Yard by Yard: Native Plants for Pollinators

Franklin Conservation District (FCD), is partnering with communities in Franklin County to support pollinators, improve soil health and land resilience, and beautify our county with native plants by converting mowed spaces into native plant gardens and meadows. This program is made possible by a grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Opportunities for Residents 

Native plants provide the best habitat and food for pollinators. These plants and animals have formed interdependent relationships over millennia. In addition to providing pollen and nectar, many native plants act as nurseries because they are hosts to the early life stages of pollinators, while many cultivars offered by the nursery industry are sterile – offering no food to our pollinator friends.

Due to the use of pesticides, habitat reduction by over-development and replacement of native plants with industry cultivars, and atmospheric pollution, pollinator numbers have declined by 75-80% in many areas! This decline at the foundation of our food web puts all life on the planet in peril — including humans. The GOOD NEWS is that by adding native plants back into the landscape, we can begin to reverse the situation.

But native plants do even more than shelter and feed pollinators. They also help make the very soil under your feet more resilient! Native plant roots penetrate the soil deeply, sequester carbon, create channels in soil for air, water, and biology to infiltrate, and result in a robust ecosystems that supports beneficial plants, insects, and microbes. The deep root network also helps the soil to be more resilient to severe weather events, as it literally holds the soil together. The soil acts like a sponge, retaining much more water during flood events.

Municipal Partner Projects

Municipal Projects Accomplished

In 2023, FCD partnered with Charlemont, Deerfield, and Leyden. Each town has selected spaces that will be converted into native plant gardens or meadows.

  • Hawlemont Elementary School’s 5th and 6th-grade H.A.Y. program students installed a 1,400 sq.ft. native garden on its grounds.  (2023)
  • Deerfield has selected a field outside of town on Upper Road for conversion into a native plant meadow, and the municipal section of Bloody Brook bordering the elementary school, was chosen for riparian stabilization using native plants. (2023-2024)
  • Leyden town officials decided to convert some of the lawn outside the town offices, and the Robertson Memorial Library expanded its existing pollinator garden with the addition of native plants. (2023)
  • Colrain residents installed a slope-side garden on the north downhill slope of the Veterans Memorial site in the center of town. (Fall 2024)
  •  Sunderland Elementary created a native plant garden and a meadow on the school campus. (Fall 2024)

 

Municipal Projects In Development — we are looking for new partners in eastern Franklin County! 

  • Rowe Elementary is renovating its school garden and including native plants (Fall 2025)
  • Bernardston is planning a pond border native plants garden in the center of town (Fall 2025)
  • Sheffield Elementary is planting a native plants garden for pollinators on the school grounds (Fall 2025)
  • Shutebury is planning a meadow restoration project on the grounds on the newly contructed library (2026)

Native Plants Resources

  • Books to Get You Started (with plant lists)
    Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy
    Noah’s Garden by Sara Stein
    Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can be a Source of Environmental Change  by Larry Weaner
    Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes  by Thomas Rainier and Claudia West 
  • Local native plant guides
    From Native Plant Trust:
    The Northeast Native Plant Primer by Uli Lorimer
    Native Plants for New England Gardens by Dan Jaffe
    From Wild Seed Project:
    Native Trees for Northeast Landscapes Guide
    Native Ground Covers for Northeast Landscapes Guide
    Native Shrubs for Northeast Landscapes Guide
    Planting for Climate Resilience in Northeast Landscapes Guide
  • How-to books
    The Pollinator Victory Garden by Kim Eierman
    Lawns Into Meadows by Owen Wormser
    Climate-Wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future by Sue Reed
    Nature’s Action Guide: How to Support Biodiversity and Your Local by Ecosystem by Sarah Jayne
    Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm
  • Inspiring books on the research and principles of using native plants and trees
    Doug Tallamy writes about groundbreaking research on the crucial connections between native plants/trees, insects and birds in two books:
    Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy
    Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy
    The Serviceberry: abundance and reciprocity in the natural world by Robin Wall Kimmerer
    Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard.  Autobiographical, as well as covering her fascinating research on mycorrhizal/tree relationships.

