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Would you like to spend less time working in your garden? Have happier plants? Stop using expensive and messy herbicides? Have a beautiful landscape? Then consider planting native plants. It's easy and lots of fun.
And to help you get started, a new demonstration woodland nature trail is being constructed in the neighborhood park at the corner of Wieuca and Phipps Blvd. With money from the Georgia Master Gardeners and the NBCA, our master gardener, Kim McCauley, has helped neighbors to establish the trail. On the trail you will see 18 individually-labeled native plants. Each plant would make a great addition to your home landscape. During these hot, dry days of summer, the native plants thrive and require less care once established, because they are uniquely adapted to our local conditions.
Do you need an evergreen fern for the shady areas of your yard? You may want to try Christmas fern. This plant gets its name because it is green at Christmas-time. It's easy to identify, because if you look carefully at the leaves they're shaped like a (Christmas) stocking.
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Want to attract hummingbirds and butterflies into your yard? Then plant some Monarda, more commonly known as Beebalm because the crushed leaves are known to alleviate bee stings. This plant has brilliant red flowers. It is an herb and all parts of the plant smell wonderful. The variety "Jacob Cline" can be found at garden centers.
Having trouble getting flowers to bloom in the shade? Then try Spiderwort or Celandine Poppy. Spiderwort has a blue-to-lavender flower cluster with grass-like leaves. Celandine Poppies have a showy, bright yellow flower that lightens up any shady spot. These two plants would be great companions in your garden.
Additional native woodland plants will be added in the fall along with literature that can be picked up on the trail with facts about each plant. So next time you're walking past the park, take a detour through the woodland trail and you may walk home with some ideas on how to use native plants in your garden.
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