Native Plant Gardens For Photography
I have taken part of my yard and turned it into a native plants garden. I have long wanted to do this, so when my wife and I bought this house a year ago, it seemed like the time was now. The yard was just grass and I didn’t want just grass. Grass is high maintenance and requires too much water and other stuff, so I wanted to reduce its size. Now that is actually a big deal since we live in the LA area and lot sizes are small. Still, I also wanted a garden that was drought tolerant, which my natives are.
A native plant garden gives me a lot of great subjects for photography. I work at home much of the time doing books, articles and preparing for classes and workshops. It is easy to take a break, go into my garden and see what is blooming. Then I can grab a camera at any time and take a picture of something interesting. These are true native plants growing in their native conditions, too, as that is the only way I will grow them. I have even done this when I needed a quick illustration of something in a book or for an article. I can shoot it, prepare the image and have it off to a publisher immediately. Plus I have flowers that bloom in the winter, so I have something that can be photographed all year round.
I think there are a lot of interesting things about a native plants garden, besides the obvious that you are using native plants. I think they ground you in your surroundings because what you see in your garden, you connect to in the natural areas of your state. In addition, such a garden reinforces all the plants in ways that you don’t get any other way. I get to know them by name, by shape, by leaves, by flowers, in ways that are hard to do in the field. And of course, I get great subjects that are always available. I am starting to get “wildlife” in, too. Bees and wasps are coming to the flowers, plus I saw a red admiral and a hummingbird this week. As more plants flower, I am sure this will improve, too.
I had a really nice red buckwheat but it seemed to be more interested in growing leaves and stems than flowers, so I ripped it out. I am starting to do some of this sort of work. I have to find the right balance of plants that like my soil and have a good plant structure plus flower when they should! In a way, this also keeps me connected with how ecology works. I see immediately how plants respond to their environment. I am uninterested in forcing a plant to “produce” in my garden. Over the years, a lot of people have liked certain plants, then arbitrarily put them into their yard, regardless if the plant was adapted to it or not. They try to force that plant to do well, even though the plant cannot respond well to that environment. I think a true native plants garden forces you to work with the environment rather than trying to overpower it.
And of course, you get lots of opportunities for photographs!
In California, check out the California Native Plant Society (www.cnps.org). In Southern California, check out the Theodore Payne Foundation (www.theodorepayne.org) and the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (www.rsabg.org).
