9) Local Native Plant Gardens Promote a Personal Connection to our Natural Areas

The next advantage of using local native plants concerns one's personal connection to nature. This advantage ties in directly with one of the biggest advantages of living in San Diego. Compared to most cities, San Diego is unique in the extent to which our urban and suburban areas are threaded by canyons and other open spaces that actually still have remnants of original native plants communities. It is not surprising then that living with a garden populated with local native plants can deepen one's sense of connection to the natural areas that surround us. What was surprising for me to discover is that this process is reciprocal: the more one learns from watching and living around the native plants in one's garden, the more one appreciates seeing them and learning how they behave in their natural setting, which perceptions, in turn, teach one how to look anew at the plants in one's garden.

An ironic, but possible danger from the growth of this connection is that, for some people the process can end up limiting their appreciation of the typical exotic plants which make up most of our neighbor's gardens.  It's as if one comes to a new aesthetic sensibility based on the beauty of our local flora which, as it grows, depreciates the attraction of exotics. Eventually, exotics may not only become less attractive, but start to appear as out-of-place representatives of a facade that is being maintained at the expense of our environment. For other people, learning to love native plants simply deepens their love for all living things and restrictions they follow on the use of exotics stem from practical or moral considerations. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please feel free to contact us by e-mail at northparknativeplants@yahoo.com or by phone at 619-846-0585. We look forward to hearing from you. To Next Benefit Page