GARDEN ECOSYSTEMS

Designing spaces to support

wildlife, protect the environment,
and enhance our lives.

Photo by Jane Gamble

www.natureforward.org
 WHAT GOOD IS A
GARDEN?
Gardens are pretty and peaceful places for people to spend
time. But with a little ecological thinking, gardens can also be
powerful forces of environmental healing. In gardens we can
provide food and habitat for wildlife, support the pollinators
that are essential to crops, filter pollutants from air and water,
build soil health, store carbon, manage water, cool the planet,
and create beautiful oases of respite from our busy lives.

Many of these benefits are attainable whether a garden is

made up of multiple acres, several square feet, or even a
collection of containers. The serious environmental
challenges we face demand that we make use of every square
inch possible for ecological benefits.

Landowners can use this guide to be responsible stewards of

ground that has a deeper history and a longer future than any
deed could reflect. And we can all work to make our
communities friendlier to the broader natural community.

We needn't wander in the wilderness to find more harmony

with nature. Start looking at the spaces around you. What if
the land of every road median, library, school yard, police
station, corporate campus, place of worship, utility right-of-
way, and even strip mall was managed for maximum
ecological benefit? What if we were all living in one big garden
ecosystem?

"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would
be good for the world...We must change our lives, so that it will be
possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the
world will be good for us."
From "A Native Hill" by Wendell Berry
 ALL HABITAT NEEDS
A garden ecosystem should provide for multiple habitat needs of
wildlife. This can be done even at a small scale. If you can
provide all of the habitat needs of several insects, you've
created a food source for many other species of wildlife.

Food Gardening with native plants provides

nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage
and pollen to wildlife. The insects that
thrive on native plants are another
important food source. Bird feeders are a
good way to see wildlife in your yard, and
can provide supplemental nutrition in late
winter and early spring when wild food
American Goldfinch sources are scarce.

Water Maintaining even a small amount of water in

a garden can attract a surprising amount of
wildlife in a dry spell. While ponds may
www.greengroundswell.com

allow for amphibian breeding, even a

shallow dish of water will be useful to birds
and mammals. Mosquitoes can be safely
controlled in water sources using the non-
Eastern Bluebirds
toxic Mosquito Dunks.

Creating plant layers will provide cover

Shelter and nesting sites for a variety of wildlife.
A little messiness in a garden can do
the same. Leaf litter, woody debris and
old plant stalks create habitat niches for
Carolina Chickadee insects and provide nesting materials
for birds. Short on space? Consider a
Nesting habitat condominium!
 WHY PLANT
NATIVE SPECIES?
As primary producers, plants form the foundation
A tiger swallowtail on of food webs. The wildlife of a region co-evolve
coneflower
with its plant communities, making local native
plants the best food sources. Many insects, in
particular, are entirely dependent on specific
plant species. Insects, in turn, feed animals
higher in the web.

A bumblebee on Virginia bluebell

Oaks alone feed the caterpillars of over

500 species of butterflies and moths
Monarch chrysalides on milkweed
Carolina chickadee

And it requires at least 6,000 caterpillars

to raise one clutch of chickadees
 THE LAYERS OF A
GARDEN ECOSYSTEM
Garden ecosystems are most successful if they replicate
relationships in natural plant communities. Many yards have turf
grass lawns with a few shrubs at the edge and perhaps one shade
tree. In natural communities, plants with different growth habits
intermingle creating structural complexity that benefits wildlife,
builds soil health, and encourages stormwater infiltration.

Canopy
Trees provide many ecological benefits including filtering
pollutants, lowering air temperature, and providing nesting sites.
If you don't have any, consider planting some -- the best time to
do so is twenty years ago, but the second best time is right now!

Shrubs
The dense irregular branching of shrubs provides cover near the
ground that birds such as the eastern towhee and the wood
thrush prefer for nesting. Their deep roots hold soil on slopes.

Groundlayer
Grasses, ferns, and wildflowers growing close to the ground
protect the soil surface from erosion by rain and create habitat
conditions necessary for many invertebrates, amphibians, and
reptiles.

Soil
Far from just dirt, soil is a zone of complex interactions between
plant roots, minerals, decaying organic matter, insects and micro-
organisms. Healthy soil absorbs stormwater and recycles nutrients
for use by plants.
 FOUR SEASONS
Be sure to think about the needs of wildlife in all seasons. Rather
than putting your garden to bed for the winter, design it so that it
works for wildlife year-round.

Early and late flowers

Support pollinators by planning a garden with blooms from April to
October. Even monarchs need more than milkweed. Late season
asters and goldenrods are crucial to fuel their migration.

Early blooming redbud Mid-season blooming Late blooming aster

mountain mint

Berry festival Standing Invitation

As summer turns to fall and Fall cleanup may be good for
winter, insect food becomes your landscaper's wallet, but
unavailable in our area. it's a losing proposition for
Winter-resident birds rely on wildlife. Leave plants standing
fat-rich berries as weather through winter. Seedheads will
turns cold. Plant shrubs like continue to feed animals and
winterberry and chokeberry insects will shelter in hollow
and watch for the happy stalks.
winter feast.

Cedar waxwing eating winterberry Goldenrod seedhead

 DO LESS FOR THE
ENVIRONMENT
Lose the lawn competition
While lawn mowing may have built character in your youth, we
suggest you do much less of it. Lawns have very few ecological
benefits and require inputs with negative environmental
consequences. Replace as much lawn as possible with deep-
rooted, locally-adapted native plants and then read a great
ecology book while your neighbors are watering, mowing and
fertilizing.

