Editor’s note: please enjoy the first of our regular Gardener of the Month articles, profiling local gardeners in Midtown Brandywine.
Lee Armstrong bought her house on Tatnall Street, Midtown Brandywine, in March of 2023. Although originally from Sussex County, she had been living in California for 42 years and enjoyed gardening with native plants there. Moving back to Delaware, she realized she wanted to continue gardening with the same principles, but she needed to learn all about what kinds of plants are native to Delaware.
She turned to the Mount Cuba Center, a local organization dedicated to the conservation of native plants. She took classes there in ‘Native Plants’, ‘Native Plants for Containers’, and ‘Garden Planning with Native Plants.’ These classes helped her select new plants for her yard. She weeded out her front garden of all the non-native plants. In the backyard garden she was lucky to find a native hydrangea, a viburnum and rhododendron. She decided to keep some exotic specimens like a lovely Japanese Maple.
Using the Mount Cuba recommendations, she planted a new garden with echinacea, black-eyed Susan, swamp milkweed, native ferns, heuchera, phlox, and false indigo. She’s looking forward to watching it grow in upcoming years as it evolves and reveals successes and failures in these small spaces.
Lee is eyeing some unplanted areas in the neighborhood for places to sneak in even more native plants.
She loves that the native plants bring the birds she loves to watch such as hummingbirds and gold finches as well as lady bugs and butterflies.
Lee believes that beauty isn’t just in a flower, but in how the flower supports life around it.
Author: Jessica Reed, chair, Midtown Brandywine Neighbors’ Association Greenscape Committee
This story originally appeared in Midtown Brandywine News, September 2023.
