Missouri's Department of Conservation has an appealing landscaping and planting option for gardeners. The program has an easy name to remember and relate with -- Grow Native.

The past few years in Missouri have seen weather extremes that can tax even plants that have spend centuries adapting to the Ozark climate. The weather has been nothing if not drought. Yet, there are times of flooding, added to ice storms and winter rain. The winter moisture is traumatic even though not enough to sustain many of the typical landscaping choices offered.

When there is not enough rain or snow to maintain the landscape, then its preservation becomes dependent upon artificial sources -- a big term for irrigation. Irrigation is expensive in terms of both money and activity put forth by the gardener. The method of watering is not preferable to rain and often doesn't do the job. Although there is little that is as gratifying as observing a thirsty planting respond to any type of water delivery and come back to life.

New plantings, under almost any circumstances, are going to require the extra watering and nurturing. But native plants have been put to the test of too much and too little in terms of all facets of climate -- wet, dry, hot, cold, cloudy, sunny and everything in between.

Because we are often production gardeners as well as beauty growers, we've come into conflict with many native plant species because market production isn't one of their finest points. We are inclined to clump the native plant species into a nuisance category and trot on down to the local garden center and put down our hard earned money for something that should be planted in the desert or on a tropical island.

Without dissolving the conversation into an argument about which is best to grow -- native or production -- every grower and garden spot can benefit from the research and information available at the Missouri Conservation/Grow Native website and in printed brochures about native species that can join the 'immigrant' plants in your garden.

Combining is one option. Combining over a specified plot to make something that is dedicated to the propagation and preservation of native plants Is an element of grow native that lets the gardener really experience the impact of native plants working together to benefit the land, keep some green going to produce oxygen and social enrichment, and provide resources for wildlife to thrive upon. A small plot of the native grasses that attracted grazing wildlife and adventurous cattlemen in our history can give us a connection with what they experienced. No, those grasses don't have the commercial productivity of a plant that provides several cuttings of hay, but Grow Native isn't promoting the entire, foolish replacement of productivity. Rather the promotion, again, is for preservation and acknowledgement of the value of adapted plants -- an enriching effort to keep them from becoming only a memory.

You can learn more about Missouri's Grow Native program at http://www.grownative.org You can check with your local Missouri Conservation offices or Extension offices for printed materials about the Grow Native program. Both resources will have information about the native species and places where you can get the ones that you would like to try.

This article was written as a part of a Master Gardening program offered in Wright County Missouri in 2007 and represents one hour of an assignment to offer 30 hours of community service.