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Grocery Store and Garbage Dumpster Plants
Rabbit Brush
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Before you buy your next
landscape plants, you may want to find out a little
more about their dining preferences. Almost
everyone understands that plants vary widely in
their ability to tolerate cold winter temperatures.
And while maybe only half of all Americans know the
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone rating for where they
live, most seem to at least understand the idea that
before you buy a landscape plant you should check to
see if it is “hardy” enough for the region in which
you live. In other words, will it survive the
winter temperatures where you live.
The USDA hardiness rating
system has been a valuable means of helping American
homeowners confidently choose landscape and garden
plants that will grow in their particular region of
the North American continent’s widely varying
climate. And as a refresher course in preparation
for the coming landscaping and gardening season,
Wyobraska is considered to be mostly in USDA
hardiness zones 4 and 5. Zone 4 has average winter
minimum temperatures of minus 20 to minus 30
degrees, and Zone 5 has average winter minimum
temperatures of minus 10 to minus 20 degrees.
There are 10 USDA hardiness zones with zone 1
being the coldest (northern Canada) and zone 10
being the warmest (Florida, southern California, and
southern Arizona).
But the USDA hardiness rating is only one of at
least three adaptability factors to consider when
selecting plants for Wyobraska landscapes. The
other two “hardiness factors” are soil
adaptability and drought tolerance or |
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Put the rich person who’s used
to dining in a gourmet restaurant out on the street
living out of dumpsters, and he’s not likely to fare
very well. It’s the same way with plants. Some
(actually many) trees and shrubs that are widely
used in American landscapes are accustomed to dining
in gourmet restaurants. Unfortunately, the soils
found in most Wyobraska landscapes are somewhere
between a garbage dumpster and a grocery store when
it comes to nutrient availability. That’s why
“gourmet restaurant” plants tend to go downhill
rather quickly when planted in our very ungourmet
restaurant soils.
So, when buying plants for your
landscape, right after checking the USDA hardiness
zone, remember to find out about your prospective
plant’s dining habits—gourmet restaurant, grocery
story, or garbage dumpster. As a general rule
(remember that rules are only correct about 80% of
the time) evergreen trees and shrubs are grocery
store or garbage dumpster plants. Likewise, most
ornamental grasses and prairie wildflower perennials
are also grocery store or garbage dumpster plants.
Native Wildflowers |
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water requirements. To
some degree both of these additional hardiness
factors are somewhat unique to Wyobraska. Most
areas of the country have deep layers of
biologically developed soil (topsoil) and sufficient
natural rainfall to sustain the growth of most
commonly used landscape trees and shrubs. In
Wyobraska we don’t have the landscape luxuries of
organic top soils and abundant rainfall, so
Wyobraska homeowners must be as aware of the soil
adaptability and water requirements of prospective
landscape plants as of their tolerance of cold
winter temperatures. In fact, it has been my
experience that soil adaptability, or dining
preference, is at least as important as cold
hardiness in selecting plants for Wyobraska
landscapes.
Scientists that study plant
ecosystems report that plants vary widely in their
ability to pull from soil the elemental and
molecular compounds that they require as the raw
materials for their growth. Some plants are able
to pull the necessary elements and compounds
directly from inorganic, mineral soils. This can be
quite a feat because inorganic, mineral soils vary
widely as to their chemical composition and physical
structure. Picture it this way—it’s a little like
pulling a balanced diet from a garbage
dumpster—every day of the year. Other plants are
unable to pull their required raw materials directly
from inorganic mineral soils, and instead require a
rich organic soil with a lot of readily available
chemical elements and a nice, loose, soil structure
in which their roots can grow easily. And they
require the assistance of soil fungus and numerous
other symbiotic soil microorganisms in order to get
their full required complement of soil elements and
compounds. Plants which require highly organic
soils are like rich people dining in a gourmet
restaurant. It’s easy to get a balanced diet
here—as long as the waiters and chefs, and other
kitchen staff show up for work every day. And, of
course, there are a lot of plants that are just like
the rest of us—we go to the grocery store, buy our
groceries, and then go home and cook our meals and
serve ourselves—(or we go buy fast food).
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Very few deciduous (leafy)
trees and shrubs are garbage dumpster plants, but
there are a large enough group that are grocery
store plants to add their unique visual qualities to
Wyobraska landscapes. Bur oak, Hackberry, Kentucky
Coffeetree, Western Catalpa, American and Littleleaf
Linden, Thornless Honeylocust, Western Chokecherry,
Gambels Oak, sumacs, many shrub roses, Viburnums,
Serviceberries, Rabbitbrush, and Yellow-flowering
Currant are all examples of deciduous trees and
shrubs that are grocery store to garbage dumpster
plants.
It’s difficult to create a
gourmet restaurant landscape soil in Wyobraska, but
it’s relatively easy to turn a “garbage dumpster”
soil into a “grocery store” soil for your landscape
plants. Incorporating two inches of compost into
the top 6-8 inches of the soil of your landscape bed
will turn almost any Wyobraska soil into a plant
grocery store. Adding 3-4 inches of shredded wood
mulch on top of the soil after you plant your plants
will continue to re-supply the grocery store for
several years.
Kentucky Coffeetree
Ponderosa Pine
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