Sep 9, 2024

Utilizing The Plants That Are Here

When asked to design gardens and restore ecosystems for the bask site, I was excited to explore a new part of Tennessee to me; The Western Highland Rim. Not especially highland like in Scotland or the Rockies but higher in elevation than the basin below at roughly 1100 to 1400 feet. Most of my first visit to bask late autumn of 2023 was spent looking for native species I knew supported pollinators as well as useful plants that create food or medicines for people. Even at this time of year, I noticed a large number of species going dormant; many more than is common for your average hayfield.
Owen Reich
Master Gardener, bask retreat center
Contents

Becoming a Forensic Detective

The plant palate a garden designer uses to paint in the built environment of cities is often not the same at that of pastoral landscapes.  How does one bring out the charm of the unspoiled countryside? This is accomplished by utilizing the plants that are already here. That means the first step is to become a forensic detective of sorts and find experts to assist in the process. 

One of the biggest challenges to this project is the habitat restoration work.  Not only are we removing the invasive plants, but restoring the species in larger numbers to a site that in some places, needs a botanical reboot from monoculture practices over the years. The common goal for most spaces is to exert your will on the plant selections and “style” to be emulated. With habitat restoration as I currently understand it, promotion of the existing plants beneficial to a number of fungi, animals, invertebrates and other plants is the priority.  Plants provide the scaffolding for more complex inter-species relationships. Once you have enough of the host plant for caterpillars to eat, you can have more butterflies and more birds that consume the caterpillars.  

Increasing the Population Sizes

The natural topography and soil qualities will guide as well when adding species native to other parts of North America, so plants like sweetgrass can be cultivated with intention in areas that are sustainably harvested.  

Efficiencies of Form

Designs will not involve regimented groups of plants separated by sidewalks and fences. The sheer number of rectangles in urban areas is really tragic. Something you can’t un-see once prompted. Where are all the amorphous blobs and architectural recreations of rock formations? Nature has curves, twists and abrupt angle changes. Efficiencies of form appear everywhere in the lifeforms that comprise Nature from the micro to the macro scale. We can learn a great deal from this apply it to our interactions with the land.  

Intentional Species

For the bask site, something with more randomized placement with intention to the species added will be key.  Meadows are not regimented gardens with “rules” for symmetry or repetition. Plants either live or die based on the climatic conditions, soil moisture, and predation pressure of a given site. Nature often produces clusters of plants and when the critters bury a pine cone or a cache of seeds to eat later, and they are forgotten.  Nature does not choose sides. A good example for random distribution of seeds would be Blood Root - Sanguinaria canadense. One of the earliest spring ephemeral flowers of the forest at bask and pollinated by bees and flies.  The bloodroot seed is transported by myrmechchory (circular dance of ants) and spread throughout the forest due to the presence of an elaiosome covering the seed. The ants transport this diaspore (seed and covering), and eventually there is a new cluster of bloodroot seedlings in a different part of the forest.

Over the course of this year I’ve had the pleasure of discovering many more species as the plants enjoy the absence of hay production practices and blooms reach for the sky. The Highland Rim area that Bask resides in has many species not native to other parts of the country mixed with a number of species that span the eastern part of The United States of America. Showcasing those locally occurring species is a priority, as very few understand what the Southeastern region used to look like before fur trapping and agricultural practices reshaped the entire region. My path in the plant world has led me to focus more on native plants, and there is so much to learn.

Species Identified

The current quantity of species identified is approaching 150 and many more will pop up as restoration efforts in the lowland sunny wetland meadows and other prairie remnants take place. As we leave summer and progress into autumn, more species will bloom and we can identify them. A conservative guess for total extant (already there) plant species at bask is 200. That’s quite a number and extremely rare to find anywhere in the region. The raw amount of work to source the seeds / plants for what is already thriving in the meadows at bask would take about 10 years; an educated guess based on what I’ve learned so far. This is why preserving the plants we already have matters so much. They are the launch pads for seed collection and dispersal to other areas of restoration. Once these plants mature and their seeds are dispersed by wind and wildlife, new populations will emerge in the surrounding area; often where a person would not consciously place.  Careful curation of the land with the right intention will produce food for all types of wildlife. We may even become a preferred pit-stop for migrating hummingbirds or a rare butterfly species one day.

Learn More

For those interested in learning about new plants or finding out what you already have around you, I recommend the iNaturalist app. There are other useful programs, although iNaturalist works best in my opinion for a legitimate identification as your photo observations are peer reviewed.

The bask team is working diligently to create programs to educate those interested in native plant appreciation and utility. We look forward to sharing the wisdom of the ancestors and sustainable horticultural techniques.

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