I'll admit it: When I first became a gardener I thought folks who were so into "native" plants were...er, a little stuffy. I mean really, with native plants populating the wild landscape everywhere else, what could it matter what I planted in my own yard?  Ahhh, my innocent ignorance. It was Sarah Stein's book "Noah's Garden" that first woke me up to how much suburban yards are needed to provide food, water and shelter to all the beings we tend to love so much: the butterflies, songbirds, hummingbirds and more. Turns out we humans are kind of spreading out and altering the same landscapes our favorite creatures require too...

Then Douglas Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home,  was enthusiastically recommended by my friend Cindi Cope. Cindi is a kind of one-woman Green Team for the city of Fayetteville. And wow are we lucky to have her around. If there's a nature and gardening related project going on to enhance and beautify Fayetteville, you'll probably find Cindi's fingerprints on it.

Tallamy's book made the big light bulb go on in my head: All the bird feeders and butterfly bushes in the world can't provide what the native plants provide what my beloved winged friends need. Native plants are utterly vital. They are what make the winged creatures I so adore say, "Now that's larrapin!" So many of the showy plants in our flower gardens have been bred for looks to the point that they provide nothing for the pollinators, butterflies and birds. You have to watch out for this at the garden centers because plants that appear on bird/ butterfly lists my have the same name, but the showy varieties may be so fancy as to be useless.

A non-native example is the old can't-kill-it shrub Rose of Sharon (Althea). The old fashioned single flowered kind that were here when we bought the place are buzzing and humming with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds in the summer. But the kind on sale at the box stores are often the showier double-flowered kind. That flower design prevents anyone from getting to the nectar and pollen. May as well be a plastic flower in terms of its value for wildlife. The most important aspects of native plants lie much deeper than showy flowers though. (And do know that choosing natives does NOT mean you have to give up on pretty flowers and trees and shrubs! ) Native plants are the ones that have historically grown in a region before settlers brought their own plants and weeds to the area.

Native plants are Mother Nature's garden design. The native plants of an area have evolved alongside the creatures they support within the setting they all live. These webs of interdependence flow both ways, they each support the other. It's a package deal: To have the Ozark birds, butterflies and pollinators we need Ozark native plants.  Otherwise you may as well try to have the goldfish on your coffee table without the fish bowl. Not good. Nature tends to design gardens very unlike the ones most of us humans design. Her gardens are self-supporting, self-replicating, they grow and maintain their own fertility, harvest and share their water and support a myriad of creatures who help all of the above maintain itself. Mother Nature is INTO abundance and is really the garden designer to watch.

I've heard it said another way too, about learning from creation: "Why just bury your head in the Book when you can go out and study the original text?" But back to the reason for this post. Get Doug Tallamy's book. Tallamy will tell you why, and how, to become a contributor to the land you live with - restoring or retaining native species in your yard and surrounds so that we can have the privilege of hanging out with some lovely friends. Who would want to live without them?

Bird photos by Leigh Wilkerson. Taken at Larrapin Garden 2009.