Why Natives?

Why Plants Are Important

Plants are the foundation of all land-based ecosystems.  As human society continues to expand, healthy ecosystems and the services they perform become crucial to balance our effects on the planet.  High-functioning ecosystems do so much to balance the human impact on the planet: they produce the oxygen we breathe; they clean the water we drink; they mitigate the risks of flooding and erosion from ever-increasing and less predictable severe weather; they sequester carbon and store it to moderate the effects of climate change; they produce soil fertility and support the pollinators that 90% of flowering plants depend on for their reproduction.  Healthy ecosystems support a web of life that is unimaginably complex, diverse, interesting, and necessary.  Plants are the fuel that keeps these systems running.

Why natives are essential

Native plants are better at supporting and driving healthy ecosystem function than their non-native counterparts.  They holistically support the ecosystem because they share an evolutionary past with the other plants, animals, and microbes that form these highly productive systems. They also support the specialized relationships that have formed over eons that make the system sustainable.

Gardening with natives supports your local ecosystem

By gardening with native plants, you help contribute to and enrich local ecosystems rather than deplete them.  By thinking of your garden as part of a system rather than a static installation you can provide valuable resources to the natural communities around you, attracting and supporting wildlife that you and your family can enjoy in perpetuity.  

If the system analogy does not resonate you can think of your garden in a theatrical light.  Your soil is the theater and your plants are your stage and set.  If you garden with non-native plants your actors will not sow and your production will fall flat but if you choose to build your stage with native plants then actors in the form of wildlife will show up and perform dramas, tragedies, and comedies for you to enjoy as long as you choose to engage as a steward of the production.