From Barren to Blossoming: Native Plants in Landscaping
A few months ago, at about the same time I started my job as the Schoolcraft Conservation District’s Communications and Administrative Coordinator, I became a first-time homeowner.
As I imagine most homeowners can empathize with, the purchase opened up a new world of responsibilities I’d never had to think of before. How do I choose a homeowner’s insurance plan? (With great frustration.) Who do I call about my malfunctioning furnace or weird slope in my floor? (Dad. The answer’s always Dad.) Duct tape will be enough to fix that leaky pipe, right? (No, according to said dad, who at some point adopted a look of permanent lament.)
Of course, there was still snow on the ground when I bought my house, and summer has introduced its own host of challenges. Not least of these is: What do I do with my browning, crispy, weed-speckled lawn?
I’m not the only one facing off against a subpar lawn. With this summer’s dearth of rain, communities across the UP are being reminded of the many resources—water chief among them—lawns demand, and the benefits of these expenses are arguably meager. Aside from offering a space for recreation, lawns largely exist to be a status symbol. Like a porch-wrapped house and white picket fence, a lush green lawn is baked into the American Dream. “The people who live here can afford me,” it seems to call out to passersby. “They made it.”
But it’s not just homeowners who are paying the price of upkeep. The roughly 40 million acres of lawns in the US also comes at a steep cost to the environment. According to the EPA, Americans use roughly nine billion gallons of water per day on landscape irrigation, driving water scarcity in the hotter, dryer climates that will only increase in number as global warming progresses. Water use further requires energy, often drawn from fossil fuels, to extract water from the ground, purify it, test it, and deliver it to consumers.
The use of herbicides and pesticides is another massive downside of lawn maintenance. While these products can help to control weeds and unwanted insects, they can also be toxic to an array of non-target flora and fauna, easily spreading through the food web and contaminating water tables and surface water runoff.
Due to these and other concerns (decreased biodiversity, fossil fuel emissions from lawn care equipment, synthetic fertilizers, etc.), there has been a growing interest in alternative landscaping approaches that are more sustainable.
Many environmentally conscious Americans are swapping out their lawns for meadows, uncultivated areas featuring native plants, which ecologically trounce grass at every turn. Meadows are better equipped to absorb water and act as natural water filters. They contribute to biodiversity. The native flowers that grow within them are also hugely beneficial to pollinators, several of which are undergoing population decline.
For those who are understandably wary of transforming their entire yard, another option is to use hell strips—the strips of grassy land between sidewalk and curb—as a native plant garden space. Tread on by pedestrians, smothered by salt and snow, driven over by vehicles, and used as a pitstop for dogs, the aptly named hell strip is notoriously difficult to keep green. Fortunately, native plants offer an easy solution. Unlike grass, native plants have evolved to thrive in their local ecosystems, even in the face of harsh conditions such as drought or extreme temperatures, and their adaptations to local soil dissolves the need for fertilizers. They are, in short, a perfect choice for anyone looking to revamp their hell strip into something less… Well. Hellish.
At this time, Manistique doesn’t require its residents to obtain permits before planting in hell strips, though the city does ask that people avoid planting trees in this area or allowing anything to grow tall enough to interfere with street signage. MISS DIG should also be contacted before any digging to ensure safe handling of underground utilities.
As I imagine most homeowners can empathize with, the purchase opened up a new world of responsibilities I’d never had to think of before. How do I choose a homeowner’s insurance plan? (With great frustration.) Who do I call about my malfunctioning furnace or weird slope in my floor? (Dad. The answer’s always Dad.) Duct tape will be enough to fix that leaky pipe, right? (No, according to said dad, who at some point adopted a look of permanent lament.)
Of course, there was still snow on the ground when I bought my house, and summer has introduced its own host of challenges. Not least of these is: What do I do with my browning, crispy, weed-speckled lawn?
I’m not the only one facing off against a subpar lawn. With this summer’s dearth of rain, communities across the UP are being reminded of the many resources—water chief among them—lawns demand, and the benefits of these expenses are arguably meager. Aside from offering a space for recreation, lawns largely exist to be a status symbol. Like a porch-wrapped house and white picket fence, a lush green lawn is baked into the American Dream. “The people who live here can afford me,” it seems to call out to passersby. “They made it.”
But it’s not just homeowners who are paying the price of upkeep. The roughly 40 million acres of lawns in the US also comes at a steep cost to the environment. According to the EPA, Americans use roughly nine billion gallons of water per day on landscape irrigation, driving water scarcity in the hotter, dryer climates that will only increase in number as global warming progresses. Water use further requires energy, often drawn from fossil fuels, to extract water from the ground, purify it, test it, and deliver it to consumers.
The use of herbicides and pesticides is another massive downside of lawn maintenance. While these products can help to control weeds and unwanted insects, they can also be toxic to an array of non-target flora and fauna, easily spreading through the food web and contaminating water tables and surface water runoff.
Due to these and other concerns (decreased biodiversity, fossil fuel emissions from lawn care equipment, synthetic fertilizers, etc.), there has been a growing interest in alternative landscaping approaches that are more sustainable.
Many environmentally conscious Americans are swapping out their lawns for meadows, uncultivated areas featuring native plants, which ecologically trounce grass at every turn. Meadows are better equipped to absorb water and act as natural water filters. They contribute to biodiversity. The native flowers that grow within them are also hugely beneficial to pollinators, several of which are undergoing population decline.
For those who are understandably wary of transforming their entire yard, another option is to use hell strips—the strips of grassy land between sidewalk and curb—as a native plant garden space. Tread on by pedestrians, smothered by salt and snow, driven over by vehicles, and used as a pitstop for dogs, the aptly named hell strip is notoriously difficult to keep green. Fortunately, native plants offer an easy solution. Unlike grass, native plants have evolved to thrive in their local ecosystems, even in the face of harsh conditions such as drought or extreme temperatures, and their adaptations to local soil dissolves the need for fertilizers. They are, in short, a perfect choice for anyone looking to revamp their hell strip into something less… Well. Hellish.
At this time, Manistique doesn’t require its residents to obtain permits before planting in hell strips, though the city does ask that people avoid planting trees in this area or allowing anything to grow tall enough to interfere with street signage. MISS DIG should also be contacted before any digging to ensure safe handling of underground utilities.