WHO KNEW You Can Create Biodiversity in Your Backyard by Planting Native Plants and Removing Invasive Ones?

According to Audubon, “native plants are those that occur naturally in a region in which they evolved.” Invasive plants are not native but have found their way into our landscape either through deliberate planting (invasives are abundant at local nurseries), or by hitchhiking on packaging from far off lands. Insects and birds which co-evolved with the native plants cannot survive without them. Famed entomologist Doug Tallamy (author of, Nature’s Best Hope) has demonstrated that our native oak tree supports over 500 species of caterpillars. But a ginkgo, a readily available and common landscape tree from Asia, supports only 5 species of caterpillars. Try explaining that difference to a chickadee who needs over 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chicks. Common invasive plants like buckthorn, Japanese knotweed, and garlic mustard outcompete native plants and degrade the natural habitat.

What can you do? Learn what invasive plants look like and how to remove them. Consult Hanover’s Biodiversity Committee’s “A Guide to Invasive Plants” and “Alternatives to Invasive Plants.” Turn over more of your lawn to native plants (but keep an eye out for invasives!). My approach to gardening to help with biodiversity and mitigate climate change: remove invasives, plant natives, and reduce the size of my lawn.