BERLIN — Spring planting season is just around the corner and it’s time to plan for your backyard bounty now.
If beautiful native perennials, luscious heirloom veggies and fruit and savory herbs are on the menu, then Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) has a cornucopia of choices ready for pre-order from its annual Native Plant Sale, scheduled May 5 at the ACT office on North Main Street in Berlin. Pre-ordering now is strongly encouraged to guarantee choice of varieties. You can visit ACT’s website at www.actforbays.org to browse and buy from the expanded inventory.
“We decided to bring back all the new choices we offered local gardeners last year,” said ACT Plant Sale Manager Billy Weiland. “This year we’re offering everyone’s favorite perennial varieties, and we will offer once again the new heirloom veggies and fruits ranging from eggplants and squashes to several melons.”
The online ordering menu makes it easy to make informed choices with color photos and detailed descriptions of which plants prefer sun or shade, when they bloom and what good critters (bees and butterflies) like and what bad critters (deer) dislike. The site even offers special plant packages grouping together plants that do well in sun or shade as well as the popular “Heirloom Tomato Sampler” and sought after “Pollinator Package.”
“You’ll want to order early so you don’t miss out on this incredible selection of garden goodies,” Weiland said. “Every year many of the most popular varieties sell out well before the date of the sale, so we strongly encourage folks to pre-order off our website as soon as they know what they want to grow this year.”
Buying early not only ensures that gardeners get the pick of the crop, but it also makes it easier to claim your order on the date of the sale.
“All pre-orders are pre-assembled so they’re ready for the old grab and grow the morning of the sale,” said Weiland. “That way, people can claim their plants in the morning and get them in the ground that same day if they want.”
The native plant offerings provide more than a treat for your eyes. Native plants have a number of environmental benefits as well. They are adapted to the local climate and soil conditions and thus require less watering, fertilizer, pesticides or herbicides. They also generally attract and provide habitat for good critters and sometimes deter less desirable critters. Many plants are also magnets for pollinator pals (birds, bees and butterflies) which are fun to watch and critical to propagating our local landscape.
Growing your own veggies, fruit and herbs provides more than a feast for your tummy. They are generally healthier than the processed, genetically modified, pesticide treated products from the supermarket.