Late summer into early autumn is a marvelous time of year to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, and vines in our garden. The decisions we make on what we plant in our gardens will play an important roll in how these plants will work into our natural environment.

Native plants should be our first choice because these plants have adapted to our local soils, to our climate, and the critters out in the woods prefer them too. Our next choice could be non-native species. These exotics from other parts of the planet can be worked into our gardens, but have little or no ecological value.

Some non-native species fall into the invasive category, and these plants should never be planted in our yards. What makes invasive plants so unique is their ability to reproduce at an alarming rate. For instance, one Purple Loosestrife plant, a plant choking out everything in our local swamps, can produce thousands of seeds in one season. Purple Loosestrife is altering our wetland ecosystem in a negative way.

Looking at a few other plants that have already altered our natural environment, Norway Maple is the king of the bad boys from a shade tree standpoint. It’s a fast growing densely canopied tree, and once it escapes into the wild, it colonizes so quickly that not much else can grow. More environmentally friendly choices in shade trees would be Sugar Maple, Tulip Poplar, Gum, Oak, Beech, and Hickory.

Callery Pear is another invasive species that I would not plant. Instead, try the American Plum, Redbud, Shadbush, or Flowering Dogwood. These natives will bring in migrating birds and create diversity in our yards.

Three shrubs I would avoid are Burning Bush, Russian Olive, and Barberry. Recent studies are telling us that forest floors heavily populated with Barberry have a higher density of ticks. Mice often carry these parasites. The White-Footed Mouse is the carrier of Lyme Disease and because predators cannot penetrate these sharp shrubs, the ticks carry the disease throughout the mouse population and tick-borne illnesses thrive here. Plant Winterberry, Blueberry, Viburnum, Spicebush, Pussywillow, St. Johnswort, Clethra, Chokeberry, and Itea instead.

Avoid and eradicate vines that are choking out many of our backyard forests. Bittersweet, Mile-A-Minute, and Japanese Wisteria are the top three culprits. Try instead wild Grapes, Trumpet Vine, native Honeysuckle, American Wisteria, and our native fall flowering Clematis in the garden.

By getting to the root of the plants and the problem, removing these invasives from our property and replacing them with natives will help balance our natural world.