Blog: Landscaping and Gardening
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A Guide to Achieving Your Gardening Goals
Discover how to make the most of native plantings and achieve your gardening goals with expert tips from Possibility Place Nursery. We'll help you understand your site's soil and light conditions and encourage flexible plant selection options to create a thriving and environmentally friendly garden.
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Benefits of Native Plants
Native plants are well-adapted to local conditions, especially if they are local ecotypes. Natives are an integral part of the natural ecosystem and play a vital role in maintaining the health and balance of our environment. These plants have evolved over time to thrive in specific climate and soil conditions, making them well-suited for the regions in which they grow.
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Native Alternatives to Exotic Trees, Shrubs and Vines
Many gardeners and landscapers are drawn to the unique beauty and variety of non-native plants, but the use of these exotic species can have negative impacts on local ecosystems. As awareness grows about the importance of conservation and protecting native species, more and more people are looking for alternative options that still provide a diverse and beautiful landscape. In this post, we will introduce you to some of the best native tree, shrub and vine alternatives to common non-natives.
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Planning Your Garden
Good gardens begin with design, and great plants! Basic design and planning are the framework upon which everything else depends.
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Native Plant Grants
Are you a homeowner, community organizer or municipal civil servant looking to fund a planting project in the Midwest? Are you planning a native garden, or would like organize a tree planting in your neighborhood? We are excited to present this resource to make that effort a little bit easier, with this compilation of local, regional (Midwest) and national grants relevant to urban forestry, native garden projects and more. -
Oaks Grow Slowly...NOT!
We recieved a call just the other day from a person looking for for a "fast growing" tree and that a smaller starter plant would be preferred. I offered up a Quercus muehlenbergii (Chinquapin Oak) and ran down the list of superlatives that made it why I'd plant that for his needs other than many others that might work for him. I was stopped half way through; "Woah, woah, woah. Oak trees don't grow fast. They're oaks. They grow slow. I want a sugar maple." After a brief exchange, I was left thinking about why people continue to think oaks grow slowly. So I thought I would post a very quick note.
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Creating Color in the Shade with Native Plants
For many, creating a colorful landscape in the shade can be a challenge. Typical options are often limited to hostas, hostas, and more hostas! While hostas certainly can serve a purpose filling in the north side of a garage or hugging a tree, they don’t offer much to enrich the color or texture of a landscape. Native plants offer a wide range of shapes, sizes and colors that thrive in the shade. You can create a rich, layered, textured garden that offers color throughout the growing season while creating a healthy ecosystem for birds and insects by choosing from these native shade-lovers.
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Using Natives in the Garden
Our raison d'etre! Beginner's guide to help conceptualize using natives in your garden. Includes links to more resources.
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There are no insect-free plants, but there are good insects - Our Butterfly List
There are no insect-free plants, but there are good insects!
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Surviving Winter
It’s cold outside today…like, really cold. And while our solution to keeping safe in these temperatures is simply not to engage, our plants just don’t have that option. From the cozy warmth of my insulated home, I gaze out at my perennial garden and think about the lush green plants that will begin to pop up in the spring. Year after year, they endure freezing temperatures and still manage to emerge in all their glory when the time is right.
Part of the joy of planting native perennials is knowing that they are cold hardy to our climate zone. In Illinois, our cold hardiness zone is 6 for the northern part of the state and 5 for the southern half and the small area surrounding Lake Michigan. Native plants of our region have evolved to survive the harsh winters in these zones, but how exactly do they do that??
