Consider incorporating Native Plants in your Residential Landscape
Native Plant Communities are essential for many migrating species of Birds, Butterflies and pollinators. Our Northeastern Hardwood Forest and Native Plant Communities have become fractured.
Your landscape can be a place of sustenance for these travelers as well as a beautifully designed garden filled with flowers and fruit, birds and butterflies. Consideration as to your tree and plant species can make all the difference to support bio diversity and can help rebalance our Northeastern landscape. Consider the almighty Pin Oak, Eastern Red Oak, Sugar Maples, or Dogwood, Pawpaw and Eastern White Pines for their majestic beauty. For bushes and flowers investing in native Winterberry, Northern Spicebush and Butterfly Weed can bring a heritage appeal to your garden or estate. Call us to discuss
Other impactful ideas to consider;
Milkweed in Every Garden
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on just one type of plant, and that’s milkweed (genus Asclepias). While awareness is rising around the importance of milkweed, as well as other native plants as pollinators, planting milkweed in your own garden is a beautiful way to be a part of the conservation efforts in NJ and beautify your yard with beautiful native plants and butterflies. There are many milkweed species that work best in the Northeast including Butterfly weed, Whorled Milkweed and Poke Milkweed.
Consider adding milkweed into your gardens and see the beauty that abounds. For more info about this initiative go to https://monarchjointventure.org
LINPI
The Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) is a volunteer -cooperative effort of over 30 non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, nursery professionals, and citizens. The mission of this organization is to protect the genetic integrity and heritage of Long Island native plant populations and thus biodiversity from a landscape to genetic level, by establishing commercial sources of genetically appropriate local (ecotypic) plant materials for use in nursery, landscaping, and habitat restoration activities.
For more information go to LINPI.org
Native Plant Society of NJ go to http://www.npsnj.org
Certified Wildlife Habitat
You can help effect positive environmental change by certifying your habitat to help wildlife. A wildlife habitat garden is a haven for local birds, butterflies, pollinators and other native wildlife. This ecosystem gardening works to create sustainable gardening choices and creates a welcome habitat for nature to thrive. Consider onsite composting and supplemented natural irrigation systems as part of your planning. We are happy to help you with this concept and can share resources that you may find of interest. You can certify your habitat when you garden meets certain criteria and be awarded with the certification plaque designation- a great way to start the conversation with neighbors and friends. For more info go to
www.nwf.org
Rain Gardens
Rain gardens improve water quality by filtering runoff, provide localized flood control, create aesthetic landscaping sites, and provide diverse planting opportunities. Rain gardens often include wetland edge vegetation such as wildflowers, sedge, rushes , ferns, shrubs and small trees. These plants take in nutrients and water that flow into the rain garden, and they release water vapor back to the atmosphere through transpiration.Rain gardens encourage wildlife and biodiversity, provides an environment that can be integrated to support both natural and urban environments in environmentally advantageous ways while providing significant solutions to important environmental problems that effect us all today. We are certified to design and build rain gardens. For more information please find these resources of interest
https://www.groundwater.org
https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain