The regional accent is expressed by the type of plants you grow and the suggestion is that these should be native to your location. The article quoted below contains seven tips for creating landscapes that incorporate native plants in pleasing and sustainable ways. The author is Susan Tweit and her article comes from the Houzz website.
When I give talks on designing with natives, I remember the words of Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the U.S. and founder of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas: ?Wherever I go in America, I like it when the land speaks its own language in its own regional accent.? The ?language? she was referring to is the look and feel that native plants give; the particular colors, shapes, patterns, scents and sense of place created by these rooted beings and the communities they have evolved in over millennia.1. Understand what ?native? means for your landscape. A ?native? plant is generally considered to be one that has evolved in a particular region or place, developing a network of relationships over millennia with the other living things there, from microbes in the soil to pollinators and grazers and, of course, other plants. In short, it is a long-term member of the community of that place and region.
The point of bringing native plants back to our local landscapes is to return the community of nature to our daily lives, and to heal the ecosystems of our parts of this earth. It?s about restoring relationships between plants and each other, and between plants and other kinds of living things. It?s about reweaving community. So ?native? in this sense means local.
The trees in this New England garden, with their glorious scarlet leaves, would not be appropriate natives to add to my yard in northwest Wyoming, for instance. Yes, they are native to the North American continent. But the relationships that sustain these stunning trees are with species of the forests of the well-watered and comparatively lush Northeast, not the arid and high-elevation sagebrush country of the West.2. Learn to recognize natives where you are. Autumn colors for my region come from local native plants, such as the hunter-orange skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata) and golden-flowered rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa), shown here. There are also the plummy-crimson leaves of chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), the brilliant gold of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and the lemon to amber leaves of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) and narrowleaf cottonwood (Populus angustifolia) trees.
See more at Houzz
Feature photo: Susan J Tweit
