Native plant gardening is gardening that focuses on planting that have evolved together as part of an ecosystem. Typically done to benefit local ecosystems of pollinators and birds.
When I was planting out my yard I made this chart, I have added more species since I made this and just have been too lazy to keep it updated.
Why might you do this?
Well for most it is wanting to help keep local ecosystems intact and supporting wildlife. Here is a good talk about the why from Doug Tallamy about preserving insects because what they do for birds which people tend to like quite a bit more then insects.
For me it is about insects, birds, but also I just really appreciate prairie plants and find them interesting on their own.
Picture I took, I have seen a lot more butterflies since ripping out the invasive weeds in my yard and planting more and more natives.
Of course it is not all or nothing I have Apple trees, Currants, Cherrys and Plums too.
Some resources for people in the USA who want to plant natives
First thing to know if you want to do this is like 99% of seed mixes that advertise themselves as native or stuff sold at garden centers as native probably is not and is often actually invasive.
This is the best resource for just a single place you can go look up where you live and get a big bag of native seed if you want something easy to give to a friend or toss into a garden bed.
A lot of my plants have been planted live plants I got from prairie moon nursery
Knowing what to plant often requires a fair bit of research, for me I looked up what was growing in the biological preserve near my house and just my knowledge of local plants.
You could also find YouTube videos of people looking at native plants in your region I saw plants in videos from Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t and thought that looked nice.
Example of one of his videos.
Anyone else here interested in Native Plant gardening share what you are doing or resources for your area.
Now I am just going to post some pictures I have taken from my yard
