Native Plants Team Meeting

Have you ever found yourself in awe of the knowledge flowing around you? That is exactly how I felt yesterday when the Native Plants Team met. Listening to botanical names batted around the table by everyone but me (I did recognize some of the names.) Simple, practical solutions to some of the problems in the Heritage Garden. Plans for creative research and problem solving - wow.

For my friends new to the area, Ortonville has some native plant gardens. This means they are plants native to Michigan back when the land got to run wild without supervision by people. These plants provide a natural habitat for creatures native to Michigan as well.

We have a Creek Buffer garden next to Kearsley Creek. The purpose of these plants is to hold the soil with a complex system of roots and to help filter impurities from the water with that root system. When Kearsley flooded its banks earlier this week, we saw the buffer in action, keeping the geography of the creekside stable.

Another Native garden we have is Heritage Garden, located next to Old Town Hall on the corner of Church and Mill. This garden gets full sun and holds fauna native to prairies.

This summer it was very happy, growing tall and wild. In the formal hardscape of the heritage garden, the look was overwhelming for most residents. To the Native Plants Team, it looked like a thriving wildlife habitat - but to others it was out of scale and too much resembled wild fields in the area.

In response to public concerns, the native plant team met and discussed ways to create order in the Heritage Garden while continuing to use native plants. Why continue using the native plants? Because Ortonville received a grant to create these "native plant gardens" and is required to keep the garden "native" for a number of years.

The team talked about grouping colors together, rearranging plants for better display, and moving large plants away from the sidewalk area. New England Asters and Mountain mint will be added for additional color. Larger plants will be trimmed in the spring to keep at a smaller scale when they bloom in the summer.

I am excited to see how all the solutions work. I hope we will have a garden residents are pleased to walk by and to visit.

I commend our Native Plants Team for their objective and creative problem solving. This is a group of people who love gardening and love the native plants they use. I am confident they are going to create a garden we all grow to love and we all learn from.