Gila Native Plant sale helps gardeners, environment – Silvercity Daily Press

By JUNO OGLE
Daily Press Staff
The annual sale held by the Gila Native Plant Society over the weekend helped the environment in more ways than one.
There is one obvious one – to encourage people to focus on natural plants to help the environment. The event also supports local businesses, however, and the nonprofit’s broader efforts to help bats and other animals.
A large crowd turned out for five longtime vendors at the sale, which was held Saturday morning at 12th and Pope streets, at least some of those people were shopping at the nearby Silver City Farmers Market. Market, then crossed the street to Gough Park, where the Knights of Columbus had a car show.
Amy McLane came prepared for this year’s sale, bringing a small car for her plant purchase.
He says: “Last year I didn’t bring a cart, and I regretted it.
It was filled within an hour or so of the sale opening, with desert willow, clematis, Virginia creeper vines and more. He said he has three acres of land that he has been working on for the past few years.
“My goal is to have a garden that doesn’t need a lot of water, because water is a scarce thing,” said McLane. Native plants that thrive in this climate do not need to be nurtured in the same way that many non-native plants do.
He said he also liked to support the local farmers. Grant County vendors this year were Whiskey Creek Zócalo, Lone Mountain Natives and Honey Hawk Homestead. Two Arizona vendors were also selling: Spadefoot Nursery and Gila Watershed Partnership.
Margie Gibson, president of the Gila Native Plant Society, said the society doesn’t make money from the sale, but does it every year to help grow native plants.
Vendors are always willing to share their experience, he said.
“That’s one of the big things,” Gibson said. You can tell them about the conditions in your yard and ask them if this plant will do well.
The Gila Watershed Partnership, based in Safford, Ariz., will be sold to help fund its coastal restoration project.
Jennifer Farris works in the group’s greenhouse and said many of the plants planted are for restoration projects, but they also grow native plants specifically to sell and support the organization.
They also grow a large number of agaves for Bat Conservation International, a group that has worked with the Gila Native Plant Society.
“Many of these agaves will also replant migration routes for long-nosed bats, and monarch butterflies. They are a good pollinator, especially night pollinators like – the bat,” Farris said. “We have about 3,000 agaves growing now.”
The nonprofit organization has been around for about 33 years, said Steve Plath, the club’s children’s coach.
“It started as an organization that helps farmers and other landowners manage water issues on their property,” he said. “It has become a great conservation movement. We are restoring the river, removing the salt cedar and replanting it with local plants.”
Plath says she loves monarch butterflies and other insects.
“When I was a kid, I was really into big animals – but I realized that you don’t have a place to live, what is it?” he said. “That got me into the plants. To me, that’s the whole picture of the environment, the flora and fauna relationships. That’s the thing that turns me on, that changes my noise. ”
Plath said that as climate change continues to impact the environment, urban agriculture will become even more important.
“Urban environments will be a refuge for animals and butterflies when we have drought years, because gardens are what will provide wildlife – especially insects and migratory birds,” he said. “In fact, it’s urban conditions that can make or break the migration of some animals.
“Even if you put a few natives in there” it would help, Plath continued. “You don’t have to stick to your yard full of natives.”
Juno Ogle can be reached at juno@scdaily press.com.