Rewild Your Yard: Help pollinators while reaping the health benefits of “un-gardening”
In 2008, 2010 and 2011, Verna Gates fought city hall and triumphed each time.
Her transgression? Letting her front yard in a historic, urban Birmingham, Ala., neighborhood go wild with more-than-foot-high native roses, irises, azalea saplings, tiger lilies, columbines, rose campions and daisy fleabanes, in violation of a local ordinance.
“Three sheriff’s cars were waiting to issue an arrest citation to a middle-aged woman for my unruly yard,” Gates says, recounting the story with a laugh. “I thought it was quite beautiful.”
Cultivating your own garden
Gates is a wildflower gardener, self-taught ethnobotanist and served as the president of the now-defunct Birmingham Wildflower Society for 12 years. Alabama ranks in the top five U.S. states for biodiversity.
“I have multiple rare and endangered species growing wild in my yard,” she says. “Those plants are essential food and forage for multiple species. My Alabama snow-wreath is one of the rarest plants in North America, federally protected and only grows in three counties in Alabama — nowhere else.”
The city was entrenched in its position, but Gates was equally stalwart, unwilling to cut back the growth. The community rallied. A local lawyer volunteered to help, and Gates brought in experts from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Southern Living magazine, a landscape designer, a botany professor and the neighborhood president to testify on her behalf.
Gates was ahead of her time. And research shows that time’s running out for the insects, birds, bees and other creatures who call a wild garden home.
A 2019 Cornell University study found that bird populations are severely down — a staggering 2.9 million breeding pairs have been lost since 1970. Bees are also struggling, with some populations suffering up to a 96 percent decline.
And in December 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed adding the beloved monarch butterfly to the endangered species list.
But thankfully, consciousness is catching up.
“Native, rewilded spaces are attuned to support species up and down the food chain where you live,” Gates says. “I can plant an oak tree from New York in Alabama, but it won’t have acorns when the squirrels need them (since squirrels mate at different times in Alabama than New York).
Redefining what is beautiful
“Rewilding is learning about the native flora and fauna that evolved in your particular region and doing your best to create habitat in human spaces that allow native plants that serve local fauna,” explains Jared McKinley, co-owner of Spadefoot Nursery in Tucson, Ariz.
He says 75 percent of his customers are interested in rewilding, due to diligent educational efforts and a general spike in awareness. “The unique Sonoran Desert inspires people (to think) beyond a landscape that is human-dominated,” McKinley says.
But it does require a new way of appreciating outdoor spaces, especially for those who’ve lived in very manicured environments.
“Some people may have a hard time because it means letting go of so much control,” McKinley says. “People expect plants to be ‘perfect’ all the time: no dead leaves, no bugs. But plants aren’t isolated beings. They are organisms that have been shaped by the ecology of their region, other organisms and the climate.”
For best results, McKinley urges gardeners to seek out local retail nurseries, especially those that shun pesticides, instead of buying plants from corporate growers. “The nursery industry is actually quite toxic. It can be a real challenge to find growers who don’t use pesticides.”
Chemical-free flora is critically important for the health of all beings.
“Any manicured lawn is a monoculture, a chemically addicted wasteland. It’s basically a dead zone for insects and wildlife,” Gates says.
Going along with nature
The first thing you must do, Gates recommends, is to let whatever area you designate actually go wild. “Don’t mow for six or eight months and see what comes up.” The only plants she pulls are invasives and grass.
Gates has three ecosystems on her quarter-acre: a sunny front yard, a shady back plot and a small wetland garden on one side. Within it, she grows more than 40 species of plants.
Research has consistently shown that natural environments are good for the mental health of adults and positively impact neurodivergent children.
“Kids are drawn to my garden, to play with the caterpillars, watch the butterflies and see the bees,” Gates says. “Our migrating birds are really struggling. We need to help these animals along. I’m one of the few places they can stop and get food in the middle of the city.”
Gates has encouraged others to adopt a wider perspective of what a lovely yard looks like.
“Throughout the seasons, you have beautiful flowers in bloom, but you also have grey, dry flowers. You need to learn how to live with something less than pretty. I grow a native sunflower that is looking very tall and rangy right now. But I don’t deadhead it because the seeds are an important part of nature’s cycle. Migrating American goldfinches rely on them.”
McKinley agrees. “Plants have more meaning when considered as part of a whole (ecosystem),” he says.
That means year-round delight.
“My yard hums with life,” Gates says. “I’ve got bees and birds and butterflies and skinks and salamanders. Wildflowers return like forever friends if you let them.”