Fall is good time to let your garden 'go native'

As we continue our series on landscaping, it is time to discuss "going native."

Fall is a good season to establish many native plants — many by seed — as the moisture cycle goes from dry to moist, and the temperature cycle goes from hot to cool. That means your plants suffer less stress.

If the term "going native" makes you a little nervous, don't worry. It doesn't mean your landscape will look like the roadside or the salt flats. What "going native" means is finding Utah plants that can adapt to landscape uses.

Utah is among the top 10 states in species richness, despite being the second-driest state in the nation, with more than 3,000 native plants. This diversity is due to the highly variable soils, elevation, rainfall and climate.

However, the state is considered horticulturally undiscovered because it has so many plants that aren't used for ornamental or economic purposes. Because it's difficult to replicate harsh growing climates in nurseries, many of these native plants have not been widely experimented with to find their best uses.

Of course, the idea of planting native plants is not new. The early pioneers scoured the mountains looking for plants that had economic value to them. They tapped the bigtooth maple for its sap, boiling it down for maple syrup; they dug and ate the sego lily; they collected and stored pine nuts; they picked service berry; and they made preserves from thimbleberries.

Over time people began introducing exotic species in their landscapes, and interest in native plants waned. But over the past couple of years — mainly due to the drought — there has been a renewed interest in native plants.

Last week I attended the Utah Native Plant Symposium at Utah State University. There I met with Linda Oswald, treasurer of the Intermountain Native Plant Growers Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the awareness of the value of native plants for landscaping, water conservation and habitat improvement.

She said her interest in native plants ballooned when she took some classes at Red Butte Garden. She then took some credit classes at USU and recieved an ornamental horticultural certificate from the university.

"I could never figure out how to make a living with native plants, but I still had a strong interest," she said. She then attended a native plant propagation workshop offered by Susan Myers from the U.S. Forest Service and she started growing her own plants from seed.

"My initial interest was in water conservation," Oswald said, "but it soon developed into much more."