When it comes to adding plants to a home or garden, the easiest ones to grow are the ones that already live in the region. And that’s where Aster Valley Farm comes in.
“We’re a native plant nursery, and we sell plants that are completely pesticide free,” said co-founder Tyler Turk. “They’re good for pollinators. They’re really low maintenance. They don’t take a lot of water. They’re all adapted to our local area.”
She has a background as a restoration ecologist, planting things in the wild to revive ecosystems.
“I’ve just always loved growing them because it’s so cute to have the little baby plant grow,” she said.
Turk teamed up with Mak Mason, who has an agricultural background, to grow plants in Three Springs and provide native flora to people in the Four Corners.
“We were just kind of thinking (about) what this area needed, and we got involved with the (Colorado) Native Plant Society here in Durango, Mason said. “It seems like a lot of people, while they want native plants, not a whole lot of people grow them – and so we’re trying to fill that need.”
This is Aster Valley Farm’s first year growing plants for the Durango community, he said.
At the Sept. 13 Durango Farmers Market, Turk and Mason were selling nine plants, ranging from Columbines, which grow well in moist conditions, to yarrow, which grows in as dry of spots as cracks in a driveway, Turk said. The types of plants included penstemons, milkweeds (the host plants of monarch butterfly larvae) and asters – the group of plants that includes sunflowers, coneflowers and chocolate flowers, from which their farm north of Three Springs gets its name.
“What’s nice about native plants is they’re really easy to grow and low maintenance,” Mason said. “They’re friendly for pets, families and all the local pollinators as well.”
Turk said that while she and Mason focused on plants that are easy to grow this year – “that people would be able to kind of just put in and forget about” – they’re also curious about what residents of the region want to grow.
“We want to know what species people are interested in putting in their gardens or backyards,” she said. “If anyone has suggestions, we want to get in touch.”
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
