Have you ever heard that you should “plant native plants to save water?”
I chuckled at this article for the Florida Native Plant Society:
http://fnpsblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/native-plant-myth-number-one.html
They’re really right. I’ve heard that many times. “Natives save water!” As I commented beneath their article… “not if you plant elderberries or cattails!”
If you’re in California dealing with drought, it makes sense to yank out your lawn and plant some native low-water plants… but not all natives are created equally.
(Incidentally, I’ve thought of joining FNPS, but I’m afraid they’ll stone me for some of my more invasive experiments. I love the idea of preserving native species and growing what’s already proven to thrive here… but I also have a thing for mad producers that make zillions of babies and LOTS of food.)
Anyone out there a member? Anyone growing cattails in a pine hammock?
2 responses to “Plant native plants to save water: debunked!”
Some of my friends are members and from what they tell all levels of sanity/craziness are well represented there. If they see your biomass producers, some will ask you for cuttings but yeah … some will stone you right there and burn the whole unholy place down.
To me the whole thing looks like a solution in search of a problem, especially with climate change going on right now. We probably going to have a new ecosystem every 20 years for the next 500 years, and these people operate by much longer periods of time, which only makes sense (if any) during periods of stable climate.
Heh. I wondered.
I've planned simultaneously for both global warming and a new ice age. Though I'd prefer the former, I think we're heading for the latter. My food forest is a mix of temperate and tropical species… I've got zones 6-10 represented.
And yeah – all systems are in flux. There used to be palm trees in the arctic… and apparently North Florida used to look more like the pine forests of Montreal some millennia back.
And speaking of weather… it may freeze tonight. That means I need to go cover all my darn citrus again…