I am not opposed at all to planting ornamental shrubs, trees and perennials here in Montana and the Kootenays. I like them because of the color and variety they provided throughout the season. However, I do love my native plants and there are many areas of a project site that I first want to protect, incorporate if the client wishes, and finally restore or reestablish the native species.

The time spent in minimizing native disturbances during site construction is well worth it.

I have a friend who is a retired excavator. He is a finesse guy and loves native plants. When he built his new house on a large acreage, he was very careful in road construction, minimizing cut and fill, minimizing disturbance outside of the road width and minimizing disturbance around the building envelope.

Where he needed to, he replanted with native plants and reseeded with appropriate native seeds. Today, his house is perched within a native community of seamlessly undisturbed native vegetation. This is an excellent example of site work that made native plants a priority.

Good site work starts with a plan, before a single landscaping stake or shovel goes in the ground. My next post covers the pre-planning considerations that make all the difference once construction begins.