The native plants in a region define that place. Our relationship with those plants gives us a sense of identity. How we treat those plants in turn reflects back on the way we think of ourselves. People need to stop trying to pretend that they live somewhere else. Stop trying to emulate corny Victorian to English gardens or Spanish colonial crap. You will drain your aquifers (and your financial reserves) doing so.

Under a first-of-its-kind municipal ordinance, developers will be required to use plant species native to the region in future landscape plans for public and private projects in Encinitas. [...]

Mayor Bruce Ehlers said codifying the ordinance places it on the same footing as other design requirements, including fire safety. He added that it does not add new steps to the process but formalizes how native plants are addressed in projects that already require a landscape plan.

“I’m a native plant nerd and I’m amazed at the number of residents in Encinitas that are into native plants,” Ehlers said. [...]

“Native plants are not only beautiful, they are the foundation of all native wildlife,” Klopp said. “They sustain our native bees, butterflies, and other pollinators whom the city has previously committed to protecting through the Bee City USA program. They protect our lagoons by reducing runoff and eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. And once established, they use a fraction of the water of conventional ornamental landscapes.”

City Council Ordinance No. 2026-07 unanimously approved the ordinance 5-0 with two recommended modifications:

https://www.encinitasca.gov/government/departments/development-services/policy-planning-housing/policy-planning/native-plant-ordinance

Does anyone know what were those recommendations? I couldn't easily find it, nor do i want to watch a 5h city council meeting

Besides, does anyone know any other city with similar initiatives?

Bill was introduced in Sep/25, but I only got a whiff of it in the last couple of weeks

See House Bill HB1878: https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/pa/2025-2026/bills/PAB00038963/

Are there any other states/countries taking similar initiatives?

Summary:

Pennsylvania homeowners deserve the right to choose native plant species they desire for landscaping around their homes. However, work is needed to remove bottlenecks for homeowners to select native vegetation for their desired landscaping.

This legislation will prevent homeowners associations (HOAs) from unreasonably prohibiting the use of native plants for landscaping on private property. This ensures homeowners residing within an HOA the same ability to choose native landscaping as other homeowners.

Native plants provide many beneficial functions that many homeowners desire. These include being aesthetically pleasing and providing habitat for pollinators while being adapted to the site and typically requiring lower maintenance than non-native plants. [...]

I'm not affiliated with Wild Ones other than thinking they're cool but they have several US cities worth of native garden design plans on their website!

In the Wild Ones National Webinar Rethinking Horticulture with Real Ecology, field botanist and science communicator Joey Santore, creator of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, examines how inherited design norms like straight lines, uniform spacing, tidy edges, and color-grouped plantings shape expectations for native landscapes.

Thanks to @greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net for posting a reminder a few days ago :)

Event Details

Title: Rethinking Horticulture with Real Ecology Presenter: Joey Santore Date: Wednesday, March 18 Time: 7 p.m. ET | 6 p.m. CT | 5 p.m. MT | 4 p.m. PT Format: YouTube Live premiere, link provided with registration Recording: A recording will be shared following the live event

An introduction to drought tolerant, Xeriscape design for the home gardener. Learn through the 7 principles of Xeriscape how to plan, design, implement, and maintain a decorative and sustainable landscape that thrives with little to no irrigation.

Stolen from: https://climatejustice.social/@lacybarry/116132309371603955

Garden aesthetics and how we got here

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/55494393

In 2013, Nicole and Dan Virgil lived in a lush, affluent suburb of Chicago. Dan had a good job. Nicole home-schooled their two kids.

Nicole decided to plant her own garden. She and her husband Dan, an engineer, don’t do things by half-measures. They watched YouTube videos on gardening, checked books out of the library and drew up plans. They built a raised bed and dug a wicking reservoir under it lined to store stormwater and drain the swampy, clay soils. They experimented with two plots. They dropped seeds directly into the spaded-up lawn and other seeds into a fertilized raised bed. Most seeds rotted in the clay soils of the lawn. Those that germinated did not thrive in the nutrient-poor earth, but the seeds in the raised bed sprang up in a few days and thrived, producing in coming months vegetables of deep vibrant colors that were delicious.

Autumn comes swiftly to Chicagoland. The Virgils hated to stop gardening. On the web, Nicole noticed farmers in Maine extended the growing season with long, plastic tunnels called hoop houses. You can buy hoop house kits for a couple of hundred dollars, but the Virgils are DIY people. Dan drew up plans for a wood frame connected with PVC pipes. He shored up the supports so the tunnel could withstand 80 mph winds and heavy snow loads. He carefully calculated the height and width of the tunnel to maximize the buildup of passive solar heating inside. They located the hoop house in the middle of the backyard, so it was not visible from the street.

