Many of us with lakefront property want to spend our time enjoying the water and not doing landscaping chores. So, we chose to plant a lawn like our land-locked neighbors.
However, the ecosystem of a lakeshore is much different from the ecosystem of a home built in a former farm field or on a city lot.
Traditional lawns have few of the benefits of a more natural shoreline. Lawns are shallow rooted, provide little wildlife habitat, need frequent maintenance, and are often over-fertilized.
If you look at a natural shoreline, you will notice a variety of plants growing to the water’s edge. Some of these plants are non-native and invasive and make the unmanaged shoreline look unsightly.
The unmanaged plants may block the view of the water and provide no easy access to the lake. Lakeshore property owners often consider the vegetation along the shoreline to be weeds.
Yet this lakeshore vegetation serves to protect water quality, the quality of your beach, and the fish and wildlife habitat. Lakeshore vegetation can be managed in a way that allows recreational activities and a beautiful view.
I do not propose to allow the shoreline to go ‘au natural? but to think of creating a buffer area between your lawn and the water where native plants can do their job of preventing shoreline erosion by absorbing wave action; filtering out pollutants and runoff that degrade water quality; increase native wildlife habitat; and decrease nuisance animals, such as Canadian geese and muskrats.
Lakescaping, in short, is the process of restoring the shorelines of lakes with native grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs to help to prevent the erosion of the shoreline.
James Brueck, owner of Native Lakescapes, LLC, likes to use cardinal flower, blue lobelia, joe pye weed, blue vervain, marsh blazing star, swamp milkweed, iron weed, and blue flag iris along a waterfront. Creation of a buffer zone is the essence of the lakescaping concepts. A buffer zone is an unmowed strip of native vegetation that extends both lakeward and landward from the water’s edge.
A buffer zone that extends 25-50 feet from shore is preferable, but even 10-15 feet provides benefits. Installing a buffer zone can restore many functions critical to the health of the lake and may have been eliminated previously by sod, hard structures, or mowing.
Creating and maintaining natural buffer zones along the shore does not mean your property has to look unkempt and requires less maintenance than you may think.
‘Nothing is really maintenance free,? says Mr. Brueck. ‘However, once established, the native plants do a good job of defending their territory. As they grow larger and fill in the’garden, it is harder for the weeds and other uninvited plants to take seed and germinate. But like any other garden project, you need to enjoy working in the garden to maximize effectiveness and beauty of native plants.?
For assistance in lakescape design, contact Native Lakescapes, LLC; James Brueck P.O.Box 271 Clarkston, MI 48346.
Call 248-736-3014 or check www.nativelakescapes.com/
Mary Pellerito is a garden writer living in Brandon Township, Michigan. She is a Master Gardener and a member of Wild Ones. You can contact Mary at mary.pellerito@gmail.com

Gardeners in the winter spend their time dreaming of the ideal garden.
As I look out the front window, I see grey sky, a foot of snow on the ground, and the beginning of a shrub border. I see shrub branches, rose stems, and the stems of perennials I never cut down in the fall poke out of the snow. I really need to add some evergreens to the border as well as adding a shrub here and there to fill in the design.
On the other side of the shrub border is empty space where I am going to start work on a native prairie. For now, it is white space but my gardener’s eye sees a prairie alive with birds, bees, and butterflies.
The vegetable garden is coming along. I need to order heirloom seeds and get my seedling table and light set up downstairs.
I read an article in a British magazine about creating a potager, which is a french term for an ornamental kitchen garden. The goal of planting a potager is to make the vegetable garden aesthetically pleasing. My vegetable garden is planted with raised beds and wide rows. I want to start incorporating fruit trees, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and flowers with the vegetables, herbs, and salad greens that currently grow in my vegetable garden to create my own potager.
This winter I realized that I am not a houseplant aficionado.
My succulents are doing fine. I’d like to use them collectively to create a living design. Right now they are scattered in separate pots throughout the house. The daffodils I started indoors have not flowered. I’m going to need to move them to the seedling table so they get their fill of light and warmth. I received an orchid as a gift. The directions said to add three ice cubes a week to the pot. I’ve been doing that, and it keeps blooming. The Christmas amaryllis bloomed a month late. The red blooms are gorgeous and are still in full bloom.
To be honest, I like the look of houseplants when they fill up the porch in the summer. Even though I have them clustered on a few tables inside, they seem to be biding their time until they can be outside in the fresh air. I can relate.
Mary Pellerito can be reached at mary.pellerito@gmail.com

