Attract and nourish hummingbirds, butterflies, and other wildlife

If your yard is like most yards east of the Mississippi, about 90 percent is lawn and the rest is packed with plants imported from other continents. Maybe you play host to azalea, Kousa dogwood, honeysuckle, day lilies, and English ivy. They’re beautiful in flower, and the lawn lends a lovely green expanse.

But our nationwide carpet of grass and non-native plants has transformed the landscape into what conservation sage Dr. Douglas Tallamy calls “food deserts” for native insects, birds, and other wildlife – the native plants that anchor their diets have vanished.

In short, we are crowding out other life. Our yards play a role in the nearly 50 percent decline in insect populations nationwide over the past four decades and in the net loss of nearly 3 billion birds in North America compared to 50 years ago.

The good news? We’re beginning to wake up and take action. One-third of U.S. adults buy plants to support wildlife, and one-quarter of us are choosing native plants, from wildflowers and ferns to grasses and shrubs. We are beginning to transform our collective 40 million acres of lawn into habitat that helps wildlife thrive again.

If your yard could win a food desert award, you’re not alone. That’s the starting point for nearly everyone when they begin their journey with native plants and pollinator gardens. No matter what’s holding you back from making a wholesale, yard-wide change, here’s the secret:

Just start, whether it’s one native plant or 100. It’s ok to start small and grow from there.

National Wildlife Federation offers affordable plant collections tailored for songbirds, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Izel Native Plants ships their kit of mini pollinator “plugs” in spring and fall.

Mission Green Team can also help, with our Pocket Garden Planting Guide to help you find the perfect three-plant combinations for your garden. As few as three each for a total of nine plants turns a small patch of ground into a mini food pantry for wildlife. Next year, plant more of what thrives. Add new plant combinations to find those that are happiest in your yard.

Want to inspire a group to plant a native garden together or in their own yards? Our “Make a Pocket Pollinator Garden” project is a one-stop guide.

You can learn more about how we can all become “Nature’s Best Hope” in Dr. Tallamy’s eye-opening book about the new approach to conversation that starts in our yards.

Send us news about your gardening journey, especially as you spot new wildlife in your new habitats.