Interview with Lance Lenau and Emily Gustafson, CoMo Wild Yards Participants

What inspired you to garden with native plants in your landscape at home?

Emily: Initially, we were excited to see butterflies. The summer my partner and I bought our home in Old Southwest, we installed four tiny butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) plants in an existing flower bed. We were then away for a year for work, and when we returned to Columbia the following summer, those milkweed plants were blooming. It's a commonplace among native plant enthusiasts to say about pollinators, "if you plant it, they will come," but it's absolutely true. We had so many visitors: monarchs, zebra swallowtails, spicebush swallowtails, giant swallowtails, great spangled fritillaries, and more. And then monarch caterpillars! Obviously, our only option was to add more plants to feed them.

As new homeowners, we were also interested in ways to make our property more sustainable in general. I think the most consequential decision we made was ending our traditional lawn care service, which used gas-powered equipment, and then purchasing a small electric mower. That choice dramatically shifted our mindset about our yard, and really opened up the possibilities for native landscaping. The pandemic incentivized us to be outside, and we found inspiration everywhere: visiting the prairie reconstruction at Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary, using iNaturalist to ID interesting plants along the trail during rides on the MKT, walking around our neighborhood and seeing native plantings, like Rick Robertson's beautiful gardens at the corner of Ash St. and Meadow Ln. We were also fortunate to begin thinking about all of this after the Columbia City Council passed substantial changes to our local ordinances in 2019 to encourage meaningfully stewarded residential native landscaping. I remain grateful to the folks who spearheaded the effort.

Since 2022, I’ve worked for the Missouri Prairie Foundation, a non-profit conservation organization, and its Grow Native! program. My job is always exposing me to designs and practices (and more plants!) I want to incorporate on our property. I’ve had to come to the point of accepting we have certain site conditions and limited space and can’t do everything. So, for folks who have wet and sunny areas: plant buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)!

Lance: I was inspired to plant natives because they are drought resistant and benefit pollinators/other insect populations. Also, natives produce seeds for native birds to eat.

Image by Emily Gustafson

How long have you been growing native plants and when did you join the CoMO Wild Yards program?

Emily: We began removing invasive plants in fall of 2019. In 2020, we purchased our first flat of natives from Missouri Wildflowers Nursery and started, with just a handful of plants, what would become the area we call “the prairie planting” in our front yard. In the years since, we’ve installed hundreds of native plants – gifts from generous friends and neighbors, plants grown in Missouri by our wonderful native plant wholesalers and retail nurseries (#buylocal), plants made available at special sales hosted by MPF, the Hawthorn Chapter of the Missouri Native Plant Society, and Stephen’s Lake Park Arboretum, Missouri Department of Conservation shrub and tree seedlings, rescues from garden renovations, and others grown from seed. We’ve also been very mindful of stewarding our property to encourage the native plants that were already here, including our native canopy trees, woodland ephemerals, and backyard sedge “lawn.” Now, we have around 200 species of native plants on our property.

We joined CoMo Wild Yards in 2025. Although we didn’t pursue certification until we had established very extensive native landscaping, we referenced the certification criteria for CoMo Wild Yards early on to give us targets to meet.

Lance: I’ve been growing Missouri native plants for a few years now. I recently joined the CoMo wild yards program last year.

What is your favorite part of your garden?

Emily: Native landscaping evolves in so many beautiful and wondrous ways throughout the year. I could never choose just one favorite location or moment. In early spring, it’s when the first native shrubs like fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) and spicebush (Lindera benzoin) bloom in March, just as ground-nesting colletid bees emerge from their nests, and harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa) emerges from under the fallen leaves – and there is more of it than there was the past year. Later, it’s when moths swarm the fragrant flowers of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) at night, and the hummingbirds fly a rotation around the front yard to visit the wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) and royal catchfly (Silene regia). In fall, it’s when pollinators crowd the towers of yellow blooms on the showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) in September and the sassafras (Sassafras albidum) leaves turn red. During the winter, it’s when juncos walk up the dried stems of gray-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) to ride the seedheads to the ground to knock the seeds out and eat them in the snow, and when we can hear the calls of a pileated woodpecker all the way inside our house, chattering as it swings from the ends of branches to eat hackberry fruits to supplement its winter diet.

Lance: My favorite part about the native gardening is enjoying the monarchs at the peak of summer! Also, in the early spring if you have plants for them to eat, you will notice monarch caterpillars earlier and throughout the year. I also enjoy seeing American gold finches throughout the year feasting on seeds produced by the garden. The gold finches like to eat oleander aphids that milkweed plants attract. I have seen it first hand on multiple occasions.

Image by Lance Lanue

What is a challenge you face planting and growing native plants in your garden?

Emily: Our biggest challenge is managing invasive plant species. The majority of our property is wooded. When we moved in, that part of our yard – like all unmanaged woodlands in our area – was heavily invaded by bush honeysuckle, wintercreeper, burning bush, and privets. I think the woody invasives had been left untouched for so many years because they provided privacy. We put in a lot of labor to clear them ourselves, and that was by the far our biggest investment of time and energy in transforming our yard. Despite all of that effort, we continue to be vigilant because these plants are everywhere and spread easily from neighboring areas. The Missouri Invasive Plant Council has many great resources for learning invasive plant ID and removal techniques.

Lance: Some challenges that I have faced while native gardening have been killing existing vegetation and keeping weeds at bay. Also establishing first year natives requires watering.

