Our yard is split up into five habitat types. The first is the dog pen, which consists mostly of the plants that have managed to withstand the spastic cavorting of our dogs. Second, is Kim’s vegetable garden, which is big and beautiful and full of goodness. Third, we have countless flowers around the house and other strategic points, which are a combination of native and non-native plants, designed both for maximum color and attractiveness to pollinators. Fourth, we have the “soccer yard”, which is a patch of mowed bluegrass just big enough to allow for the use of soccer balls and frisbees, but small enough that it draws complaints from the kids (despite the presence of a large city park a block from our house). That bluegrass area has abundant white clover and dandelions, by the way, left on purpose for the many insects that appreciate them. Finally, we have the prairie gardens. There’s a big one along the alley and a smaller one on the corner of the two streets that run past our property.
Some of you might be shocked to read that my yard isn’t fully prairie. After all, I’m the “Prairie Ecologist” – I should eschew the evils of watered and fertilized yards and convert everything to native habitat. I get that, but there are extenuating factors. First, I have kids and dogs, both of which like to roam around and play games in our yard. Since I like both the kids and dogs, it’s nice to have them close by when they play, and to play with them. Second, prairie gardens can be a lot of work, especially during their first few years, and we’ve only been in this location for five years. Third, there are other plants Kim and I enjoy besides native prairie species, and that’s ok.
Yes, prairie gardens use less water and fertilizer than traditional yards, but they also require a lot of weeding and tending – throughout their life, but especially while they are young. They are just like any other restored prairie in that way. Instantly converting our entire big corner lot to prairie and managing it would consume much more time than we currently have available. Prairies are also less compatible with kids playing soccer and other similar games than a mowed patch of bluegrass. Right now, that’s an important factor in our decision-making.
Next, I’m sure some of you are disappointed in me for having non-native plants our flower gardens. That’s fine. Here’s the thing, my wife has a horticulture degree and one of those brains that can create beauty in a seemingly effortless way. She has transformed this yard into something I’m really proud of, full of year-round color and texture, and loaded with butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. Our zinnias, for example, have so many painted ladies, swallowtails, and silver-spotted skippers feeding on them it stops passing pedestrians in their tracks, not to mention how much fun we and our kids have watching them. Those zinnias and other non-native plants are accompanied by cultivated varieties of native plants, including black-eyed Susans, cardinal flower, pasque flower, and others, as well as lots of local ecotype native plants like Canada anemone, skunkbush sumac, little bluestem, and many more.
As our yard matures, and Kim continues to tweak and add to the flowers and plants in the landscaping, it’s becoming a real showpiece in the neighborhood, though Kim doesn’t design it for anyone other than us (ok, mostly herself, but we all enjoy it). People stop and ask questions about the plants they see – usually the native ones – while complimenting the yard in general. This is despite the dandelions and clover in the mowed yard and the fact that ours is not the kind of manicured lot most of those passers-by live in. We’ve created a kind of compromise/transitional landscape around our house, which includes lots of native plants and provides a great deal of value to pollinators and other insects, but still fits within what most of our neighbors think is attractive and acceptable.
Again, our yard is designed to make us happy, which is the way it should be. Our kids like it too, though the soccer yard squeezes them a little when they want to play a big roving game of ball tag or other land-intensive games. (“Go to the park!!” I say.) We didn’t create our landscaping to make a statement, though we are also conscious of its value in that way.
I think it’s great when people convert their entire yards to prairie vegetation. If that makes them happy, it’s a fantastic way to save water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Native plants in urban and suburban landscaping also helps normalize those species and draws attention to prairies and their value. Maybe most importantly, it allows people to become familiar with plant (and insect) species that they might encounter if they happen to walk past or into an actual prairie. That sounds like a small thing, but I think it’s among the most important conservation strategies we have. Many people see prairies as flat boring patches of grass, and a lot of that is because they don’t recognize anything of interest there. If they walk into a prairie and start seeing species they’ve previously met, it’s a lot easier to see beauty and value in a place they’d otherwise dismiss as foreign and uninteresting.
Along those lines, converting entire lawns to prairie can really help bring attention to native plants. However, any inclusion of native plants in landscaping projects can do the same thing. In our case, we’ve scattered native plants into landscaping that includes other flowers and plants people are more familiar with. Whatever works, right? If our yard helps people become more familiar with black-eyed Susans, wild bergamot and other wildflowers they might see in prairies, I feel good about that. And if other people decide to sprinkle some native flowers into their yard as a result of what they’ve seen in our yard and many others like it, that’s a conservation success. Each of those people will become more familiar with native plants, along with the insects that visit them. As a result, prairies will seem less weird, more welcoming, and something worth caring about.
Interestingly, when I sat down to write this post this morning, my plan was to write about all the interesting native insects I’ve been seeing on our prairie plants around the yard lately. My brain went in a different direction once I started writing, but I already had the photos ready to go, which is why this post is full of images of insects on the native flowers in our yard. While accidental, that selection of photos also supports one of my points. Despite our yard having lots of non-native plants, our prairie gardens and scattered native plants are attracting and supporting those native insects and doing good. It’s also important to note that while some horticultural varieties of flowers don’t provide value to pollinators, others do. The butterflies, bees, flies, mantises, lady bugs, and countless other insects on our zinnias, sage, and dill agree.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a yard, I hope it brings you joy. Converting your whole plot of land to prairie can be a wonderful way to learn about prairie, reduce water and chemical use, and evangelize at the same time. If that kind of conversion brings you happiness, you should do it (though maybe convert it a little at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed by weeds). At the same time, there are other ways to incorporate native plants into your yard without going whole hog. Ensuring that you have pollinator-accessible flowers blooming throughout the year, allowing dandelions, clover, and other plants to persist in your bluegrass lawn, and providing patches of bare ground and old wood for bee nesting can all be valuable. You can create a diversity of life around you and feel good about the result. It’s working really well for us.
