Use Native Plants to Create a Natural Garden

Article by Josh Smith, Xeriscape Endemic Nursery (XEN)

Consider transitioning a section of your landscape to native plants, where you can reduce both maintenance and water use, conserving a vital resource in this arid valley, along with your own energy.

A side benefit is that you are providing valuable feed and habitat for all sorts of indigenous wild things– from insects to birds, to small and large mammals– by your restoration.

Do not embark on this project unless you are prepared to accept that you are collaborating with your environment, not conquering it.

Rabbitbrush, Eericameria nauseosa

WHAT ARE NATIVE PLANTS?

Native vs Endemic vs Exotic vs Naturalized vs Invasive
The scientific definition of a native species is an organism that occurs naturally in a region without human introduction, having evolved there or arrived via natural dispersion over evolutionary time.

• NATIVE plants belong here.
• ENDEMIC plants belong ONLY here.
• EXOTIC plants are introduced by humans from elsewhere.
  *NATURALIZED plants are exotic plants that behave themselves.
  *INVASIVE  plants are exotic plants that are ecologically harmful.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHOICES

Consider first where a plant is native— Canada, B.C., or the Interior. Winter cold, summer heat, humidity/precipitation, and competition are all factors in limiting where exactly a plant is native.

Lots of plants native to B.C. are completely inappropriate in the Okanagan, so they’re unlikely to thrive here.

Then, within the Okanagan, first you must also consider whether a plant is native to our particular region of the valley; then, in which ecoregion it belongs: upland, riparian, high elevation, etc.

Further, consider whether it would thrive on a dry silty slope, a creek edge, or in a bed of clay.

Provenance (original seed source) and site matching (right plant, right place) matter more than just choosing a native plant.

Within the Okanagan, there are extremely diverse ecosystems in close proximity to each other, and ignoring sub-regional differences can cause failure unless you are careful to plant native plants in their natural environment.

Elevation, temperature, sun exposure, drainage, and soil texture often matter more than region.

In general though:

• The South Okanagan is hot and dry and of low elevation
• The Central Okanagan is transitional
• The North Okanagan is cooler and wetter

Pre-settlement landscapes in the Okanagan featured native plants that evolved with disturbance, not with watering, fertilizer, or mulch, such as we use on our man-made landscapes. This is a fire-adapted ecosystem that consists of drought-tolerant plant communities in patchy, disturbed, open landscapes.

Many native plants expect stress and respond poorly to pampering, so, as gardeners, we should take advantage of these attributes.

Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa

ADVANTAGES OF NATIVE PLANTS

LESS WATER
The use of native plants in your landscape reduces the amount of supplemental water needed, but it does not necessarily mean they require no water. All plants require enough water when first planted to help them to settle in, so at least for the first year, they are likely to need some supplemental water over the summer and during drought.

LESS MAINTENANCE
Over the longer term, inputs such as fertilizer, replanting, chemicals and other maintenance are greatly reduced with native plants grown in a natural garden. Plants that evolved here are used to our weather swings. This is their home, and they are climate-resilient.

SUPPORT LOCAL ECOSYSTEMS
Native plants also support the local ecology, including pollinators, birds, mammals, and beneficial microorganisms, as well as their companion native plants.

Native plants overwhelmingly provide better habitat than non-native ornamentals and are the entry point for energy into our local ecosystem. They are the foundation of all food webs and feed everything, or everything’s food. Birds depend on insects as part of this food web: over 95% of land-based birds in North America feed insects to their young, and this includes species of birds that exclusively eat seeds as adults.

Birds cannot survive without insects, and insects are highly-specialized and often have evolved specific digestive enzymes and life cycles that require native plants as food or as a larval host for reproduction.

For an extreme example, the Okanagan has some species of butterfly that are at risk or endangered because they have evolved to only use one specific plant, or plant family, as a larval host.

Behr’s Hairstreak Butterfly depends on Antelope Brush; Monarch Butterfly larva can only survive on Milkweeds (Showy Milkweed is the only native here), and the Mormon Metalmark Butterfly relies on Buckwheats.

Human activity and climate change have reduced the population of these plants, which results in a reduced butterfly population, which in turn reduces pollination and seed production for these plants. This type of negative feedback spiral is often the cause of species extinction.

Pollinators also require native plants. Most ornamental, non-native flowers produce nectar that can be used by native adult bees as food, but the 500-600 species of bees native to BC are often pollen specialists that require specific plants or plant families for the pollen they need to feed their larva. Although the bees are very important, flies, other insects, and birds also do their share of pollinating plants.

