There are a number of wonderful resources to help plan your landscaping project, choose the plants that will work for your specific yard, and show you where to buy them.
Before we get to how to make your yard more wild, let's talk about how it stopped being wild in the first place.
The idea of closely cut grassy clearings, started in 1700's England and France. One hundred years later, give or take, U.S.
President Thomas Jefferson replicated this style of landscaping at his Monticello estate. From there, other rich land owners followed suit. The non-rich folks stuck with vegetables and herb gardens.
And with sixty years later and three patents for lawnmowers, and the development of the sprinkler system, the vegetables took the backseat (in the back yard) and big expanses of grass took over the front.
The US Agricultures display at the first World's Fair in the U.S., with its lawn displays and exhibits featuring lawns, was the final nail in the native wildlife coffin.
The Benefits of Adding Native Plants Back to Your Landscape
They're less work: No need to mow, or fertilize,
They're better for your health and the health of the planet: They need less water and no pesticides as well as promoting biodiversity
They help wildlife: They provide shelter, food and water. Give butterflies sustenance, bees nectar, and dragonflies a perch.
Bottom Line: Less work. More benefits. Which is exactly why they increase your property value!
Okay, You're on Board. Now - What Do You Plant?
It just so happens The Native Plant Society of New Jersey has done all the work for you. Their website has all New Jersey's native plants broken out by county and growing conditions.
sources: https://www.pennington.com/all-products/grass-seed/resources/the-history-of-the americanlawn#:~:text=1700s%3A%20Landscape%20designers%20in%20England,%22lawn%22%20in%20the%20process.
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