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Heard someone say native plants are 'too messy' for city gardens
I was at a garden show in Denver last weekend and this older guy was telling his friend that native plants look too wild for a front yard. He said they don't have the 'clean lines' of a manicured lawn. Man, that got under my skin. I've got 12 different native species in my own yard, and sure they're not all perfectly shaped, but after 3 years I barely water them and the bees and butterflies are all over it. Maybe I'm wrong but isn't that the whole point of gardening, working with what's already here? Has anyone else run into this attitude at local plant swaps or nurseries?
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knight.uma12d ago
Oh man, I totally messed up my own native garden last spring - planted a bunch of columbine right where my sprinkler zone hits from the lawn, and they rotted out in like two weeks. Guess I need to think about what actually grows here instead of forcing things to be tidy. My yard looks like a tornado hit a prairie most of the time, but honestly the finches don't care one bit and I spend way less time watering. That guy at the show probably spends his weekends trimming boxwoods into perfect little balls while the rest of us are just trying to keep the monarchs happy.
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william_craig712d ago
Did you try swapping those columbine for something that likes wet feet, like cardinal flower or swamp milkweed? I've been down that same road with @knight.uma, where I planted things that just weren't happy in the spot I put them. It took me a couple seasons to figure out what actually wants to live in each part of my yard, and now it's way less work. The finches and butterflies don't mind if things look a bit wild, and they definitely don't care about my watering schedule. Sometimes the best thing is to just let the plants tell you where they want to be, even if it means your garden doesn't look like a magazine cover.
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kimr9111d ago
Man that stinks. I killed a whole patch of butterfly weed once because I put it in this heavy clay spot that stays wet all spring. It was a bummer. But you are right about just letting things go wild a bit. My yard is a mess but I see way more bugs and birds than my neighbors with their perfect lawns. I have stopped fighting my soil so much and just put things in that actually want to be there. It is way less work and honestly it looks more alive.
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