A sale this weekend west of Springfield will allow anyone to purchase plants that are native to the area. It’s hosted by the Watershed Natives program, which leases 3 1/2 acres next to the Springfield Yard Waste Facility.
The Watershed Natives Nursery’s site in Brookline is still a work in progress, but there’s a lot planned for the future. Liquid Nitrogen Machine
Christy Wilder, Watershed Natives program manager, showed me around the property on an ATV, and the first place we stopped was at some aquatic beds.
There are eight of them, each one square and made with railroad ties and pond lining. Four more are planned this year, part of a cooperative agreement between Watershed and the Missouri Department of Conservation. The agreement also includes interns who work with the program.
Some of the plants in these beds will be for sale to the public during a fall native plant sale Saturday, August 31, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Wilder said they also supply to landowners or subdivisions who have cost share programs with MDC.
"They're your marginal plants," she said, "so what you plant around the banks, and that really helps take up those nutrients."
Too many nutrients in water can cause algae blooms and deplete oxygen levels.
Some of the plants grown here are used in floating wetlands, which also are an effort to improve water quality – some were launched recently at Fellows Lake.
Wilder wants this area to eventually become a demonstration site where anyone can come to get ideas.
Nearby, a large greenhouse is almost finished. It will be a place where the Watershed Natives can start aquatic plants and grow trees from seed. They’ll also grow grasses and wildflowers. The greenhouse is funded with a $45,555 donation to Watershed from the HDR Foundation and a $10,000 donation from FORVIS Foundation.
A tree nursery on the property, Wilder said, offers high-caliber trees that are native. Those will be available at the sale Saturday as well as at others planned this fall on September 28, October 12 and October 19. The October 12 sale is at Wire Road Brewing Company and is called Plants and Pints.
Wilder said fall is the best time to purchase and plant trees and shrubs.
"Because they're going to start losing their leaves," she said, "so they're not going to be actively worrying about putting out leaves and new growth, so they kind of reserve that energy, and they're able to focus on that root development."
Planting in the fall requires less watering than planting in the spring and allows the trees to establish well. Wilder says they also have an overall better success rate.
The site also contains gravel beds with no soil where the nursery is experimenting with planting a variety of trees and shrubs. Drip lines water the plants every three hours. For restoration projects, Wilder said, it's easier to plant bare-root trees, especially if an organization is working with volunteers.
"So the goal of these are just having just such surface area to your root system," she said, "and so when you pull them out, not only are there more roots, but it's more fibrous, and so when you plant them, it's back to that success rate."
You can find out more about the Watershed Nursery’s sales, which fund education for the public as well as interns and high school students among other things, at watershedcommittee.org/watershednatives.
Oxygen Gas Plant Story changed to reflect correct date for Plants and Pints.