Planting Native Plants in Philly

Planting native plants, especially in the city, feeds our local butterflies, moths, and bees, while giving them a place to live and lay their eggs! It's one of the easiest things we can do to support biodiversity in Philadelphia.

You do not need to be good at gardening to grow native plants. This doesn't need to be a full-on hobby, it can just be a quick an easy thing you have in front of your house! Let's get into how to make it happen.

STEP 1: Get a Container

Any container will do, from a big ol' pot from the hardware store, or a horse feed trough, to an old home depot bucket you had in your basement. The really important thing about your container is that it has drainage holes in the bottom. That is legitimately important, so make SURE water can get out. For beginners, the bigger the pot the better, because bigger pots take longer to dry out. Nice big pots are so much easier than little ones.

Step 2: Get Dirt

You can buy potting soil from Lowe's, or you can grab dirt from somewhere else. Hot tip: Fairmount park's "organic recycling center" has free compost and mulch for Philly residents. Bring your ID and a container and go nuts. Residents can get 30 gallons free, twice a week! Compost is basically a nutrient rich soil add-in. You don't want to plant directly into that without mixing in some other dirt, but it can help fill up your pots!

Sidenote: The dirt our neighborhoods are built on is often toxic. Bummer. Native plants will likely grow in it just fine, but don't eat anything out of Philly dirt without getting it tested.

Step 3: Add Plants

Now it's time for the fun part. Time to add in plants! There are lots you can choose between. Plants that have worked really well for me in East Kensington/Fishtown in containers include purple coneflower, swamp milkweed, bee balm, and oxeye daisies. Lowe's/Home Depot/etc usually carry non-native plants, so you need to dig a little deeper to get the good stuff.

Here are some places you can buy native plants locally:

Good Host Plants (order online, pick up in Philly)

Redbud A native plant nursery out in the burbs

Bartram's Gardens (online store and in person in Philly)

You can also buy seeds:

Ernst seeds has a wide variety! (When choosing species to plant, pick ones that are "PA Ecotype". When you click "Individual species", you can browse all of them. The Ecotype in the name of the individual type of plant. The "Ecotype" is where the plant was originally from. When choosing between a midwest and Pennsylvania "ecotype", always pick the PA one for Philly.)

Once you get something in there, you can start to consider more complicated stuff. Ideally you want to get a variety of plant species to support a variety of insects (if you have the space anyway). To really bring it home for the bugs, have plants that flower in spring, some at the height of summer, and some in fall. That way, there's always nectar for them to eat!

Step 4: Water it

The nice thing about native plants is that they're from here, so they're often easier to grow. Some species are drought resistant, BUT when you plant stuff in a pot, the soil dries out faster, so you have to stay on top of watering. You can do it the old fashioned way with a can, but then you'll have to actually remember to do that. A pretty easy alternative is setting up a watering system. This sounds hard, but I swear is not that bad. If you have an outdoor spigot, just hook up one of these timers (or something like this, does not have to be this one), then attach a soaker hose (a hose that leaks water on purpose), and run that along the soil in your pots. Turn the water on, pick a frequency and forget about it. You might need to tweak the frequency at the beginning. That will all depend on the type of spring/summer we're having and how much sun your patch of Philly gets. Adding mulch (which you can also get for free from that Fairmount organic recycling center) can help keep the moisture in so you don't have to water as often.

Step 5 (optional): Enjoy the cool Philly insects that visit your plants

Who will come to your plants? Only one way to find out.

Take Home Message

Don't stress yourself out with trying to make things perfect for wildlife. If you currently have a slab of concrete or patch of dirt with nothing in it, just get something native in there. Any native plant is better than no plant at all, so get out there and plant something!

Did you see one of these posters?

They were designed by Port Richmond's own Meg Lemieur!

This is a project of Philly science education nonprofit Skype a Scientist! You can support our work here.