I've been transforming my urban yard into part food forest for me and part native plant sanctuary for birds, butterflies, bees, and other wildlife. This is an ongoing project that began about 9 years ago.
The beds in the front yard are to make the neighbors feel more comfortable with seeing plants other than short lawn grasses growing. I made cages for the ones that have food for me. The rabbits and birds and other wildlife eat out of the others.
Fescue, rye, and blue grasses that we plant incessantly are not native grasses. Native grasses of the prairie grow 2, 3, 5, 7, even 12-15 feet tall. Their roots extend down deep into the soil so they draw water and nutrients up from deep in the ground. The stuff people have been growing for their lawns since WWII takes tremendous amounts of water and time to maintain. Cut it once or twice a week. Water it. Saturate it with chemicals that kill everything else that grows naturally in that space. Then fertilize it. Apply pesticides. It's really bad for the soil, the animals, the pollinators, the humans, dogs, cats, birds, and our water since all the chemicals run off into our rivers, streams, and aquifers. These chemicals have been shown to cause cancers in humans and animals as well as killing the bees. Getting rid of the monoculture lawn and growing native plants helps rejuvenate the soil which will nourish the plants without adding harmful chemicals.
This is Penstemon cobaea var. purpureus, a native that many butterflies, moths, nectar insects, and hummingbirds love. We haven't had many hummingbirds this year. The number of bees, birds, and even ants has been noticeably less than in previous years. People who notice very little of the world around them have begun to notice. They are now talking about it on social media sites. People who know what's happening are coming forward and educating the ones who don't know. It's a start. If you are one of the ones who do not know about the number of species going extinct, this may be for you.
I'd like to direct you to WeAreTheArk.org where Mary Reynolds has compiled pages of information free for the public to use. There, you can learn why we are losing biodiversity and what you can do about it. If everyone does a little, it will mean a lot. If we each turn 50% of our lawn space back into natural habitats that can be used by the other species we share this Earth with, we can maybe save ourselves. Repairing the ecosystems we've broken will take all of us working together. It's a fun thing to do though and, once you get started, you will notice that you feel better in your wilder space than you ever felt in your monoculture lawn.
