One of my favorite days of the year is my annual pilgrimage with my parents and daughters to hike Boone Cliffs in Boone County, Kentucky. Naming the wildflowers and trees provide a great source of trivia, pride, and sometimes even bewilderment.

But for our native pollinators, songbirds, and upland birds, our native plants are much more than a source of trivia or beauty; they are a lifesource.

I choose to make art celebrating our native plants as a tribute to our natural world, but also as a reminder to all of us that our ecosystem needs us to support our native plants.

Whenever you have a chance, leave a little grass grow. Kill some fescue and plant some native grasses. Choose to see the beauty in a little wild patch of native wildflowers. Remove bradford pears and honeysuckle, both invasive species that ultimate hurt our native ecosystem. Instead, consider planting native milkweed. The monarch butterflies will repay you…not in dollars, but in a show of orange and black.