Ever heard of native plant gardening? I hadn’t until I caught a re-airing of a story about the Maricopa Native Seed Library and its founder Danielle Carlock Cowan, an inspiring woman working to preserve the Sonoran Desert and its diverse plants by focusing on what we grow in our yards, balconies, patios, and pots.

Over the years I’ve learned about the critical role of restoring grasslands to (re)establish more native grasses, forbs, and healthy ecosystems.

But I hadn’t thought as much about our own home landscapes, particularly for those living in urban environments. Native plant gardening is a way for us to create ecological yards.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Southwest desert is rapidly disappearing due to urban expansion, overdevelopment, increasing wildfires, and invasive and nonnative species. So, too, is the wildlife that has co-evolved with these landscapes.

Fortunately, there is something we all can do to help shift that trend and, not coincidentally, also shift our mindset about how we relate to the spaces where we live. And that is native plant gardening, made possible through the Maricopa Native Seed Library.

Started in August 2020, the seed library came about from Cowan’s love of the Sonoran Desert and her enthusiasm for promoting native plants and protecting wildlife after seeing the transformation of her own backyard. In 2011, she purchased a home with a bare dirt lot, and over the next 10 years, she created a thriving ecosystem with over 150 species of native plants (see the pictures below).

The seed library is a service of the Maricopa Community Colleges, with a mission to inspire and give people the tools to create habitat at home for native plants and wildlife. Seed packets are free to Maricopa Community College students, faculty, and the general public. The seed library offers over 50 species of seeds that are native supporters of wildlife and pollinators (meaning they are nectar plants or larval host plants for pollinators); native to Maricopa County or bioregionally native (meaning from adjoining ecosystems); and are not commercially available. Native plant gardening focuses on prioritizing these types of plants in whatever kind of home and yard setting, no matter how small.

To make seed germinating and planting native plants more approachable and simple, Cowan created one of the most popular seed packets called the "No fuss" sow 'em mix,” which contains 11 plant species that tend to germinate easily. People can simply throw the seeds into a gravel yard, preferably during the fall, and forget about them.

Since education is such an important component to native seed gardening, Cowan developed free educational workshops to teach people how to select, germinate, plant, and care for the native plants and seeds.

Last week, Cowan hosted one of her free educational workshops on native plant gardening at the South Mountain Community Library. Nearly a dozen of us spent the evening learning about the impact we can have by being more intentional in what we plant and promote in our yards.

The most touching moment for me during that workshop was hearing testimony from one of the Valley residents that Cowan first worked with in teaching how to gradually transform her yard from a dead landscape into a thriving mini-ecosystem. The Valley woman said native plant gardening has forever changed her.

Growing native plants from seeds, the woman said, showed her how to develop a relationship with the ecology around her - meaning, living symbiotically with plants, animals, microbes, cycles (water, mineral, stages of life), and seasons. As she watched plants begin to grow and bloom into vibrant yellow, orange, violent, and pink colors, and then attract a host of different pollinators like bees and hummingbirds, she never felt more connected to the place that she lived.

Native plant gardening helped her deepen an ethic of caring, starting with her yard and home. It also renewed her sense of wonder.

Cowan has taken a “if you build it, they will come” approach to changing what people grow in their yards, and it’s working. Since the Fall of 2020, when the native seed library began, she has given away over 25,000 seed packets. And she wants to reach more people.

With nearly five million residents living in Maricopa County, Cowan sees the immense potential of how yards and landscapes can be turned into places where our desert flora creates more livable places for wildlife and pollinators. It can also save a lot of water; choosing desert plants can reduce outdoor water use by 85%!

Finally — and what Cowan really wants others to know — native plant gardening can bring us a lot of joy.

To learn about 5 simple ways you can get started today with native plant gardening, read this extended piece that I wrote.

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