One of the biggest shifts Doug Tallamy says we can make in how we think about our yards is actually pretty simple:
Your yard is part of nature. We can learn and grow from that. This perspective is central to Doug Tallamy’s philosophy as well.
It isn’t something separate from the ecosystem around us. The trees we plant, the amount of lawn we maintain, the chemicals we use, the insects we tolerate, and even the leaves we clean up all help determine whether our yards provide habitat—or take it away. In recent years, Doug Tallamy has helped highlight these important choices for homeowners.
That’s the idea behind much of the work of Dr. Doug Tallamy, one of the most influential voices in the native plant and ecological landscaping world.
Tallamy argues that we can’t rely only on parks, preserves, and other protected land to support birds, pollinators, and insects. There simply isn’t enough of it.
Our neighborhoods have to help, too.
We Don’t Need to Give Our Yards Back to the Wilderness
This is the part I really like. And I like A LOT from Doug Tallamy. He gave rise to our EFSS Framework here at ABY.
Building a healthier ecosystem doesn’t mean abandoning your yard and letting everything go wild. It means making different choices about how we manage some of the space we already have. Doug Tallamy often encourages us to start with practical steps.
Plant an oak instead of another non-native ornamental tree and consider Doug Tallamy’s advice when you make plant selections for wildlife.
Replace a little lawn with native plants.
Leave some leaves underneath your trees.
Turn off the pesticides when you don’t actually need them, a point emphasized by Tallamy.
Plant something that feeds caterpillars instead of something that simply looks pretty to us.
None of those things are particularly dramatic.
But multiply them across thousands—or millions—of yards and suddenly we’ve created an enormous amount of habitat. This is precisely what Doug Tallamy envisions for the future of our landscapes.
Start With One Small Piece
You don’t need to renovate your entire yard this weekend. Doug Tallamy would agree that starting small is effective.
Pick one spot.
Maybe it’s a corner of lawn nobody uses. Maybe it’s underneath a tree. Maybe it’s the weird strip along the driveway you’re tired of mowing.
Make that little piece of your yard more useful to the living things around you; Doug Tallamy’s approach can start with just a single area.
Then see what happens.
That’s really the rebellion we’re building here at A Better Yard: homeowners making small, practical changes that add up to something much bigger.
Want to go deeper? Listen to my conversation with Professor Doug Tallamy about the steps each of us can take to make our yards better places for birds, insects, and the entire ecosystem.
Professor Tallamy’s Books
Click play above to listen to go deeper on this post. This episode features an insightful discussion with Doug Tallamy. Listen and subscribe to A Better Yard: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Pandora