With the summer season come opportunities to populate your yard and garden with blooms bursting with color. Creating a landscape of vibrant native flowers and trees not only helps to beautify your yard, but also does double duty by helping to preserve Asheville’s natural ecosystem.
Native know-how
Native species of flowers and plants occur naturally, without human introduction or intervention. Over time, they have built up physical and biological characteristics specific to regional elements – things like climate, soil type, moisture, and other local plants, animals and insects. They are hardy, environmentally friendly, and help to restore regional landscapes that may be compromised in rapidly developing areas. In short, they are perfectly adapted to their home.
When landscaping with native flowering plants, the best research is simply looking around to get an idea of what grows near your home naturally and beautifully. In the Asheville area, it’s easy to maximize your success by matching the right plants with the right site conditions. To do this, assess the type of light and amount of moisture your planting site receives throughout the day, as well as throughout each growing season. The direction your garden faces, the amount of horizontal and vertical working space you have, and your altitude also figure prominently in native landscaping success. Having your soil pH tested is helpful, and will indicate whether the soil needs to be amended.
A range of colorful choices
From wispy wildflowers to low-growing, flowering groundcovers, colorful native options in the Asheville area are diverse enough to suit any weekend landscaper’s tastes.
A lot of native planting depends on your landscaping goals
· Looking to design a striking space that can also provide a lush wildlife habitat? Start by creating layers: Plant low-growing plants and shrubs under taller flowers (think coneflowers and black-eyed Susan), and produce an environment where birds can nest and feed.
· For a punch of color that attracts an array of pollinators, nothing beats wildflowers. Popular in the Asheville area and surrounding region, and targeted to specific seasons, are eastern bluestar, butterfly weed and cardinal flower.
· For a colorfully natural way to stem erosion and minimize maintenance, flowering groundcovers are the way to go. Some popular Western N.C. natives include the multi-season showstopper partridgeberry (white flowers in the spring, red berries in the fall); and green and gold, perfect for populating a rock garden.
How to get started landscaping your Asheville home
Asheville is replete with local nurseries well-versed in all aspects of native flowers and landscaping. In addition, there are local educational resources galore to get you started in filling your yard with color. For more information and guidance on seasonal native flowers and other colorful plants, visit the following:
Asheville Botanical Gardens http://ashevillebotanicalgardens.org/wordpress_3/our-gardens/garden-philosophy/native-plants/
N.C. Native Plant Society http://www.ncwildflower.org
Bee City USA http://www.beecityusa.org/resources.html
And if you’re looking for the perfect house to go with that vividly landscaped yard, please contact us at Info@MyMosaicRealty.com, or call us anytime at 828-707-9556.
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