Native Plants
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Wednesday - August 01, 2012
From: Olga, WA
Region: Northwest
Topic: Meadow Gardens, Septic Systems, Grasses or Grass-like, Herbs/Forbs, Wildflowers
Title: Wildflower field for sewage leach field from Olga Washington
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
I am interested in planting a large native wildflower field at a resort in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. It would be over a sewage leach field for many cabins and bathrooms. Are there any plants I should avoid for fear of hurting pipes? Any idea about when I should be planting? Any help would be much appreciated.ANSWER:
This really is two questions: 1. How do I plant a meadow garden? and 2. What do I plant over a sewage leach field? Fortunately, on No. 2, we have links to several previously answered questions concerning plants that are appropriate for planting above septic lines. On. Question No. 1, we have two How-To Articles that should help you with the procedure.
Large Scale Wildflower Planting
From these links, we hope that you have gotten the message that, in your case, wildflowers and native grasses, with long fibrous roots are good and woody plants, trees and shrubs, not good.
Now, down to the nitty-gritty. We will start with our Native Plant Database. Using the Combination Search, we will select on Washington and first herbs/forbs (herbaceous blooming plants, i.e., wildflowers) and second on grasses. You should probably make a rough map of the property determining where there is sun (6 hours or more of sun a day), part shade (2 to 6 hours of sun) or shade (less than 2 hours). Since we do not know these characteristics, you can run your own search later. You can also, as you get comfortable with the database, specify heights, annual/perennial, even bloom time and color, if you wish. Of course, the more specifications you put in, the fewer (or none) choices you will get. Follow each plant link to our webpage on that plant, check the Growing Conditions, Soil Moisture, Light Requirements, etc. This can take time: there are 1057 herbs or forbs in our database native to Washington State and 253 grasses. We checked on each one that we chose to make sure it grew natively in your area.
Wildflowers for San Juan Islands, Washington:
Achillea millefolium (Common yarrow)
Anaphalis margaritacea (Pearly-everlasting)
Aquilegia formosa (Western columbine)
Bidens cernua (Nodding beggartick)
Castilleja miniata ssp. miniata (Giant red indian paintbrush)
Campanula rotundifolia (Bluebell bellflower)
Grasses for San Juan Island, Washington:
Carex stipata (Owlfruit sedge)
Eriophorum angustifolium (Tall cottongrass)
Hordeum jubatum (Foxtail barley)
Phalaris arundinacea (Reed canarygrass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem)
Finally, we searched on "native plants of San Juan Islands, WA" and got a whole slew of good sites. We want to urge you to use bedding plants or seeds ONLY from plants native to, and gathered from, your own area. These sites should have some information on that.
San Juan Islands Conservation District
San Juan Island National Historical Park
From the Image Gallery
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