Embrace Native Plants & Redress Climate Change

I've been waiting for western religion to get on the climate change bandwagon, seeing creation care as a more prominent moral & ethical issue. Love seeing Mr. Pope stand up. As climate change increases extinction rates for plants and animals, how we manage private and public landscapes is a direct response to our moral and ethical beliefs toward ourselves, one another, and all life. Choosing native plants in our gardens is certainly one way to celebrate life, to become empowered, and to connect with larger issues that might seem too big or too hopeless. Native plants stand a better chance of helping wildlife adjust to climate change and will be better adapted to climatic swings.

Don't let anyone tell you natives are "limiting," or that advocating for them is "finger wagging" or "preaching." The truth is, using native plants awakens us to our negative (and positive) role on this planet, something we don't want to address or confess; that's human nature. But when we embrace the anger, denial, grief, and loss we become something MUCH better than if we hadn't -- we become agents of super positive change, stronger, more resilient, and beacons of faith in action. Our landscapes become selfless acts of defiance. Our gardens become homecomings.