Big or small, native gardens provide a multitude of benefits to both wildlife and people! Native gardens consist of plants that are naturally occurring in a geographical region. These native plants have evolved to not only survive in their local climate but also to thrive. Native gardens support local wildlife and pollinators, benefit their ecosystem, and provide support against changing climate conditions.
By planting a native garden in your yard, you will experience positive changes for yourself! Here are just five of many reasons to plant a native garden in your yard this upcoming season!
1. Biodiversity Support
Native gardens support wildlife by providing food and shelter and reducing the amount of fragmentation.
- Food and shelter
- Native plants offer food (seeds, fruits and nectar) to native wildlife and pollinators. Many non-native plants are not able to support these populations because they do not produce the food that wildlife and pollinators need.
- Native plants also offer shelter to local wildlife. These gardens create a space for birds, insects, and small mammals to build nests and burrow during their breeding seasons.
- Reduced fragmentation
- With an increase in urban sprawl, deforestation, and the development of suburbs, native green spaces are getting farther apart from each other. This puts a strain on wildlife and pollinators as they travel longer distances to vital resources. Planting a native garden gives the pollinators and wildlife a place to get food, water, and shelter closer to them.
2. Low Maintenance
Native gardens are low maintenance compared to non-native gardens. As these native plants are adapted to the local conditions, they can better tolerate droughts, extreme temperatures, disease and other environmental stressors that many non-native plants are not equipped to handle.
Native plants are also less susceptible to pests, as they have evolved over time to develop various means of defense. For example, native milkweed is toxic to some insects and mammals, which avoid the plant altogether, while monarch butterflies seek it out as a host plant. Native plants also attract beneficial insects that help control aphids, mealybugs and other pests, greatly reducing the need for fungicides and pesticides. Applying less of these harmful chemicals within your landscape benefits the wildlife populations, along with maintaining your soil and water quality!
3. Erosion Control
Many native plants maintain a deep root system, as it helps them access water in the soil during drought conditions. Native plants with deep root systems provide stability to the soil and reduce erosion when the landscape is flooded.
Soil erosion harms the soil and water quality while also destroying the usable landscape. Native grasses are a great starter plant to prevent soil erosion within your landscape. Native grasses such as switchgrass, gulf muhly grass, and indian grass are examples of deep-rooted grasses that provide stability to the soil.
4. Conserve Water and Mitigate Flooding
Having a drought-tolerant native garden in your yard requires less frequent watering than non-native plants. The native plants can survive most drought conditions using water that is available deeper in the soil.
Native gardens also help reduce the amount of water runoff and increase the amount of water infiltrating the soil. Having deep root systems allows the plants to stand strong against water and slows the water down enough for the runoff to slowly seep into the soil. This keeps the native plants watered, the soil from eroding, and reduces the amount of runoff from entering the stream systems.
5. Reduce heat in suburban and urban areas.
More often than not, suburban and urban spaces are covered in concrete and paved ways which do not reflect sunlight and instead absorb the sun’s rays quite well. Absorbing these rays increases the temperature in these areas quickly. Planting native gardens among these areas helps reduce the overall temperature because the vegetation can absorb and reflect the sun rays while also releasing moisture into the atmosphere. In these Texas summers, any way to reduce the amount of heat in our neighborhoods is more than welcomed!
Overall, native gardens are resilient, low maintenance, and provide support for our pollinators and local wildlife. Starting a native garden in your yard can seem daunting, but it is much easier than you might think! Begin by picking an area in your yard that you would like to make into a native garden and observe its growing conditions. From there, you can determine what native plants will thrive in this space!
There are a lot of options to choose from when purchasing native plants, and there are excellent guides and websites specific to our region to help with that process. Consider starting with these Native Plants and Trees lists for options that are native to this area. This page also provides other databases and resources that serve as a starting point for your native plant journey.
