Cache Valley Native Plants

Asking More from Our Landscapes: Leveling Up with Native Plants

By Skylar Christensen, co-owner Cache Valley Native Plants

Why did you start gardening? Was it to grow and harvest your own food? Was it to beautify and add value to your landscape? Perhaps you were looking for a healthy hobby, or it was something you did as a family growing up and wanted to continue the tradition. Maybe it helps you connect with nature on a deeper level. These are all valid and noble reasons why we do what we do year after year.

But what if there was another reason for gardening – a reason that has little to do with the actual gardener and their own needs and desires. A reason bigger than us all, yet one we can all do something about. What if we gardened for the bugs? What if we gardened for the birds? What if, simply by selecting native plants over introduced plants, we could help stave off ecosystem collapse and mass extinction? What if our biggest reason for gardening was to literally save the world?

First, we’re going to leave gardening for food out of this discussion. Utilizing your landscape to feed yourself, your family, and your community is the epitome of sustainability. Instead, we’re going to focus on gardening for aesthetics, or ornamental horticulture.

The problem began as soon as the first ships arrived in the New World. As settlers spread across North America, they also brought with them their ornamental plants from across the ocean. They brought their love of large nonnative turfgrass lawns. They also, inadvertently, brought plants that have become noxious weeds throughout the country. And the problem continues to this day. We still plant exotic ornamental species from different continents, we still have a love affair with large lawns, and we still spread noxious weeds throughout the country.

So, what’s the problem with non-natives? Many can be considered water-wise and low maintenance. Isn’t that the goal for our Utah landscapes? While many non-natives are quite adapted to our climate and contribute to a water-wise landscape, the problem lies with the pollinators, insects, and other wildlife nonnatives support – or don’t support. Dr. Doug Tallamy, a leading voice in the native plant movement, lays out evidence in his book “Bringing Nature Home” that insects can’t utilize alien plants the same way they can with the native plants they evolved with, mostly due to leaf chemistry. And since these insect-plant relationships took millions of years to develop, they can’t adapt quickly enough to our mostly non-native landscapes.

As a result, insects are disappearing as their food sources disappear. When the insects disappear, the birds and other small animals disappear. And when they disappear, well, we all learned about the food chain in school. We are in the midst of an ecological disaster playing out in front of us.

With over 80% of U.S. land privately owned, the solution depends on all of us. Whether you measure your property by the square foot or by the acre, replacing non-native plants with plants native to your state, or better yet, your county, is the best way to help prevent mass species die-off. I don’t want my children to inherit a world devoid of the plant and wildlife that myself and my ancestors enjoyed, let alone a world where the loss of these species threatens our own human existence.

Does this mean you need to cut down the Norway maple that shades your back patio in the hot summer months, remove the entire lawn your kids and pets play on, or uproot your heirloom roses passed down from your great-grandma? Of course not! The National Wildlife Federation’s recommendation of a 70% native landscape is a great goal. If you’re willing and able to go 100% native, even better!

Doug Tallamy says it best, “In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.” It’s my hope we can add one more reason to why we garden.

Interested in creating a beautiful and sustainable, living landscape? Reach out to us at Cache Valley Native Plants for plant recommendations and design considerations for your landscape needs. Let’s level up our landscapes together!