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Beautiful Gardens Can Also Be Environmentally Friendly Gardens

Release Date: 3/1/2000
Contact Information: Bonnie Smith (215) 814-5543

Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

PHILADELPHIA -- EPA’s exhibit, "Native Groundcovers for Natural and Contemporary Landscapes," at the 2000 Philadelphia Flower Show March 5 to 12, has been designed by a team of employees to inspire American gardeners.

By using beneficial landscaping, native plants and groundcover indigenous to the area will thrive with less care than exotic plants because they are accustomed to the climate and soil conditions. Native plants and groundcover can also resist disease, thrive despite droughts and endure winter ice because they have adapted to the local climate. They require less water, less pesticides and a lot less work.

"American gardeners who include native plants tread lightly on the environment. This exhibit shows how beneficial landscaping works to create a safe, healthy, and beautiful backyards. This kind of environmental education fulfills an important EPA responsibility," said Bradley M. Campbell, regional administrator.

Visitors to the exhibit will find two gardens. One is a restful, woodland garden with a stream, pond and wetlands filled with blueberries, flame azalea, yellow columbine, bayberry and many other plants, trees and shrubs native to the region. Such a landscape creates a wildlife habitat for birds and butterflies by providing the food, water, and shelter they need.

The second landscape is contemporary. Lush iris and pitcher plants fill a free form pool surrounded by inkberry hedge, bright with azalea, red bud, laurel, cranberry, and evergreens. Visitors can compare how the same plants look in a woodland and a contemporary landscape, and imagine how they might look in their neighborhood.

All the plants included in the exhibit have been grown by EPA employees and volunteers throughout the year. After the flower show closes, everything will be donated to schools, brownfield sites, and arboretums. Plans are underway already to send the plants to Philadelphia’s Saul High School and the Camden City Children’s Garden.

EPA’s exhibit has expanded since it first exhibited at the Philadelphia Flower Show in 1992 with just a table and employee volunteers handing out literature. Last year the EPA’s exhibit, "The All-American Garden," took Best in Show for non-academic educational exhibits for the second year in a row.

Each year the EPA emphasizes beneficial landscaping because imported plants like Norway maple, Japanese honeysuckle, kudzu, purple loosestrife and crown vetch grow at such a rate that they can crowd out native vegetation. Unchecked, this could drastically reduce plant diversity and even lead to extinction of local species. Native plants also need less water and can prosper without fertilizers which can pollute local waterways.

It is estimated that about 3,000 plant species in the U.S. today are not native to the area they inhabit -- that’s about 16 percent of the total flora.

Stop by the EPA’s exhibit at the 2000 Philadelphia Flower Show. And don’t forget to ask for your copy of "A Gardener’s Guide to a Healthier Environment." Or contact the EPA’s Public Information Center at 215-814-5662/5663 for your free copy.