In schoolyards, backyards, and city parks around the country, native plant landscaping is turning lawns into habitat, creating beautiful low-maintenance yards, and saving water. Homewaters Project, an educational nonprofit organization in Seattle, helps elementary students create native drought-tolerant gardens on school grounds in their Watershed Gardens program. Kids love it, and you will too! 

Using native plants and habitat features on your property, known as natural landscaping, benefits wildlife, water quality, and your community. It’s not hard to get started: resources abound in the Puget Sound area to help you contribute to the health of your local watershed and make your property lovely at the same time, simply through landscaping. In this article, Homewaters has compiled some resources to help you be a steward of your urban watershed by landscaping naturally.

Natives Plants: Right at Home
There is a reason native plants do so well in your yard – they are right at home. A large variety of plants around Puget Sound have adapted to different amounts of shade, water, sun, and types of soil. You can learn which ones work best for your property at the WSU Cooperative Extension’s Gardening in Western Washington webpage or at King County’s Native Plant Guide webpage. Since native plants have evolved and adapted to this area, they require little maintenance after the first few years (when they require regular watering to establish their roots), and they will thrive through long grey winters and parched summers.

Healthy for All
Native plants are also healthy for you, your children, and wildlife. Since natives are accustomed to summer droughts in the Northwest, they require less water than most non-natives during the time when water is most precious for our communities and wildlife such as salmon. Native plant landscaping conserves water, not to mention the time you’d have to spend watering and mowing your lawn. Native plants also have adapted to insects and diseases that may harm other plants, so require no pesticides or other chemicals to remain healthy. Pesticides are one of the main pollutants in our urban streams, the same streams that flow by schools and backyards -- and into the waters that Puget Sound residents recreate in and regional wildlife lives in. Using native plants keeps us all healthy!

A Home for Urban Wildlife
In the shrubs, trees, and forgotten green spaces of our cities, wildlife continues to thrive. By using natural landscaping, you can encourage beneficial native animals to live in your backyard. These species adapted to feed upon and nest within native plants, so your natural landscape will provide a favorable home for indigenous birds, insects, and mammals that have lost habitat in our cities.

Learn more about how to create backyard habitat with the Audubon Society’s Audubon At Home program, Seattle Audubon’s Gardening for Life, the National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat program, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program.

An Outdoor Classroom
Another benefit of using native plants to landscape your yard is discovering a connection to your own home place. By introducing native plants and wildlife into your daily life, you, your children, and your neighbors can get to know the species that make the Northwest such a beautiful, lush, and diverse place. These plants – whether edible, medicinal, or for clothing and shelter – have provided a healthy and bountiful life for humans in this area for millennia. Learning their names, their uses, and their ecology can be a way to learn more about your home - and how easy and fulfilling it is to care for it. Being a good watershed steward starts with connecting to your home place, and a great place to start is your own yard.

Landscaping naturally is fun, educational, and socially responsible. Using native plants in your back and front yards saves water, provides habitat for beneficial wildlife, and keep our waterways healthy. A wide variety of plants is available for adapting to your yard and your tastes. Learn even more at the following links:

• Northwest Native Plant Landscape Guide (general)
• Pacific Northwest Resources (general)
• Washington Native Plant Society: Resources (general)
• Seattle Tilth’s Natural Lawn and Garden Hotline (general)
• Native Plant Salvage Program (native plant source)
• Live Stakes for Restoration Plantings (native plant source)
• Saving Water Partnership (water conservation)

This article contributed by Todd Burley, Outreach Coordinator for Homewaters Project. Homewaters is a local nonprofit organization committed to encouraging urban watershed stewardship through education. You can learn more about their Watershed Gardens elementary school program and their other programs at www.homewatersproject.org.