Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Kansas City Program Promotes Native Gardening for Wildlife
April 4, 2016
 
From the Kansas City Star:  Do Your Part For the Birds and Bees: GO NATIVE IN YOUR GARDEN THIS SPRING
 
The Kansas City Native Plant Initiative is working to get more residents — as well as business owners — to plant fewer imported plants and trees and more native plants such as asters, because they provide food for bees, birds and bugs.
 
The article explains: 
  • Native plants provide high-quality nourishment for birds, butterflies, bees
  • More than 30 local wildlife organizations joined together to win a $230,000 National Wildlife Federation grant to help them educate the community on this issue
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/living/home-garden/article68837427.html#storylink=cpy
 
The article also offers Tips on how You Can Help: 
  • Reduce or eliminate applications of weed suppressants and just mow what grows (these chemicals are not only bad for pollinators — they’re bad for kids, pets and the watershed)
  • Reduce the size of your lawn by enlarging existing plant beds or creating new plantings along the edges
  • Begin transitioning your non-native ornamentals to native species
  • Leave some dead leaves in planted areas as mulch (beneficial organisms live there over winter)
  • Don’t kill wild violets — that’s what caterpillars eat to become fritillary butterflies
  • Keep a few small piles of dead hollow stems as homes for native bees
  • Grow a succession of native plants for each season: spring, summer, fall and winter
 
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