I have become passionate about native plants. Doug Tallamy’s talk at the 2018 CY Garden Walk felt like a clear call to action. Along with habitat loss, the proliferation of exotic plants is primarily responsible for a startling decline in native animals. “More than one-third of North America’s native bird species are at immediate risk of extinction.” In general, regional pollinators don’t recognize non-native plants as food. If there are few insects or caterpillars, there’s not enough for the birds to eat. Tallamy gave the example that during the 17 days it takes for  chickadees to fledge, the adult birds feed them from 6,000 to 10,000 caterpillars! An oak tree hosts over 500 species of caterpillars, while on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the best at hosting caterpillars, one site said a crepe myrtle is at best a 0.5! That’s right. Crepe myrtles are not native to our area! How did we not know this? Black capped chickadees need 70% native plants in their habitat to sustain their numbers. I was converted. I love birds. I had my crepe myrtle dug up and then planted a (mostly) native garden bed in front of my house. A native plant finder site:  https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder. Front garden Art piece by Richard Harper.