To kick off Buffalo’s long-awaited gardening season, Michael from The Plot shared his wealth of knowledge on native planting, landscape design, and urban wildlife gardening. Participant questions and discussion made both events incredibly informative and fun — all amid the lush scenery of our host’s backyard garden. The group learned many essential gardening tips that every Buffalo, Northeast, or city gardener can leverage for more abundant and eco-friendly growing.
1. Native Plants: Better Performance, Better for the Planet
The secret to a thriving garden is growing native plants. You’ve likely heard a lot about native plants, but may not know the “why’s” behind all the hubbub. Native plants have adapted to our region’s soil and climate and co-evolved over thousands of years with native wildlife. Because of this, they are more likely to thrive in your garden than non-native plants.
For example, Canadian wild ginger, northern sea oats, and Virginia bluebells are just a handful of Western New York-loving varieties; but non-native favorites like lavender hail from the dry and hot climate of the Mediterranean, so it may not thrive in your yard.
Here’s how natives outperform — and save you time and money:
- Native plants are favored by our region’s pollinators and other wildlife, attracting them and keeping them healthy. The birds, bees, and many other pollinators of our region thus give back to our environment — promoting plant reproduction and improving essential food crops.
More than 150 food crops in the U.S. depend on pollinators, including almost all fruit and grain crops, per the U.S. Forest Service.
- Native plants require less water, usually no more than normal rainfall levels in the region.
- They don’t need fertilizers, pruning, or pesticides to thrive in your garden.
- Their root systems stabilize soil and enhance water retention, reducing erosion and runoff.
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper provides excellent lists of WNY native plants & resources that can help you grow more sustainably.
2. Get New Plants for Free: Just Divide Your Perennials!
You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars at garden centers every spring. Most perennial plants have long lifespans and can be divided and replanted in new spots every few years.
Look especially for plants that form an outer ring of new growth each year, with an increasingly dead or hollowed-out center. An expanding patch of hostas, ornamental grasses, daylilies, and peonies, for example, can be separated into several “new” plants. If you don’t have more room for growing, share your divisions with a friend!
Just make sure to divide plants when they are no longer flowering — so divide spring and summer blooming plants in the fall, and fall blooming plants in the spring.
3. Start Seeds Sustainably With Soil Blockers
This tool allows you to mold blocks of soil for seedlings without using peat pellets or plastic pots — both of which are unsustainable products. Growing from seed without containers also prevents plants from becoming rootbound and promotes oxygenated roots, all making for easier transplanting and healthier plants!
To use the tool, simply prepare your soil mixture, add water to make it just wet enough to mold, and then pack the soil blocker with your mixture. Push out the new, neatly formed blocks and add your seeds.
The best part about soil blockers? They’re available to rent at The Tool Library!
4. Grow a Garden That Feeds Wildlife Year-Round
While many of us prioritize big, luxurious blooms throughout the summer, these plants might not provide local wildlife with their ideal food sources. This is yet another reason it’s so important to mix native plantings into your garden: to feed wildlife in every season.
These choices are great additions:
- Coneflowers: natives beloved by goldfinches in the fall.
- Snowberry: a larval host bush to various butterflies and moths, and produces winter berries that birds love.
- Catmint and other tube-shaped flowers: huge pollinator draws in the summer.
Yellow Foxglove, Catmint
5. Grow a Garden That Protects Wildlife Year-Round
Creating comfortable homes for wildlife throughout the seasons is just as important as providing food sources! Attempt to garden “hands free” and avoid removing plant “litter” like dead leaves, died-back perennials, seed heads, and yes, even weeds. Not only does this promote soil health, but it also helps shelter wildlife.
For example, fall leaves are a way that trees have naturally evolved to enrich the soil around their trunks. Bees and bugs often hibernate in the hollow stems of dead flower stalks in winter. And in early spring, leaving plant litter on the ground until it’s consistently warm outside allows fungus and microbes to flourish and prepare for spring growth.
Allowing plants to experience their full life cycles as nature intended will strengthen — and expand — your garden. You won’t need fertilizers or herbicides, as spreading growth and plant litter will suppress weeds naturally. By simply letting your plants reseed or dividing perennials, your garden can grow abundantly without much labor on your part.
6. Pots Are Welcome: Plant Where and What You Can
Urban gardening includes patio plantings! Many native flowers, shrubs, and even trees can live in pots on a balcony or small outdoor space. You don’t need an expansive yard to support pollinators and wildlife in your area. Additionally, some native plants are always better than none at all!
This Eastern Larch and its Canadian Ginger and Wild Strawberry neighbors are all loving life in their pot!
Doing what you can with what you have matters most when it comes to supporting our ecosystem and enjoying the beautiful rewards of gardening.