In addition to pollination services, these insects and birds also often provide pest control, such as being predatory on pests like aphids.

Cultivate a Bat-Friendly garden

Guest Article by BC Community Bat Programs

How can you support the bats?

Spring is at our doorstep! This is the most exciting season for gardeners and nature lovers. This year, we encourage everyone to try something new– gardening for BATS!

The Okanagan is home to at least 14 different species of insect-eating bats – the highest diversity of bats in the province. Supporting pollinators in your garden helps to support bats as they prey on insects at night. Since bats are active from dusk to dawn, having night-blooming flowers in your garden attracts nighttime moths which are a great source of protein for bats. This practice is called moonlight gardening!

Join us in cultivating bat-friendly gardens and nurturing the rich biodiversity of the North Okanagan:

• Start planning early. Opt for native perennial plants – contact local plant nurseries to get your seeds.
• Choose plants with long flowering season or those that flower at different times of the year.
• Variety is key! Pick plants with different flower colour, shape, and fragrance.
• Don’t spring into garden clean up too soon. Wait until temperatures stay consistently above 10°C to start to start raking and pruning. Many pollinators like bees and butterflies are wintering in dead leaves and hollow stems of last-year plants. Bats and snakes sometimes also sleep under leaves and in wood piles.
• Invasive species like burdock can entangle bats and birds. Regularly remove weeds from your garden. If you plan on harvesting burdock, please be responsible and prune out the flowers before they go to seed and become traps for bats.

Invasive species like burdock can entangle bats

If you plan on harvesting burdock, please be responsible and prune out the flowers before they go to seed and become traps for bats.
Photo by: Ken Dzinbal

• Pesticides and chemical fertilizers kill insects and poison wildlife. Practice organic gardening by avoiding chemical products. Try composting to provide organic nutrients in your garden.
• Fact: Bats fertilize gardens with their nitrogen-rich guano (bat poop). Attract bats to have a natural source of guano fertilizer in your garden.
• Switch outdoor light bulbs to “warm” toned or filtered LEDs (under 3,000K) to reduce light pollution that harms bats and other animals. Dimmers, motion sensors, and timers can help to reduce illumination and save energy.
• Keep pets indoors or supervised outdoors to avoid predation on bats and birds.
• Keep dead-standing trees (if it is safe to do so) and mature trees on your property to provide roosting areas for hard-working bats. Peeling tree bark and bark crevices are great homes for bats.
• If you have a lake, creek or wetland by your house – great! Protect natural water-side vegetation; it provides vital food, shelter and water to wildlife.
• Consider adding a garden pond to create a biodiversity oasis in your backyard. Ponds need to be at least 3m wide to serve as drinking sources for bats.

Download the Bat-Friendly Gardening in the Okanagan PDF 

On inspiration and irrigation

Article by Judie Steeves, Past-President OXA

Take inspiration and caution from Mother Nature

Consider taking inspiration for your own landscape from Mother Nature, as well as learning about cautions to be aware of.

For instance, I recently spent a few days hiking in Manning Park, where we visited wildflower meadows in the alpine and hiked all along the string of lakes about the same elevation as Highway 3, where the campgrounds are. That’s about 1,200 metres or 4,000 feet in elevation.

I’ve hiked there in the past, and never have I seen such dry conditions in the alpine and subalpine meadows (except where there are creeks or seeps). If it’s that dry at such a high elevation, far less water than normal is coming down into the Okanagan Valley or being stored in the hills around it.

With that in mind, it would be irresponsible for us to water our home landscapes this year as much as we might in a normal summer. And, that means the plants which prefer a coastal climate or higher natural precipitation, are not going to be happy and may even die back. The plants that will thrive are the ones that naturally do well in a more-arid climate such as the Okanagan’s near-desert conditions. Check our plant database for drought-tolerant plants.

Despite drought conditions in the park, the wildflowers were diverse and beautiful and inspired me to consider replicating some of the colour combinations in my own garden.

In the alpine, at 5-6,000 feet, red paintbrush were bright against the background of silvery pussytoes and white star-flowered sandworts. A great combination! Add in the occasional deep blue of lupines or self-heal and bright yellow buttercups it was different again. Western anemone had finished flowering but their mop top seedheads were graceful and fun and reminded me of the Pulsatilla vulgaris or Prairie Crocus from my own garden, which also have seedheads that look like bedheads.

