At Home with Nature

Conventional home landscaping practices and products have contributed to insect loss, put our waters at risk, reduced bird populations, and allowed invasive plants to run rampant—but none of this is inevitable! There are practical, cost-effective alternatives that encourage native plants and the creatures that depend on them. For more than 50 years, Orleans Conservation Trust has preserved and managed properties in ways that emphasize native plants and create biodiverse habitats. And we are a proud partner in the Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod movement. But we only control 700 acres: most of the land in Orleans is in private hands.

Sharing what we’ve learned, OCT’s At Home with Nature initiative gives homeowners information and tools to practice nature-friendly landscaping. You’ll learn about native plants—a vital component of healthy home landscapes that provide food and nesting habitats for our beautiful local birds and critters. By cultivating native trees, shrubs, and perennials, and removing invasive, non-native species, we can avoid using pesticides and thus help pollinators thrive. Smaller lawns that can be mowed and watered less often are part of the solution, and ideally homeowners will come to appreciate the benefits of a true Cape Cod lawn. All these practices will help you save time and money and reduce the use of water—our most precious shared resource.

Invasive species did not evolve in our region, so they are not controlled by our local natural mechanisms. They pose a threat to our local ecosystems by quickly outcompeting, displacing, and killing our native species. Invasive plants can be very fast-growing, difficult to remove due to extended root systems and seed longevity, and can even self-pollenate in some cases. They are called invasive for a reason!

By removing invasive plants, you will create room for native plants to grow—they will happily take over the empty space. Invasive plants not only take up space you want for your natives to thrive, but they can also change the soil make up—certain invasive and non-native plants release chemicals that will impact the success of plants around them.

Finally, invasive plants do not feed our local food web. Our insects need native plants, and our birds need insects to live. Our birds also want to eat local seeds and berries, and native wildlife depends on diverse local flora for nesting habitat.

Having trouble identifying invasive plants? Join one of our OCT walks to learn how to identify plants in the field. Or click here for a list of invasives on Cape Cod.

Need help getting rid of invasive plants? Check out this OCT presentation that tells you how to handle your invasives.

Native plants are better suited to our local soils, are drought resistant, less susceptible to disease, and have adapted to our local insect population. Native plants are used to our climate—they grow with less work and less water.

Did you know that if you have just 70% natives on your property, you can stabilize your wildlife habitat? Natives play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance, and provide habitat and food. If you’re sick of seeing just starlings and house sparrows, a native landscape will attract a much larger variety of beautiful birds.

Speaking of beauty, native plants enhance the natural appeal of landscapes, reflecting regional identity. Native plants support a pollinator's life cycle and support insect habitat year-round, while giving us color from early spring through the fall. Their adaptation to local conditions often leads to low-maintenance gardens, reducing or eliminating the need for irrigation or fertilizers and providing a visually appealing and sustainable alternative to non-native species. And if you’re trying to create a thriving vegetable garden, native plants attract native pollinators that will cross-pollinate your plants.

Click here for a list of native plants, and check out the Pollinator Pathways Cape Cod list for native plants especially picked for attracting pollinators to your yard.

Remember fireflies? Love bluebirds? Your landscaping practices can transform your yard into a wildlife-friendly habitat. Planting native flora provides food and shelter for local wildlife, attracting birds, insects, and other species in ways that non-native plants will not. Changing your landscape to include a variety of natives will increase beauty while creating a food web—native insects eating “bad” insects and birds having many more bugs to eat.

Creating vegetation layers with plants that reach different heights, incorporating water features, and leaving some areas untamed can mimic natural ecosystems, supporting biodiversity. Native landscaping also eliminates the need for pesticides or fertilizers, fostering a healthier environment for insects crucial to the food web.

Don’t forget native trees! Not only does planting more native trees support your local wildlife, it also cools temperatures for your summer fun. Speaking of trees, when heavy rain events occur, trees help slow the effect torrents have on your property and help filtrate and regenerate the water back into our shared water table.

Check out some of our favorite local wildlife species, and become the envy of your neighborhood by becoming part of Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod.

