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Wednesday, May 27, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Lose your lawn and go native
With Oregon and the rest
of the West experiencing sig-
nificant drought, more and
more homeowners are turn-
ing to natural landscaping or
xeriscaping to minimize their
impact on the environment
— while still having a beau-
tiful yard to enjoy.
Natural landscaping
and xeriscaping have some
similar characteristics, but
they are not the same thing.
Xeriscaping is focused on
water conservation, using
plants that require minimal
water — but not necessarily
native plants.
In Central Oregon, you
can use native plants and
reduce the demand for water
in your yard — especially in
comparison to a turf lawn.
“If planted in a suitable
habitat, native plants are well
adapted to our soils and cli-
mate,” A.J. Detweiler wrote
in a paper for OSU Extension
Service. “This reduces the
need for supplemental water
(once established) and main-
tenance, and makes it easy to
maintain plant health.
“There are a host of ben-
efits to basing your landscap-
ing around native plants,”
Detweiler noted. “When
grown in the right conditions,
native plants typically expe-
rience less environmental,
insect, and disease damage
than nonnative plants. Native
plants also create the best
environments for local pol-
linators and wildlife.
That’s an important point
for Sisters Ranger District
Ecologist Maret Pajutee.
“Protecting and plant-
ing natives helps support
many native species that
have evolved together with
plants,” she said. “They gen-
erally use less water, need
less care.”
Pajutee notes that “some
natives are easy to grow from
collected seed in the wild
(blue flax, Oregon sunshine,
penstemons) or through
transplants.”
You can get a free trans-
plant permit through the U.S.
Forest Service to bring home
plants from the wild. You
need to know what you’re
doing. Some native plants
will not survive transplant-
ing — you should leave
all lilies and rare plants in
place. You can get more
information through your
Forest Service transplanting
permit.
A division of
Lakeview Millworks
Pajutee notes that nurs-
erys have more native plants
these days and can be a good
source.
“Beware of wildflower
seed mixes,” Pajutee warns.
“They are rarely native wild-
flowers of the area and often
contain weedy species.”
Pajutee also warns that
“Some garden plants are
invasive and can spread into
natural habitats and cause
great ecological harm. If
you see your garden plants
escaping to natural areas
on public lands, please stop
them!”
You can have a good
afternoon’s outing, get some
exercise and learn to iden-
tify and recognize our native
plants through Deschutes
Land Trust wildflower walks.
And, Pajutee notes, certi-
fied weed-free native grass
and flower seeds are avail-
able from Deschutes Native
Seedbank; email Berta Youtie
at byoutie@crestviewcable.
com.
So if you want to conserve
water, add beauty to your
landscape and spend your
Saturday doing something
other than mowing the lawn
— go native.
Best Vue Blinds
With an intense focus on service, quality and value,
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residents in Sisters Country want.
Brad King of Lakeview Millworks connected with Best
Vue Blinds as a way to add a complementary product line
to the quality entryways and windows the Sisters com-
pany offers.
John Rumgay provides free in-home estimates and
manages projects all the way through completion.
“I’ll go to your house and spend two hours with you.
Whether you’re buying one window covering or a hun-
dred, you get the same service.”
The kind of service you cannot expect at a big-box
store. And Best Vue Blinds can compete on price and
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Best Vue Blinds is a superior deal.
Wants to show our
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