Every year I write down my goals for the coming year. In 2011 I have two gardening goals: grow a prairie and grow and preserve more of my own food. Here is my starting point.
? Our property is approximately 2.5 acres. We currently mow about 1.5 acres. The prairie means we mow less and hopefully attract more insects, butterflies, and birds to our property.
? In 2010, our vegetable garden consisted of 3 raised beds 20’x 4?. I added two more 20? x 4? beds in the fall.
The Prairie
A prairie is an ecological community made up of native grasses and wildflowers. Oak trees are a minor component. Unfortunately, growing a prairie does not mean not mowing and letting whatever is growing get high.
We are lucky, I suppose, in that our property used to be a cow pasture. We did not put down sod in the area so I am hoping that some of the plants we have been mowing are native prairie plants.
This winter, rather than drooling over poppies and roses and hostas in garden catalogs, I will be researching native prairie plants.
This is a multi-year goal. This year I hope to identify the native plants that are currently growing in my garden; come up with a prairie design (if that is possible); start to eliminate ‘weeds?; and introduce some new native prairie plants (as many as my budget will allow). I will keep you updated in this column.
The Vegetable Garden
In 2010, I froze tomatoes and basil. I shredded and froze zucchini. That’s it. I have one bag of tomatoes left and a few bags of zucchini for bread. The basil should last the rest of winter.
In 2011, I want to grow strawberries, raspberries, and thornless blackberries so I can make jam in the near future. I want to plant beans and more root vegetables to use in the winter months.
In the next few weeks, I will pour over seed catalogs and plan my vegetable garden. I will also be gathering recipes for preserves, jams, sauces, and salsas and ordering seeds for the fruits and vegetables used in the recipes.
I think I have filled up the next few weeks of winter with the most important garden activity’dreaming. And a dream turned into a goal becomes a garden.
Mary Pellerito can be contacted at mary.pellerito@gmail.com

If you want to attract more birds and butterflies to your garden, consider planting any of these three native trees species: Oak, Willow, and Cherry. These native trees host over 1400 species of insect herbivores. In other words, these native trees support caterpillars and other insects that attract insect-eating birds.
What do butterflies need to survive and thrive in your garden? They need plants that provide nectar for adults and host plants that provide food for butterfly larvae. Most of us only think about the plants that provide nectar. Adult butterflies lay eggs on plants on which their larvae will feed. The caterpillar (or larva) feeds on the leaves of the host plant. Eventually, the caterpillar, if a bird hasn’t eaten it, spins a cocoon. Many butterfly species over winter in this stage. When the time comes, the adult butterfly breaks out of the cocoon and starts the circle of life again.
What do birds look for in a tree? The structure of trees provides multiple opportunities for refuge and nesting. Birds such as orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks like to nest in the uppermost parts of tall trees, while cavity nesters, such as chickadees, wrens, woodpeckers, owls, and bluebirds, use the lower levels. Most important though is you want to have a variety of insects available for birds to eat. This summer I watched as a mother house sparrow continuously fed her young with insects gathered in our yard and surrounding wetland.
When planting a species of oak, willow, or cherry, you will need to pay attention to its Latin name to ensure it is native and not an import. Michigan native oaks include white oak (Quercus alba), bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), red oak (Quercus rubra), and black oak (Quercus velutina).
Oaks support more species of moths and butterflies then any other plant, thus oaks provide more types of bird food than any other plant. Oak trees take a decade to produce acorns, so be patient. Oak acorns provide a regular food supply for wood ducks, wild turkeys, blue jays, nuthatches, titmice, chickadees, and woodpeckers. Returning migrants, such as warblers, vireos, and tanagers, flock to oak trees for the insects the trees harbor in the spring.
When we think of willows, we think of weeping willows, which are non-natives trees. Native willows include the black willow (Salix nigra) and the sandbard willow (Salix interior). You can attract commas, viceroys, red-spotted purples, and mourning cloak butterflies with willows. Black willows are also excellent hosts for several wood-boring beetles that attract woodpeckers that eat the larvae of these beetles all winter long.
Native wild cherries include black cherry (Prunus serotina), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), and pin cherry ( Prunus pensylvanica). The caterpillars of the swallowtail and the red-spotted purple butterfly feed on cherry tree leaves. Cherry trees also provide fruits for birds, like grouse, pheasant, evening and rose-breasted grosbeaks, bluebirds, robins, and thrushes for weeks in late summer.
As gardeners, we want to design our landscape to attract insects. Once we start to understand and see for ourselves the workings of the food chain in our own gardens, planting for a continuous bug buffet is the most natural way to garden. Without insects, there is no food chain, without the food chain, there is no life. So think about planting an oak, willow, or cherry tree and see the food chain at work up close and personal in your own back yard.
Native plants have evolved and adapted to local conditions over thousands of years. They are vigorous and hardy, so they can survive winter cold and summer heat. Once established, they require no irrigation or fertilization. They are resistant to most pests and diseases. Thus, native plants suit today’s interest in ‘low-maintenance? gardening and landscaping. The root systems of native plants are often long and go deep into the soil, helps rainfall percolate into the soil, reducing erosion and runoff thus improving water quality. Simply stated, native plants work with, rather than against, nature.
Native plants help preserve local pollinators, insects, birds, and animals, and other wildlife that have co-evolved with plants of local ecosystems and depend upon them for food and shelter.
For more information about native plants, visit the Wild Ones website at
http://www.for-wild.org/.
Mary Pellerito is a garden writer living in Brandon Township, Michigan. She is a Master Gardener and a member of Wild Ones. You can contact Mary at mary.pellerito@gmail.com