You Can't Simply Walk Away Renee

 

One of the great myths of native plant landscaping is that one can plant natives and simply walk away from them; that since they are native plants, they will survive on their own without management. It's a tempting concept and seems to lure a great many new acolytes to the movement.  Though it's wonderful to have new members joining us in that mission, it's a disingenuous concept and I have to believe that it ultimately discourages a great many once they see their landscapes fall apart from lack of management.  

It's one thing if you are working in a previously natural area of some acreage that wasn't completely altered during development.  In some situations, these areas still contain some native plants in the seed bank and very few, if any, of the invasive plants typical to the yards most of us have. My landscape, however, is typical of what the vast majority inherit.  It's been a turfgrass yard for decades and it's situated in a matrix of invasive plants, tropicals, and gravel.  What lies below the surface of my turf, and the plants that will emerge if I remove it, are nasty players.  My small wildflower meadow, pictured above, is not evidence of the overwhelming superiority of nativeness, but evidence of a great deal of management.  

Even native lands need management in these days and times. As a former land manager, I can attest to that.  Leaving nature to take care of itself no longer works. It needs our intervention - reciprocal to the negative intervention our actions have created.  Non-native plants rain down upon every natural area here in Florida and elsewhere.  When I left my position at Brooker Creek Preserve in northeastern Pinellas County, I believe that we had all of the invasive plant issues under control. After the nearly 20 years that I've been away, that is not true. Cogongrass is evident along nearly every major trail, Brazilian pepper has returned with a vengeance, and wedelia is spreading from trails into the pinelands.  Natural abiotic factors like fire regimes and hydrology are no longer natural.  Land management is big business in our natural areas and we spend tens of millions of dollars annually to keep natural areas "natural."  We cannot expect better in our own landscapes.

My native plants would get smothered and replaced if I did not weed assiduously. I cannot simply plant and walk away. These plantings would quickly fall apart if I did and I cannot begin to think about not purposely planting to begin with.  There are simply no truly beneficial native plants, native to my original landscape, in my seedbank. The few natives, such as Spanish needle (Bidens alba) are a minority amongst the nonnative grasses and weeds and if I could remove all of those nonnatives and have what remains, I would be left with a paucity of plant diversity that would in no way resemble a natural ecosystem.  

I believe strongly in planned landscapes - ones that are purposely planted to create diversity, but such areas require management. There are times of extreme drought where I need to water sparingly to maintain this diversity.  I believe that my "waste" of potable water is far less damaging than the waste of losing some of my diversity. I still have to weed out the bad actors that find a way into the boundaries of my planted areas. That will never change. Some of my native species don't compete as well as some of the others and I have to weed out the more aggressive natives to maintain the balance I want.  Animals come into my plantings and sometimes root out areas within my beds. When that happens, I replant. I cannot simply let it fill in by itself or I'd have an island of aggressive nonnative weeds instead of the native diversity I desire.

It has been said, and I agree with it, that there is no easier landscape to maintain than a lawn of turfgrass. One does not really have to water, fertilize and apply pesticides for it to survive. I don't in the parts of my landscape my landlords require and none of my neighbors do a thing with theirs. We mow occasionally.  That's simplicity. My native plantings require much more if they are to remain healthy and biodiverse.  I enjoy my time in my landscape, but it requires time. Native plant landscapes are not for the folks that simply want to plant and walk away.