Naturescaping: How biodiverse native plantings create healthy watersheds and happy residents

Naturescaping:How biodiverse native plantings create healthy watersheds and happy residents

Janet S. Davis, Hill House Farm & NurseryMarch 2016

Conventional landscaping ideas

Static landscapes--more or less the same all the time, everywhere

Eliminate “weeds”

Use ‘industrial’ plants

Lots of lawn

Higher costs, increased pollution

Little, if any, habitat

So...what can we do?

Naturescaping

Manage our landscapes differently--and better:

“Naturescaping”

• Creating DYNAMIC gardens• Layers of plants (not mulch!)• Less water usage• More watershed protection!• More pollinators, more birds, more Life• “Enhanced livability”

Use Native Plants! Create Layers of Diversity

Altitude diversityTemporal diversitySpecies diversity

What is “Native”?

Plants that have evolved in a specific ecoregion over a

sufficiently long enough time to have developed

plant communities and relationships with local fauna.

TheFOOD WEB

Insects & Pollinators!*The food for other

creatures*Aerate and enrich the

soil*Pollinate the vast majority of flowering plants

*Sustain Human Health

Healthy Habitat = Pollinator Diversity = PEOPLE FOOD

Karen Rexrode

John Magee Design

s

Where in your landscape can you...

• Add more layers? Start high, go low.

• Create additional habitat? Add hedgerows, plant thickets.

• Plant or maintain a meadow? Mow less...

• Add water; use water?• Let your hair down?

Leave the leaves, pile the prunings...

5 First Steps

• Mow less grass!• Control exotic invasives.

• Avoid using insecticides.

• Practice ‘benign neglect’.

• Plant a “Powerhouse”!

5 First Steps

• Mow less grass!

• Control exotic invasives.• Avoid using insecticides.

• Practice ‘benign neglect’.

• Plant a “Powerhouse”!

5 First Steps

• Mow less grass!

• Control exotic invasives.

• Avoid using insecticides.• Practice ‘benign neglect’.

• Plant a “Powerhouse”!

5 First Steps

• Mow less grass!

• Control exotic invasives.

• Avoid using insecticides.

• Practice ‘benign neglect’. • Plant a “Powerhouse”!

5 First Steps

• Mow less grass!

• Control exotic invasives.

• Avoid using insecticides.

• Practice ‘benign neglect’.

• Plant a “Powerhouse”!

OAKS!!!Scarlet Oak, Quercus coccinea

White Oak, Quercus alba

American HollyIlex opaca

VA Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana

Smooth AlderAlnus serrulata

Virginia RoseRosa virginiana

Spice bushLindera benzoin

Cephalanthus occidentalisButtonbush

Clethra alnifolia ‘Ruby Spice’

Lonicerasempervirens

‘John Clayton’

Wildlife benefits