Growing Native Gardens & Why They Matter--Alliance for the Bay

"There is something about natives that fascinates me. I get excited about what value they offer. The landscaping plants of my parents: English ivy, Japanese barberry, and dwarf spruce trees and Bradford pear trees from China can be thought of as statues in a garden. Meaning, as Doug Tallamy puts it, they offer very little/no benefits to the ecosystem. Not to air quality, insect life, bird communities, or soil health, and can be detrimental to other plants as they invade and take over.
But to think of the plants native to the Chesapeake Bay region, you can see the big, interconnected picture take shape. Plants like milkweed (Asclepias spp) and white turtlehead (Chelone glabra) are the sole host plants for native butterflies, monarch (Danaus plexippus) and Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton), respectively. This means without this plant, those butterflies can’t reproduce! That’s how interconnected they are."

https://allianceforthebay.org/2014/07/growing-native-gardens-and-why-they-matter/


Switchgrass and mountain mint give height and texture to the garden.


Butterfly weed, Joe-Pye weed and yellow coneflower showing shining brightly on the corner of 6th St and Chesapeake Ave in Annapolis, MD at the Alliance’s front garden.