||| FROM VICKI LEIMBACH for SAN JUAN COUNTY GARDNERS |||
Remember what drew you to the San Juans? Maybe you were moved by the lushness and beauty of the vegetation in our landscape. Maybe you grew up here and have always been surrounded by lovely native plants.
Want to help build a sustainable landscape in your own backyard? Native plants are the ticket! Guess what? They thrive here! They benefit the environment by supporting biodiversity, conserving water and thriving without fertilizers and pesticides. Native plants are meant to grow here; the soil, weather and seasons work in their favor. They also provide nourishment and shelter for birds, insects and the diverse array of pollinators that call our islands home.
There are many native trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses and groundcovers that offer a variety of color, texture, fragrance and sizes for a variety of habitats and settings.
Gardeners can have meaningful impacts on habitat and species loss while enjoying attractive and more sustainable landscapes.
The San Juan County Master Gardener Foundation’s annual Native Plant Sale is on January 25, 2025. The sale is online and you can find more information, along with the selection of diverse plants being offered at https://www.mgfsjc.org/
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Online sales start at 8am, Saturday, January 25th!
https://www.mgfsjc.org/
Gardeners should be aware that while the species sold are native to the Pacific Northwest many of them do not grow wild in San Juan County. Of course that doesn’t meant they can’t be excellent low maintenance garden species.
“We have allowed alien plants to replace natives all over the country. Our native animals and plants cannot adapt to this gross and completely unnatural manipulation of their environment in time to negate the consequences. Their only hope for a sustainable future is for us to intervene to right the wrongs that we have perpetrated.”
― Douglas W. Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens
I am working to encourage our native plants by “editing”, ie weeding out, the undesirable non-natives. I have a lot to learn and could use some help identifying the bunch grasses that grow on my rocky site in Deer Harbor. The native bulbs, such as camas, chocolate lily, fawn lilies, and others are thriving now that I have protected them from the deer with a fence and given them room to breathe with my on-going editing.
Janet! That is awesome! Keep an eye on our website as the Q & A table will be up this summer and you can fill out forms on our website and attach photos for help! https://www.mgfsjc.org
Thank-you so much, Vicki!
I will take photos when the bunch grasses grow and flower later this year.