You seldom need to water them, and they don’t require much in the way of fertilizer, either.
It feels like a dream, but it doesn’t have to be.
The first step is to lure pollinators, which are necessary for the production of flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Planting them creates food deserts for native bees, birds, bats, butterflies, moths and beetles, all of which are necessary for a healthy ecosystem.
If you think about it, our lives depend entirely on insects: Without them, we would have no flowering plants, which would dismantle the food web that supports vital animals.
Without them, the biosphere – the living portion of the earth, which includes soil – would rot, due to the loss of insect decomposers, and humans simply couldn’t survive that, Tallamy says.
That means less watering, less fertilizing, less fussing.
The good news is we get to decide what we plant in our own gardens.