Garden conservationist says we are what we reap

What you choose to plant in your garden can mean the difference between having a yard full of native birds and butterflies or simply having a yard.

Your choices can enhance the local landscape or do nothing at all to help keep Illinois’ waning prairie alive and well.

The world is an ecosystem made up of birds and bees, plants and people. Everything needs each other. It all needs to work together to survive.

“If we live harmoniously within the ecosystem, things are fine,” said Jim Kleinwachter, of The Conservation Foundation’s Conservation@ Home program, which encourages people to choose native plants.

It’s when we start planting based on looks instead of purpose that we run into trouble, he said.

Located at McDonald Farm in Naperville, The Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit land trust, serves Will, DuPage, Kane and Kendall counties. Its sister organization, Openlands, serves Cook County.

The Conservation@Home Program is a partnership between the Forest Preserves of Cook County and University of Illinois Extension.

Kleinwachter holds classes and webinars and visits private homes, walking the landscape to point out hits and misses. He makes suggestions on how to deal with wet and shady areas, and they advise on where to put native plants.

The service is free, but fellow conservation fans can make donations to the foundation or become a member. Get certified as naturefriendly, and you’ll receive a sign you can post in your yard.

As we head back out to freshen our landscape and start our gardens, it’s important to remember that when it comes to nature we really do reap what we sow.

So be mindful to choose plants the local environment needs and avoid, or use minimally, plants that are only ornamental or simply don’t belong in the Illinois landscape, Kleinwachter said.

He knows that’s a challenge. He knows we head to local gardening shops, see beautiful blooms and simply make a purchase. He knows many of us have no idea which plants will just sit there and look pretty and which ones will enhance the local environment.

“It comes down to doing our research and thinking about other creatures and not just us,” Kleinwachter said. “In Illinois, 95 percent of property is private. If private property owners don’t take an interest in protecting native species, who will?

“We all have to do our part.” That begins by embracing where you live. You wouldn’t plant cactus here and expect it to thrive.

If you want to give back to nature through gardening, and in turn attract birds and bees and butterflies, you have to plant the kinds of foliage they need to survive and thrive.

“We’re invested in Illinois,” Kleinwachter said. “We live here, we work here, our kids go to school here. Yet in our yards we don’t think about planting the plants from Illinois. But we should.

“This is the prairie state. It makes much more sense to use the plants that grow here naturally.

“They grow easier, they’re more sustainable, and they feed our birds and butterflies. They have function here.”

Inside our homes, he said, we’re all about function — the best place to put the fridge, the bed, the TV. But we go outside and it’s a free-for-all.

Today less than 0.01% of native prairie, what the original settlers saw in the early to mid-1800s, is left in Illinois. The decline of many species of pollinators is directly linked to these changes.

With Earth Day and Arbor Day and spring itself encouraging us to get back outside, it’s time to learn how to be better and make a plan.

Most of birds that went south for the winter, including hummingbirds and wrens, are on their way back, Kleinwachter said.

“They’re scanning the landscape and wondering, ‘Anything here for me?’ ” he said.

When people say they don’t see those birds in their yard, that’s because they haven’t made a place for them, Kleinwachter said.

“They will find it if we put it out there,” he said. “People want birds and butterflies, yet we put nothing in our yards to attract them.”

If only people were as concerned with attracting pollinators as they are with growing turf grass, he said.

“It’s the No. 1 thing covering the state, and it does nothing for native wildlife,” Kleinwachter said. “We don’t say you can’t have grass, but certainly you can have less of it. Have more garden beds, have more (native) flowers instead.”

What are some native plants? Bee balm (monarda), blazing star (liatris), pale purple coneflower (echinacea), black-eyed susans, blanket flower coreopsis and woodland phlox.

When in doubt, google it, Kleinwachter said.

Or visit The Conservation Foundation’s website at www. theconservationfoundation.org/ conservation-home/creating-native-gardens/. There, you’ll find information on native gardening, rain barrels and projects the foundation is working on.

There also are lists of native plants, with both common and botanical names. For example, the common elderberry (sambucus canadensis), is a flowering shrub that attracts butterflies, birds and wildlife.

Some plant varieties tell you in their name that they’re foreign — Russian sage, Asiatic lilies. They may look nice, but they don’t do anything to enhance the local ecosystem, Kleinwachter said.

That doesn’t mean you can’t admire them. Just know they’re all style and no substance in these parts.

Another thing people are often surprised to learn, he said, is that vegetable gardens and flower gardens complement each other. Actually, when planted together or nearby, they make the pollinators’ job easier.

“You can grow cabbage among your flowers or flowers among your vegetables,” Kleinwachter said.

It’s all about thoughtfulness, he said. If you want to commune with nature, plant accordingly.

The purpose of gardening is to give back, to take care of the earth as it takes care of us.

Nurture nature, Kleinwachter said. And it will return the favor.