Traditional garden maintenance often does more harm than good when it comes to wildlife and the environment. Some examples include over-mulching, overusing pesticides, and annihilating everything with blowers and mowers during spring and fall cleanup.  Here are some nature-inspired maintenance tips to  minimize harm and protect wildlife in your native plant gardens: 

• Spring Cleanup Advice here. Fall clean up advice: Don’t do fall cleanup. Leave the plants, leaves, seeds, etc. around for overwintering wildlife.
• Do not over  mulch.  Instead just Leave the Leaves! 
• Celebrate holes in garden!. This means you are feeding beneficial insects and other beneficial herbivores, all interconnected parts of our local ecosystem.
  

  Giant Swallowtail caterpillar eating Wafer Ash leaves. I first thought this was a large “bird turd” until I spotted the caterpillar legs. Click to enlarge photo. 

• If you have a major pest (disease / insect / other)  problem, use Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Most times pests invade plants and cause a large amount of damage when the plants are stressed, just like we humans get sick when we are stressed. The IPM process helps you get to the root cause to prevent or decrease the problem first, before taking action. Then if you need to take action, it helps you choose the least harmful strategy to reduce the problem to an “acceptable level”. See image below courtesy of the Entomological Society of America.
  Please think before you act! I often have many aphids on my milkweed which I once thought was a problem, until I realized they are a natural part of a milkweed ecosystem, and typically won’t hurt a milkweed. They do make a milkweed look ugly but I try to look at the benefits vs. just the physical beauty. I sometimes see goldfinches feasting on the aphids and aphids help improve the soil by breaking down organic matter. They also do not harm Monarch caterpillars. Read more about milkweed aphids here.
• If you’re having rabbit or vole problems, please read my tips: “Your Yard is a Salad bowl”, plus follow the IPM process above. 
• Native plant behavior depends on your specific site conditions (soil, sun, weather), wildlife in your yard and other plants growing nearby which provide competition.  Embrace the way the natural world ‘gardens”  with  “A Living Mulch”
• There will always be weeds but a lot less when you have a living mulch.  Here are my tips for weeding:  “Weed before they Seed”.
• Established native plants rarely need watering with exceptions:  During a drought, water trees and shrubs and water newly installed native perennial plants. See your watering handout found in your design package for more info.
• Native plants are dynamic. They change from year to year and month to month depending on wildlife, natural processes, and environmental factors, so your garden will look slightly different all the time.  Enjoy the surprises! (See photos below of changes in my garden.)
  
  

  Field of Golden Alexanders in spring followed by other wildflowers later in the season.

  

  Golden Alexanders feed black swallowtail caterpillars! Click for larger image.

  

  Later in summer, a field of Thimbleweeds fills the same area.

• Native plants do not need fertilizer or added amendments. Over time native plant roots and leaves add organic matter to the soil.  Old roots are constantly decaying while new roots grow.

  Read these articles for more  natured inspired maintenan

   

  • Four W’s of Maintenance: Weed, Water, Watch and Wait
  • Spring Cleanup – Not so Fast!
  • A few things to do in the garden before winter arrives