In honor of Pollinator Awareness Month, the City's Natural Resources Commissioners are sharing their personal pollinator-friendly landscaping projects.
Meet Your Natural Resources Commissioner: Nissa Tupper
What made you decide to install your project?
We love being outdoors as a family and found our home landscape when we moved in was very dismal. There was so much opportunity! The front foundation area is mostly in the sun and was just dotted with sparse perennials and ornamental grasses in rock mulch. Our back patio is a great size, but it felt too open and uninspired with a border of hostas. I'm also trained in landscape architecture so I felt a "call to duty" if you will to revamp our landscaping not only for our personal enjoyment, but also to provide more environmental benefit.
How did you get started, or just general steps?
I started by measuring out the spaces we wanted to plant, dimensioning them out on paper and looking through plant catalogues for ideas. I included a mixture of shrubs, grasses and perennials to help give year-round interest. I find it's helpful to think of the shrubs as structure for the garden, as you see them all year round. Grasses add whimsy and perennials provide color and texture. I also tried to use a mixture of native plants and cultivars, trying to balance wildlife benefit with making it look intentional because it's along the foundation.
What were the challenges if any?
We had a few challenges, the first being the "rock mulch and landscape fabric lasagna" situation. When we started digging up the rock mulch, it was like it would never end. We discovered layers upon layers of rock mulch and landscape fabric (see my son, Nolyn's reaction in the photo). Not only does landscape fabric not work to prevent weeds (the seeds come from above and establish themselves just as much as if they're coming from underneath), it also doesn't let plants properly spread and the material not good for the environment. It took us a lot of effort to remove it all. We now have wood mulch, which I would highly recommend.
The other challenge is our clay soil. We mixed in quite a bit of compost and topsoil as a start to help, but I've had trouble getting some plants to establish that aren't as hardy. I really want butterfly weed in my front foundation garden, but it just doesn't seem to be the right place because of the soil.
What are the benefits you’ve experienced (I see you’ve already mentioned some!)?
I've been amazed at how our lot has come to life because of these plantings. The first time I saw a Monarch was literally the day our plants were delivered (August, 2017). They were sitting in their pots on the driveway, I looked over as I was prepping the front bed and saw a Monarch land on a Liatris - if you build it, they will come! We now also regularly see humming birds, all sorts of bees and butterflies, and birds that we don't recall seeing before we planted.
The plantings also bring us joy - it's so wonderful to see the flowers from the front windows and to sit on the back patio with the breeze rustling through the willow shrubs.