National organizations with excellent resources for native plant gardening

  • National Wildlife Federation offers the NWF plant finder that recommends native plants by zip code and offers a citizen science personalized pollinator tracker
  • Homegrown National Park is entomologist and native plant expert, Doug Tallamy’s, educational website for creating pollinator pathways with private gardens
  • Xerces Society an international nonprofit organization that works for the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats through research including endangered pollinators
  • Wild Ones promotes native landscapes through education, advocacy, and collaborative action
  • Audubon Society provides information about ways to supporting bird species through native plants habitat
  • The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center 
  • Healthy Yards offers information you need to create a beautiful healthy yard

Garden Practices that Support Biodiversity  

  • Identify and remove invasive plants
  • Avoid herbicide, pesticide and chemical fertilizer use
  • Plant a minimum of 70% biomass of native plants, trees and shrubs
  • Plant in vertical layers (plants of different heights) and plant densely
  • Choose plants to suit your site conditions
  • Plan for a variety of native flowers in bloom from spring through fall
  • Prioritize keystone plants and plants that support endangered insects
  • Shrink your lawn to what you use for recreation and walking paths
  • Allow flowering plants in the lawn you keep
  • Mow every 2-3 weeks; allow grass to get 4” tall
  • Provide a clean water source – can be a shallow dish with pebbles
  • Minimize soil disruption (digging, tilling) to protect soil health
  • Skip fall cleanup to protect overwintering insects. Leave plant stems and fallen leaves (Nature provides safer shelter than bee hotels!)
  • Minimize night light: use low wattage warm spectrum bulbs (color leans towards warm yellow, not cool blue); keep lights off or change to motion sensors
  • Encourage your neighbors to plant natives!

What to Look for at Nurseries, in Catalogues, and From Landscapers

  • Native plant species, not hybrids or cultivars (with few exceptions)
  • Plants grown pesticide free
  • Ideally, plants grown from seed
  • Beware of marketing hype: “Plants for Pollinators” that don’t specify that plants or seeds are species native to our region
  • Tell your nursery (and landscaper) what you want
  • Safest to shop at native plant nurseries, but we can educate others
  • Spreadsheet of nurseries with native plants (updated March 2025) Note: Second tab shows all-native nurseries

Tips for saving money on native plants

  • For each group of same species plants, use mostly plugs, mixed with one or two larger plants.
  • Places to purchase plugs:
    • Native Plant Trust has a few varieties. Download their plant list here.
    • Order mixed species plug trays from Prairie Moon Nursery. Many varieties.
    • Order wholesale plug trays from North Creek Nursery. These are single species trays for large scale planting or to share with friends. (Stick with their native plant list!)
  • Prep and plant part of your chosen area to start – and expand in future seasons
  • Take a field trip to Wing and a Prayer Nursery in Cummington. Beautiful habitat, helpful and knowledgeable owner, great prices, many sizes of plants including many plug varieties, many native species not found elsewhere. Call ahead to check hours and availability: https://www.wingandaprayernursery.com/
  • Sign up for local pollinator group newsletters or garden google groups to find out about native seed growing, plant swaps. As your plants grow they will produce seedlings and need division – you can share!

2023/2024 Native Plants Education Series

Lawns Into Meadows Author Talk

December 2, 2023  

2:00-4:00PM at the Leyden Town Offices, 7 Brattleboro Rd. in Leyden

Lawns Into Meadows talk by local author, native plant expert, and landscape designer, Owen Wormser, will inform us about how we can transform the deadzone of the modern lawn into an ecological contributor to pollinator  and soil health and resilience. 

 
Welcoming Pollinators Home with Tom Sullivan
Thursday, February 22, 6 – 7 PM, Dickinson Memorial Library, 115 Main St., in Northfield
Tom’s work as a gardener and landscape designer is led by a recognition that whole ecosystems and human health are intertwined with pollinator well-being. As such, he creates designs that primarily use native plants, both for their ecological benefits and aesthetic fit in the landscape, with the priority of creating native bee habitat. Tom will share strategies you can employ in your own landscape to welcome pollinators while allowing ample space for human activity. Tom completed a Master of Arts in Landscape Design from the Conway School.  
 

Adventures in Native Plant Gardening for Beginners
March 17, 2024, 2 – 4 PM at the Leyden Town Offices, 7 Brattleboro Rd. in Leyden and

April 20, 2024, 11AM-12PM at the Griswold Memorial Library, 12 Main Rd. in Colrain

Learn the basics using native plants in gardens and the diversity of life created in even a small garden.  Native plants bring insects, birds and other wildlife to your space while improving soil health and making the land more resilient.

What’s good? What’s bad? Does that insect sting? What is that cool butterfly? Three years after slowly planting native plants in her own field, she has some answers to these questions.  Jocelyn Demuth is the proprietor of Checkerspot Farm,  a native plant nursery in Colrain, MA named after an elusive butterfly. Last year the farm’s namesake returned to the native plant meadow attached to the farm. Jocelyn will share the ways that you can create space for and identify some of these interesting creatures who are the foundations of our ecosystems.
 

Meadow Walk and Talk at Checkerspot Farm on September 14  (Rain Date September 15)

30 Jacksonville Rd. Colrain, MA

Join native plant nursery proprietor, Jocelyn Demuth, for an eye opening walk and talk around the dairy pasture-turned-meadow. See the wonder of a late summer meadow and the wildlife it supports.  Walks will be offered at 10:00 am and 12:00pm. Space is limited, so please register in advanc