The Native Plant School, co-sponsored by St. Louis Wild Ones, is a year-round series of mostly outdoor learning sessions in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve. They will cover various aspects of native home landscaping and prairie/savanna/wetland re-establishment. Please bring your questions, comments, photos, drawings, plant specimens, etc….
We’re finally getting a taste of winter, but the spring planting season will be here before we know it. Here are some opportunities to learn more about landscaping with native plants.
Shaw Nature Reserve offers these autumn gardening tips. Remove autumn leaves from tree, shrub, and flower beds. November 15 to March 15 is the best time to prune most trees and shrubs. Remove conflicting and crowded branches, dead limbs, double-leaders and unsightly branches. Drain gasoline from power equipment or use…
Editor Note: Now, while we are adding to or otherwise improving our garden, here are some ideas on how to improve it for the fauna. From the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association (edited) Butterfly gardening adds beauty to your yard and provides habitat for butterflies. Much critical butterfly habitat has been…
From The Xerces Society In such a short fact sheet it is not possible to give detailed lists of suitable plants for all areas of the Upper Midwest. Below are two lists of good bee plants, the first of native plants and the second of garden plants. Both are short lists;…
From The Xerces Society There are 4,000 species of native bees in North America. Together they form the most important group of pollinators. Like all wildlife they are affected by changes in our landscapes, especially the loss of nesting sites. Bees make nests in which they create and provision brood cells…
By Betty Struckhoff Sarah Stein’s wonderful book, Noah’s Garden, is a must-read for anyone interested in native landscaping. One of her suggestions for suburban yards is to create hedgerows of native plants near the back property lines. Once neighbors pick up the idea, a connected series of these yards can…
From Scott Woodbury MSD is encouraging the use of rain gardens. Still no utility break for them, but there is a break for permeable paving. Unfortunately permeable paving is expensive. MSD seems to be on the fence about using drainage pipes (called underdrains). One camp believes that water can not…
By Larry Hummel Build brush piles. Before we had this property I had no idea how many critters used brush piles. Birds use them for cover and food and reptiles have the same uses for them. Turkeys nest in them and mammals use them for a variety of purposes. Branches and…
By Susan Orr Until 8 years ago I had never gardened. Today we have over 100 species of native plants, shrubs, and trees in the yard. It has been an exciting adventure and begun for two reasons: first, to attract a greater variety of birds to our yard, second, to…
