WHY NATIVE PLANTS

No matter the habitat, native plants attract native pollinators.

I am sure that you are aware of the importance of honey bees. Unfortunately, honey bees are a non-native monoculture and are subject to catastrophic hive failure. Luckily, so many native insects and birds function as pollinators..

Adding native plants to a pesticide free yard is the best way to begin attracting native insects. 

Some native insects appear troublesome and as their numbers increase, they become food for our predatory insects.

Over time a healthy balance is reached without the use of chemical intervention.

With the natives keeping themselves in check, your focus turns to the non native “bad bugs”. Our native insects have little to no effect on these aliens, but our birds help pick up the slack. Feeding the birds is very enjoyable, but if you want them to control alien insects like winter moth caterpillars, they have to raise babies in your yard. With very few exceptions, all baby birds eat insects while in the nest. My plant collection contains a large number of Japanese Maples that are beloved by the winter moth and have never looked better because of the great numbers of birds nesting on or near my property. Most alien insects come in huge numbers, but are fleeting. The first brood of my resident bird population is raised, perhaps entirely on Winter Moths. In order to be able to stick around for a second brood, the winter moth now long gone, birds turn their attention to native insects.

The best and only way you can help attract native insects is to plant native plants. Because native insects come in smaller numbers, but have huge variety, the larger the variety of native plants you have, will determine how much bird food you can have to attract that second brood. Now you’re wondering if I’m trying to attract or collect native plants, insects or birds. The answer is all of the above. But it all starts with the plants.

Plants are the bottom of the food chain and the only thing that converts the sun’s energy into food. If nothing eats the plant, none of that energy enters the food chain.

As a plant collector, this next part is difficult. To garden for the greater good means to share the wealth with the entire ecosystem. You have to let your plants get eaten by insects.

The insects eating your native plants are the beautiful butterflies or cool beetles, but also aphids or plant bugs.

Regardless, they are all food for something else. So all that solar energy just moved up a link.

With the food chain strengthening right in front of your eyes, planting native plants means you get a lot more of everything.

If one wanted to selfishly garden for looks alone, then unpalatable or pesticide drenched aliens should work perfectly. If you really want to make a difference, start using the only plants that aren’t weeds – native plants.

We are each only here for a short time , but the plants and animals that we nurture now, may live on indefinitely. For more inspiration, I recommend reading “Bringing Nature Home” by Doug Tallamy.

Many nurseries sell native plants, but they are often clones from unknown sources. These clones lack the genetic diversity essential for plant health and environmental importance. Over the years, I have amassed a collection of native plants with genotypes mostly from Cape Cod and a few from select locations around New England. I can tell you exactly where my plants are from. I grow all my plants from nursery or captive grown seed. Wild seed is only collected for plants new to me. My seedlings are planted in 2 ½ “ pots or occasionally in one quart pots. Instead of spreading seed randomly on the ground, this system allows me to quickly establish a wild meadow-like area with a designed and organized look. Because these plants are truly local, they are the exact plants that the insects you want have evolved with since the ice age.

Additional Resources:

   Pollinator Pathways Cape Cod        Monarch Watch        Homegrown National Park