Flushing Township Nature Park -
A Home for Native Plants and Ecosystems

The largest management projects within the Nature Park involve the establishment of native plants, and the discouragement of non-native invasive plants.
A Native plant is a plant that has been present before the arrival of European settlers and has evolved within its local soils and climate.
A non-native invasive plant is a plant that is not indigenous to a specific region, and has the ability to out compete the native vegetation.  Many invasive plants can take over a natural habitat eliminating the native vegetation, thus decreasing plant diversity, which also decreases insect and wildlife diversity.  Visit http://www.invasive.org/eastern/

Scroll Down to view information on our Native Plant Demonstration Garden and our Rain Garden

http://www.for-wild.org/

http://www.nativeplant.com/links.html

Native Plant Demonstration Garden

The native garden was installed in 2003 to be a demonstration of native plants.  It is intended to educate the public on what a native plant is, what they look like, how they can be used in a garden environment, and the benefits of using native plants over exotics or ornamentals.

Native Plant Gardens: Beautiful and Healthy Gardening

What is a native plant?
A Native plant is a plant that has been present before the arrival of European settlers and has evolved within its local soils and climate.

Benefits of Native Plants
Native plants truly are adapted to local growing conditions, including periodic flooding and drought. The native demonstration garden has not been artificially watered for two years, this is one of the greatest benefits of native plants. Native plants are able to withstand periods of drought thanks to their extra large and deep root systems.  Some native plants, like Prairie Dock, have a root system that is 14 feet deep! Other benefits from the massive roots are that they provide excellent erosion control and they create channels for the water to percolate through the soil, thus recharging our aquifers. 

Other benefits include:

• They have an amazing reproductive system, which allows the plant to propagate and spread easily. 

• They require significantly less, many times no, fertilizers or pesticides. 

• They provide a beautiful landscape or addition to a garden and will attract native insects and birds, thus increasing biodiversity.

How to use native plants
Natives can be used in many different ways.  They can be placed in a typical home garden along with ornamentals, or they can be used as an exclusive native planting. Both ways work well, but native plants like to move around.  Since they have an excellent reproductive system, the seeds will broadcast throughout your planting area. This means your garden or planting may change to some degree. A true native planting will have different looks every year.  One year a certain species may be dominant, the next year it could be another species. This creates a very interesting garden that fluctuates with nature and increases biodiversity.

A native planting makes an excellent alternative to a lawn.  Remember natives require very little watering, fertilizer and pesticides. Various businesses, schools and governmental organizations are replacing their lawns for native plantings.  They are finding that they can save significant amounts of money by not watering and paying for continual maintenance on their landscape.

The native demonstration garden has many different native plants. The soils in the garden area is very sandy, so most of these plants are adapted to withstand dry conditions.  There is a native plant for any growing condition. There are many native plants that thrive in wet conditions and shaded forests. 

Please take the time to visit the nature park and look around the garden.  Many of the plants have identification markers.  Feel free to ask a staff member a question, or take a native plant flyer from the kiosk.  For more information on native plants visit these internet sites.

www.for-wild.org/

www.nativeplant.com/links.html

The Rain Garden Demonstration Project

A rain garden is a depression or basin used to collect rainwater and snowmelt from impervious surfaces, such as rooftops and parking lots and to slow the rate at which it enters storm water sewers. Another way to think of a rain garden is to compare it to a marsh or wetland. They all provide the same benefits to the aesthetics of the landscape and to the maintenance of environmental quality. Specific benefits of rain gardens include:

• · improved water quality,

• · reduction of soil erosion,

• · reduction in flooding,

• · aesthetic enhancement of properties and

• · improved biodiversity.  

The recommended soil mixture is 50-60% sand, 20-30% topsoil, and 20-30% compost. Clay can be added to increase the water holding capacity and to absorb more heavy metals from the water runoff.

 In a day or two, the standing water will be gone, but the soil should remain moist.  This feature eliminates the possibility of mosquito breeding as they might where standing water exists.

 Rain gardens are popular for both commercial and residential applications.  This demonstration garden is typically suited for residential use, although smaller versions may suffice depending on the quantity of water to be captured. A wide variety of native water-loving plants are the best choices for water gardens.  Some of the more striking plants include Blue Flag Iris (blue), Cardinal flower (red), Marsh Marigold (yellow), Culver’s Root (white), Spiderwort (purple), New York Ironweed (purple) plus various sedges and shrubs for sunny or shady areas.

 Rain Gardens: Using Storm Water as a Resource

Rain gardens are not expensive or complicated to install plus add another habitat and beauty to a wide variety of properties.  Annual maintenance, when compared to conventional gardens and lawns, is low and inexpensive. 

Check out www.clean-water.uwex.edu/pubs/raingarden or www.raingardens.org for full how-to information or call Flushing Township Nature Park at 810-639-6161 for more details.

Flushing Township Nature Park
8301 N. McKinley Road
Flushing, MI. 48433
Phone: 810-639-6161
Fax: 659-4212
Email: ftnp@centurytel.net