native plant guide

Cattails in water

Water, Water, Everywhere

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Cattails in water There’s something special about waterfront property, whether you are visiting a place to take in the view, or you’re fortunate enough to live or work near one of the thousands of the miles of shoreline that includes the coastland, lakes, streams, and creeks that abound in Virginia.

Americans desire owning waterfront property more than any other home feature.  It cost about 116% more for real estate at the shore’s edge. Waterfront properties are more expensive than any other property due to the simple concept of supply and demand.

If your waterfront home is in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, you need to be aware that you may be subject to special regulations under the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) based on the distance between your home and the water or wetlands.  There are simple ways you can tend to your property that will improve local water quality, while protecting the vegetation and wildlife that live there.

For all property owners and residents who live by or near the water’s edge, the folks at our affiliate askHRgreen.org suggest you consider giving these lawn and garden tips a try:

  • For lawn near the water, don’t mow; let it grow! Free-growing grasses help to intercept sediments and filter out nutrients that run off the land.
  • Preserve the trees and plants in your yard. These keep pollutants at bay and minimize erosion, while providing food and shelter for wildlife.
  • Replace grassy lawns with perennial native plants, a benefit for you (no mowing) and for pollinators and nesting animals. (Check the Virginia Native Plant Society’s Native Plant Guides for more information about plants for the different regions of Virginia.)
  • Call a Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional who is certified in the practice of sustainable landscaping for your region. They can advise and help you with your plans.

Wherever you own or rent these guidelines are still best practices.  As rain rushes over surfaces, it picks up fertilizers and pesticides, oil and gas from paved surfaces, and other chemicals, if they’re not cleaned or filtered along the way.  Your good (or bad) habits have an impact on area ditches or storm drains that lead to nearby waterways, even if you’re not on waterfront property.

KVB Wildflowers

Get Growing with Free Seeds

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KVB WildflowersMaybe you celebrated Mother’s Day with someone who was like a mother to you?  And what about Mother Earth?  Maybe we should honor her and give her gifts.  I bet she would like some flowers – who wouldn’t?

The best kind of flowers to give Mother Earth would be to plant native flowers in your yard, in pots on a balcony, or to partner with an organization that has a public space that needs to be beautified!  We can help you get started – now is the perfect time to plant wildflower seeds, and we’d like to give you a free package of wildflower seeds!

Just go to our website to take the pledge to help end litter, and we’ll mail you some high-KVB Plantsquality Virginia wildflower seeds, like Crimson Clover, Lupine, Asters, and Rudbeckia.  Perennials will come back again each year – mine are already up in one of the pots I planted!

Why is it important to plant native flowers?  Native plants attract native insects; native insects are eaten by native birds and wildlife, so it’s said, “To feed the birds, first feed the bugs.”  Spicebush Swallowtail Butterflies’ favorite host plant is (not surprisingly) the Spicebush, providing it with food and shelter.  It stays hidden in the leaves as a caterpillar, flies around as a Swallowtail, then later the female will lay its eggs on the Spicebush. And the cycle starts over again.

Spicebush SwallowtailIf you have a shrub with some chewed edges and holes in the leaves, that’s good!  It means caterpillars are enjoying the leaves that are right for them.  Flowers and bushes that are not native to our area will not support native wildlife.

Native plants also require little irrigation or maintenance because they are already adapted to the climate and soil conditions of our region.  The same goes for native bushes and native trees.

If you’re not sure which kind of native plants are best suited for where you live, you can use this free link to the Virginia DCR Native Plant Finder.  Skip down to the second information box to enter the region where you live and choose some filters to help choose which sort of plants are best for those conditions.

Also, the Virginia Native Plant Society has published native plant guides for each of the regions of Virginia.  They are available free as a downloaded PDF, or you can purchase the physical brochures online.  Some locations of Virginia Cooperative Extension offices have physical copies available for pickup too.  Here’s a YouTube video titled, “Landscaping with Virginia Natives” that offers additional information.

Need to know where to purchase native plants?  Here’s a list of Native Plant Nurseries all around the state.  Hopefully this gives you what you need to get started with, or add, native plants in your corner of the Commonwealth.

Now, get growing!