specific purpose — to anchor 

 a stream bank, provide shade, 

 soak up a wet spot, provide 

 fresh vegetables, herbs or 

 cut flowers, or to improve 

 landscape aesthetics. 



Then, visit the gardening 

 section of a local library to 

 do some research. It's critical 

 to choose native plants that 

 are well adapted to specific 

 garden site considerations, 

 including soil type, wind, sun, 

 shade, hydrology and salt spray. 



Although just a year out of college, Loewen 

 is a veteran gardener. She planted her first flower 

 and vegetable garden while still in elementary 

 school. As a high school and college student, she 

 worked at a nursery that specialized in organic 

 gardening in her home state of Oregon, applying 

 new skills in her family garden. 



Students at the Trinity Center benefit 

 from Loewen's lifelong experience as they 

 learn the fine art of composting as part of the 

 environmental curriculum. "I get a lot of 'Oh, 

 gross!' from the kids. But if you do it right, it 

 shouldn't smell too bad." 



Organic compost, she says, is a gardener's 

 best friend — especially for those trying to grow 

 tomatoes and herbs on a barrier island. Her 

 own micro garden sits close to her oceanside 

 cinderblock dorm. A couple of yucca plants atop 

 a small berm protect the plot from a constant 

 wind. "The summer sun is intense, and I have to 

 water twice a day," she says. 



Wherever she has moved to since leaving 

 her Portland home for college, Loewen has kept 

 a small garden. "The first thing I do when I move 

 is to go buy plants. It's a tradition. Besides, I can't 

 have a pet to nurture, but I can always have a 

 garden no matter how small." 



LEARN FROM NATURE 



Small is not an issue for Ellen Colodney, 

 owner of the Coastal Plain Conservation Nursery 

 in Edenton, one of the few North Carolina 

 nurseries specializing in native plant propagation. 

 Along with the N.C. Forest Service, she provides 

 native plants for the Go Native events. 



Her first job after launching her business in 

 1999 was to come up with 1 5,000 loblolly bay 

 trees for a Global Transpark mitigation project. 



"It turned out there were no published 

 research reports on how to propagate loblolly 

 bay," she recalls. So, she collected cuttings at the 



Dare County 

 Bombing 

 Range and then 

 experimented 

 with a number of 

 ways to prepare 

 and root cuttings 

 for the project. 

 In the end, she 

 delivered the 

 required 15,000 

 broad leaf 

 evergreen plants 

 — and published 

 the first paper 

 on propagation 

 protocol for 

 Gordonia 

 lasianthus 

 (Native Plants 

 Journal, Idaho Press, 1999). 



The nursery is more than a business. It's a 

 vocation. Colodney, a medical doctor, gave up 

 a successful career in rehabilitation medicine to 

 devote 1 00 percent of her time to growing native 

 plants, especially for water quality improvement 

 projects. 



"When you think about it, healing and 

 restoration are connected," says Colodney, who 

 approaches restoration with the same holistic 

 strategy as rehabilitation medicine. The idea 

 is to use plants to improve the function of an 

 ecosystem beyond the physical stabilization of a 

 stream or wetland. 



"The aesthetics, the wildlife and the 

 benthic invertebrates all function on what native 

 plants provide. Stormwater management is not 

 just a matter of using plants to improve nutrient 

 uptake," she says. 



Colodney cautions against using non- 

 native plants in restoration projects. "As in 

 medicine, the guiding principle should be 



CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A variety of native plants follow the meandering stream 

 on the Chowan County Golf Course. • Randy Mason lets Mother Nature help protect his 

 home from coastal storms. • Rainwater collected in barrels will irrigate Mason's home- 

 grown plants. • Katie Loewen advises new coastal gardeners to do their homework. 



'First, do no harm.' With non-natives, you don't 

 know if you are going to cause more problems. 

 Aquatic environments transmit plant material too 

 efficiently, and you can end up with an invasion 

 of harmful plants." 



Nature knows best, she says. She has 

 become a hunter and gatherer, plying the streams 

 and creeks around Edenton by kayak with co- 

 workers. 



She studies how native plant communities 

 grow in the wild and gets permission from 

 landowners to collect seeds or cuttings from 

 plants within particular ecosystems. 



"It's important to know what grows 

 together. In ecosystem restoration, the more you 

 can replicate nature, the better," she explains. The 

 diversity ensures a balanced food supply for fish, 

 birds, beneficial insects and myriad wildlife. 



Besides, native plants have built up defenses 

 against attacking insects. For example, Japanese 

 beetles have no taste for native swamp rose. 



Colodney teamed with Dwane Hinson of 



12 AUTUMN 2005 



