Wildlife and Native Plants

One alternative to lawn, when it isn't needed for recreation, is to preserve or create wild places.  While almost any alternative to lawn is better for wildlife than conventionally treated single-species turfgrasses, native plants are especially good at providing for critters.

In The American Meadow Garden, ornamental grass expert John Greenlee creates a new model for homeowners and gardeners.

Sally Wasowski traveled the country visiting wild, restored, and planted prairies, then wrote the comprehensive Gardening with Prairie Plants: How to Create Beautiful Native Landscapes.

In Native Grass Lawns, Evelyn Hadden explains the different options and plants for various heights of native-grass lawns or meadows.

Neil Diboll is THE authority on native prairie plants and has lots of great articles about them on the Prairie Nursery website.

Lakescaping for Wildlife and Water Quality, authored by Minnesota state experts, gives better alternatives to lawn all the way down to the lake.

Easy Lawns: Low-Maintenance Native Grasses for Gardeners Everywhere by Stevie Daniels includes contributions by native-plant experts, environmental scientists, and landscape architects. Instructions on preparing a site, planting, and maintaining a native grass area, whether as cropped turf, as a wilder-looking grassy area, or as a meadow with interplanted flowering forbs. Special chapters on regional plants for Florida, California, Colorado, and more. At the back are lists of individual grasses and nursery sources.

Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy is the definitive work that ties native plants to wildlife, and makes the best case for the inclusion of native plants in our gardens.  His website about native plants and wildlife is PlantANative.  And here's Evelyn Hadden's review of Bringing Native Home.

Wild Ones promotes native plants and natural landscapes.

At the Audubon Society, learn how to welcome birds to your property.

Certify your yard as wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation. 

Preliminary findings about native grasses from researchers at the Lady Bird Johnson WIldflower Center in Austin are here.

Photo of Prairie dropseed at the Scott Arboretum by Susan Harris.