Conservation Horticulture

Some would say that the words conservation and horticulture do not go together. However, I know an awful lot of people who have gotten into conservation because they are into horticulture or became interested in horticulture because they care about conservation. Personally, I’m with the latter group of folks. I’m a lover of wild outdoor places and it was such a joy when I discovered that I could recreate tiny pieces of the nature I loved at home.

My first native garden happened when I was living at a research station and decided to transplant some of the forest wild flowers around the back porch of my cabin so that I would be sure to notice their blooms and pollinators. My little woodland garden was such a relaxing place to hang out and enjoy nature and I felt pride that I was able to nurture it. After that I wanted to learn how to care for all the native plants I knew in my garden. Just like that, I was obsessed with my garden, collecting plants, cultivating new species, and finding how to make plants happy.

Can our gardens be a place for conservation? While I don’t suggest poaching wildflowers out of the woods like I did before I knew any better, many native plants are well suited to the garden. Putting native plants in a garden does not equal conservation. Conservation is the whole picture, food webs, soil, ground water, habitat, and our relationship to the land. Sticking a native plant in the garden is just step one in conservation horticulture.

Conservation is the act of protecting Earth's natural resources for current and future generations. Horticulture is the art or practice of garden cultivation and management. So, in practice, we are protecting Earth's natural resources for current and future generations with garden cultivation and management.

Conservation horticulture could be a garden that is planted to have blooms and berries throughout the year to feed birds and insects. Especially focusing on having food sources available at the beginning and end of winter when wildlife is most vulnerable. Flowers would be a variety of colors and shapes to host the maximum number of insects. Various berries would be ripe in all seasons to feed visiting birds.

Gardening for a species of concern, such as the Monarch, is conservation and horticulture. The garden must provide all the necessities of the species such and habitat, places to raise young, water, food, and shelter. For Monarchs the garden would include a variety of milkweed species for monarchs to lay eggs on and caterpillars to eat. It would have a reliable water source and places to rest out of the wind. A variety of other flowers would be planted to boost food resources to fuel migration when adult monarchs are in the area.

Conservation horticulture could be killing plants instead of growing them. Many of us take on new gardens that are choked with invasive species. Recognizing and removing invasive species is often step one for a new gardener. Step two may be stabilizing and improving the bare soil to get ready to the more fun steps to come.

There are many ways to practice conservation in our gardens. We don’t have to turn our yards into natural areas to be conservation horticulturalists. We can each pick which conservation practices sound right for our gardens and rewarding for us and start with that.