The Value in Growing Natives
At Kerby’s Nursery, we take our gardens and our ecosystems seriously. This doesn’t mean we can’t have fun in our gardens. What it does mean is that we want to find ways to encourage diverse communities of plants, insects, and animals to populate our Tampa Bay community. Biodiversity provides us with food and medicine, cleans our water and air, prevents flooding, and more. We want those things, and we bet you do, too.
One way to promote biodiversity is through planting and growing Florida native plants in our local gardens. We have been inspired by the Homegrown National Park® movement, cofounded by Doug Tallamy and Michelle Alfandari, which has as its goal to create “20 million acres of native plantings in the U.S.”1 Tallamy, an entomologist and professor of agriculture at the University of Delaware, recognized that wildlife populations are declining due to the disappearance of native plants to support their habitats. His solution is to plant more natives. His book, Nature’s Best Hope, demonstrates how homeowners can turn their gardens and yards into “conservation corridors” that serve as natural environments for wildlife, thus creating “homegrown national parks.”2
We have designated a piece of our land here at Kerby’s Nursery for our own “homegrown national park” where we are growing native plants and fostering wildlife. We are excited – native plants include beautiful blooms and foliage, and because they tend to be low maintenance, they save time and money. We’d love to show our “national park” to you! And we hope you’ll join us by adding natives to your gardens. Visit our Florida Native Plants page for ideas.
Anybody can sell you plants, we make sure you succeed.