Native Plants vs. Neighborhood Standards 🏘️
Loving, planting, and promoting native plants in urban areas can occasionally come with newfound predicaments. Diverse and valuable wildlife habitat will never look like the cookie cutter landscapes that have been pushed on our culture for decades. And because of that, re-wilding your landscape could come with a confused neighbor or a vexed HOA or even a code-enforcing municipality... but this will not deter us! It’s on us to swing the pendulum.
There’s a good chance you won’t ever encounter a naysayer during your native plant endeavors, but if you’re looking to stay proactive then there’s a few things you can consider. Today, we’ll touch on a few ideas that anyone can implement to make your landscape accepted by even the biggest skeptics.
Horizons of Plants
When thinking about passersby visually consuming a landscape, having multiple horizons of plants at matching heights allows viewers to peruse and enjoy the space with ease. Tall grasses, tall flowers, and flowering shrubs in the back, mid-height bloomers in the center, and low-growing groundcovers, grasses, or sedges toward the front.
Include Fun Design Elements
Maybe a bench, a sculpture, a birdbath, a boulder, a stepping stone path? Anything that invites the eye and shows off the intentionality of your landscape. These simple things might not seem like much, but they can add an aspect of care and signal to passersby “Hey, these aren’t weeds!” and “Hey, I’ve spent a lot of time on this!”
Define Edges
Naysayer discomfort might not be the plants themselves but rather that they seem “un-contained.” A crisp border can make a difference here, whether that’s metal edging, stone, or even a mulch path. If you really want to blend in with the landscape traditionalists, a strip of a single species (see below photo) running along the edge of beds is a very common look. You can replicate it with a native sedge or any other low-growing native plant.
Let Signs Educate
Consider signage that can educate before assumptions are made. It can be something simple like “Pollinator Habitat” or “Native Meadow in Progress.” People are more accepting of unfamiliar landscapes when they understand their purpose.