Take Tour & Learn About Going Plant Native

September 1, 2023 | By Maria Sonnenberg

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You'll see plants and wildlife at this property and others on the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour. Photo by Lars Jones.

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Hope and Larry Ascher's Indian Harbour Beach home is featured on this year's tour. It went through a major makeover to become a haven for butterflies and other pollinators. Photo by Carl Winebarger.

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Plenty of butterflies are happy among the Florida native plants at this property and others on the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour. Photo by Carl Winebarger.

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You'll see plants and wildlife at this property and others on the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour. Photo by Lars Jones.

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You'll spot bees among the Florida native plants. Photo by Lars Jones.

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You'll see plants and wildlife at this property and others on the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour. Photo by Lars Jones.

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You'll see plants and wildlife at this property and others on the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour. Photo by Carl Winebarger.

Every day, about 1,000 people move to Florida, and among the baggage these folks carry is often a preconceived notion of landscaping. They arrive with visions of a yard that would combine both some old tried-and-true gardening practices with a jungle of colorful tropical plants.

The trouble is, that formula won’t work. The old tourism marketing slogan Florida launched in the late 1980s, “The rules are different here,” is particularly applicable to gardening along the Space Coast.

“What they did before with their yards is not suited to Florida gardening,” said Jane Higgins, treasurer of the Conradina Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society and co-chair of the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour.

Gardening in Brevard County is tricky. The weather seems to replicate a tropical climate where exotics can bloom, but cold snaps routinely decimate these hot weather beauties, while plants that thrived in colder weather wither here. The best bet, for both garden and gardener, are native plants.

“Native plants are important to preserve our wildlife, pollinators and local heritage, as well as requiring much less maintenance, water and fertilizer, which benefits our local environment and the Indian River Lagoon,” Higgins said.

Take a Tour & Learn How

Every October, the Conradina Chapter hosts the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour, a showcase of local private and public landscapes that use natives in a variety of situations. For 2023, the organization is preceding the tour with two workshops designed to help newbie gardeners get growing.

“In previous tours, we received feedback that people wanted more information to get started,” Higgins said.

Information they will get, for the educational sessions, spaced over a two-month period, will discuss the role native plants play in the environment and how they can be best introduced to any local landscape.

The workshops will be at the Satellite Beach Civic Center in one of Brevard’s greenest of cities, Satellite Beach. Both are free, but registration is required.

With a topic of “Why Native Plants are Important,” the program will discuss the importance of landscape choices and the relationship between plants and wildlife like birds and butterflies. The program is based on ecologist/author Dr. Doug Tallamy’s “Restoring Nature’s Relationships."

“He is the guru of the science behind native plants,” Higgins said.

The second session before the actual tour takes off will focus on getting started with natives.

“We want to get the word out so people will be prepared to get started immediately after the tour,” Higgins said.

The landscaping tour, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 14, encompasses four private homes, one commercial space and two newly constructed local government sites that participants can visit in no particular order. All but one of the locations are beachside. An added bonus is a free plant given away at one of the sites, one per landscaping tour ticket.

A Woodland Oasis

The use of native plants in gardening has increasingly gained traction in the county, led by Sharon and Brent Dolan of Maple Street Natives nursery in West Melbourne. Although the couple have pivoted to online seed sales, they were critical in launching the back-to-natives movement.

“We’re so fortunate to have had them and their foresight,” Higgins said. “Maple Street employees learned from Sharon and Brent and then started several nurseries, and landscapers here so we have many choices now. I was speaking with a lady in Jacksonville and she said they don’t have any native plant nurseries there.”

Maple Street Natives helped Hope and Larry Ascher, whose home is featured on this year’s tour, transform their quarter-acre Indian Harbour Beach lot into a haven for butterflies and other pollinators. It required a major makeover, for the front yard was a carpet of St. Augustine grass with nary a native tree or shrub visible.

“We wanted to provide a safe haven for birds, mammals and pollinators in what was initially an almost entirely formal landscape, St. Augustine grass, poison and fertilizer-rich neighborhood,” Hope Ascher said. “Our yard was a 30th anniversary gift to ourselves 20 years ago.”

Out went the grass and in went the natives as the Aschers created a heavenly hammock that not only welcomes Mother Nature’s children, but also frees the couple from many gardening duties. Neighbors, originally puzzled by the yard’s new look, now embrace it.

“Although we live in a very traditional beachside neighborhood, we have our own woodland oasis that provides sanctuary to many,” Ascher added.

Their yard is rich in butterflies, from swallowtails to Gulf fritillaries, and the cardinals, jays, woodpeckers, wrens, barred owls, Cooper’s hawks and even the occasional hummingbird love to hang out there, too. The human residents of the neighborhood also enjoy visiting.

“Our home is a frequent stop on neighborhood walks to see the butterflies or the birds,” Ascher said.

The happy plants reproduce well, and the Aschers share the seeds freely with their neighbors to help create more green spaces.

Plant by plant, tree by tree, gardeners who, like the Aschers rely on native plants, are helping to restore balance in nature and making a difference, one garden at a time.

Starter Informational Workshops

Why Native Plants Are Important (choose one)
Session 1: 2-4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 10
Session 2: 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12

Native Plant Landscaping 101 (choose one)
Session 1: 2-4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 8
Session 2: 6-8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 9

Satellite Beach Civic Center, 565 Cassia Blvd., Satellite Beach
Register at brevardlandscapetour.org

2023 Landscaping with Florida Native Tour

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 14
Where: Seven locations, all but one are beachside
Tickets: $10 before Oct. 9 and $15 after. Add $5 for printed brochure.
Purchase at brevardlandscapetour.org