2024 Goals of Let’s Grow Native, Worthington!

  1. Create awareness in the community on the importance of planting native plants and trees in our landscapes.

  2. Engage our community and city to increase the native plant footprint in Worthington and create a “pollinator pathway” to track native gardens.

  3. Acknowledge homeowners who are already planting native plants and trees in their yards.

    Please let us know if you have a native garden (you can add your property address to the Worthington Pollinator Pathway map we are creating), you’d like to stay informed or get involved in this project. Select the link below.

 

 

Pollinator Pathway Yard Sign

Do you have native plants in your yard? Order a sign by selecting image above

 
 
 

Native Plants Information Hub

 

Why native plants?

 

Small flowering native plants, native shrubs, and trees play critical roles in helping our ecosystem: Hosting native insects, sequestering CO2 in our soil, water conservation and they do not need chemicals and require little maintenance since the plants are native to Ohio.

The vast majority, 85%, of the land east of the Mississippi is privately owned. So, property owners can play a big role in supporting ecosystem.

The typical American yard has plants that are native to Asia or Europe. Insects do not lay their eggs on those plants, so our insect population is dropping precipitously. Insects are the foundation of our ecosystem, so their loss contributes to loss throughout the food web. Other factors contribute to insect decline as well, but providing host plants or native plants, is something anyone with a piece of land, or a place to put flowerpots, can do to help reverse this precipitous decline.

Watch the video below from Homegrown National Park.

 
 
 
 

Where do I start with my own yard?

Check-out these design ideas from Wild Ones from climates closer to Ohio (Boston, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, etc.)

 
 

What birds and insects do native plants attract in Ohio?

Check-out this great document, “Backyards for Butterflies” from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife.

 
 

Where can I go to see Ohio native plants?

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources State Nature Preserves, there are 113 in Ohio, are great places to go to enjoy nature and see native plants.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What are Ohio’s native plants?

There are 231 native plants found in Ohio! Check them out by selecting the button below.

 

Where can I buy Ohio native plants?

Check-out this interactive map that includes all of the Ohio native plant growers. Support Ohio growers!