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Plant Native & Prosper11 Reasons to choose native plants for your cabin yard & shoreline
Published: March 1, 2012  Butterfly garden with queen of the prairie, sweet black-eyed Susan, culver's root and sweet joe-pye.
Photo by Jennifer Baker
He feared he had demolished the wild feel of his future retreat during basement excavation. The natural habitat was his primary reason for purchasing the lot, and he desperately wanted it back.
Unaware of native alternatives, he was ready to throw down a bag of Kentucky bluegrass lawn seed onto the bare ground.
That’s not unusual. We often turn to familiar landscaping choices, such as bluegrass lawns, to heal our cabins into their wild surroundings. But the final result is a yard that reflects the suburban landscape ideal, not the essence of a more primitive cabin refuge.
So I suggested to my client that instead of seeding a lawn, we could easily restore the natural beauty of his property by letting nature regenerate itself and by adding some plants native to northern Wisconsin.
Native landscaping, often synonymous with natural landscaping, continues to gain popularity with cabin owners who seek an environment that is indigenous and sustainable.
So here are 11 reasons to go native and natural in your cabin yard:
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 Purple and branched coneflower
Photo by Prairie Nursery  Red milkweed
Photo by Prairie Nursery
2
Plant for the future. Be proud of America’s history. Plant the flora
that was here before our immigrant ancestors arrived; it’s the plant
life with built-in hardiness, so it will sustain for future generations.
3
Relax. When matched with your site conditions, native plants need
little to no watering, weeding and fertilizers. Unlike groomed lawns,
native landscaping doesn’t need weekly maintenance. Get off the lawn
mower and enjoy your weekend on the deck, in the boat or in the hammock!
4 Attract butterflies. Native
plants attract native butterflies! Many caterpillars feed exclusively
on one type of plant before transforming into their beautiful adult
form. Plant milkweeds to attract monarchs.
5 Attract birds. Go beyond bird feeders; create a native-plant
feeding station that doubles as habitat. Plant a few cup plants
(Silphium perfoliatum), and watch goldfinches and indigo buntings eat
the ripened seeds during late-summer days.
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 Sky blue aster
Photo by Prairie Nursery  Wild ginger
Photo by Prairie Nursery
7 Battle skeeters naturally. If
you hate mosquitoes, plant native plants! Dragonflies and other
invertebrate predators will flock to your yard like a brigade in search
of their evening meal. They won’t entirely eliminate your mosquito
problem, but any step is a positive one when it comes to battling those
pesky skeeters!
8 Beautify. Choose from thousands of
wildflowers, grasses, shrubs and trees to add bright colors, textures,
and native beauty to your landscape. For example, picture a pagoda
dogwood grove among a sea of wild ginger (both are native to the eastern
half of the U.S.).
9 Plant for success. Native plants are
superior ground covers where typical lawn turf fails. If your lawn isn’t
thriving, seek a native alternative. For dry, acidic, sandy soils,
plant wild blueberries.
10 Do it for the ducks. Waterfowl,
such as blue-winged teal, which are common throughout the U.S., need
shelter to escape their predators. So instead of mowing down or removing
native wetland plants from your shoreline or nearby shallow waters, let
the plants grow wild into a buffer between your yard and recreational
lake space to provide protective cover for waterfowl from raccoons,
opossum and skunks.
If you want to add plantings to your
shoreline buffer, your local extension office can help you select native
plant types. Possibilities might include joe-
pye weed, fox sedge and alder.
11
Do it for the frogs and fish too. Frogs and fish also benefit from
buffers along the shore. According to the Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources, green frogs are an excellent indicator of healthy
near-shore habitat, as male green frogs establish breeding territories
within 2 feet of a lake’s edge. If you allow a natural shoreline to
prosper, fish like bluegill and bass will benefit from the shelter and
shade – not to mention the insect (and yes, frog) meals.
So,
go native and discover the alternative to groomed lawns, sculpted
junipers, leaf-blowing and chemical weed-killers. You can make your
cabin look like it was just magically lowered from the sky onto your
beautiful land, as if it had always been there.
For
her day job, Jennifer Baker is the senior ecologist, designer and
consultant for Prairie Nursery. See more of Jennifer’s work at www.prairienursery.com. |
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