David O'Hara

Since I got a lot of kind and helpful replies to my post about Growing Urban Prairie Gardens, I wanted to share a few more notes, including some of the helpful tips others sent me.

One Sioux Falls Master Gardener (who has an enviable garden at home, and who has done a LOT to beautify our city) pointed out a few other places in and near Sioux Falls for buying native plants. She writes:

• Carla’s Flowers on W. 41st St. (in Sioux Falls) has a good selection of native plants in small pots. Compass plant, rattlesnake master, purple poppy mallow, native liatris. Etc.

• Colin Evers at Norm’s Greenhouse in Aurora, east of Brookings, also has good native selection.

I’ve bought a lot of plants from Carla’s, including a whole flat of native plants this spring. I haven’t been to the greenhouse in Aurora, but I trust it’s worth checking out.

All those plants I bought at Carla’s are now in the ground at my home. When they’re near the street or sidewalk, I like to add small, attractive signs so that passers-by can learn what’s growing there. I like it when my garden becomes a conversation-starter.

I’d like to have a good engraver so I could make metal signs that last, but I have yet to find one I really like and that’s worth the cost. So I usually buy a box of Wanapure metal signs and then mark them with a Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent Garden Marker I might also consider these zinc signs, and I welcome other suggestions.

I keep the signs low and close to the ground, and I bend them so that they can be read without crouching close to the ground. My aim is to keep them appealing but not obtrusive. Metal signs should last longer than plastic ones, and I want the plastic in my garden kept to a minimum anyway. One advantage of signs is that they answer questions for you even when you’re not around to hear the questions.