The one thing the Virgils did not think about was the city’s zoning board. Dan and Nicole had lived in Elmhurst for several decades. Elmhurst is a town of squat, white-trimmed, yellow-brick ranch houses placed in the center of spacious lots like iced pastries on a tray. Green lawns frame the houses. The lawns are largely unfenced, rolling along block after block, connecting one neighbor to another, a green communal thread. The Virgils saw neighbors build hockey rinks in their front yards and assemble trampolines and outdoor living rooms in their backyards. They figured the hoop house fell in the same category of a temporary recreational structure. They didn’t count on one neighbor calling the city, asking if the hoop house needed a permit.

One day, they came home to find a Property Maintenance Violation Notice on their front door. The city required a permit for their “greenhouse.” The Virgils stopped building. Dan went down to City Hall and explained their goal—to extend the growing season for a few months. They were not building a greenhouse. They’d take the hoop house down in the spring. He came away with the understanding that as long as the tunnel was temporary, it was ok, like the skating rinks and summer cabanas.

This article is the first in a series, the rest are below:

• Choosing the BEST Native Plants
• Selecting Specific Natives for your Garden
• Where to purchase Native Plants
• Know before you buy Native Plant Seeds

These committed homeowners, in Arizona - USA, are transforming their barren front yard to bird and pollinator habitat adding desert shrubs and native flowering plants.

This property created an gorgeous xeriscape adding 21 native plants which has already attracted 15 insects species (8 of which are pollinators), a variety of reptiles and more than 20 new birds were seen enjoying the new landscape.

This is what it looked like before:

Source: https://www.birdcount.org/arizona-2025/

Here is a small corner which is now teeming with life! With some thought and planning, sometimes several species can be grown close together to create a stunning visual impact in a previously uninspiring spot.

An Alberta gardener set this corner alight with colorful native flowers

Source: https://www.gardenforbirds.org/what-about-this-spot-advice-on-garden-issues/

As mentioned by CompactFlax:

Despite the captions Hemerocallis is not native to North America, but serves here as a colourful addition, adding some red depth.

Sticking only to native plants doesn’t always give a pleasing result (especially in more extreme climates); it’s perfectly ok to mix them in with nonnative (noninvasive) species to add some variety. Having some native plants is better than a manicured lawn and entirely nonnative species!

The pictured Quebec garden walkway is vibrant with native flowers mixed in with some non-native ornamentals.

Many suburban properties have small garden beds tucked between a walkway and the house. With the right plant choices, these can provide wonderful little oases for native plants and the insects that depend on them. Selecting low-growing species can be prudent for these spots. In snowy regions, make sure you consider where you may need to pile snow to keep access routes safe – woody species can be easily damaged by piling snow and may benefit from some protection, but herbaceous plants will be tucked safely underground by winter.

Source: https://www.gardenforbirds.org/what-about-this-spot-advice-on-garden-issues/

Just some inspiration for folks out there

Non YT link: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=8b6_ugrl_Vs
Starts at 13:03

An anonymous neighbor wanted to control the appearance of my yard without speaking directly to me. So whoever they are, they filed a report that I have weeds and I was cited.

I wanted to understand what law was being used against me, so I looked it up. It turns out the law is in a body of statutes covering health and public safety. So my 1st thought is: that’s bizarre.. an ugly plant is a health issue?

WTF is a “weed”?

In common language most people are making a value judgment by regarding ugly plants as weeds. But the legal definition is not so subjective. It’s plants that have toxins and allergens. So things like Poison Ivy. The law names 6 or so examples but is not limited to those.

So the law is perhaps reasonably written to control health hazards, not so people can control the appearance of other people’s property. But the enforcers were either clueless about this or they were intellectually dishonest in hopes that those cited would naively create a pretty landscape for the demanding neighbor without first reading the law.

I might have been willing to do a landscape had the process of telling me the yard looks ugly not been as rude as sending cops to bully me.

A citation generally saying “you have weeds” is likely typically a false accusation. They should be writing on the citation exactly which plant specie is toxic or hazardous, just as a speeding ticket says how fast you were measured at.

Guys, we finally have a wiki! It's definitely a work in progress! If you want the full wiki you can see the NoLawns Reddit Wiki.

A curated list by YardFarmer