What has been the most helpful resource you’ve found working with native plants?

Emily: Grow Native! And not just because I’m biased. Remember when Zoom was new and everyone was shifting to virtual delivery of programming? I signed up for my first Grow Native! webinar with Paula Diaz in June 2020 – after learning about the program via Grow Native! plant tags on nursery plants we’d purchased (Grow Native! provides access to these plant tags at low cost to plant growers and nurseries who are Grow Native professional members;). Within weeks, I’d ordered a Native Plant Garden sign.

Grow Native! has the most extensive online resources available on native landscaping in the lower Midwest. They include a native landscaping care calendar (plus a one-page version), a searchable and browsable Native Plant Database with nearly 400 native plants, more than a dozen landscape plans designed by St. Louis-based horticulturalist Scott Woodbury, many top 10 lists, and a common garden weed ID database. One of my favorite, lesser-known resources is this butterfly and moth host plant list. Recordings of webinars hosted since 2020 are available on the Missouri Prairie Foundation’s YouTube channel. Additionally, we produce an annual Resource Guide that includes a directory of suppliers of native plant products and services..

I’ve also found the following online resources particularly useful: Illinois Wildflowers for detailed insect and faunal associations for native plants; Biota of North America Project (BONAP) North American Plant Atlas range maps for native plant ranges to the county level; and, Missouri Plants for unparalleled botanical information about our state’s vascular plants, based largely on Steyermark’s Flora of Missouri.

Image by Emily Gustafson

Do you have any tips for someone just getting started gardening with native plants?

Emily: There are hundreds of plants native to Missouri that are available in the nursery trade, but I would suggest planning a native garden with grouped or mass plantings of a few species when you’re just beginning. This approach has several advantages. When initially choosing plants, you can really key into the specific site conditions and choose species that will be successful in your space. Finding 6-9 species that work in a certain part of your yard is a lot simpler than finding 25-30 that do. Having fewer species to learn and identify also makes maintenance and weeding easier. Finally, a garden with groups and drifts of plants of the same species gives a nod to more traditional landscaping aesthetics and may help to ease the transition to native landscaping. You can always interplant or expand with more species to increase diversity over time.

On the more philosophical side of things: practice patience with your garden. I think it’s really, really helpful and inspiring for new native gardeners to visit native gardens. But when you go to a place like Prairie Garden Trust in New Bloomfield – which is a wonderland of native plants, and I highly recommend it! – you’re seeing mature, professionally managed landscaping and native restoration projects. Native perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees take time to establish, so definitely don’t despair if you have some small, spindly plants for your first couple of years. Take photos and document your garden’s progress! You’ll be amazed by how quickly it changes over the seasons.

Grow Native! is launching a toolkit designed specifically for beginning gardeners early this spring, so keep an eye out on the website.

I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t have tips for more experienced native gardeners, too. I’m always recommending that folks use more native grasses, sedges, and rushes. Many are actually host plants for butterflies and moths! American beakgrain (Diarrhena obovata) is incredible in high-canopy shade; James’ sedge (Carex jamesii) and eastern woodland sedge (Carex blanda) are excellent groundcovers for under trees. Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) turns sunset colors in the winter, and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) blooms with tiny orange flowers. And, if you’re not using native annuals, I recommend experimenting with them – lemon beebalm (Monarda citriodora), palafox (Palafoxia callosa) and redwhisker clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra) are some of my favorites. Also explore less-ornamental native plants that have good wildlife value, too, like late figwort (Scrophularia marilandica), which produces huge amounts of nectar for months in tiny green and red flowers, and yellow giant hyssop (Agastache nepetoides), which grows to look like a huge candelabra.

Lance: For someone just starting out, I would urge you to spend time on a well-thought-out plan to kill the existing Bermuda and crabgrass.

Image by Emily Gustafson

What is your favorite native plant?

Emily: Hands down, my favorite native plant is rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium). It's unique and instantly recognizable, with sturdy, yucca-like leaves, and spiky balls of greenish-white flowers that bloom in July. Beetles and wasps, which are undersung pollinators, love it. Here in mid-Missouri, you can find rattlesnake master in its original habitat at Tucker Prairie just to the south of I-70 near Kingdom City, an unplowed tract of tallgrass prairie managed by the MU Division of Biological Sciences. Rattlesnake master was historically used as a source of natural fiber, and if you want to see something really cool, visit the MU Museum of Anthropology and view examples of the ancient rattlesnake master shoes on display – they were rediscovered in a cave in Callaway County, having been woven by indigenous folks 1,000 - 8,000 years ago.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience in the CoMO Wild Yards program, or about native plants?

Emily: Many other programs like CoMo Wild Yards exist but are administered by non-profits – it’s really something special that the City of Columbia invests in this program. And I love its ethos. Every habitat counts, and I’m always challenging myself to do more with my little yard, and I hope others challenge themselves, too. As you work to improve wildlife habitat in your yard with native plants, consider other steps you can adopt as “stretch goals” – like evaluating your outdoor lighting and updating your lighting practices based on Dark Sky’s Five Lighting Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting to reduce artificial light at night (ALAN), or adopting the full set of maintenance practices outlined in the Xerces Society’s Nesting and Overwintering Habitat for Pollinators and Other Beneficial Insects.

Lance: Creating and maintaining a native garden space requires some maintenance. With enough creativity and planning you too can enjoy native gardening.

Image by Emily Gustafson