estimated that if 10 percent of the lawn in every home, school, and park was converted to native plants, insects would have access to four million acres of livable habitat.Twenty years ago when Meg Inglis began building her home in Dripping Springs, Texas, just outside of Austin, she and her husband sought out drought-tolerant plants that could survive on the limited water collected by her rainwater system.
Instead, she recommends looking out for native plant sales at botanic gardens and native plant societies. Online vendors sometimes ship plants, but their supply is limited and may not serve your specific region. , an e-commerce site under the National Wildlife Federation launched two years ago to supply native plants. In the first year of operating, the company sold a million dollars in plants, says Garden for Wildlife’s CEO Shubber Ali.
Native plants don’t need the same nutrient-rich commercial potting soil as non-native plants, and they grow without herbicides and pesticides. Many of them are perennial, meaning they don’t need to be replanted every year.