Plant Iowa Natives

03/19/2021

Good read.

Native Species or Cultivars of Native Plants–Does it Matter? By Susan Martin / July 2020-Vol.6 No.7 / 2 Comments There is a lot of excitement about planting native plants, and the reasons for choosing them are well-researched. However, when home gardeners look for native plants in nurseries, they ...

01/27/2021

Bringing biodiversity to urban areas.

Can cities rejuvenate biodiversity? Fifty years since the first Earth Day, the birth of the environmental movement, the statistics are bleaker than ever. A UN report last year claimed one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, with an accelerating rate of species loss surpa...

08/17/2020

Many native plants produce abundant seeds for foraging birds in fall and winter, as well as overwintering habitat for beneficial insects.

Gardens are alive. No matter what time of year, if you quietly listen and watch, you will notice the plethora of activity. From budding flowers in the spring to the rustle of withered seedheads in the fall, our gardens are supporting animals of all shapes and sizes. Here’s a secret not all gardene...

06/05/2020

America's last lawn-scape, maybe.

I made my childhood fortune pulling dandelions. My father saw dandelions as the scourge of his beautiful green lawn. He paid two cents per pulled dandelion, provided the roots came up, too. I had job security because the neighbors let their dandelions go to seed, assuring that there would always be....

12/16/2019

Field Guide to Seedheads of Common Native Plants of the Tallgrass Prairie available here as a pdf file.

Illinois - Seed Heads of Common Native Plants of the Tallgrass Prairie Region

09/25/2019

https://www.iowapublicradio.org/post/landscaping-native-plants /0

Landscaping with plants native to Iowa is beneficial for the environment, but it comes with its own unique set of challenges. On this weekly edition of

06/18/2019

Prairie strips are another great way to plant Iowa native. For so many reasons.

27SharesA solution to some of the biggest problems facing farmers, and some of the biggest environmental challenges in the state, has deep roots in Iowa’s past. Roughly 85 percent of Iowa’s 36 million acres were covered with prairie plants when the U.S. frontier pushed into what would become the...

05/23/2019

No area too small to provide native habitat...for birds, butterflies, native bees and other pollinators. So 'grow the extra' yard for habitat.

Urban micro prairies attract native insects and pollinators, including butterflies and bumblebees. Fortunately, native plants are readily available.

05/18/2019

The value of native shrubs to early season pollinators, as attested to by this Iowa prairie crabapple (Malus Ioensis) in full bloom. Bzzzzy as bees can be!