We begin our journey into the world of natives. The critters know it well. Berries from plants answer the need of migrating birds by ripening at just the right time to supply the needed starches or sugars. Blooms of milkweed ripen and open as a host plant for monarch butterflies. Abundant beekeepers are supplying our needed pollinators. Invasive plants are being identified, attacked and eliminated. And we are planting natives!


So what is available and how is this all done? I interviewed


three experts on the subject. Sue Tipton, former Interim Director of the Reedville


Fisherman’s Museum, established the Reedville Living Shoreline Teaching Garden in 2005. Funding was available through a grant from Virginia Soil and Water Conservation. This area was established as a demonstration garden to control the erosion being produced from the runoff coming from a large church parking lot next to the museum and into Cockrell’s Creek. It was developed using native plants to exhibit the effectiveness of them for shoreline preservation and stabilization. “You can have an attractive shore side garden that can be informal and environmentally helpful without the use of a clipped lawn” said Susan. This garden was featured on Virginia Home Grown, PBS Richmond with Richard Nunally in 2009. Anne Olsen formerly from Connecticut had no garden


experience until she moved to DC and took classes by Cole Burrell, curator at the National Arboretum following her 40th


birthday.


In 1988 she and her husband purchased 21 acres on the Northern Neck, “mostly for the house.” She describes her style


Paula Boundy Calicarpa Americanna. Photo by Carol Hammer.


as “low maintenance and open.” She has developed a haven of native plants as she feels they are often as beautiful as any exotic imports.


Her land has a northwest exposure with a mile-long fetch


where the wind blows incessantly down the creek, especially in the winter.


She states that she is not a purest. Her favorites are abelias, grasses, and perennials because they “pop right back up again.” She uses aged horse manure yearly as a top dressing. Her favorite plants are Redbuds (Cercis), Black Eyed Susan,


The House & Home Magazine


59


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