With water prices continuously rising along with summer temperatures, Portland gardeners must find ways to garden responsibly. Thankfully, many of our native plants are adapted to the wet winters and dry summers that have become the norm in recent years.

As the ranges for native plants change with our climate, Portland residents now have more plant options to create habitat and beautiful gardens, not fewer. Having lived in California for nearly a decade, I get a special excitement teaching clients about xeriscape gardening. Xeric translates to “dry” and is used to describe environments, habitats, or animals that require little water, such as deserts & scrublands.

As wildlife numbers continue to fall with loss of habitat, our jobs as stewards of the land & lives of those that depend on it becomes increasingly important. This is why the native plant “craze” has really started taking hold. Many of our native species rely solely on specific species of native plants for food or shelter. True Native Gardening was born from my need to restore landscapes while also creating beautiful spaces for people to enjoy. I love to teach and share my knowledge of restoration, wildlife connections to nature, and native plants.

It doesn’t hurt that the west coast is hot spot for plant biodiversity, which equates to an abundance of different flowering plants that make great additions to any residential landscape. I love to mix and match different colors, textures, and heights of flowering perennials to mimic that mosaic we often see when trekking out in the wild.

When I am taking in someone’s yard for an initial consult, I am looking at the ways in which the light creates different planting zones. These zones translate to themed garden beds, with plants that share similar needs. For example, a flat open sunny area could become a wildflower meadow, a shady patch under the canopy of large conifers can become a wild woodland with layers of plantings.

Native bulbs like camas, brodiaea, triteleia, lilium and allium make amazing meadow plantings when paired with native grasses like bear grass,