Native Plants In Golden Valley
Why Native Plants
What Are Native Plants
The City's Position On Native Plants
Growing Native Plants
Maintaining Native Plants
Images of Schaper Park Controlled Burn
A Brief Natural
History of Golden Valley
Golden Valley’s lawn maintenance ordinance to allows residents to cultivate native plants in residential lawns.
According to the ordinance, residents who want to vary their landscape need to apply for a "Native Vegetation Permit" at City Hall (fee: $100). The permit requires property information along with a description of the work, including:
- purpose and intent (eg, general yard landscaping or water source buffer zone)
- detailed site plan, planting plan, and maintenance plan with contact information for responsible person(s)
The complete lawn maintenance ordinance is available at City Hall, the Golden Valley Library, and online (City Code Chapter 10) . For more information, contact Public Works at 763-593-8030.
Why Native Plants
Planting native vegetation is the recommendation of Golden Valley’s Best Management Practices (BMP) and encompasses several goals:
- Native grasses create a buffer zone around bodies of water and aid in filtering pollutants that are directed toward the ponds through the storm water system.
- Native landscapes, over time, cost less to maintain.
- Native plants are best adapted to the local climate, and once established, seldom need watering, mulching, protection from frost, or continuous mowing.
Further, native plants in the urban landscape:
- increase biodiversity and make the landscape more sustainable
- provide food and shelter for birds, insects, and other animals
- are resistant to insect pests and disease outbreaks
- require less fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, which helps reduce contaminants in storm
- are self-renewing, water runoff, since many native species are perennial
What Are Native Plants
Native plants are usually defined as ones that grew naturally in a specific area before European settlement. "Exotics" are non-native plant species introduced hundreds of years ago by settlers and travelers, or spread by animals, wind, and water. Some of the new plants introduced to Minnesota were very competitive and quickly crowded out existing native plants.
The City's Position On Native Plants
Keeping with the City of Golden Valley's commitment to re-introducing native plants into the community, several storm water ponds have been landscaped with indigenous plants: Golden Hills Dr Pond, Hampshire Pond, Sandburg Rd Pond, Schaper Park, South Tyrol Pond, and Xenia Pond. Expect to see native vegetation such as grasses like side oats grama, blue grama, little bluestems, big bluestems, and prairie dropseed, and wildflowers like purple prairie clover, black-eyed Susan, New England aster, giant hyssop, and prairie smoke.
Growing Native Plants
While planting one or two native plants is a welcome addition to the urban landscape, planning an entire garden takes thought and preparation. Native gardens may appear more casual than traditional landscapes, but don’t let appearances fool you. Like any other cultivated landscape, they involve understanding conditions and requirements and then some good planning, including for maintenance.
Here are some step to landscaping your property taken from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Web site.
- Describe your yard
Locate natural features, the house, window views, neighbors, structures, sidewalks, utility lines (above and below ground), trees, gardens, shrubs; number of hours of direct sunlight; slopes, soils (have a soil test done to determine pH levels, fertility, etc), and drainage conditions. - Determine your preferences
Will the site be used for entertainment, play, public, private, and quiet areas? What wildlife do you want to attract? How much time is available for gardening? What kinds of trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses do you like? Consider colors and appearances at different times of the year. - Ask yourself how much money you want to spend
- Develop a design based on your answers to the above questions. Consult references, and visit gardens and landscapes using native plants and modify this plan accordingly. Be realistic about the size of your landscape project. Start small and build on from there.
- Prepare garden/landscape site
Use a method appropriate for your site and preferences. Options include newspaper and mulch, selective use of herbicides, sod removal.
When you’ve decided your garden’s location, type, and purpose, you are ready to begin researching the plants, such as the ones shown here, that will meet your requirements (see below for some resources). Be sure the perennial native plants you select are winter hardy (cold tolerant) for our area.
Remember, people often think native plants fail the first year. The opposite is most often true. During the first year of growth, native plants put most of their energy into their root systems. Further, many native plants do not begin to grow until late spring or early summer, when the soil temperatures are higher. During the second year of growth, with root systems relatively established, energy is allocated to growth above ground. Once native plants are established, very few invasive weeds can compete with them.
Converting from traditional turf landscaping to native landscaping takes both planning and knowledge. Here are three sources to jump-start your research.
- The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/nativeplants/) offers information and inspiration for five different native gardens developed specifically for the metro region. A sample design, a conceptual drawing, and a native plant species list is provided for each of the gardens, including the evergreen shaded garden, the native shade garden, the prairie garden, the suburban garden, and the wet meadow garden.
- The University of Minnesota’s Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series (SULIS) site (www.sustland.umn.edu) provides an in-depth approach to design, plant selection, implementation, and maintenance.
- The US Environmental Protection Agency offers information on "Greenlandscaping." Visit www.epa.gov/greatlakes/greenacres/wildones/ for an online booklet that covers everything from "Being Neighborly" about your design and how to remove existing vegetation to an overview of how the United States used to look in "The Landscape That Was."
Maintaining Native Plants
Weeding is the most common maintenance practice when it comes to residential native garden maintenance that hinder the invasion of non-native species.
The City, however, working on a much larger scale, conducts small, controlled burns. Managed by Prairie Restorations Inc or other City contractors, these burns are necessary to promote the native grasses that have been planted in both areas. Spring burns are carefully timed for maximum benefit of native plants, proper weather conditions, site conditions, and impact on nearby residents. Burning reduces the competition from woody plants and non-native plants and hastens natural nutrient recycling.
Schaper Pond Controlled Burn 2002
Residents can expect to see more areas of native plantings and more controlled spring burns. If you have questions, call the Golden Valley Environmental Coordinator at 763-593-8046.
A Brief Natural History of Golden Valley
About a billion years ago, shallow seas advanced and retreated from the area, depositing a layer of sedimentary rock. The top layer of bedrock under Golden Valley is the St Peter Sandstone, about 100 feet beneath the surface.
The local landscape today is largely the result of Late Wisconsin glaciation. First, the Superior lobe advanced, transporting scoured material. Then, the Grantsburg sublobe of the Des Moines lobe advanced and retreated, leaving many areas within this region laden with post-glacial organic deposits.
As the earth settled down some, changes in the landscape were mostly in vegetation instead of formation. About 11,000 years ago, while the region was still cold, spruce trees and other boreal vegetation inhabited the area. As the climate warmed, pines replaced the spruce, and prairie species became prevalent. A warming and drying trend continued producing prairie and oak savanna. Periodic fires helped maintain this open landscape. When a cooling trend began about 4,000 years ago, deciduous forests began expanding.
During the 1840 and 1850 land surveys, the landscape was a mixture of oak woodlands, oak savanna, wet prairies, and marshes. Following European settlement in the area rapid changes occurred. Wetlands were drained and filled, turf grass and farms replaced native plants, and domesticated trees and foreign plants were planted extensively. Some non-native plants, including European Buckthorn, purple loosestrife, garlic mustard, and reed canary grass, have escaped cultivation to become invasive threats to the last remaining natural plants in the area.
