City landscapers and park departments have been working hard on incorporating native plants into suburban development and parks.

Using native plants highlights the local ecology of Fort Wayne, providing common sources of food for native fauna- pollen, seeds, and nectar for the birds and insects  of the city. These plants also function well within rain gardens: many have the capability to trap pollutants from rainwater and keep them from joining local streams.

While they do require a little more cost and care in the beginning, native plants actually require less maintenance than annual flowers due to their hardiness in the local weather.

This makes them a perfect candidate for use along streets and public work projects as well. They are perfectly suited to both the climate and the soils, and adding native trees to the typical honey locust trees allows for a diversity that could stand against massive die-offs.

The city offers workshops on planting rain gardens , and also offers incentive programs to help people pay for native plants to use in their rain gardens.

The full story can be found at this link: News-Sentinel.