The owner of a burgeoning landscaping startup brought a native garden to one lucky homeowner, earning praise for their endeavor after sharing before-and-after photos on Reddit.
"I just started a landscaping company, this was my first fully native garden," the original poster wrote in the subreddit r/NativePlantGardening. "American beauty berry, oakleaf hydrangea, Mexican plum, fragrant mistflower and dwarf Ruellas! North Texas area."
The image showcasing the new garden showed the new plants nestled in a bed of wood mulch.
Happily, the business owner, who explained in a comment that they used to be a surgery nurse, avoided a dreaded pitfall: volcano mulching.
"Awesome! We need more landscapers that plant natives," one commenter wrote, sharing a resource with the grateful OP about how to properly plant trees and adding that their city's landscapers, unfortunately, put this method of mulching into practice.
While wood mulch helps improve soil conditions and soaks up a powerful heat-trapping gas called nitrous oxide, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia, volcano mulching can lead to the death of trees.
This was the OP's first foray into native gardening, but the practice has been growing in popularity.
Rewilded yards aren't just great for the environment, supporting pollinators that keep more than one-third of the world's food crops growing. They also save people money on lawn care expenses, as native plants don't need fertilizers or mowing and require less water.
Some people opt for dramatic transformations, but partial lawn replacements, like clover, also provide benefits and can be great for people who are just entering the gardening world or wanting to learn more — like the OP.
"Awww you should do it!!!" the OP wrote in response to one commenter who said they were thinking about starting a landscaping business. "I was just so emotionally drained and unappreciated [as a nurse], so I started my LLC this year."
"There's just endless things to learn about plants, and getting to be outside and working with my hands and nature is the most amazing thing … I love it so much!!" they added.
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