The wildflowers were entirely different on our hike along the chain of lakes at about 4,000 feet: Lightning, Flash, Strike and Thunder. It’s a more-shaded hike, with lots of creeks and seeps, wetlands and streams, so it features plants which require more moisture than we typically find naturally in the Okanagan.

However, we can substitute drought-tolerant, xeriscape plants for some of those dramatic combinations I found on the lakes trail.

For instance, there was one meadow of deep blue Upland Larkspur, nearly as tall as me, along with creamy Cowparsnip, Fireweed and thistles and I thought of alternatives such as the tall hollyhocks, Beebalm, asters and yarrow, with Fallugia paradoxa or Apache Plume. It’s a shrub of about four feet that has fluffy, pinkish seed heads in summer. All of those are tolerant of both heat and dry conditions and make a glorious show of colour and height and texture.

Paintbrush was a feature everywhere you looked, whether short or tall, and in all shades of red, orange and pink or white. However, it’s one wildflower that’s best left in the wild as it is semi-parasitic on the roots of particular grasses and won’t survive on its own.

Never dig up wildflowers in the wild. Instead, look for cousins in nurseries or explore the native plant section.

Hiking around the Okanagan is a wonderful opportunity to bring home inspiration for your own landscapes, as well as a reminder that it is very dry out there.

If we try to garden as if that natural condition did not exist, we’ll use far more water than we can afford to waste on our landscapes. If we want to live in the Okanagan, we must reform our bad habit of growing plants which require lots of water to thrive.

Gardening with Nature

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Use native plants to help stabilize slopes

It’s just common sense to look to Mother Nature for advice about solving natural concerns on your landscape, like water, steep slopes and sun exposure or shade.

If recent rain sent a torrent of water sluicing down a steep slope on your property, leaving behind a small creek bed full of rocks and gravel and a pile of soil at the bottom, consider planting native and xeric trees, shrubs, grasses and ground covers which will naturally help to stabilize the slope.

Many residential properties throughout the Okanagan have to deal with steep slopes. Our silty soils are notorious for losing stability when exposed to higher-than-normal volumes of water such as intense rainfalls or a sudden rush of water from water line breaks or leaks.

Josh Smith, a director of the Okanagan Xeriscape Association and manager of XEN Xeriscape Endemic Nursery in West Kelowna explains that a cost-effective, low-maintenance and eco-friendly solution is to take advantage of Mother Nature’s suggestions: plant strong-rooted native and xeriscape plants that are adapted to survive and thrive on our slopes—and in our dry environment—to retain the soil and beautify the space.

Plants just after planting to help stabilize a slope on a residential property in Kelowna last year

Developing a naturalized slope-retention system on your property can take several seasons of monitoring but once it is established, it should require zero maintenance, irrigation, or upkeep.

Some key points for getting started include:

• Control the weeds until the trees, shrubs, grasses or ground covers get established. Some invasive species in the Okanagan are virulent enough to take over a slope and hinder the growth of shrubs and trees you have planted or which seed themselves.
• Grass blends or ground-cover are necessary to occlude weeds and provide surface erosion protection. These species help retain the top 10 to 20 cm of the soil.
• Tree and shrub species are what will provide deep, long-lasting, structural support to help stabilize the slope over the long term.

Smith recommends that if you are choosing plant species for slope retention or naturalized areas, go for a walk in your neighbourhood and look carefully at what is growing on natural slopes in your area. This is a surefire way to ensure you select species suited to your soil and moisture conditions.

A year later, the native plants used to stabilize the slope including a yellow-flowered sedum, grey rabbitbrush, nodding onion, a showy fleabane, kinnikinnick and native grass mix are filling in nicely

Resources

There are many wonderful resources available to help you identify native species and learn more about their growth characteristics. Phone apps like iNaturalist and Seek can help you identify plants. There are also several Okanagan-specific plant identification books, including Trees, Shrubs and Flowers to Know in B.C. by C.P. Lyons, and Plants of Southern Interior B.C. by Parish, Coupe and Lloyd, or you can take photos. They can help you look up the plant characteristics in books or on the Internet. You can also take your photos to a native plant nursery for an expert to help you identify the plant.

OXA has an extensive plant database of ornamental and native species. 

There are also specialized native plant nurseries like XEN in West Kelowna and Sagebrush Nursery in Oliver, and many other nurseries carry a selection of native and xeric species.

Sigrie Kendrick is a Master Gardener and Executive-Director of the Okanagan Xeriscape Association. She can be reached at 778-363-8360 or by email at exec_dir@okanaganxeriscape.org.