Native Plants
/I took a short road trip to the Lebanon Laclede County Library for a program about native plants – and to see a native plant garden installed by 2 people in my 2024 Master Naturalist core training class. The garden had suffered a bit from the drought and very hot days, but the plants had survived and will probably come back strong next year. The American Beautyberry had lost most of its leaves already, but it has berries!
The presentation was done by a person from the Wild Ones chapter in St. Louis. I enjoyed her perspective and the pictures of what she had done with her urban yard. She emphasized techniques for formalizing native plantings: clumping, cutting asters and goldenrods in June/July to shorten them before they bloom, and leaving the leaves/standing stalks for winter interest.
The session was sponsored by Master Gardeners (in the county) and a garden club. They gave out pots of aloe and New England Aster. I got two New England Aster pots and planted them in my front yard garden; they’ll make a nice addition that will bloom next fall!
