Certified Virginia Master Naturalist Paula Boundy of Kilmarnock will present “Planning a Native Plant Garden” at 2 p.m. Saturday, September 23, at Shiloh School, Shiloh School and Balls Neck roads, Diller’s Corner, near Kilmarnock.
A recent president of the Northern Neck Native Plant Society, Boundy will explain how the plants native to Virginia’s coastal plain and to the Northern Neck provide a double bonus. They are recognized and valued by local wildlife and by pollinators as a source of food, including butterflies that use them as hosts for their larvae, reported board member Bud Ward. Their inherent beauty also provides humans a feast for the eyes. “Eye candy,” some call it.
Boundy also will describe how gardeners can best cope with one of the inherent challenges in planting native plant gardens in the Northern Neck…sources of native plants. Desirable native plants in the region in many cases can’t be produced for mass marketing and distribution and often not in quantities that make them profitable for large retail stores, she said.
“Local native plant societies have sales that offer these special plants to local gardeners,” said Boundy.
Often they are offered at competitive and reasonable prices, she said.
“The challenge and reward is in the hunt for and planting of these unique natives especially well suited to the region’s ecology and climate,” said Boundy.
Boundy recently has been working collaboratively with Northumberland Preservation Inc. as it plans its own on-site native garden. Those attending the meeting will get an up-close look at how the first phase of that effort is proceeding and at plans for bringing it to fruition, said president Jack Moore.
Water sources and standard plumbing facilities are newly available at the site and the new garden “will be enjoyable and educational as it features Northern Neck natives that provide blooms throughout the full growing season,” said Moore.
