garden that flourishes in its environment. By understanding the specifics of your region and following best practices, you can transform your garden into a coastal paradise.

Utilizing the right plants, adapting your watering techniques, and improving soil quality are all integral to success. Don't forget that even in the face of coastal weather conditions, with patience and persistence, your garden can thrive.

As garden enthusiasts, let’s explore the full potential of coastal gardening. For more resources, including plant recommendations and gardening tips, visit our Resources page. Flexibility is the key to success, so get out there and test gardening skills along the coast!

Flowering vines make a great addition to your Pacific Northwest garden. They create interesting vertical space,; attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators; and they work well as a garden privacy screens.

When choosing vines, you can't go wrong considering one of our lovely natives. Native vines offer a number of benefits. They are well adapted to local soil, water, and weather conditions.

Try any of the following and you be happy with the results.

Clematis Vines

• Wisley Cream (shown above), Clematis cirrhosa, has a creamy bell-shaped bloom from November through February. As temperatures cool, the glossy green leaves become a dappled bronze.
• Avalanche (Clematis x cartmanii) gives a bundle of white blooms in early spring with attractive lime centers. The foliage on this clematis is almost lace like.

Other Pacific Northwest Native Vines

• Orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa): Also called western honeysuckle, this vine produces red/orange flowers from May through July. Try growing If you want to attract hummingbirds.
• Woodbine (Parthenocissus vitacea): good for a variety of soils and sun exposure. It blooms in a variety of hues from May to July.
• Whitebark raspberry (Rubus leucodermis): has white or pink blooms in April and May. It is thorny like a raspberry bush and makes not only a privacy barrier but a security device. 

I have been waiting for a gardening book like Joe Seals’ Back to the New Basics for quite a long time. Thankfully, he has not burdened us with rote lists of seasonal to-do tasks that tire us out before we even get to them. Seals knows we hanker for knowledge and practices that help us get the desired outcomes we want in the garden. And chief on the list is this: what makes a garden hum and thrum with liveliness and beauty? What is the source of awe we feel upon stepping into such a place? Seals can help us out. His answers come from evidence-based knowledge, solid research, and years of on-the-ground experience. Much of what he urges and recommends is linked to something we all need to know more about—soil health. Soil is a body-like entity with the inherent capability of taking care of itself. In most garden settings it can function fully and robustly—with little intervention on the part of us gardeners.

Back to the New Basics by Joe Seals

Before you lament that you’ll have little to do given the self-sufficiency of soil, hear what Seals has to say. He is not urging inaction. He is saying take action differently, and specifically with the needs of soil in mind. I think the takeaway of Seals’s New Basics is this: less is more. Truly. Less physical and chemical disruption is what your soil wants. Less digging and turning, less dumping and pouring of products from bags and bottles. Seals’s upshot? In most garden settings, leaving soil to its own devices is a good idea. And he’s right.

Back to the New Basics is filled with scads of information to help you modify your gardening practices so that they support—rather than bludgeon or perturb—the belowground plant microbiome and their larger soil-dwelling compatriots. He walks us through some counter-intuitive ideas, busting myths while peppering us with immensely useful information and how-tos. It turns out soil life—from lumbering beetles to multitudes of beneficial microbes around roots—are better equipped than us gardeners in many ways. Their actions can deliver the outcomes we gardeners want. But for them to do so requires nourishment—from you, the gardener.

This is where mulching enters the picture. A steady supply feeds the masses of soil critters and creatures that underpin soil health, and thus the looks and well-being of your garden. Out of sight beneath your feet, they toil away processing, transforming, and cycling organic matter. Their activities ensure that a vast array of nutrients and countless other beneficial compounds reach not just your plants, but the garden’s entire ecosystem. So, instead of digging, tilling, and pouring products into your soil, I think you might want to consider a newfound interest in mulching. And like other practices in Back to the New Basics, a focus on soil health translates into other outcomes we gardeners want—like thwarting pests and pathogens, helping pollinators, decreasing watering, and freaking out less about weeds.

Seals opens the door to a garden we should all enter. He helps us see that a garden humming and thrumming with liveliness and beauty arises from practices that dovetail with how the part of nature beneath our feet actually works. In short, if it’s good for the soil, it’s good for the garden.

ISBN-13: 979-8388104977

Publisher: Sasquatch Books, Seattle

Publication date: 2023

Pages: 337

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the first time since 2012.

USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The new map is more accurate and contains greater detail than prior versions. Click on the map to view the entire US.

Generally, the new map reflects about 2.5 degrees of warmer temperatures across the county. About half of the county shifted to a warmer zone with the remaining areas staying the same. The central plains and Midwest warmed the most.

The new Oregon map shows little change overall. The Portland and Willamette Valley areas did not change. Some portions of Salem and Eastern Oregon have shifted a half-zone higher. A thin strip along the southern coast has changed from zone 9b to zone 10.

To find out the status for your garden, use the USDA zip code window to find your new zone.

Black Chokeberry is one of my favorite backyard native plants. Shrubs grow 3-4 feet high and wide. They may sucker somewhat. In May, bushes are covered with lovely white flowers. The fall foliage is spectacular in shades of purple and red (especially the cultivar ‘Autumn Magic’). Plant in sun to part shade. This shrub is very adaptable to different soil types. My shrubs are planted in clay soil that gets soggy during the seasonal rains. These are wonderful three-season, low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly, inexpensive and easily-propagated shrubs.

Chokeberries are among the “super-berries” that have extremely high antioxidant properties. They are also full of Vitamin C. They are a bit tart but are great mixed with sweeter fruit. Use the berries to make black chokeberry jam, juice, tea, muffins, smoothies, cookies, or even wine.

Birds, especially robins, will thank you for planting these shrubs. You can often see mobs of robins gorging on the fruit in October.

So go ahead and try a black chokecherry.

First published in 1870, The Wild Garden challenged the prevailing garden style of the day and advocated a naturalistic style, in which hardy plants, both native and exotic, are arranged in groupings that mimic wild landscapes.

Thanks to Robinson’s passionate advocacy, the naturalistic style triumphed, and Robinson's urgent message continues to resonate today. For this newly designed edition, Rick Darke has written an introductory essay that not only underscores Robinson’s importance in the evolution of garden design and ecology, but also explains his relevance for today’s gardeners, designers, and landscape professionals.

The book contains over 100 stunning photographs taken by Darke, including images of Gravetye and of modern “wild” gardens.

Symphyotrichum hallii

(also listed as Aster hallii)

Hall's Aster (Symphyotrichum hallii) is a summer blooming native perennial.

From mid to late summer, this 3-4 ft tall plant is covered with 1" flowers ranging from white to very pale lavender.

Hall's Aster is a major pollinator resource, providing pollen and nectar for all sorts of bees and butterflies from summer into fall. Full sun, and drought tolerant.