Ask most people what they think "going native" means, and jungles with cannibals running around with spears may come to mind. Ask a gardener who is looking to save time, money, pesticide costs and, most of all, water, and he will have a much different answer.
Native plants, when carefully selected and used, are among the easiest and best ways to save precious water in your landscape. The plants grow and thrive without supplemental water.
While recent rains provided some relief from one of the lowest snow packs on record, Utah is still a desert. While we have diverted water from the mountains and drilled countless wells to supply our ever-growing population, the fact remains that we have the same rainfall today that we had in 1847, when a few thousand pioneers made the first permanent settlements here.
More than water conservation is driving the renewed interest in native plants, however. As we seem to have busier and more hectic lifestyles, the desire to have landscapes that require less water, fewer sprays to control diseases and insects, less fertilizer, and, usually, less pruning, is appealing. Add to that the feeling that most of us have when we are in a beautiful mountain setting, and it quickly becomes evident that native plants are under-used in most landscape designs.
One happy gardener who is very much into native plants is Susan Prescott, who has transformed her urban landscape into a native-plant showplace that is beautiful and functional.
Prescott is a native of Texas, but she has spent more than half her life in Utah. When asked about her interest in native plants, she credited a concern about wildlife as her first motivation. "I have been a birder for a long time, and have been feeding them since I was in my early 20s. . . . I became interested in the National Wildlife Federation. They had a program where you could certify your garden as wildlife habitat. I originally started planting for wildlife habitat."
Native plants attract wildlife, so her garden made some interesting transitions to accommodate natives and wildlife. The transition brought raised eyebrows, and even some concern by city officials.
Prescott's unconventional design and planting got her a letter from the city telling her she was out of compliance with city ordinances. Fortunately, the restrictions are now less formal and you no longer have to plant bluegrass in your parking strips.
"I started with the north side of the landscape in 1992," said Prescott. "In 1995, we moved to the south half, and in 1999, we did the parking strip. I let most of the leaves stay where they fall and form natural mulch as they decompose.
Her commitment to organic, or natural, methods includes no use of chemical pesticides. She does use beneficial insects, including ladybugs and parasitic nematodes.
Native plants have not always been easy to find. "When I first started in 1992, native plants were hard to buy. The person who helped me build my pond had property in Kamas and brought me plants. By 1995, it was better and now most nurseries have a small native-plant section," Prescott explained.
Her favorite native plants include gambel oak, squawbush, mountain mahogany and serviceberry. Favorite shrubs include silverleaf buffaloberry, big sage and rabbit brush. Her favorite flowers include the penstemons, the blue flax and milkweed.
She also has in her yard a number of natives from southern Utah thatshe likes to try here. The rule is that she will give a plant two chances. If she plants it and it is not happy, she will move it. If it fails a second time, she tries something else.
Prescott's garden is just one of many featured on Red Butte Garden's Native Garden Tour Saturday. (See Garden Tips for details.) Spend some time seeing how to best use these plants in your own garden, and save time, water and hopefully a myriad of pest problems.
Many classes on native plants and water conservation are available at Red Butte Garden this summer. Dale Torgerson, an education assistant there, is teaching many of the native-plant classes. He is a retired landscape architect for the U.S. Forest Service.
In his designs, he used native plants extensively because most of the facilities are in national forests. In addition to Prescott's favorites, he likes the bigtooth maple, golden currant and the bearberry as a groundcover.
Going native is a great idea. Include those plants that are adapted to your landscape and are adapted to your needs. Many native plants blend beautifully and add interest to other traditional plants in the garden. Who knows? They might just become some of your favorite plants.
Listen to Larry Sagers on KSL Radio's "Greenhouse Show" on Saturdays starting at 8 a.m.
Larry Sagers is the regional horticultural specialist, Utah State University Extension Service at Thanksgiving Point.