Maine Native Plants - my approach in the garden and nursery

I love the flora native to Maine. I want to help you come to know it, and love it, and plant more of it in your garden. There is a lot of misunderstanding about native plants. I often hear things like: "too weedy", "I have plenty of flowers for the pollinators already", "too big", "too fussy", "not ornamental enough". To all of these pronouncements, I counter: right plant, right place, and right time, my friends! I can help you sort all of this out.

My garden, as is my nursery, is a combination of native plants and "nice visitors from away". There are many ways to weave Maine native plants into your gardens and into your wider landscape. If you did nothing but plant native trees, or cover all of your mulched areas with Carex species, or turn part of your lawn over to native strawberry and violet, you would both add to the beauty of your garden and step up its value to all the other creatures that live in it with you. But, if you want to deepen your experience there is so much more! Many of our Maine native plants are medicinal, edible, and look wonderful in flower arrangements. This is on top of their aesthetic beauty in the garden and all the shelter and food they provide for wildlife.

Frankly, supplying pollen and nectar are the least of our problems. More crucial to my mind, the straight species native plants provide the baby food that insect larvae need to survive. Those caterpillars don't like plants with purple leaves. They don't like plants from other ecoregions. Those babies want the lush, green, leafy salad of the plants with which they have co-evolved. In turn, those caterpillars both feed the baby birds and morph into beautiful butterflies. That is just one of the infinite linked strands that create the web of life. It is a web in which we are deeply enmeshed and have barely begun to comprehend. 

However, I DO like purple leaves, and I figure that I live here, too, so let's plant for everybody, including me. There are a few things that I do not do, though. I do not use pesticides, insecticides, fungicides or anything else that ends with -icide. These poisons are unnecessary, persist in the soil, leach into the water, and harm both the "good" and the "bad". Actually, to my way of perceiving, there is no "bad" in my garden. Even if there is an invasive bug eating something that I rather it didn't (I am looking at you lily leaf beetle), I will squish it if I have time, but that's as far as I go to "control". Any native creatures have predators to keep them in check. If the garden is diverse and the plants are healthy, balance will be restored. I take a deep breath and wait for that.

All of the species on my nursery list are native to Maine according to Go Botany, the plant database of the Native Plant Trust. This is just one way and one source of this information. I chose Go Botany because it is easily accessible and understandable and relates to the New England states. If there is conflicting information from other sources I make a note of it. The term "native" for the purposes of this website refers to plants that were present in Maine prior to European colonization. Some of these plants are circumboreal or hemiboreal and variants of them occur at a similar latitude to ours around the globe. 

Plants do not care about human-drawn boundaries, so in my garden I am inclined to consider a couple of other frameworks. One of them is ecoregion. Ecoregions are defined by their geology, soil type, precipitation, vegetation, and wildlife. One could also consider human use and/or human-made disturbance as a factor. Learning about ecoregions reminds me that plants grow in particular places in particular associations. I can apply the same thinking to help me make choices in my own gardening. With this framework, my plant palette increases, even if I stick with plants native to the Appalachian spine or native to the eastern seaboard. Considering myself as one of the big animals on the landscape, a potential disruptor, and a creator of openings, has helped me approach the act of gardening in surprising and fun ways which I will detail in further blog posts.

Another framework for consideration is related to the phrase "Right plant, right place". This phrase has been attributed to Beth Chatto, who certainly helped popularize it and built her gardening philosophy around it, but the concept was introduced to her through discussions with her husband, Andrew. Because I grow many plants NOT originally from Maine and I want to combine them with our native flora in the artifice that is my garden, my goal is to group them according to their natural requirements. Not every plant likes a fertile woodland soil and part shade, or a dry, well-drained, full sun position. If you spend less time amending and changing and more time observing what you already have you will be a much happier, more successful, and less broke gardener. So wether you are a strictly native-to-Maine gardener, or a native-to-North-America-east-of-the-Mississippi gardener, or a Right-plant-right-place-from-all-around-the-world gardener, you will find plants at my nursery that will do well in your garden.

It is 100% possible to incorporate more native plants into exiting gardens. It is also possible to use native plants in a formal setting. Please do not think you need to rip out your entire garden to up your gardening game. What you need to do is thoughtfully add more plants. That said, moving (and also killing) plants is the heart of gardening and the sooner you embrace that, the happier you will be. If I had a dollar for every gardener who said 'Gee, I wish I could buy plants from you, but I just don't have room", and then I ask: "Do you use bark mulch or compost around your plants?", to which the answer is often "YES". This "yes" means there is the opportunity to add a lot of ecological services simply by planting various beautiful, native ground covers around larger perennials, shrubs, and trees. While also saving the time and money required for yearly mulch applications.

Plants are living mulch. Here is an excellent post about this from Edge of the Woods Nursery. At some point I will also make a post about this, but just know that well chosen, well planted ground cover suppresses weeds, cools the soil, and helps conserve moisture (I know you do not believe this, but it is true). In nature (in general), plants have evolved different root types: fibrous, taproot, rhizome, or a combination, in order to access moisture and nutrients while growing in very close association with other plants. 

There are a few other things to consider when setting up your garden for beauty and sustainability and a high quality of ecological services. They will be addressed in detail in future blog posts, but just to get you thinking: Water. This does not mean you need a three acre pond. Even small dishes of water are super helpful and attract wildlife. I will show you my kiddie pool bogs soon. Habitat. Yes, your garden is a habitat already. I invite you to think both more three-dimensionally and four-dimensionally about it. A richly layered, densely planted garden provides prime habitat, from the lowest ground cover to the top of the tree canopy. It also delights the gardener. The fourth dimension is time. Plan for bloom, fruit, and seed throughout the seasons. Leave plants standing in winter for shelter, forage, and aesthetics. 

I also invite you to think about a few structural ideas to up the habitat variety: dead hedges, sandy rock piles, and slightly more "wild" transition zones. These provide certain insects and animals with just the types of shelter they prefer while also making the garden more sustainable because you stop carting stuff off the property. These structures can be either very designed, with what are called "cues to care", or very messy and unkempt. That is up to the gardener, because, frankly, none of the other inhabitants care.