Let down your guard

Many gardeners watch vigilantly for signs that their plants are being
eaten and take immediate action to kill the offenders. We invite you
to put down the pesticides and peacefully observe leaf holes as
evidence of a great food web. Take a nap, knowing that your garden
is doing good work. Pesticides do as much harm to the ladybugs
that eat aphids as to the aphids themselves. Trust that your garden
ecosystem will arrive at a balance of insect herbivores and their
predators.*

Leave some litter behind

We give you permission to sit and watch the birds while your
neighbors are raking. Decomposing leaves replenish the soil, while
leaf litter retains moisture and regulates temperature at ground
level. Animals and even plants shelter under this blanket of leaves
in the winter. Some lepidoptera even lay eggs or make cocoons in
leaf litter. Let leaves lie in your garden beds and enjoy more
butterflies in the spring!
* A note on pyrethrins often advertised as "natural" by mosquito
control companies. These chemicals are toxic to a wide range of
insects. We suggest repellants for your clothing rather than pesticides
in your yard.
 CREATE A PLAN
Inventory
Create a simple measured map of your site. Note what is already
growing from turf to shrubs to trees. Dig a few holes and fill with water
to see how well your soil drains. Define areas that receive full sun,
partial sun or shade. Observe how water travels on a rainy day. What
benefits is your site already providing? Where could improvements be
made? What layers are missing? What habitat needs are there? Can
you capture stormwater in a rain garden?

Dutchman's Breeches Jewelweed Virginia bluebells

Choose plants
Now you're ready for the best part. Think about what kind of native
plant community could thrive at your site. Choose multiple plants
from that community, since they have evolved to work well
together. Be sure to create layers with grasses, forbs and shrubs.
You can use the species suggested in this guide, visit the Audubon
Naturalist Shop for native gardening books, or use free online
tools.
www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder
www.audubon.org/plantsforbirds
 MEADOW GARDENS
for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Do you have a sunny, well- Use this plant list to create a
drained area in your yard or meadow garden that benefits
community? Meadows thrive wildlife and creates a
without fertilizing and require beautiful, low-maintenance
only annual mowing. Establish landscape with a sense of
a meadow quickly by planting place.
flats of plugs and broadcasting
seed. Control invasive vines by
cutting back repeatedly.
Wildflowers
Common milkweed
Grasses Butterfly weed
Little bluestem Patridge pea
Indian grass Narrow-leaved mountain mint
Purple lovegrass Black-eyed susan
Southern wild rye New York Ironweed
Bottlebrush grass Wreath goldenrod
Purpletop Wild bergamot
River oat Blazing star
Eastern star sedge Blue mistflower
Fox sedge New England aster
Wild blue indigo
Tickseed
Joepye weed
Wild geranium
Thin-leaved sunflower
Oxeye sunflower
Sundrops
Phlox
 WOODLAND GARDENS
for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Use this list to create a woodland
garden that benefits wildlife and creates
a beautiful, low-maintenance landscape
with a sense of place.

Ground layer
Blue wood sedge
Bottlebrush grass
Bloodroot Christmas fern
Sensitive fern
Do you have trees Blue-stem goldenrod
that create areas of Tickseed sunflower
White wood aster
dappled or deep
Mayapple Trout lily
shade? Adding Jack in the pulpit
shrub and ground Spring beauty Shrub layer
layers below trees Wild bleeding heart Witch hazel
adds cover for birds Trout lily Gray dogwood
Alumroot Inkberry
and other
Solomon’s seal Winterberry
wildlife. Fruits and
Golden ragwort Mountain laurel
flowers of these Smooth beardtongue Spicebush
plants also feed Bloodroot Elderberry
wildlife. Trillium Highbush blueberry
Violet Maple-leaved arrowwod
Mayapple and Trillium

To create more wildlife value

consider leaving 15-ft standing
snags when trees must be taken
down, as well as logs on the
ground. Woodpeckers and
salamanders will thank you!
 RAINGARDENS
The health of streams and the Chesapeake Bay begins in our
neighborhoods. Programs like DC Riversmart Homes and
Montgomery County Rainscapes subsidize green stormwater
management projects like rain gardens.

Native plants that thrive in the periodic flooding of rain gardens.

Flowers Grasses & Ferns Shrubs
Swamp milkweed Sea oats Buttonbush
Swamp rose mallow Soft rush Serviceberry
Blue flag iris Royal fern Inkberry
Beebalm Cinammon fern Winterberry
Joepye weed Silky dogwood
Turtlehead
Spicebush
Blazing star
Elderberry
Cardinal flower
Highbush blueberry
Black-eyed Susan
Arrowwood viburnum
Ironweed
Red chokeberry
 MORE RESOURCES
Native Plant Nurseries
Maryland Virginia
Chesapeake Natives, Upper Marlboro Earth Sangha, Springfield
Babikow, Baltimore Nature By Design, Alexandria
Environmental Concern, St Michael's
Herring Run Nursery, Baltimore Online
American Native Plants, Perry Hall Izel Plants, www.izelplants.com
Lauren's Garden Service, Glenwood

Organizations
Maryland Native Plant Society www.mdflora.org
Virginia Native Plant Society www.vnps.org
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professionals www.cblpro.org
Plant NOVA Natives www.plantnovanatives.org

Visit Woodend Nature Sanctuary to:

Find ecological gardening books at the Naturalist Shop
Take native plant gardening workshops
Tour our gardens, meadows and forest as we restore biodiversity

https://natureforward.org/program/native-plant-gardening

The Blair Native Plant Garden at Woodend Nature Sanctuary