Why native plants?
According to the The National Audubon Society:
Restoring native plant habitat is vital to preserving biodiversity. By creating a native plant garden, each patch of habitat becomes part of a collective effort to nurture and sustain the living landscape for birds and other animals.
What our community is about—
This community is for everyone who is interested in planting native species in their garden. Come here for discussions, questions, and sharing of ideas/photos.
Rules:
More for you to explore—
I spent the last six months anxiously awaiting the bountiful bloom of what I believed were gaillardia pulchella, or blanket flowers
Come to find out they're lance-leaf coreopsis, but it's still a good number of flowers, and the locals appreciate them either way
Yeeahhh I know, that was there when we bought the house a couple years ago and I never got around to replacing them. We're moving, anyway, and I didn't have time to grow bushes to replace them
Man I fuck with it big time! Showing up, making things better, and then leaving? Fantastic. World would be a better place with more people doing what you do.
I really appreciate that! I made sure to make most of the things I planted look intentional, because my desire for wildness isn't realistic in suburbia.
So I labeled every species with sharpie on paint sticks and defined borders, in the hopes that the new owners don't just tear it all out
I did the math, though, and my gardens are roughly 1.8% of the lawn. Nowhere near large enough.
I told my wife that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to me that at least 20% of our next yard is native plants and (she doesn't know this) a functional ecosystem.
I read "Nature's Best Hope" by Doug tallamy this semester and it gave me a glimmer of hope against my almost total conviction that things are beyond saving
Hell yeah, I love all that. You get it. Bit by bit we can make things better. I'm doing a total overhaul of our yard probably 75% now for the animals. Big new thing for me is selecting plants based off host/supported species and wildlife value. It all does make a difference.
Look up keystone species, they're the best bang for your buck
Good call, been doing that. Changes the concept of a good yard drastically once you start seeing it from that perspective.