Hillside Garden

Native Plants Sustain Wildlife

Matteuccia struthiopteris, Ostrich Fern

Explore and experience this rustic woodland garden of diverse native plants that preserves biodiversity by providing a habitat for wildlife. Native plants are hardy, adaptable, more disease-resistant, and require less care than non-natives.

Pause to consider the many species of animals that find food and shelter in this woodland habitat of native plants. Consider adding native plants to your yard to support wildlife.

Growing Conditions

The Hillside Garden is a woodland ecosystem with numerous vertical layers including large canopy trees, smaller understory trees and shrubs, vines, herbaceous plants, ferns, and ground covers. The crowns of the canopy trees capture the sunlight. When the trees are dormant and leafless, sun penetrates to the lower vertical levels. However, for most of the growing season, the understory and lower vertical layers are in partial to dense shade. The native plants thrive on the garden's steep slope with very little sun or moisture. Leaves from the trees serve as mulch and amend the soil with organic matter.

Description

To fully appreciate the garden, visitors should carefully observe each vertical layer of the landscape. The tall, strong Northern red oaks dominate the top canopy layer capturing the direct sunlight. The understory layer contains smaller trees in filtered lower light. These trees include black locust, flowering dogwood, sassafras, black cherry, serviceberry, and Eastern redbud.

Visitors can peer amongst the diverse shrubs in the lower understory layer and observe the different types of foliage, seeds, berries, and other fruits. In the dense shade on the floor of this woodland garden, visitors can discover a wide variety of wildflowers depending on the season.

This woodland habitat provides cover for wildlife and nests for birds, squirrels, and other mammals. In addition, this habitat provides nourishment for beneficial insects, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, raccoons, deer, and other mammals. Visitors frequently look around to see how many different birds, bees, caterpillars, butterflies, and mammals they can identify as they explore.

Background

This woodland setting was disrupted by construction many years ago, which destroyed many native plants and made it vulnerable to the introduction of unsightly invasive plants that did not support native wildlife. In 2002/2003, Master Gardeners and the Boy Scouts worked together to clear the land of invasive plants and to amend the disrupted soil with mulch. Since that time, the Master Gardeners have replaced many native plants that had been destroyed and added numerous other native plants that are well suited to this steep, shady environment.