There are a variety of lawn care practices that will help you create a more natural environment while keeping space for your kids and pets to play, enjoying sunset in your favorite Adirondack chair, or hosting that corn hole tournament. Just changing your mowing schedule from once a week to once every two or three weeks and eliminating herbicide applications (or changing to organic solutions) will attract a much greater diversity of pollinators by allowing weeds in your lawn to flower before mowing.

Did you know that yards take up 7 times the space that open natural land does? Imagine the impact homeowners like you can have by reducing the size of your lawn. Not to mention that a smaller lawn saves time, money and water, our most precious natural resource here on Cape Cod. Try removing a section of “turf” lawn and creating a wildflower picking garden. Or plant a variety of white or Dutch clover—while not a native plant, it is naturalized in New England and makes a positive addition to a traditional lawn by using less water and attracting native bees. Or create groupings of native shrubs and colorful perennials to replace patches of lawn—creating native plant "islands" around your home.

A recent OCT talk featured Dr. Susannah Lerman of the US Forest Service. Her research indicates that residential landscapes, including untreated grass lawns, can be habitat for bees and pollinators, if mown less frequently.

If you’re still looking for that landscaped yard, “neat and native” is the way to go!

You can control undesirable insects such as ticks and mosquitos without using pesticides by attracting wildlife that naturally feeds on them. Birds such as Blue Jays, American Robins, and Eastern Bluebirds eat a huge number of insects. Dragonflies eat a huge number of mosquitos and other flying insects such as gnats—you can attract dragonflies by adding a water feature, planting flowers that attract them such as Black-Eyed Susan or Joe Pye Weed, and providing a shrub layer for them to perch and hide from birds.

Contrary to popular belief, a longer lawn does not attract more ticks. You can mow less often without bringing any more ticks to your lawn.

Be sure to follow the basics when out working in the yard: wear loose clothing that covers your skin, tuck your pants into your socks, and wear light colors that make ticks more visible. Did you know that changing your diet can make you less attractive to ticks? A diet high in garlic, onions, and sources of vitamin B1 (thiamin), such as tuna, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and leafy greens, can alter your body chemistry to make you less tasty to ticks. Finally, use an all-natural tick and mosquito repellent.

The easy answer is, as much as you want to give. For example, start by digging up a small section of lawn and spreading some wildflower seed—but be sure to give it a few years to really thrive. Or replace any plants that die off in your perennial beds with beautiful natives. Over time you can convert to a helpful level (70%) of native plants. Many native plants will also self-seed and over time will expand in your garden—or you can harvest the seeds and plant them elsewhere in your yard at no cost.

You will save money on water and landscaping services by mowing less often, using native plants that take less care in our natural environment, and getting more for your money in your vegetable garden if it is helped along by more pollinators in your yard.

When it comes to managing invasives, start by managing just one area of your property that is most important to you, or managing just one type of invasive that is affecting your property badly (for example, English Ivy and Oriental Bittersweet vines that are strangling and killing valued trees).

Need help? Tell your landscaper that you want to go native and use fewer, if any chemicals on your property. Eliminating the chemical applications will save you money! Switching to an organic alternative, with fewer applications, may be less expensive. Ask if they can help you develop a native landscape plan that you adopt over time. Or perhaps you have a new home, and you can create a comprehensive native landscape that you implement all at once. There are ecological landscape designers on Cape Cod who can assist in designing and implementing a habitat-friendly landscape.

Your first step is most likely going to be doing an assessment of your current property. What are your environment types (just lawn and garden beds, a mix of shrubs and trees with lawn, etc.) and how do you want to change them based on the information you’ve read about creating natural habitats? What kinds of invasives are present on your property?

Attend an OCT walk to learn how to identify invasive plants or use one of many popular apps on your phone, like “Seek” from iNaturalist or “Picture This.” Once you have figured out what you have, you can determine how to manage them. You can get a great introduction to managing invasives by watching this presentation or get tips specific to invasive type here.

If you’re looking for lists of native plants and where to buy them, check out the links at the bottom of this page.

Set a goal. Do you want to become part of the Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod?  Do you want to attract more interesting birds? Do you want to attract all sorts of wildlife? Create the natural space that is best for you. And keep checking the OCT web site for monthly tips and tricks and lists of informative walks and talks. We are here to help!