Native Suburbia

04/15/2026

No, dandelions are not saving the bees. Watch.

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03/27/2026

Lawns are for sheeple. Stop keeping up with the Joneses and do some research before you decide how to landscape your scrap of land. Make the most of your space by adding native biodiversity to support native wildlife and the ecosystem at large. Save some time and money while doing it.

The best-looking yard on your street is probably the worst one for the planet.

And the "messy" one? That's the one everything depends on.

THE PERFECT LAWN:
→ Cost: $2,000-5,000/year (chemicals, mowing, watering, edging)
→ Species supported: grass
→ Insects: near zero (that's the goal of the chemicals)
→ Birds: almost none (no food source)
→ Pollinators: none (no flowers)
→ Water use: 96 gallons/day average
→ Carbon: net EMITTER (mowing, leaf blowing, manufacturing chemicals)

THE "MESSY" YARD:
→ Cost: $100-300/year
→ Native plants: supports 10-50x more insect species than non-native
→ Birds: dozens of species (insects = bird food)
→ Pollinators: bees, butterflies, moths
→ Water use: minimal (native plants are drought-adapted)
→ Carbon: net ABSORBER (healthy soil sequesters carbon)

The science is clear:

→ Homes with native plants support 70% more caterpillar biomass (the #1 food for baby birds)
→ Doug Tallamy's research at University of Delaware: a yard with native oaks supports 557 species of caterpillars. A non-native ginkgo? 5.
→ 96% of North American land birds feed insects to their young
→ No insects = no baby birds = population collapse

You don't have to let your whole yard go wild.

But even ONE native plant bed, ONE unmowed corner, ONE section where you stop spraying — changes everything.

Beauty isn't measured in how green your grass is.

It's measured in what's alive in it. 🦋

03/13/2026

Know your natives from your invasives and discriminate responsibly.

The brown shield-shaped insect crawling out from behind your window trim right now is the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug — Halyomorpha halys. It arrived from East Asia in the late 1990s, first detected in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Within two decades it spread to 46 states and became one of the most damaging agricultural pests on the continent.

Here's the problem. There's a native insect that looks almost identical — and it's one of the best predators your garden has.

The Spined Soldier Bug is the same shield shape, the same mottled brown coloring, roughly the same size. Most people can't tell them apart, so they kill both. The difference is in the shoulders. The Brown Marmorated has smooth, rounded shoulders. The Spined Soldier Bug has sharp spines jutting out from its shoulder line. That's the fastest ID. Look at the shoulders.

The invasive one feeds on over 100 crops — tomatoes, peppers, apples, peaches, corn. It pierces the skin and injects digestive enzymes, leaving brown necrotic spots that ruin the harvest. It costs U.S. agriculture hundreds of millions per year.

The native one hunts. It eats caterpillars, beetle larvae, Colorado potato beetles, cabbage loopers. Gardeners actually buy them as biological control. One Spined Soldier Bug can take out dozens of pest insects per week.

One is destroying your harvest. The other is defending it. Check the shoulders.

03/11/2026

Nature is messy!

Healthy ecosystems are rarely tidy. 🌎🌿

In Wild Ones upcoming webinar Rethinking Horticulture with Real Ecology, Joey Santore draws from years of field work in disturbed and urban landscapes to explore what plant communities actually look like when they function on their own terms and why irregular growth often signals ecological strength.

Premieres March 18 on YouTube. 👉 Register now: https://wildones.org/joey-santore/

03/01/2026

Thinking of incorporating native plants in your landscaping design? Don't know where to begin? Here's a great overview of how to approach the project, no matter where you are, no matter how much space you have or what kind of lot you have. There are plenty of resources provided.

Get comfy, grab a notebook and a pen, and learn the basics here. This is a great video for beginners. Loads of questions are answered.

Thinking about starting a native plant garden? This beginner-friendly webinar walks you through the essential steps to plant native species with confidence. ...

02/28/2026

Some rare plants in the Corpus Christi area are the subject of this short video, specifically Erythrostemon phyllanthoides (Fabaceae).Your contributions supp...

02/21/2026

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🌿 Straight lines, tidy edges, and uniform spacing shape how we think landscapes should look. Ecology does not work that way.

Joey Santore is taking a hard look at how inherited garden aesthetics limit ecological function and public understanding of native landscapes.

Join the conversation on March 18, 2026. 👉 Register here: https://wildones.org/joey-santore/

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't

02/18/2026

FYI...

02/13/2026

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Say no to more lawns

🌿 Why lawns fail and native systems succeed 🌿

Most suburban landscapes are managed as if plants exist in isolation. In reality plants, soil life, water, and carbon function as a connected system.

In our upcoming webinar, Basil Camu explains why turf lawns break these relationships and how native systems rebuild them. Native plants develop deep roots that build living soil, hold water in place, store carbon, and support food webs. Lawns do the opposite while requiring constant inputs of water, fuel, and chemicals.

Drawing on real-world work through Leaf & Limb, Basil shares practical approaches like native meadows from seed and pocket forests that can be used at home or scaled for parks, campuses, and communities.

Join Wild Ones on February 18 to learn how working with natural systems can restore life and reduce effort at the same time. 👉 Register here: https://wildones.org/from-wasteland-to-wonder/

02/10/2026

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What some people call "messy" is exactly what wildlife needs. Be mindful of what you can keep in your yard to provide crucial habitat.

You cannot claim to "love animals" if you clean up every last scrap of nature from your yard.

You may see a pile of sticks in your yard and think it's neglected, but it's a bustling habitat! 🌿

In February, this brush pile is fully booked:

🏠 THE PENTHOUSE: Song Sparrows and Carolina Wrens shelter from ice storms in the top layer.

🌿 THE MEZZANINE: A cottontail rabbit finds refuge here, creating a "form" for safety.

🐛 THE STANDARD ROOMS: Hibernating queen bumblebees and Mourning cloak butterflies live in the deeper layers, while ground beetles and spiders control pests.

🌧️ THE BASEMENT: Redback salamanders thrive in the moist environment at the bottom, essential for their survival.

🍄 THE INFRASTRUCTURE: Fungi break down wood and enrich your soil with nutrients.

One brush pile (6x3 feet) supports over 1,000 organisms across 100+ species throughout winter. A “clean” yard is a biological desert!

Your brush pile isn’t messy; it’s full! 🌱

02/05/2026

Simple but effective advice...