The Two Most Important Actions to Help Wildlife in Your Garden

Really? You could do just two things that could help wildlife in your garden?

Yes.

Taking just these two steps would make a huge difference for the wildlife in your area. And teaching your neighbors to take the same action will magnify your efforts and help a lot more.

Now I’m not saying there’s some kind of magic bullet that would solve all of the dangers facing our native wildlife, but doing these two things will certainly help to stem the tide of their decline.

The Ecosystem Gardeners Pledge

I promise to stop purchasing/planting invasive plants and to remove them from my landscape. I promise to add more native plants to my garden. I will help my neighbors take this pledge, too

That’s it. These are the two most important things that every one of us can do to help our native wildlife and make our gardens more welcoming to them.

Promise to Stop Planting Invasive Plants and Eradicate them from your Property

This is not as easy to do as it sounds. Take a trip to any Home Depot and almost any nursery and you’ll find a large selection of invasive plants.

Why?

Well, some nursery owners simply haven’t educated themselves to the dangers of some of the plants they are selling. Others say “If I don’t sell them, someone else will. So I might as well make the money.”

So in addition to educating your neighbors, you may have to educate your local nursery owner, too.

I’ve talked about why invasive plants are so dangerous, and I’ve begun making a list of the worst invasive plants, but you need to educate yourself prior to purchasing any plants for your wildlife garden.

The easiest way to do this is to contact your local native plant society or your state conservation service and request a list of invasive plants in your area. This is easily done online by googling “invasive plants your state”

Arm yourself with this list every time you go shopping for plants. Do not buy any plant from this list, and take the time to tell the nursery owner how disappointed you are that they continue to sell these plants.

Plant More Natives

Native plants form the foundation of the food web that supports the birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife we want to attract to our Ecosystem Gardens, an idea that is most elegantly stated by Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home.

Most gardens in this country are filled with plants from around the world, but very few plants actually native to this country. The problem with this is that it leaves wildlife with nothing to eat.

Simply put, no native plants means no wildlife. No birds. No butterflies. No frogs happily croaking through the day.

A very boring garden indeed.

No life.

Now our major purpose in Ecosystem Gardening is to create welcoming habitats for wildlife to share our little patch of the planet with. That means adding native plants every time you are purchasing new treasures for your wildlife garden.

Are you ready to take the pledge?

I hope so!