Spring has Sprung! A post by Megan Bowes

Spring has sprung! I see the wild salt in pepper in bloom in the grasslands and friends have shared the first pasque flower and Easter daisy finds of the season. My two year old native plant berm is waking from dormancy and soon I will see blooming sand lilies and blue flax. My primary reason for planting natives in our urban Boulder yard is to provide habitat for wildlife. My best find last year were the numerous garter snake skins! But also admit I grow natives because I think they are gorgeous, adapted to our climate and promote our local botanical heritage.


My berm project was quite a few years in the making. Initially I thought I wanted to create a tall crevice garden to symbolize the nearby Flat Irons—then I realized I’d kill the plants as quickly as they were planted since I really can’t duplicate the precipitation patterns and cloud veil effect of the foothills behind our home. Instead I stacked up our traditional concrete front walk on its end and piled topsoil, squeegee (extra small pea gravel) and sand on top to create a 3-4 foot high berm. Then I planted whatever I could get my hands on: seeds, wild plants I salvaged from local construction projects, donated plants from friends, and purchased plants from a number of local garden centers.

My partner wasn’t entirely sure about this project—and neither were the neighbors at first. One friend who regularly drives up and down our busy street liked to comment on the continuously moving piles of rock and dirt. But things finally fell into place and I can now step back and evaluate if plants need to be moved or if I should dig up and compost the extra Porter aster and other seedlings. My street is busy enough that I could alternatively pot the extras up and leave them with a sign saying "free to a good home".

One word of caution: many of the "wildflower" seeds I scattered weren't Colorado natives--instead they were European species that have long been naturalized in the Western US. Is this a problem? More and more of the research will tell you "yes", since many introduced ornamental species can become invasive or noxious in the absence of their home predators and other checks. But there's another, possibly more important (but much less obvious) reason for planting natives. Having evolved with native herbivores and other wildlife, native plants have the right chemistry! And this is important because many plant-eating insects are specialists and feed on a very selective group of plants with just the right chemistry--which in turn are fed on by birds and other wildlife. In fact, some 96% of all North American birds (other than seabirds) feed their young with insects since insects, ounce for ounce, contain more protein than beef. So while we may think that by planting a butterfly bush (native to China), we are helping butterflies, we are merely attracting the adults who sip the nectar--and not any developing caterpillars.

So think about planting natives not just for yourself or your water budget, but also for the botanical (and chemical) heritage that they promote. For we are just now realizing how this heritage may impact the birds and other wildlife visiting your yard. Happy Spring, Megan