June is National Pollinator Month, which celebrates the pollinators that keep our ecosystem — and food system — healthy. It’s an invitation for home gardeners to think about the ecology of their home landscapes, no matter the size.
Alexis Doshas is the nursery manager at Nasami Farm. She explained how the term “native plants” carries a lot more weight than just growing wild here.
“Native plants are the basis of our food chain. The plants evolved with the insects, so the plants adapted to encourage insects to help them pollinate. At the same time, the insects adapted to get what they need out of the plant,” she said. “If you think of the hummingbird and the cardinal flower, the shape of the tube and the color of the cardinal flower work well together. That happened over time, and so we support those pollinators by using the plants that they are looking for and that they are used to seeing.”
Native Plant Trust is a regional plant conservation organization with a vision to promote and support the region’s flora for resilient landscapes and diversity. In the early 2000s, Nasami Farm in Whately was acquired by Native Plant Trust.
Since then, the farm has focused on growing native plants from seed for research, large restoration projects and home garden support. Nasami Farm’s goal is to ensure the genetic diversity of native plant species by focusing on the propagation and research of hard-to-grow native plants.
Doshas defines native plants as “plants that are adapted to our specific climate and soils, so they occur here naturally … It’s not really about bringing the plant community back to a certain point in time. Rather, it’s about restoring plants to be self-sufficient and important to the ecology at the moment, more than bringing this landscape back to the way it was in 1800s.”
The plants we define in this way are adapting alongside climate change. Doshas continues, “We are already seeing some colder species leaving some of the areas and moving farther north, and you can see some southern species who are now able to make it through our winters,” Doshas continued. “I think of natives as plants that can naturally occur in our climate without our assistance.”
Nasami Farm’s restorative work starts with identifying healthy populations of common species and collecting seed from these native plants.
“We’re a small little team, so we specialize in the seed-to-seedling stage. We like to use something called ‘ecotypic seed,’ which is seed of some plants that live in our area,” Doshas said. “The plants that we grow from that seed is going to do well here in our climate.”
To protect natural populations, the growers “follow protocols, taking less than 20% of seed that’s available,” said Doshas.
When customers purchase plants from Nasami Farm, most of the inventory is labeled to indicate if they were grown from seed, alongside the location of that seed source, like Franklin County. Their growing practices support the entire ecosystem.
Doshas explained, “We’re not certified organic, but we don’t use any pesticides. We do use IPM [Integrated Pest Management] for our program; we use beneficial insects to control our pests, scouting, and whatever kind of cultural treatments we can do. We also partner with nurseries that have agreed to not use any neonicotinoids or pesticides on our plant material.”
Home gardeners play a critical role in restoring the ecology of our region because not all plants support wildlife equally. In 2018, University of Delaware researchers Doug Tallamy and Desirée Narango released their study on the impact of nonnative plants on birds that eat insects. More than 90% of the herbivorous insects the birds eat specialize in one or a few native plant species. Their findings reported that nonnative plants reduced habitat quality for these birds, meaning that people should introduce native plants to their gardens to support the avian food chain.
“Certain moths and caterpillars lay their eggs on certain native plants, and only those plants,” Doshas said. “They recognize them, they know them, and therefore the caterpillars are feeding our birds.”
Based on the study, if a landscape features 70% native plants for their ecological value in supporting birds and wildlife, gardeners can still enjoy annuals and perennial favorites for the remaining 30% of yard plantings.
She continued, “You need to know that if you’re putting plants out, it can also be a food source for the rest of the ecology in your area. If you plant the cardinal flower or the honeysuckle vine, the hummingbirds will come to it because that’s what they’re looking for. It’s a lot of fun.”
Incorporating native plants into the home garden can still provide the beauty gardeners seek. “You don’t have to rip everything out,” said Doshas of existing garden layouts. However, she noted that alternatives should be found for invasive species like the burning bush (Euonymus alatus), a common shrub used in landscape plantings.
“Try to find an alternative. You don’t want to just pull it out and leave it. You want to have a less harmful alternative for your catbirds and their food. A lot of people like the burning bush for fall color, so we suggest highbush blueberry,” Doshas said. “It has beautiful fall color and they’re just going to serve a better purpose in the ecosystem. So if you’re going to take something out, put something in its place.”
“Just plant a few more [natives] in there, and you will see some visitation. Get to know your landscape: look around and see what’s already growing there,” Doshas continued. “If you have a bit of a wild area, that can kind of inform you about what kind of plant wants to grow there. Just get started and see what you can bring in for wildlife.”
Learn more about Nasami Farm on their website and Facebook page. Visit their garden shop at 128 North St. in Whately. Nasami Farm is open Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 5.
Lisa Goodrich is a communications coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find cultivated native plants at local flower farms and nurseries near you, check out CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org/find-it-locally.
