A great deal of the work that I do outside of Do It Green! Minnesota focuses on conservation education, including the importance of native plants in gardening and landscaping. Some people think “native” is just a new buzzword, and indeed, native plants are not necessarily the be-all and end-all of creating healthy ecosystems. But they do play a key role in most cases, and I think they should be considered the default course of action when planting or maintaining any outdoor area.

There are a myriad of reasons to use native plants in our yards, gardens, parks, and green areas. Native plants have co-evolved with each other and with animal species over millions of years, and they’ve adapted to the environmental conditions of their given area. That means they create better habitat for wildlife, better food sources for birds and pollinators, and better buffers against erosion, drought, and flooding.

Native plants are also less likely to produce unpleasant and unexpected ecosystem consequences, as opposed to the effects of non-native plants, which can be difficult or impossible to predict. For instance, many people across the country plant a non-native type of milkweed, commonly called tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) in their gardens. Some of these people are planting tropical milkweed for its appearance, while others are hoping to provide habitat for the monarch butterfly, which requires milkweed in order to lay its eggs. However, we’ve recently realized that this type of non-native milkweed does more harm than good; it can increase disease prevalence in monarchs and even confuse or halt their migration. This is a case in which native is definitely better.

So what do you do if you want to plant natives? First, you need to find out what plants are native to your area. There are many wonderful resources for this, including field guides and website. I recommend the USDA Plants Database, or if you are looking to plant natives specifically for pollinators, the Xerces Society native plant lists. A trusted nursery or seed supplier, like Prairie Moon here in Minnesota, will also provide reliable information on what plants are right for your area. A good seed or plant supplier can also help determine what ecotype or regional variant is right for you; a species might be native to a very large geographic region, with many sub-varieties that have evolved in smaller parts of that range.

Now that you know a little more about native plants, you can go out and plant them! Fall is actually the perfect time to plant many of our native wildflowers here in Minnesota, so you can get started today!