Plants To Boost Your Southampton Property
In permaculture design, I use elements that offer multiple benefits. This is known as stacking functions. This is no different if you are considering plants or hardscape features. Today I’m going to share my top five plant picks for Southampton yards, plants with more than just one beneficial quality.
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- Agastache nepetoides – Yellow Giant Hyssop is a beautiful native plant that is threatened statewide. Planting it in your yard can help save this plant as well as provide critical habitat for birds and other beneficial pollinator species which rely on it for food and shelter. Agastache as a genus offers many colors, and this species has the same beautiful greyish-green leaves as others in this genus. The scent is no less than glorious, explaining what drives bees so crazy around these plants.
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- Ajuga reptans – Carpet Bugle is a lovely groundcover plant with pretty spike flowers. Groundcovers are an important element in ecological restoration, both shading and thus cooling the soil and preventing weeds from taking purchase in the ground. They also provide habitat for beneficial organisms, from friendly garden spiders to beetles and more. I like the variegated variety linked above, for it’s cheerful cream and purple leaves.
- Aronia melanocarpa – Black Chokeberry has edible berries and transforms in the Fall into a vibrant kaleidoscope of color, similar to how blueberry leaves turn. Its architecture is what draws me to this plant, with sturdy branches that will make you want to set up your easel and paint a picture of this plant. The berries are antioxidant-rich, which in the world today is important; imagine being able to get yours at home! They are also good sources of fiber, vitamins C and E, potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
- Asclepias speciosa – Showy Milkweed is the plant required by Monarch Butterflies in order to complete their life cycle. They need this specific variety of milkweed. Many plant nurseries get this wrong, stocking other varieties. I have gotten lucky a few times being at a local garden center on the right day and digging through to find one or three pots of it in the back. Try the seed bombs linked above to help establish this important plant more easily.
- Bolboschoenus maritimus – American Saltmarsh Bulrush is a threatened plant you can use if you have property on the water or in rain gardens, ponds, or swales. The beautiful stalks are topped with radial blooms typical of rush plants. Adding this as well as reeds and sedges to your property will help filter water and restore critical haitat.
For a comprehensive plan for your Southampton property including plants like these, outdoor living space, and edible landscaping, schedule a FREE coaching call.
