Plants are critical to our lives but we tend to be indifferent towards them. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-with-nature-deficit-disorder. Even if we try to connect with them, our relationship with plants isn’t always healthy. Plant trends can harm specific species and habitats. https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22935166/succulent-plant-poaching-jared-margulies. The resources required to grow houseplants are environmentally significant. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/01/03/sustainable-houseplant-care/.
There are native plants awaiting your discovery: https://www.npsot.org/our-work/nice-native-plant-partners/. There are also opportunities to prevent waste by purchasing an overlooked or struggling plant. Over the years, our family has purchased wonderful plants discounted 50-75% from Shoal Creek Nursery and The Great Outdoors Nursery. Many of them still survive to this day. Even those that didn’t were a much better investment than cut flowers. Likewise, we have purchased clearance plants from some HEB stores, frequently at the end of a consumer-perceived gardening season (but when our area still has months of growing time remaining).
Some plants are entirely free! We are blessed with a plant stand in our neighborhood and in Hyde Park. Sometimes generous neighbors offer spare plants on our neighborhood email list. Commercial centers, responding to our collectively unreasonable appearance expectations for plants coping with extreme weather, frequently clear out recoverable landscaping. The yucca in this month’s photo was ripped out of the ground by a crew years ago, but permission was granted to take it for transplant instead of the landfill. Finally, not everything that grows on its own in our yards is a weed. It is worth investing some time to identify plant “volunteers.” The easiest and cheapest way of all to acquire plants is by not mowing them all down!
North Loop Neighborhood Association 