Landscaping with Native Plants
The rush to include native plants in our plantings has received broad attention from many homeowners to upgrade their landscaping practices to benefit wildlife and pollinators that have decreased populations due to loss of habitat from development and agricultural shifts to monoculture crops using herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers. The Cape Conservation Corps or CCC has developed programs to assist Capers in this transition including the removal of invasives, even offering free native plants for particularly aggressive nonnative plants removed from their yards.
We are offering free visits to homeowners by Garden Advisors to help people understand their existing conditions in their yards and discuss how the homeowners can successfully add native pollinator perennials, shrubs, and trees to benefit the wildlife in their yards as well as their enjoyment of surrounding themselves in living habitat. Advice on adding pollinator and rain gardens filled with native plants provided by experienced landscaping professionals will be provided at no charge for visits that normally running about an hour.
For homeowners looking at larger projects, many are intimidated by the large number of native plants and varieties needed for prime habitat that benefits from diversity and density. With climate changes occurring, and the spotty availability of native plants, this CCC program reduces uncertainty by selecting plants suitable for their projects, defining the quantities of each needed and allowing the homeowners to preorder the plants as part of our CCC Native Plant Sale. With the savings in plant material at 50 to 65% and timing at the best possible time for planting, this is a big savings in both time and money. Plant pickup will be the day before the CCC plant sale assuring an additional savings in time and effort.
The expertise and significant time commitment by CCC volunteers to design and specify the plants and quantities needed for your project will require a donation to the CCC, which will be used to purchase native plants for CCC projects in Cape St. Claire. Each project will vary and the CCC donation needed will be agreed upon before the work begins.
To schedule your appointment for a visit by our Garden Advisor, send an email to [email protected]