Margaret Roach, in The New York Times last week, reported on an interview with Rebecca McMackin, director of horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The goals of gardening, says McMackin, are to enhance wildlife and the ecology.

Rather than following the common practice of planting and transplanting in spring, for instance, she suggests shifting virtually all of that activity to autumn — and not cutting back most perennials as the season winds down….
“Why do we plant so much in spring? And why do we hear so much about ample spacing and airflow around plants when, if you look at a meadow, that’s not what you see the plants doing?”
After examining and challenging a number of horticultural wisdoms, she found that some were helpful and others were not….
Gardening is a practice, Ms. McMackin said, “and like any practice it is based on traditions passed down from previous generations.”
But here’s the hitch: “The problem is that many of those people who started the traditions lived in Europe or England several hundred years ago, and kept topiary. They were great at growing plants from all over the world — in foreign environments — and making them do crazy things.”

McMackin advocates a different approach.

“Ecological horticulture is animal-centric,” she said. “We encourage the dynamic between plants, wildlife and soil, and strive to figure out how to get those plants to thrive independently of our care. We cultivate gardens with high levels of biodiversity and ecological functionality that can help repair the damage done to this land.”

The tradition of spring planting is another aspect of gardening that needs to be examined.

But is spring really the best time for planting, to foster success either horticulturally or ecologically?…
“When we do plant in spring, and then summer arrives, it can be such an extreme environment — hot, dry and windy, too,” she said, and those are hard conditions for plants trying to root in. With a fall planting schedule, the winter that follows is easier on them.
Spring planting is tough on gardeners, too, who have to keep after new installations with regular watering, or risk losing them. Fall planting gives plants time to establish themselves, and some are fully settled by the following summer, so watering isn’t needed then. Peak planting time at the park is from late September through early October or so, with grasses going in earlier in September, for extra rooting time…

At Brooklyn Bridge Park, the gardeners skip most of the traditional fall cutbacks and cleanup. That leaves plenty of seed that can self-sow, or be eaten by birds, and preserves an overwintering habitat in the leaf litter for arthropods. Except where mulch or compost is needed, the approach is hands-off….
Come spring, anything that must be cut back is trimmed in six-inch increments. The chunks are allowed to fall to the ground as mulch, not carted away.

With ecological horticulture and fall planting in mind, now is the time to visit UrbanScapes Native Plant Nursery and choose the perennials and shrubs that will complement your garden next year.

UrbanScapes Native Plant Nursery is located at 133 Hazel St in New Haven. Plants can be ordered online for pick up on Saturdays from 9:30 - 12:00 or you can visit the nursery to pick out plants from our selection of ten native shrubs and 24 native perennials. Shrubs are $20 and $30 and perennials are $10.