Using Native Plants at Home
Whether you have acres to convert to a prairie with vast stands of wildflowers, or a small balcony, you can contribute valuable habitat to the St. Louis region.
Altering Mowing Regimes to Help Pollinators
An easy option to help pollinators and the environment at large is to mow your lawn less frequently and stop using herbicides and pesticides.
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This can encourage spontaneous flowers that are important sources of pollen and nectar.
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Mowing your lawn every two weeks or three weeks allows for greater numbers of flowers and provides for larger populations of pollinators.
More Sustainable Lawn Alternatives
There is a growing movement for more sustainable alternatives to the turfgrass lawn.
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Keeping lawns pristine requires frequent mowing, watering, and the use of chemicals. This comes with many negative costs:
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Costly and time-consuming
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Mowing increases pollution and emissions
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Herbicides and pesticides are harm pollinators and waterways.
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Reduces floral resources for pollinators
Container Gardening with Native Plants in St. Louis
The most important part about container gardening with native plants is selecting the right plants for your growing conditions.
First, you need to consider how much sun your plants will be getting. If they will be in full sun, versus part shade to full shade, your plant choice will vary.
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If you have full sun, fame flower is an easy to care for succulent that has small, bright magenta flowers and does not require much watering and likes well-drained soil.
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If you have part to full shade, Celandine poppy could be a good option with its yellow flowers.
You can grow plants that you can eat as well! Missouri has a wide variety of edible native plants. Many of our native plants have edible roots, flowers, seeds, nuts, berries and even flowers.
Edible Native Plants
Plant and Seed Sourcing
Sourcing your native plants and seeds from a reputable nursery that does not use neonicotinoids is important for pollinator and bird health.
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Neonicotinoid seed coatings are insecticides that are harmful to pollinators and birds alike. They have been found to have adverse effects on nontarget species (Hallmann 2014).
Getting Started with Audubon
The Audubon Society has basic tips on choosing native plants for container gardening, and includes a plant database.
Use caution and make sure you properly identify plants before eating them. It is possible to have an allergic reaction to new foods, so eat only a small amount at first and wait 24 hours to see if you have a reaction.
Container Garden Help: MOBot
Missouri Botanical Garden Help Center Recommends plants that will do well in container gardens, including light requirements