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Sarasota News Leader September 13, 2013 Page 97 Birds, butterflies and other beneficial critters 3. Savings. No mowing. No fertilizers. No expenses aside from buying plants. Once you will soon arrive. Firebush is a mecca for the convert your neighbors to the idea, you zebra longwing butterfly, for example. Rucan always trade plants over the fence. by-throated hummingbirds love coral bean. Cardinals, blue jays and mockingbirds will 4. Less watering. Native plants rarely need feast on beautyberry. You will not just be putsupplemental watering the way non-nating in plants — your yard will become part of tives do because natives are adapted to nature's amazing web of life. Gardening will local conditions. Water new plants every be twice as enjoyable! day for a week, every other day for the second week and every third day for the The following are 10 reasons to "plant native": third week. Then let Mother Nature do the 1. Year-round color in the garden. job. In droughts, water plants that show signs of stress. 2. Less work. Aside from weeding, the garden can pretty much take care of itself if 5. No pest control. Native plants attract loyou plan it right. Put in native trees and cal insects, which keep harmful ones at shrubs that need little if any pruning. bay. The "beneficials" are a gardener's best A child is fascinated by a zebra longwing butterfly.