Showerthought: I was dead wrong about native plants being 'boring'

I used to roll my eyes at the native plant crowd. Give me the flashy tropical hibiscus and those neon petunias any day, right? But last spring I got talked into putting in a patch of milkweed and goldenrod along my back fence by a neighbor who does landscaping. Three months later I had monarch butterflies showing up for the first time in the 15 years I've lived here. Then I noticed the goldfinches fighting over the seed heads in October. That little patch took maybe 3 hours to plant and cost me around $40 total, and it outlasted every single annual I stuck in pots that fried by August. I'm not gonna rip out all my non-natives, but I finally get why people go crazy for this stuff. Has anyone else had that moment where a "plain" plant totally changed your mind?

2 comments

2 Comments

angelacooper5h ago

Same thing happened to me with black-eyed Susans last year, total game changer lol.

amymiller5h ago

Right @angelacooper, it's like once you see how something tiny changes everything, you start noticing it everywhere. I swear gardening has taught me more about life than any self help book ever did lol. It's all that patience and trial and error stuff, you know? You try something small one season and suddenly your whole yard changes. Same with cooking or even just organizing a closet - one little switch and the whole flow shifts. Makes you wonder what else we're overcomplicating that could use a simple fix.