By: Yunshuo Li

Our houses all have yards and lawns, but most lawns are only made of grass native to England. These grasses have adapted to England’s climate, so they take up a lot of water.

These plants also don’t grow well in many parts of the U.S., making people use fertilizers, which is very bad. Planting native plants and having a diverse garden helps create a healthier ecosystem, and there will be food for insects and animals, creating biodiversity, and native plants have adapted to the climate of their homeland, so they need less water. Plus, having a diverse garden instead of a lawn full of only grass also beautifies the space. Wildflowers can now grow, instead of being treated as weeds in a typical lawn. These flowers create food and shelter for other creatures because they are not sprayed with weed killers or other harmful chemicals. Having a diverse lawn also helps more plants to live, so they can create more oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide, thus helping make the air quality better. There are many pros to lawns that are more diverse, and more people should have lawns that are more diverse in plant species, so I hope more people would consider growing more native plants.