August 27, 2020
Native plants aren’t just for the backyard. They can be used all around a farm to help create curb appeal while improving ecological functionality.
Plants native to the lower Midwest beautify our landscapes with their diversity of forms, shapes and colors. By using native plants, the beauty of developed landscapes is amplified by butterflies, birds and other cherished wildlife that are supported by them.
Landscape types
Native landscapes in altered landscapes and the built environment can be naturalistic or formal. The Grow Native! Program offers landowners a blueprint for planting both.
There are two “front yard formal” landscape plans — one for shade and one for sun — that feature native plants that tend to have compact or “tidy” growth habits. The diversity of bloom times; flower color; and plant shapes, forms and heights of the featured plants provide pleasing contrasts for your garden.
DESIGN HELP: These plans offer plant types that work well in shady conditions.
The plans pictured here are available at the Grow Native! program’s new website, grownative.org. Landowners can download the images to help with their own farmyard design. People also can listen as Scott Woodbury, horticulturalist and curator of the Whitmore Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Mo., explains the plants and their growth habits.
Resource help
At this website, you also can find many useful articles about creating native container gardens, landscaping with stunning combinations of native plants, gardening for monarch butterflies and much more. The renovated Grow Native! native plant database allows you to quickly create plant lists based on flower color, season of interest, resistance to deer or rabbits, and many more criteria.
BRIGHT LIGHTS: For farmers with full-sun front yards, there are many native plants to choose from.
The Grow Native! Resource Guide to suppliers of native plants and services will help you locate businesses from which to buy native seed, plants, shrubs and trees. A map to retailers who sell native plants also is available through the Resource Guide at the website.
Davit is the executive director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation, a 54-year-old membership organization and land trust that protects and restores prairie and other native grasslands through acquisition, management, education and prairie research. The organization owns 23 properties totaling more than 3,200 acres of prairie across the state, and with partners, inspires the conservation of thousands more. The Missouri Prairie Foundation also is home to the Grow Native! native plant education and marketing program and the Missouri Invasive Plant Task Force.
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