Plan now, plant later
By Joanne Nesbit
News Service
While the wind blows and the fire burns brightly, settle back in a comfortable chair and start planning next season’s garden. Although seed and plant catalogs provide pictures of glorious blooms, seldom do they answer all the gardener’s needs.
The Matthaei Botanical Gardens maintains a Website that offers specific advice for gardeners, including pages on creating a wildlife sanctuary in the backyard and establishing a butterfly garden in Michigan. One page of the site, http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/gardenforum/butterfly.html , provides information on how to plant a butterfly-friendly garden. Included are tips on what plants attract and provide food for the caterpillars that will become butterflies. There are tips on butterfly viewing, lists of the insect’s favorite flowers and references to a variety of books on the subject of butterfly gardens.
To create a wildlife sanctuary in the backyard requires water, food and shelter. At http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/gardenforum/wildlifesanctuary.html one can find tips on providing these basics, as well as what plants to include and which to avoid. By using native shrubs, trees and perennials, gardeners can “conserve and promote the aesthetics and health of southeastern Michigan plant communities.”
The Matthaei Website also has links to other pages where gardeners can find information ranging from horticulture around the world to sites specific to bamboo, carnivorous plants, daylilies and water gardens. Visit http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/resources/sites4plants.htm for information on a variety of gardening skills and issues. For the Matthaei home page, see http://www.lsa.umich.edu/mbg/.
