Nature and Gardening

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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

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[Resource] Plant species toolkit (docs.google.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey there everybody

This is a spreadsheet we made to help folks pick out plants for their gardens by sorting and filtering for all sorts of growth habits, uses, and site conditions. Please feel free to make a copy and use it in your software of choice and share it with gardening friends if you like; all we ask is proper attribution. For full disclosure, this is adapted from the Plant Species Matrix found in Edible Forest Gardens vol. 2 by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. We lovingly (painstakingly) went line by line to make it again and update a few data points to reflect new information like hardiness zones or pH as well as add the utility of being able to whittle down such a huge list to only what niche you're looking for.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Neat though very NE US centric. I also disagree with some of the ratings but that’s probably inevitable with such a large list of plants.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Neat though very NE US centric

Guilty as charged. It started as a way for us to avoid cross referencing everything in a few books centered around our bioregion.

There were a few entries where better data was readily available and could be integrated with confidence but others were anecdotal in nature and could be chalked up to differences in cultivation or site conditions, and those were not used. If you have some corrections to offer and some reference for it we're certainly open to improving the toolkit's accuracy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

One that struck me was silver maple. You have it as adaptable to xeric conditions but I only see it in well irrigated or riparian areas. Plants in drier spots tend to really struggle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks, I will definitely be using this! I was planning on creating something of the sorts myself. But now I have a great foundation on which I can build.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd love to see additions and improvements you make when you're ready to share! I have another data set I'm working on for it in regards to propagation information but it's a lot of data to sift through.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Absolutely!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Is this strictly an edible gardening matrix? Right off the bat I noticed some commercial landscaping plants not included (even Amelanchier arborea not on there). I’m a landscape designer and for those looking at adding color and structure into their gardening repertoire, I’d be interested in adding some categories for say regional nursery accessibility or brands for types of plants. Example Midwest you have proven winners(everyone can access), christiansens, cottage gardens, Monrovia (everyone can access), Weekes, David Austin (everyone can access), etc.

Could increase usability but also might make it too complex. Food for thought.