Business owners can save a bundle by replacing foreign grass with native plants, says a golf course guru.
About 70 plant lovers from across Alberta came to the St. Albert Enjoy Centre Saturday for the Alberta Native Plant Council's 25th annual workshop. The workshop focused on the value of native plants in urban environments.
Most Albertans live in urban environments and are far removed from the places where native plants grow, says council president Kelly Ostermann.
And he added: "If 80 to 90 per cent of our population is not engaged in knowing the value of these plants and these plant communities, we will lose them."
Speakers at the workshop promoted the use of native plants in cities to clean wastewater, cool roofs, save money and improve public health.
Even golf course owners — once notorious for using non-native grass on their lands — are coming around to native plants, says Scott Atkinson, chief operating officer for HeatherGlenEagles Golf Corp. and a speaker at the workshop. "Dinosaurs do move and they actually do change," he says of his industry.
Native advantage
Native plants are generally rare in cities, Ostermann says, as outside of a few protected river valleys, most have been paved over by roads and subdivisions.
They used to be rare on golf courses as well, Atkinson says — his older Heather Glen course near Calgary is all non-native grass, for example, all of which requires mowing, watering and fertilization.
St. Albert is something of an exception, according to city arborist Kevin Veenstra, as the city plants native species like white spruce, dogwood and wild rose throughout its lands. Grandin Pond, Founders' Walk and Fire Hall No. 3 also have extensive native plantations.
But the reality is that there are not a lot of people growing native plants, says speaker Jim Hole of the Enjoy Centre. Few greenhouses produce them, and few gardeners appreciate them. A prickly pear cactus might have marvellous spines and resilience, for example, but it's not exactly eye-catching. "It's not for everybody."
Cherry Dodd is trying to change this trend. She spoke on how she and the Edmonton Naturalization Group were lobbying gardeners to plant more native species.
"They're very tough," she says of native plants, "and they'll come up year after year. They don't need any fertilizer, and they're very colourful."
Some carry other benefits as well, Dodd continues. The meadow blazing star, which resembles a cluster of exploding pink fireworks, will draw butterflies to your yard like a magnet. Giant hyssop will pull in bees with its columns of purple blooms and help pollinate your vegetables.
Atkinson says he's replaced about 105 acres of non-native grass on his Cochrane-area course with native plants like fescue. "We have no maintenance on it," he says. "We don't have to water it. We don't have to fertilize it."
They've been able to trim their maintenance budget by about 35 per cent as a result, saving about $275,000 a year. The native grass also attracts red foxes, which entertain golfers and eat pesky gophers and repels weeds like Canada thistle.
These savings have made native grass much more common on courses, Atkinson says; a recent survey by Golf Business Canada found that 56 per cent of course owners were maintaining less non-native grass now than they were three years ago.
Native plants help bring a sense of nature and closeness to a community, Veenstra says. "There's nothing like having dogwood cropped down by moose and providing natural sustenance to other animals and birds in our environment."
Visit www.anpc.ab.ca for more on native plants.
