Using Native Plants for Gardening
Benefits of gardening with locally native plants
Once you have established locally native plants in your garden, there are numerous benefits you will reap. Examples are:
Monarch Butterfly (larva)
(©2003 Christopher L. Christie)
1. By using locally native plants in your garden, you help ensure habitat for plants and the animals that depend on them. For example, many of our native butterflies depend on a single native plant species during their caterpillar stage.
2. Native plants are attractive and beautiful.
3. Locally native plants are adapted to local soil and climate conditions, making many of them easier to maintain.
4. By using locally native plants, you reduce the risk of introducing invasive plants into your community.
5. By using locally native plants, rather than natives from elsewhere, the unique genetic makeup of locally native plants will not be altered.
Sulphur buckwheat gives all-year color. (Norm Jensen)
Websites
References
City of Portland Bureau of Planning. 1997. Portland environmental handbook.
Kruckeberg, A.R. 1996. Gardening with native plants of the Pacific Northwest. Second edition, revised and enlarged. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA, USA.
Pater, D.E., S.A. Bryce, T.D. Thorson, J. Kagan, C. Chappel, J.M. Omernik, S.H. Azevedo, and A.J. Woods. 1998. Ecoregions of Western Washington and Oregon (2 sided color poster with map, descriptive text, summary tables, and photographs). Reston, VA, USA. U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey (map scale: 1:1,350,000. ISBN 0-607-89571-3.
Rose, R., C.E. Chachulski, and D.L. Haase. 1998. Propagation of Pacific Northwest native plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR, USA.
Wilson, M.V, D.E. Hibbs, and E.R. Alverson. 1991. Native plants, native ecosystems, and native landscapes: an ecological definition of native will promote effective conservation and restoration. Kalmiopsis:13-17.
