GETTING STARTED

Turning your property into a place that supports and encourages native plants and wildlife is an exciting adventure. There's nothing like watching a spot of lifeless lawn become a habitat filled with native plants, alive with birdsong and the humming of insects. Let's get started!

THE GOAL:
Wildlife populations are declining. Research shows that many species, including birds and pollinating insects, are in rapid downfalls, for one major reason: habitat loss. Habitat loss occurs when natural ecosystems—interconnected communities consisting of native plants, insects, and wildlife that have adapted to work together—are destroyed by human activities.
​
When habitat loss occurs, not only does it eliminate areas that once supported native plants, but it also results in large unusable gaps between remaining ecosystems. These gaps— developments, yards, pavement—make it challenging for native plants to spread and pollinate with one another. The goal of including native plants on a property is to help close these gaps and reform that lost connection between ecosystems, helping the native plants in your planting, as well as in your neighborhood. 

WHAT IS TRULY NATIVE?
The term native plant has been generalized in the nursery industry—native to your country, native to your state or county, etc. But, many plants that are found throughout your state or county will not be native to your property. Within the county where you live, there are many different ecosystems. Certain plants are only meant to grow in specific ecosystems—these plants have adapted to these specific spots, forming intricate relationships with the wildlife, soil, and climatic conditions also in that area. And this is the only place where they can fulfill their ecological role. In order to make a positive difference through plants, a precise definition of native is required. Would this specific plant occur right here, in the location where you are standing? If the answer is yes, then it is native. It will have a working relationship in the ecosystem on your property because it is naturally a part of this environment. If it wouldn't occur in the spot where you are standing— though it may be found in a nearby county, or even across the street in a different habitat or soil moisture—then it is not considered native to your spot. If a plant would not exist there naturally, then planting it will not help native plant populations in your area or counteract habitat loss. It's important to save these plants for the places where they belong and to focus our energy instead​ on plants that are truly native to our sites. After all, these species are the ones that can make a difference. Let's take a look at just what they can do:  

MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH NATIVE PLANTS

​Native plants form the base layer of life in an ecosystem, the first step of the food chain. Other organisms within the same ecosystem—from insects to mammals—can only exist because of the native plants' presence. Native plants are eaten by insects like caterpillars, which are then eaten by predators like birds. These birds become prey for foxes, hawks, and more as the food chain continues upwards. This is why helping any part of nature begins with just one course of action: helping native plants. Because they are the one thing that all else depends upon, working full force to strengthen their populations automatically helps those species farther up the food chain, and research shows that helping pieces and parts higher up—just the monarch or the warbler or the bumblebee—isn't enough. Each part of nature will only survive if we help the one piece that has the ability to help the rest. If the plants thrive, then all else will.

RIGHT SPOT, RIGHT TIME: THE PERFECT LINKS IN A HABITAT
​Native plants and wildlife that naturally occur together have adapted to become completely dependent upon one another. Every plant that grows within a certain ecosystem has a purpose for being in that spot —and each part of that plant, from the blooms to the roots, is essential for other species of wildlife living in the same ecosystem. Let's look at Common Milkweed:

When planted in a spot where it is truly native, every part of it will have a function, as shown in the above diagram. Furthermore, all of the plant's parts will be available to wildlife at the exact time at which they are needed. For example, Common Milkweed blooms in June, at the precise time that fritillary butterflies are emerging from their chrysalises and seeking nectar. This is why Common Milkweed blooms are often seen covered in fritillaries. This isn't a random event, where a fritillary butterfly just happens upon a milkweed bloom. The emergence of fritillaries and the milkweed's need for pollination have evolved to form a perfect alignment that benefits both plant and animal, an alignment that both species have become dependent upon. This well-placed connection between species happens over and over again in an ecosystem, and is what makes them so important. These connections—this working together—is precisely the thing that keeps nature functioning.

EXPANDING THIS CONCEPT
Now, think of a natural area—a meadow or woods— and imagine a diagram like Common Milkweed's, above, for every plant species within this setting. While one native in a spot where it naturally occurs is powerful, it is when these plant species that have evolved together are combined that they reach full potential, and therefore form a habitat. It is because of these habitats that nature can persist—all due to the massive roles of native plants and what they are able to accomplish together as a group in places where they are truly native.