asters with monarchs

A Radical Rethinking of Your Lawn

326 274 Monarch Research Project

If you’ve joined us for the recent webinars focussing on Pollinator Zones, you’ve heard the message that what you grow in your yard, however large or small it might be, matters a lot.  Both of the recent webinars on pollinators (Pollinator Zones 101 and 201) featured insight by native plant guru Doug Tallamy. Today, we wanted to share an article that originally appeared in the Washington Post, but was recently republished in the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Green Gazette Section.

In “A native plant guru’s radical vision for the American yard” columnist Adrian Higgins shares Tallamy’s push for changing the “prevailing cultural norms of what constitutes an acceptable residential landscape, with the lawn at its core.” Instead, we must consider ecology: what can we feed in our lawns? Follow the link to read the full article.

asters with monarchs

Fall-blooming asters provide vital food for migrating monarchs. (Doug Tallamy/“Nature’s Best Hope”)