Gillette's Habitat GardenTallamy’s case for turning “plant natives” into a plan for your own yard.
Gear and Plant Sourcing
The tools and nurseries I use on this property. I only list what I own or would plant here.
As a Lowe's Partner I earn from qualifying purchases.
Disclosure: the TikTok Shop, Lowe's, Garden for Wildlife, and Bookshop.org links may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. The other nursery links are not affiliate links.
01
Garden and home gear
Everything in my TikTok Shop showcase is something I own and use, in this yard or in my house.
Browse my gear on TikTokLowe's
Tools and supplies for planting, weeding, and working clay soil.
Shop at Lowe’s02
Plant sourcing
Live in Franklin County? Get $50 toward native plants
Franklin Soil and Water's Community Backyards program gives you a $50 voucher for native plants, a rain barrel, or a compost bin after a free workshop, online or in person. You can do it once a year. Check the program page to confirm your area participates.
Learn about Community BackyardsCentral Ohio native nurseries
I have bought most of the plants in this yard from these three.
Central Ohio garden centers
I have bought native plants from all three, both straight species and nativars. They also carry non-native plants, so verify before going by the tag: check the scientific name and native status before you buy.
Online native seed and plants
- Garden for Wildlife (National Wildlife Federation, affiliate link): native plants shipped to the lower 48 states.
- Prairie Moon Nursery
- Prairie Nursery
- Everwilde
03
Books
Linked through Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores. I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Gardening for habitat
Why native plants support insects, and why birds need those insects.
A month-by-month look at the life an oak supports and how to care for one.
Native plants and pollinators
Designing dense, layered plantings that work like natural communities.
A pocket guide to common native bees and their look-alikes.
Photo IDs and foodplants for eastern caterpillars: “what is eating my plant.”
A forage reference for flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees, native and non-native.
Wetland books
How wetlands form and function, with a field guide to plants, soils, and animals.
A flora for wet meadows, marshes, fens, and swamps, with photos and wetland codes.
The standard wetland science text on hydrology, soils, and ecology.
Nature classics
Leopold’s land ethic and the case for paying attention to your own patch of ground.
The book on pesticide harm that every no-spray yard owes something to.
A Citizen Potawatomi botanist on what plants teach when science and Indigenous knowledge meet.