It’s not news that more and more gardeners are trying their hand at landscaping with native plants in recent years—often by converting a piece of lawn to something more diverse as a first step. But how’s it going?

An environmental nonprofit headquartered in the Western U.S. fielded a survey recently of native plant gardeners to find out from them what worked (like sheet mulching with cardboard, below) and what didn’t – and what they wished they’d known before they got started, and more.

The Gardening for Nature Survey report, prepared by the Institute for Applied Ecology in collaboration with Design Native Northwest landscape design company, is just out, and one of its authors is my guest today.

I talked with Tom Kaye, the founder and chief scientist of the Institute for Applied Ecology, about some of the takeaways from the recent Gardening for Nature Survey. He is an associate professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State, and his research and policy work focus on endangered species conservation, habitat restoration, pollination biology, and responding to global change.

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