Native Plants: Creating Habitat for Wildlife and Saving the Earth One Yard at a Time!

Do you grow, bro? Native plants, that is.

I first found out about native plants about 3 years ago and it completely blew my mind. I heard a talk by entomologist, professor, and author Doug Tallamy on Youtube in which he explained that birds and other small creatures are in serious decline due to a lack of insects. The lack of insects is caused by the abundance of non-native plants in our environment that are either unrecognizable or unusable to local animals. He talked about an experiment he did in which he counted the number of insects in a native oak tree and compared that to the insects in a non-native tree. He realized that the oak tree had way more insects on it and therefore provided more bugs (AKA baby bird food) than the non-native tree. Without the insects, the birds couldn’t feed their young and were basically in danger of dying out. The message: we need to plant more native plants to sustain local wildlife.

Then I read about a fascinating little creature called the Monarch Butterfly, and how it can only complete it’s life cycle on a milkweed plant. This butterfly only lays its eggs on a milkweed plant and when the egg hatches, a tiny caterpillar is born and begins feeding on the plant. The plant contains a toxic milky sap that makes the caterpillar taste bad to predators like birds, so this specific type of plant and specialized relationship is key to the caterpillar’s survival. As the weeks go by, the caterpillar eats the milkweed and grows larger until one day it crawls away, forms a chrysalis, and becomes a butterfly. It will explore a little and then migrate southward to Mexico in the fall. Without milkweed, there are no Monarchs, and in fact, this butterfly is on the edge of being listed as endangered because of a lack of habitat and information. Many milkweed varieties are large and not favored in a traditional garden. Colorful varieties, like butterfly Weed and Swamp Milkweed, only grow a few feet tall and look nice in any garden, but people simply don’t plant what they don’t know about. In agricultural fields, milkweed is cleared for the crop or sprayed with toxic herbicides, so each year there are less plants available to support the Monarch’s life cycle.

Monarchs are just one of many other species unable to sustain themselves or complete their life cycles on the exotic plants that surround them. As mentioned earlier, many bird species rely primarily on insects to raise their young, so the absence of bugs equals the absence of birds. Berries and seeds are important too and many exotic species don’t produce them, produce less, or are simply unpalatable to birds.

But the truly amazing thing is that we can change the tide right now. Any person can plant native plants around their yard or even in containers on a balcony and create habitat for native wildlife. Once you add native plants, animals that you never thought were even present in your area will suddenly appear. After I added a native pollinator garden to my front yard, I began seeing all types of bees, butterflies, bugs, and birds that I had never seen around my home in almost 10 years of living here! A few choice plant selections can provide food and habitat for wildlife throughout all four seasons and can make a big difference in the lives of these creatures that are too often surrounded by concrete and fake plastic trees (they might as well be).

If you plant it, they will come and that’s why it’s also important to stop spraying herbicides and pesticides because many of these chemicals are toxic to good guys like bees. Even “natural” products are potentially toxic to beneficial insects, so please do you research before spraying or better yet don’t spray at all!

Where to find native plants?

• Join your local native plant society and gardening groups on Facebook for leads on native plant sales.
• Search google for local plant nurseries that carry native plants.
• Purchase native plants online.
• I don’t recommend shopping for native plants at big box stores because they usually have a very small selection (if they have native plants at all!) and there is controversy regarding plants being sprayed with pesticides that are harmful to bees.

Native Plant Lists:

1. National Wildlife Federation (NWF): Put in your zip code and get a list of native plants https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/

2. Xerces Society: Provides detail list with bloom times, so you can plan an “all season” garden. https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/pollinator-friendly-plant-lists

3. National Audobon Society: Provides native plant lists specifically for birds https://www.audubon.org/native-plants

4. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: You can select your state and then narrow the search by plant height, plant type, and more. https://www.wildflower.org/collections/