Resources
Designing or Installing Rain Gardens or Bay Friendly Yards
Is your yard turning into a lake everytime it rains? Would you like to attract more butterflies and bees to your yard? Here are some resources to help you get started.
Government Programs:
Montgomery County: Rainscapes
Washington DC: River Smart Homes
Native Plant/Rain garden designers:
Rainscape Certified Landscapers: The Montgomery County RainScape program has a contractor training course in Conservation Landscaping and Rain garden installation. For a list of all the landscaper who have completed the course, visit www.montgomerycountymd.gov/water/Resources/Files/rainscapes/Contractor_List.pdf Please check all references of service providers.
Native Plant Online Directory
The US Fish and Wildlife service has an online searchable directory of plants that are native to the Chesapeake Bay area. From their website (www.nativeplantcenter.net)
Here you can find native plants of the same type, shape, color, size, and other desirable plant characteristics for creating attractive and more natural landscapes in your yard.
You can also download the excellent The Native Plants Guide there.
Where to buy Native Plants:
Herring Run Nursery run by the Blue Water Baltimore has a fabulous selection of native plants. More information at their website http://www.bluewaterbaltimore.org/herring-run-nursery/
Izel Plants has all natives and free shipping. They sell containers and landscaping plugs. More information at their website - https://www.izelplants.com/
Earth Sangha is a non profit native plant nursery in Fairfax County. Plants are high quality and reasonably priced. See website for plant list and directions.
Native plant societies often have sales. Check out the following websites for dates and locations:
MD Native Plant Society is www.Mdflora.org A list of native plant sales is at http://www.mdflora.org/plantsales.html
VA Native Plant Society is www.vnps.org They have a list of plant sales on their website at http://vnps.org/?s=sales
Nuts For Natives is a website developed by Shari Wilson, former MD Secretary of the Environment as a resource for everything native plant related. She has plant lists, gardening tips and a pretty exhaustive list of where to buy natives in the DC area!