We Can Make 
Start Digging! 
a Difference. 

By Gillian Field 
HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK™ is a 
movement taking off across the country to 
increase native plants in our own yards and 
on the grounds of our churches, schools, 
and businesses. No matter how small, your 
contribution can support our entire ecosystem. 
HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK™ is a 
grass-roots organization that is an outgrowth of 
research by Douglas Tallamy and others (Adler 
2020). Tallamy helps us understand that non- 
native plants (predominant in our yards) do not 
offer the same benefits as the native plants 
that they displace. And when some of these 
nonnatives become dominant and invasive 
(which they can do when they escape from our 
gardens unnoticed and exponentially spread), 
native plants cannot reestablish themselves. 
The message is clear: our quality of life is 
dependent on how quickly we can reduce our 
lawn area and switch the majority of our non- 
native plant base to native plants from our region. 
This change in our landscape will increase the 
ability of our pollinators, birds, wildlife, and native 
ecosystems to thrive. 
Tallamy argues that private property owners are 
in the best position to increase the native plant 
base of the country as a whole. This increase of 
native plants in our yards will, bit by bit, become 
so large that it will be the equivalent of adding 
many national parks throughout the country. Thus 
the name ‘Homegrown’ National Parks. 
What does this mean for your yard? As you are 
making landscape choices, consider the bigger 
picture and the significance of the plants you 
have chosen. Whether your property blends into a 
native habitat or your yard is nestled in the center 
of a high-density urban area, be sure your non- 
native ornamental plants aren’t escaping beyond 
your intended design area. Learn which plants 
in your yard are non-native and invasive and, as 
you can, replace these with plants native to your 
region. 
In some cases it can seem a hard decision to 
cull and replace your non-natives with natives, 
but an understanding that non-native plants fail 
to support our diverse wildlife and are degrading 
Indiana forests, wetlands, and even our quality of 
life, may prove persuasive. 
HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK™ is about 
reducing non-native plants and lawns and adding 
native trees, shrubs, flowers, ferns, and ground 
cover adapted to climate conditions that have 
evolved with insects and animals in your area one 
connected yard to another. Learn more at www. 
homegrownnationalpark.org/ and add to the map. 
Gillian Field is a member of the South Central 
Chapter of INPS and MC-IRIS (Monroe County 
— Identify and Reduce Invasive Species). 
She published a version of this article in the 
Bloomington Herald-Times on April 17, 2021. 

Reference 
Adler, J. 2020 (April). Meet the ecologist who 
wants you to unleash the wild on your 
backyard. Smithsonian Magazine. https:/ 
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ 
meet-ecologist-who-wants-unleash-wild- 
backyard-180974372/. 
Homegrown National Park™ is a term coined by Douglas Tallamy. 
“Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale, are 
too small and separated from one another to preserve 
species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for 
Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to 
restore habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser 
extent where we farm and graze, extending national 
parks to our yards and communities.” 



HOMEGROWN 
NATIONAL PARK” 

Bio wiedjeuoneuumos/bawioy 
Summer 2021 « Indiana Native Plant Society - 3 
