At HealthyEcosystems, we want to create an outdoor space that both you and wildlife can enjoy!
Why choose natives?
Natives are crucial to biodiversity. Native plants attract native wildlife and can support hundreds of different insects, caterpillars, butterflies, bees, and wildlife. It is proven that areas with more biodiversity are more resistant to change.
Change as in change in weather- floods, droughts, or change in wildlife in the forms of invasives and pests. Secondly, due to urban sprawl, new developments, farming, and most importantly invasive species, native species habitat is decreasing. 1 out of every 10 forest acres has invasives, costing the us 120 billion annually. If the amount of natives is constantly decreasing it means the wildlife behind it is also decreasing. 25% of plants native to North America are at risk of extinction. Planting natives in your surrounding area is one of the ways you can help. In addition, the biodiversity of natives is also closely linked with higher CO2 absorption, since more native plants attract insects that can control pests and create a more resistant healthy ecosystem. On this website, I give my suggestions for the best natives and some common misconceptions about them.
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Common misconceptions
Why don't lawns help the environment, they absorb CO2 and the pollinators enjoy the flowers!
Maintaining a lawn is cheaper than maintaining native plants
Only certain species thrive in a lawn environment compared to hundreds in native ecosystems. One native plant called mountain mint, for example, can support up to 50
pollinators And while there are flowers
in lawns, they won't support the
biodiversity required for a healthy
The average cost homeowners spend on hiring lawn mowing is almost $2000 a year! Even if you decide to mow it yourself the average person spends 70 hours mowing their lawn a year, which is still a modest $1400 cost in labor ($20 an hour)- not counting gas.​
On the other hand, if you decide to plant from plugs that only run about $2-5 at mellow marsh farms, and hire me to remove your lawn (with free woodchips and cardboard) which might take 3 or 4 hours. A lot less than $1400 or even $2000 paying for lawn maintenance!
Natives require a lot of maintenance
Natives only to be watered about once a week for the first couple of months. After that, they are good to go!
Why won't non-native plants help?
It might appear that your butterfly bush is helping tons of butterflies and pollinators, but the fact is that the native wildlife survived for hundreds of years on the plants that grew here and are best adapted to survive and reproduce on those types of flowers.
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Deer are eating all my plants! Won't they just eat my natives as well?
Although some natives deer like to chow on, this is not the case for all of them. If you are worried about deer we can help figure out deer resistant plants.
Widespread Invasives Near Chapel Hill
A patch off of highway 54- only about a mile or two from the botanical gardens. How ironic!
There used to be a bunch near Bolin creek but they just recently removed it. YAY!
English Ivy off of 54- another extremely fast growing invasive. Noticing a theme here?
A patch off of highway 54- only about a mile or two from the botanical gardens. How ironic!