Why California Native Plants are Important
When folks hear that I’m super into native plants, one of the first questions they ask is: why native plants?
Why are California native plants so important?
I’m so glad you asked, it’s one of my favorite subjects! 😉 Here’s a roundup of some of the reasons why I think California native plants are important:
1. Wildlife love native plants
This was my gateway into native plants. I wanted a wildlife garden and eventually, I learned that California native plants are the ticket to welcoming wildlife into my garden.
Each region develops its own ecosystem. The plants, animals, soil, and weather develop an intricately interwoven network of balance between each other. White Sage blooms just as the carpenter bee is at its busiest, which it relies on for pollination. Native narrowleaf milkweed wakes up from winter dormancy just as the monarch butterfly is ready to lay eggs on it.
If you want to welcome wildlife to your yard, plant California natives and they will come.
2. Native plants save water
Although most native plants do need a little extra irrigation during their first year or two, if you place them in the right spot they often will need little or no water beyond what they receive from nature once they get their footing.
In fact, many California native plants are prone to root rot if their roots are moist during hot weather. Since native plants are adapted to summers without rain, they don’t utilize the water in the soil during warmer months. And wet soil + warm weather = mold, which can easily kill a native plant.
If someone says they always kill their native plants, it’s probably due to overwatering in summer.
The great news: if you plant your native garden right, in time you can have a lush, green garden with nary a dent in your water bill.
3. Native plants are low-maintenance
Native plants are from here. The Rose Canyon behind my house is green all year round with chaparral plants. Nobody is irrigating or fertilizing those plants.
Because native plants are from here, they are happiest with the existing conditions just as they are. This means that with California native plants you can enjoy:
No pesticides
No fertilizers
No mowing
Less weeding
Less pruning
…and more time spent enjoying your beautiful garden!
4. Native plants are beautiful!
An unfortunate misconception about native plants is that they are downright ugly.
I won’t lie, if you plop a native plant in your yard and douse it with the same amount of water and fertilizers as folks do for nonnative plants, you’re going to wind up with an ugly plant. Or worse, your plant might up and die on you.
As mentioned above, once established, native plants don’t need a whole lot from us to be at their best. They know how to be happy in the conditions you live in since they are from where you live.
Here are a few photos of native plants from one of my strolls through the local Rose Canyon (remember, these plants are growing without any irrigation, fertilizer, or other human help):
5. Native plants are nature’s A/C unit
Plants have a natural cooling effect. I know, cool right?? (pun intended)
When we first moved into our house in 2022, almost the entire backyard was carpeted in astroturf. I’m sure I’ll make a post about the cons of synthetic turf down the road sometime. But for now, suffice it to say that our backyard was hot.
On a sunny day, synthetic turf can be 37 degrees farenheit hotter than asphalt and 86 degrees F hotter than natural turf. My dog wouldn’t hang out on the plastic green carpet, and I wouldn’t want to either!
By having native plants in your garden, not only is there an opportunity to create shade from trees to cool your yard, but plants transpire water into the air, offering a cooling effect.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, plant transpiration can lower peak summer temps by 2-9 degrees F. Oak trees, in particular, are nature’s air conditioner. They can transpire up to 40,000 gallons of water per year! All that water can help keep your garden and your home cool.
6. Native plants help with erosion control
If I had a dollar for every time I drove by a patch of iceplant that slid off a slope during a rainstorm…I’d have a lot of dollars.
California is quite hilly. Native plants are adapted to thrive in California, i.e., on hills. If you have a slope that’s eroding, your best solution is to plant natives. In time, they will interconnect to create a hillside ecosystem and steady the slope on their own.
The Theodore Payne Foundation offers a list of great native plants for erosion control here.
7. Native plants provide a balanced ecosystem
Yesterday, while hosting guests in my garden for the 2024 CNPSSD garden tour, a small gopher visited the garden and brazenly munched away at my plants within feet of visitors passing through.
Several of us watched in enjoyment at how brave this tiny critter was to go about its day while so close to the rest of us. As it munched on a young globe gilia in my garden, one of the tour guests said, “So…you’re okay with that?”
If I had a traditional lawn, I’m sure the gophers would cause chaos (I know because my neighbors wind up with big mounds of dirt dotted all over their lawns). In my California native garden, the gophers eat the weeds first (yay!). Their next favorite plant in my yard - the globe gilia, is a wildflower that reseeds so freely that I wind up pulling half of it out. I now started leaving a little extra gilia in the ground for the gopher and we’re both pretty happy with our setup.
Gophers are members of the ecosystem. Their burrows improve drainage (which minimizes erosion and flooding), they fertilize the garden from underground, and other important wildlife rely on the gopher burrows for their habitat too. They’re also an important member of the food chain, feeding owls, hawks, and many other local species.
And bonus tip: when I find a gopher mound, I immediately throw wildflower seeds on top it. The fluffy soft soil is perfect for seed sowing and the plants end up doing really well.
My garden gopher is just one example of many when it comes to balance. When we stop fighting nature and we put in plants that feel at home where we live, we invite balance. And to me, balance is a key aspect of happiness.
8. Native plants create a sense of place
When we have a native plant growing in our garden, we get to know it in a way that’s different than when we see it growing in a wild area. We might make a bouquet of native flowers from our garden or press them to enjoy for longer. We might get to witness a monarch go from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly right in our backyard. We might make a Christmas wreath from our own toyon berries.
When I engage with native plants in my yard, I feel like my yard is interconnected with the broader native space. The scrub jay doesn’t know that it’s arrived on someone’s private property, it just knows it’s found it’s favorite snack. When we plant native, the boundaries start to blur between our yards and the greater ecosystem, and it’s easier to access a spirit of generosity.
At least, those are some of the reasons why California native plants are important to me. I wonder if you have more reasons you would add too?
