Native Plants in Your Landscape: The Easy Part of The Green Building Movement
By Bill Jones, President, Carolina Native Nursery
Every new home, commercial and residential development, or for that matter any new construction project that requires a building permit also requires a landscaping plan. And in reviewing The Sustainable Sites Initiative currently in development from the A.S.L.A., The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden, utilizing and conserving native plant material can and will pay in many ways. The U.S. Green Building Council is a major stakeholder and has committed to incorporating these guidelines and standards into the LEED Green Building Rating Systems. So how do native plants fit into sustainability, green building, and these developing standards and guidelines? By first understanding why using native plants in landscaping is an environmentally and economically sound practice, it is then easy to see how they readily fit into sustainable and green building concepts and implementation.
A landscape plan that embraces native plant material has many advantages before the discussion of standards and initiatives comes into play. There are four major points to remember. We often refer to these as selling points in a landscaping presentation.
Native plants are environmentally friendly. They require less maintenance and are cost effective in the landscape. In other words, they require little to no pesticides and fertilizer treatments and will not require irrigation for their survival. This can be a very substantial cost savings for your clients in the long run. It can be especially important for clients who have vacation homes.
Secondly, native plants are hardy. They have adapted and evolved through the ages to local soil types and climate therefore withstanding winter cold and dieback as well as drought conditions. Consequently, they have a better survival rate.
Native plants promote biodiversity, provide food and shelter for native wildlife, and restores regional landscapes. A native landscape can blend effortlessly with the surrounding natural landscape. Isn’t that what homeowners in the mountains are looking for anyway?
Finally, native plants prevent future exotic and invasive plant introductions. Although many exotic, or non-native, plants are not invasive, some are. Invasive exotic plant material escapes, naturalizes, spreads, and replaces the native plant communities. These exotics can be vectors of disease and insects. Kudzu, privette, and oriental bittersweet are examples of exotics gone awry in the mountains of western N.C.
These are the points that are highlighted over and over again throughout the 100 page report. The other aspect mentioned is buying locally grown plant material. Horticulture studies prove that plants raised from local stock (progeny) in the same climatic conditions where they are planted will undoubtedly survive better.
“What does sustainability mean to you?” That was the question posed to me recently by Alison Arnold, Director of Horticulture at the N.C. Arboretum. At that time I had not thought about it and certainly had no quick answer. Now I say that sustainability, as far as my business is concerned, means a landscape that naturally enhances and fits its surrounding ecosystem. Like an old cabin in the woods, a man put it there, but it certainly seems like it belongs.