If you live in a community with an intrusive HOA, you might want to look away. A TikToker recently got quite a bit of love for showing the spectacular before-and-after photos of how a woman turned her yard into a beautiful native landscape.
@homegrownnationalpark Joy is on the map! Submit your own native landscape to be featured or use our resources to help create your own habitat. 💚 Join the Homegrown National Park movement by adding your new or existing native plantings (as small as 1 sq ft) to our map! #homegrownnationalpark #plantsoftiktok #nativeplanttok #greenscreen #tennessee ♬ original sound - Homegrown National Park
Homegrown National Park, a grassroots nonprofit aiming to regenerate biodiversity through planting native plants, recently posted an amazing before-and-after of a landscape on its TikTok page (@Homegrownnationalpark). The landscape comes from a woman named Joy — who lives in Bristol, Tennessee — and features an amazing front and backyard transformation, along with a woodland area behind the house.
In the video, the TikToker explains that Joy used all native plants, attracting hundreds of species of birds, pollinators, and other native wildlife. The pictures show a front yard transformed into a flourishing native garden, complete with a dirt walkway.
The hillside backyard also has an impressive before-and-after, showing a sprawling native "meadow." Finally, a barren woodland area shows the dramatic transformation into a thriving forest. We're seriously swooning.
The video goes on to explain that one of Joy's innovations with the transformation is using cut logs to border her flower beds, making them easier to maintain.
"As the wood breaks down, it attracts insects, which attracts even more birds," the video explains.
The video concludes with Joy's best advice for transforming your own backyard.
"Enjoy the process," and "pay attention to the return of the wildlife, because it can be a life-changing experience," she says.
Native or rewilded landscaping has been taking off online in recent months. Whether it's a full-blown redesign like Joy's or making the switch from grass to clover lawns, the benefits of a more natural yard are becoming more and more apparent.
Clover and native plants help attract pollinators to your yard, helping to increase their population size by providing a great place to get food. And having a robust population of pollinators in your area is pretty much good for everyone.
Aside from helping out the bees, native yards are cheaper for you. Native plants require less fertilizer and no pesticides to keep lawns thriving. They also require much less water than traditional yards.
TikTokers were excited by Joy's yard makeover.
"THIS right here is the goal!! Beautiful job, Joy," one person commented.
"How do I do this??" another asked, concerned over a nearby park they've wanted to help transform into a native species habitat.
If you're also wondering how to do this at home, Homegrown National Park provides many resources for finding native species in your area, as well as landscaping design ideas.
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