Native Plant Gardens
Native Plant Gardens decorate our personal spaces and our communities by welcoming the wild into our managed landscapes. Bringing nature home is a land ethic that advances our personal role in the fate of nature and the future of the global environment that sustains us. By these choices we protect birds, bees and butterflies that enrich our lives and profoundly support our moral, spiritual and physical sustenance.
Our Managed Landscapes
Window boxes, suburban yards, corporate campuses and our public parks can all advance pollinator health and abundance.
Building beautiful spaces that support nature is not just possible, it is critical.
Pollinators
Most flowering plants require pollinators to set seed and to bare fruit. One third of our diet requires pollinators. Fruits, vegetables, spices, coffee, chocolate and many medicines are only possible because of pollinators. In contrast, grains, like wheat and corn are pollinated by the wind.
Bees are the best pollinators, mostly the native bees that often go unnoticed. Honey Bees are well-known to most of us but are less productive.
To support the native bees we need to provide three critical elements:
native flowers for pollen and nectar,
host plants for egg laying and,
a pesticide-free environment
Monarch Butterflies
In July of 2022 the Monarch Butterfly was Red Listed making if officially an endangered species. Estimates for the Eastern U.S. population that migrates to Central Mexico are down to roughly 10-20% of where they were just a couple of decades ago.Only native flowering plants can provide the nectar resources as they travel thousands of miles. Only milkweed plants provide habitat for them to lay eggs and for their caterpillars to feed.Native pollinator gardens will help keep Monarchs from the brink.
