Shifting perspectives: Finding beauty and benefit in a rewilded landscape

Blue-eyed grass blooming in Michele Girard’s garden. (Courtesy photo)

Patches of common milkweed for monarch butterflies appear here and there. Three different goldenrods, black-eyed Susans, and New York ironweed intermingle in another corner of the property. Fern fronds unfurl amid a patch of pachysandra. A red-tailed hawk screams overhead. A walk around Michele Girard’s yard reveals a landscape in transition.

A short drive from Girard’s home is Kathryn Fricchione’s property. When Fricchione moved to her current home years ago, someone shared information with her about invasive plants. She looked around the property, realized there was an extensive row of thriving burning-bush shrubs (also known as winged euonymus), and started removing them. As she considered how she wanted her landscape to function in the future, her native plant journey began.

Why are native plants important?

Girard’s answer: “It’s all about relationships.” She points out an area of jewelweed, and says, “Years ago, decades ago, I would have been out here, weeding every single one of them out.” After learning jewelweed is a primary source of nectar for ruby-throated hummingbirds on their southern migration, Girard changed course. She said, “I leave it. It’s just like the milkweed: too important.” Monarch butterflies coevolved with plants in the milkweed family and depend on them for their life cycle.

These sentiments are echoed by Deborah O’ Rourke, a member of the Garden Club of Harvard. “I have been aware that native plants are beneficial for many years, but my perspective and interest in this was accelerated greatly by reading Doug Tallamy’s book “Nature’s Best Hope” about seven years ago,” she said. O’Rourke limits new landscape plantings at her home to native species. She specifically notes the work of Dr. Richard Gegear at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as an important influence in her decision. Gegear has done pivotal research on at-risk Massachusetts bumblebee and butterfly species and their host plants. Since planting or nurturing several of these plants in her yard, O’Rourke has noticed an increase in the diversity of pollinator species visiting her garden.

Native plants in a garden, yard, or landscape

There are a variety of options for including native plants in a landscape, and each gardener may have a slightly different approach.

Fricchione prefers the visual aesthetic of some nonnative plants, so she uses natives and nonnatives in her gardens. For example, she loves old-fashioned bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) so she retains this plant in her garden bed, and also includes fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia), a species native to the Appalachian region of the northeastern United States, according to GoBotany. It is possible to have a garden that is both beautiful and beneficial.

While walking through Fricchione’s garden, she talks about height, color, variety, and contrast. Plants like big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) will, over the growing season, provide a dramatic backdrop, as it can reach a height of 6 feet. The plant provides winter interest in her garden and is the host plant for 11 species of native butterflies and moths.

Fricchione does not use an irrigation system in her garden beds. She has found native plants to be more tolerant of variable weather conditions, including drought. She said, “They slow down, they don’t look so happy, they look droopy,” but they survive.

She reclaims areas of lawn by cutting it away and planting both natives and nonnatives. Fricchione also placed plugs of Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica) in her yard, hoping it will eventually, spread over other areas of the lawn.

Her advice? “Go slowly, enjoy the process, it will take time. And you’re busy being creative, so you want time to think about what you might want . . . don’t be frustrated about the fact that you planted it in the wrong place. You don’t have to worry about making a mistake because you can move it, correct it, put it somewhere else.” For her, there is joy to be found in experimenting and encouraging biodiversity.

Girard’s approach is a bit different. On a tour of her property, Girard stopped, pointed to an area, and said, “This is the ‘kill your lawn,’ step one.” Girard employs a simple strategy to “rewild” new patches of lawn. She gets cardboard from the transfer station, lays it down, and covers it with 4-plus inches of wood chips from trees felled on the property.

When traditional lawn failed to thrive in this area, Girard said, she decided to try a native ground cover. Over time, she noted asters, spicebush, mayapples, and other natives moving into the space. She also purchased and planted specific natives, including foamflower, Appalachian sedge, and others, into the landscape over time. For inspiration, she visits Garden in the Woods, a woodland botanical garden in Framingham, and takes note of plant combinations to try in her gardening spaces.

For those working with smaller spaces, other options for native plantings might be container gardens, planters, or raised beds. The Wild Seed Project has a blog post about growing native plants in urban environments or for individuals who are in transition and may need to “move” their plantings. Their website provides specific plant recommendations. (See sidebar.)

All of these Harvard gardeners share a passion for ecology, the relationship between living organisms and their physical environment, and a passion for land stewardship. In our conversations, they spoke about plants, beneficial insects, birds, and other wildlife. In short, they were endlessly fascinated by a thriving ecosystem. Fricchione said, “I just think native plants make life interesting because [they] make [the garden] busy with insects and bees . . . it’s wonderful to sit, or stand, and watch all the activity.”

Trumpet honeysuckle, a native vine, winds around a garden archway in Kathy Fricchione’s garden. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

A fully bloomed red flower. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Wild geranium blossoms. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Editor’s note: This is the second  of two articles on native plants. Part 1 appeared in the May 29 issue.