How We’re Changing the Conversation

Our Philosophy (aka, why we all should Favor Native plants)

We believe in the beauty and benefit of using plants that are ecologically adapted to thrive where we live, while incorporating non-native yet non-harmful plants that have helped define our American garden style. Once beneficial plants start making their way back into our everyday landscape, the butterflies, bees, and birds will return too. The typical home landscape today often has very little to offer the very things that make our natural world interesting; the things that we may have to go to a park or state forest to find.

Native plants do better where they are meant to grow, requiring little to no watering and fussing with as they mature. At the same time, they support the butterflies, bees, birds, and other animals that we have come to accept as what makes our home recognizable to us and distinct from other places. Native plants are the foundation for making where we live special.“Native” is a wide-reaching term, with the most widely accepted definition being any plant that was naturally occurring in our state or wider region before European arrival.

We can’t talk about native plants without mentioning invasive plants. Invasive plants are species that have been introduced to our area from other parts of the world. Invasive is an official designation provided by state governments to label species that directly harm our natural environment and take enormous financial resources to manage. They take space, water, and light from our native species, while at the same time not providing any benefit to the animals who live here. Because these plants are living outside the environment they adapted in, there are no natural forces here to keep them in check, as the native species here are kept in check by the insects and other animals adapted to use them.

Finally, there exist many non-native yet non-harmful plants which can be used to add beauty to your landscape. While they may provide little to no natural benefit outside their beauty, when used in moderation they can add wonderful impact in your property’s appearance and win over neighbors and skeptics to the potentially less-recognizable native species in your landscape design.

There is a happy medium that can exist by using native plants and other classic non-invasive garden plants in the landscape. Favor Native makes environmentally-focused garden design easy, and we have a passion for bringing nature back to where we are, every day.

Ready to jump in? Take a look at our Pricing + Services.