May 13 Column: Native Plants

For my garden column this week, I wrote about adding native plants to your landscape. Here’s a link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Native plants a natural fit for home landscapes.

I think a lot of folks are unaware of the wide variety of native plants available to us and how they add to our gardens. Many draw in pollinators or produce berries that birds love to eat. And native plants are so ideally suited to your growing conditions.

I chose to interview Spokane County Master Gardener Eva Lusk because she is extremely knowledgeable about native plants and gives presentations on them throughout the year.

If you’re curious about the photos in this blog post, the photo at top is a golden currant (Ribes aureum) and the one to the upper left is oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor).

The photo shoot for this column took place at Desert Jewels Nursery, located at 9809 E. Upriver Dr., in Spokane Valley. The nursery owner, Diane Stutzman, graciously allowed the photographer to capture images of some of the beautiful plants in bloom right now.

Diane has been in business for 15 years and uses both seed production and wild collection for her nursery stock. Desert Jewels nursery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays during the season. You can contact her at (509) 893-3771, email her at info@desertjewelsnursery.com or visit her website.

For this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video, I share tips on growing beans. Take a look: