VB: Nasami Farm

June is National Pollinator Month, which celebrates the pollinators that keep our ecosystem—and food system—healthy. It’s an invitation for home gardeners to think about the ecology of their home landscapes, no matter the size.

Alexis Doshas is the Nursery Manager at Nasami Farm. She explains how the term, “native plants” carries a lot more weight than just growing wild here. She says, “Native plants are the basis of our food chain. The plants evolved with the insects, so the plants adapted to encourage insects to help them pollinate. At the same time, the insects adapted to get what they need out of the plant. If you think of the hummingbird and the cardinal flower, the shape of the tube and the color of the cardinal flower, work well together. That happened over time, and so we support those pollinators by using the plants that they are looking for and that they are used to seeing.”

Native Plant Trust is a regional plant conservation organization with a vision to promote and support the region’s flora for resilient landscapes and diversity. In the early 2000s, Nasami Farm in Whately was acquired by Native Plant Trust.

Since then, the farm focuses on growing native plants from seed for research, large restoration projects and to support home gardeners. Nasami Farm’s goal is to ensure genetic diversity of native plant species by focusing on propagation and research of hard-to-grow native plants.

Doshas defines native plants as “plants that are adapted to our specific climate and soils, so they occur here naturally…It’s not really about bringing the plant community back to a certain point in time. Rather, it’s about restoring plants to be self-sufficient and important to the ecology at the moment, more than bringing this landscape back to the way it was in 1800s.”

The plants we define in this way are adapting alongside climate change. Doshas continues, “We are already seeing some colder species leaving some of the areas and moving farther north, and you can see some southern species who are now able to make it through our winters. I think of natives as plants that can naturally occur in our climate without our assistance.”

Nasami Farm’s restorative work starts with identifying healthy populations of common species and collecting seed from these native plants. Doshas says, “We’re a small little team, so we specialize in the seed-to-seedling stage.  We like to use something called “ecotypic seed,” which is seed of some plants that live in our area. The plants that we grow from that seed is going to do well here in our climate.” To protect natural populations, the growers “follow protocols, taking less than 20% of seed that’s available,” says Doshas.

When customers purchase plants from Nasami Farm, most of their plants are labelled whether they are grown from seed and the location of that seed, like Franklin County. Their growing practices support the entire ecosystem.

Doshas explains, “We’re not certified organic but we don’t use any pesticides. We do use IPM [Integrated Pest Management] for our program; we use beneficial insects to control our pests, scouting and whatever kind of cultural treatments we can do.  We also partner with nurseries that have agreed to not use any neonicotinoids or pesticides on our plant material.”

Home gardeners play a role in restoring the ecology of our region because not all plants support wildlife equally.  In 2018, University of Delaware researchers Doug Tallamy and Desirée Narango released their study on the impact of nonnative plants on birds who eat insects. Over 90% of the herbivorous insects the birds eat specialize on one or a few native plant species. Their findings reported that nonnative plants reduced habitat quality for these birds, and that people should introduce native plants to their gardens to support the food chain for these birds.

Doshas interprets, “Certain moths and caterpillars lay their eggs on certain native plants, and only those plants. They recognize them, they know them, and therefore the caterpillars are feeding our birds.” Based on the study, if a landscape has 70% native plants for their ecological value of supporting birds and wildlife, then gardeners can still enjoy annuals and perennial favorites for 30% of yard plantings.

She continues, “You need to know that if you’re putting plants out, it can also be a food source for the rest of the ecology in your area. If you plant the cardinal flower or the honeysuckle vine, the hummingbirds will come to it because that’s what they’re looking for. It’s a lot of fun.”

Incorporating native plants into the home garden can still provide the beauty gardeners seek. “You don’t have to rip everything out,” says Doshas of invasive plants. One example is the Burning Bush, “Euonymus alatus,” an invasive shrub used in landscape plantings. She continues, “Try to find an alternative. You don’t want to just pull it out and leave it. You want to have a less harmful alternative for your catbirds and their food. A lot of people like the Burning Bush for fall color, so we suggest highbush blueberry. It has beautiful fall color and they’re just going to serve a better purpose in the ecosystem. So if you’re going to take something out, put something in its place.

Doshas concludes, “Just plant a few more [natives] in there, and you will see some visitation. Get to know your landscape: look around and see what’s already growing there. If you have a bit of a wild area, that can kind of inform you about what kind of plant wants to grow there. Just get started and see what you can bring in for wildlife.”

Learn more about Nasami Farm on their website and Facebook page. Visit their Garden Shop at 128 North Street, Whately. Hours are Thursday–Sunday,10 AM–5 PM through October 5.

Lisa Goodrich is a Communications Coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find cultivated native plants at local flower farms and nurseries near you, check out CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org/find-it-locally.

All photos by Paul Franz, courtesy of the Greenfield Recorder.