Rewilding initiatives are accelerating as people look to restore ecosystems heavily impacted by human activity.
Restoring ecosystems can have a number of socioeconomic benefits and protect biodiversity, and as one landowner recently showed on Reddit, it can also be really beautiful.
The post, shared to the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit, showed several pictures of a beautiful prairie meadow in Minnesota.
The meadow, located near the Crow River, looked well-established with a range of native grass species and wildflowers, even though it had only been planted a few years earlier.
"This prairie is also quite young ... just in its 2nd year," the OP wrote.
Rewilding your yard or planting native plants is a great way to move away from monoculture lawns and fields that can be costly to maintain. Because monoculture lawns are not native, they need a lot of care to flourish, including regular watering and fertilizer application.
Native plants, like those the OP shared, are already adapted to their environment, which removes the need for additional watering once they are established, saving you time and money.
Native plants also don't require fertilizer, which is not only good for your wallet but also helps protect the environment. Synthetic chemical fertilizers can wash off the land and end up polluting rivers, lakes, and streams, which is not good for people or the animals that rely on those resources.
Rewilding all or part of your garden can also help support the local ecosystem because they provide food and shelter for wildlife, especially pollinators. Birds, bats, bees, and other insects all help pollinate plants, and it is estimated that more than 70% of plants worldwide rely on wildlife pollination. In the U.S., pollinators are estimated to contribute $3 billion to the value of crop pollination, which is essential for food production.
The commenters were impressed with the OP's prairie.
"That's beautiful!" one person wrote.
"Gorgeous!!! Great work." wrote another.
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