If gardening with native plants is new to you or if gardening in itself is outside of your comfort zone, we have a few tips to help you get started:

1. It’s not all-or-nothing. Even a little improvement is still improvement.
2. Don’t rush into a big project; take enough time to get to know your site, manage any invasive species you might have, and select plants suited to both your site and your goals.
3. Start small and expand over time. New plantings will require more weeding and general care over the first few years; don’t take on more than you can manage.

Good

• Minimize herbicide and pesticide use.
• Add some native plants to existing garden beds or planters.
• Leave leaves from native trees in your garden for mulch/insect habitat. (But be cautious about bringing in leaves or mulch from elsewhere because there's a risk of transporting jumping worm eggs if they come from an infested yard.)

Better

• Replace an unused part of your lawn with a native planting.
• Use native groundcovers such as wild strawberry, violets, or prairie smoke instead of mulch or non-native groundcovers (which can often become invasive).
• Plant a native tree with a soft landing underneath to give butterflies and moths a safe space to pupate.
• Install a rain garden to improve rain infiltration into the soil and reduce stormwater runoff.

Best

• A yard with >70% native vegetation.  This is based on the study by Desiree Narango, cited by Doug Tallamy in Nature’s Best Hope. As Tallamy said, “[C]hickadee populations achieved replacement rate–that is, produced enough chicks each year to replace the adults lost to old age and predation–only in yards with less than 30% introduced plants.” That is because non-native plants don’t support the caterpillars that chickadees (and most other songbirds) depend on to raise their young.