Just as the native plantings and raingardens along the greenways add beauty, slow water runoff, reduce maintenance, and create pollinator habitat, you can enjoy the same benefits in your own backyard.
If you’ve been thinking about incorporating Missouri Native plants into your landscape, or creating a rain garden to manage storm water, there’s no time like the present to plan your garden!
Here are some helpful resources from across the region to help you learn more about native plants and rainscaping:
The Shaw Nature Reserve and Missouri Department of Conservation offer a free, Native Landscaping Manual online. You can find it here.
Native Plant School is a year-round series of mostly outdoor learning sessions in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Shaw Nature Reserve. Their website offers a wealth of information including monthly newsletters, along with other home gardener tools. Click here to search.
Detailed information on rainscaping can be found on the Missouri Botanical Garden’s website here.
BiodiverseCity St. Louis is “a growing network of organizations and individuals throughout the greater St. Louis region who share a stake in improving quality of life for all through actions that welcome nature into our urban, suburban and rural communities.” Click here to learn more.
Grow Native! is a native plant marketing and education program of the Missouri Prairie Foundation. Grow Native! helps protect and restore biodiversity by increasing conservation awareness of native plants and their effective use in urban, suburban, and rural developed landscapes. Visit their website to learn more.
The St. Louis Audubon Society’s “Bring Conservation Home” program provides on-site assistance to small, private landowners in the greater St. Louis area for the restoration of native plant and animal habitat on their grounds. Click here to learn more.
Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscape “encourages landscaping with native plants in residential, business and public landscapes.” Click here to visit the St. Louis chapter website.
Happy planting!
