The Native Plant Movement

By Julie Dennewitz, CGC Horticulturist

No one changes the world alone. History is scattered with great men and women whose names and deeds stay with us, but behind these towering figures stand masses of people working together for a cause they believe in. It is these collective movements that repeatedly shift the course of progress. The Civil Rights Movement. The Labor Movement. Movements for liberation and self-determination that have erupted across the globe. The Native Plant Movement is no different.

It may feel so solitary, working out in the yard. In fact, that’s what many people love about gardening: the silence, the respite from other people. But this pleasant solitude can become isolating. You may feel like the only person in your neighborhood planting native plants. Like you’re the only person kept up at night wondering what will become of Earth’s rich yet fragile biodiversity. You aren’t. Every individual gardener is part of a greater, worldwide effort to restore our ecosystems. You belong to an international movement. Your garden is one link in a great chain of environmental action.

There are currently 41,807 people on the Homegrown National Park biodiversity map. That’s 41,807 people who understand that we must fight to protect native plants and wildlife. The organization’s founder, Professor Doug Tallamy, is a proud public advocate for gardening with native plants. He explains his reasoning behind the map on the Homegrown National Park website: “Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale, are too small and separated from one another to preserve species to the levels needed.” Tallamy calls for a bottom-up approach to conservation. And this bottom-up approach is nothing new. Every great movement for progress has begun at the grassroots level.

What an honor, what an enormous responsibility for us simple, quiet gardeners! This may be the most important mass movement of our time! Without healthy, intact ecosystems, the foundations of life on this planet crumble. It’s a terrifying possibility to face alone. So, thank goodness we are not alone. The greatest collaborative effort of our species begins at home, kneeling, hands in the soil. Something so small and so humble scales out into something monumental.

Adding your yard to the Homegrown National Park biodiversity map is one way to get a bigger picture of the work that individuals are doing. So is joining the Civic Garden Center for events, classes and volunteer workdays focused on native plants (our Native Plants for Homeowners Q&A would be a great place to start!). Volunteering in public garden spaces brings the message of collaboration into crystal-clear focus. Projects that feel insurmountable alone are accomplished by a group in mere hours. Invasive species are cleared, pollinator gardens are planted, mulch is spread to protect the soil.

The big jobs don’t feel so big when you start to realize that you only have to do a little piece. Then you look around and realize that everyone else did a little piece as well. And together those pieces add up to something greater than their parts.

In each little piece we hold the seed of our own collective power. Grown together like a garden, we are unstoppable.