What will the neighbors think?

21 October 2008 Prev Next

Planting a garden that will appeal to birds and butterflies is easy: go native.

But you may be surprised to learn that, given a choice, most people find well-designed native gardens more attractive than a standard-issue lawn, according to research conducted in Michigan and California. The Michigan studies also found that people are willing to pay more for a native landscape (although an Illinois study found that larger-scale native landscapes cost significantly less to install and maintain than lawns). The key to gaining public acceptance of ecologically beneficial gardens is what Joan Nassauer of the University of Michigan calls “cues to care.”

Basically, when someone looks at the garden, they should think “someone is taking care of this,” not “someone abandoned this.”

Professor Nassauer defines cues to care as evidence of human intention and good stewardship of nature. Such cues appeal to people and are a way for them to perceive something familiar and, in turn, come to care. For instance, a neat, orderly landscape looks intentional. But a jumble of plants that only a plant collector (or a butterfly) could love doesn't offer a point of reference and appears unkempt.

Why should you care what other people think? Particularly for public landscapes and houses that change hands, an ecologically beneficial landscape must be culturally sustainable. In other words, according to Nassauer's research, public perception, not environmental value, determines whether a landscape will receive the continuing care it needs to be successful. It has to gain public acceptance, or else a conventional landscape may replace it.

Your own native garden may inspire people in your neighborhood to also plant oases of native plants if they perceive it as attractive. Some gardens are hard to appreciate until the gardener has a chance to explain their features. For any garden style to be culturally sustainable, it should need no introduction or explanation.

Unfortunately, the few times I've seen native gardens in the news, they appear to be wild gardens that provide a lovely haven for wildlife but don't offer any cues to care.

If you're planning to make your own front yard a haven for wildlife, the basic cues to care include a well kept and regularly maintained landscape, with nothing that can be perceived as junk or weeds. Don't clutter your front yard with too many features, but consider some of the following elements, which communicate cues to care.

Showy flowering plants, with some larger flowers, rather than all greenery.
Wildlife feeders and houses to denote a wildlife habitat.
Bold patterns, or a strong edge treatment to frame a wilder area.
Hardscape elements such as fences, lawn ornaments, or color.
Foundation plantings that don't block doors or windows.
Trimmed rather than overgrown shrubs.

These ideas may seem obvious, but walk around any neighborhood with the cues to care in mind and see how many conventional front gardens look abandoned and uncared-about even though they are regularly mown and blown.