Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale

05/09/2024

PLEASE NOTE: I've stopped posting updates to this page for the "Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale." Please see the page Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale for new updates.

Ten years ago, in the Fall of 2014, the big native plant sale (that my wife and I host) moved from Parkfairfax, where we live and where the sale began in Fall 2003, to its current location at the Church of St. Clement at 1701 N. Quaker Lane.

The new location is 3/4 of a mile from the original location. Jen and I did this to keep the native plant sale close, in order for it to remain a local resource for gardeners in Parkfairfax, while also maintaining control of the sale and not giving it over to be run by a committee.

From 2014 to 2024, I posted on both the newer page for the Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale and on this page for the "Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale." The process was cumbersome, so I stopped doing this in 2024. All new posts regarding the big native plant sale now appear only on the page for the Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale.

I plan to keep this page for the "Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale" active only as a memory of the native plant sale's history and for a landing spot for those who remember the sale in its original location.

Now that you've read this message, please click the link to go to the page for the Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale and "like" that page so that you will receive regular updates about the native plant sale and posts supporting native plant gardening. Thanks for your continued interest in this sale!

Scott Knudsen
Organizer of the
Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale

This event is held twice a year, on the last Saturday in April and on the last Saturday in September.

03/13/2024

Absolutely!! The Earth, the neighborhood, and each household will benefit greatly!

03/04/2024

Here’s a nice post showing how the organic components in a plot of soil will change and develop in response to one changing one’s cultural habit of regularly removing all fallen leaves.

🌿 When we talk about “leave the leaves” what does that do? 🌱Each community paves the way for the next to thrive, creating a chain reaction of habitat adaptation. 🦠🍃 Leaf litter and humus layer boost sandy soil regeneration. Consider this when planning your landscaping.

02/06/2024

It’s an interesting point that tulips divorce us from our natural, local environment and its seasonal rhythms and patterns. What does “Spring” mean to you?!

Are tulips physically harmful? No, they aren't displacing native ecosystems or even used very much by fauna (which is part of the point if you follow this page, gardening for other species that are vanishing). But one argument is that, as mere decoration they serve only one dominate species, and they subtly divorce us from our homeplaces and ecoregions by taking us out of place and out of the natural rhythms. There are a lot of spring plants that might do this, from snowdrops to hosta, while there are oodles of native plants co-evolved with pollinators waiting in the wings for some reconciliation ecology (read A New Garden Ethic). A drift of tulips among a meadow garden, to some eyes, can look quite unnatural, like plastic bottles littering a landscape. Ultimately, it's your choice in what and whom to privilege in your landscape -- there are no plant police (actually there are, in the form of a gestapo-esque system of neighbors anonymously reporting neighbors to authorities for having anything but monoculture lawn and then receiving threatening letters about fines and civil action).

[Pictured clockwise top left: Pulsatilla patens (a VERY early bloomer), Aquilega canadensis, various forbs + ephemerals + sedge in a shade meadow, Polygonatum biflorum, Packera aurea.]

01/07/2024

This looks worthwhile.

CARING FOR YOUR NATIVE PLANTS GARDEN: Welcome to a new year-long series of posts on gardening techniques with a focus on gardens with native plants. Return each Thursday, as we follow the cycle of the seasons, covering such tasks as dealing with winter and summer pruning of native shrubs; planting, dividing, and cutting back native perennials; dealing with summer flooding and drought; and making use of fall leaves. We will also cover year-long practices to encourage and support local wildlife.

12/04/2023

This is a nice post to share.

It’s almost Saturday which means the gas-powered leaf blowers will be out in force in my neighborhood. This was MY lawn this morning. And this is how it will stay. Let's normalize this. Who's with me??? Not shown are the American toads, woolly bears and bumblebees overwintering in my yard raising their little claws, forelegs and wings in agreement ;)

11/06/2023

This post is not quite about native plants, but it’s a good message that bears repeating. It’s useful to think of soil as part of a larger system of organisms, and treat it as such, because soil really is part of a larger system of organisms (above and below ground) that needs to be considered holistically in its environment. This is why native plants are helpful to soil and the larger ecosystem about them.