I guess it started with my eco-anxiety. During COVID I started to learn more about climate change and species loss. In order to get some hope I started to read about rewilding and native plant gardening and how some people are doing it even in their gardens so I wanted to do a little something to help.
Native Plant Gardening
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:
- Don't be a jerk.
- Don't spam.
- Stay on topic.
- Specify your region in the post title. This is a global community, so designating your region is important.
More for you to explore—
My path to becoming interested in native plant gardening probably started with me getting interested in mycology. I got super interested in the ecology of fungi and how they interact with the environment/ecosystem, which eventually got me thinking more about how other things like plants interact with the natural world around them, which led me to bring interested in native plants since they're integral to the local ecosystem.
Part laziness and part love of nature. I hate watering, so anything that thrives in my garden has to be fine with weeks or months of neglect, so natives are the obvious solution. I also got tired of trying to keep exotic grass alive through drought conditions, so I started replacing my lawn with native groundcovers. Then I got into milkweed to save the monarchs and started looking into host plants for other native butterflies. It's a source of joy to see my backyard alive with pollinators and all sorts of wildlife.
@kurdunkaroo After spending a vacation in the middle of the Belizean jungle and seeing the amazing biodiversity there, I became obsessed with native habitat restoration at home. I live on a small piece of land, but have filled it with gardens of native plants. I have also been working to replace what turf is left with native ground covers. This is the most rewarding hobby I have.