Few authors in the gardening/sustainability space have been as impactful as Douglas Tallamy. His two books Nature's Best Hope and Bringing Nature Home promote the idea that individuals can each do their part to restore habitats in small spaces by planting native plants which allow native insects to survive and provide food sources for birds and other wildlife.
On a personal level, reading Nature's Best Hope inspired me to try to restore a dead, mostly eroded area between my housing development and the Decatur Cemetery. For the past several years, I cleaned out old remnants of building materials, added soil, amended it with alpaca manure and planted wildflowers and herbs to hold the soil.
My neighbors have responded with their appreciation and the HOA paid for extending a water line and faucet that I can attach a hose for watering when the plants get too dry (though I try to grow plants that do not require a lot of watering). I started some plants from seed, (I learned how at the Wylde Center) but friends have given me others such as Joe-pye -weed, Rattlesnake-weed, Mountain mint, milkweed and Goldenrod, all which have thrived. Coneflowers and Black-eyed-Susans not so much.
So not everything has worked and some weeds like mimosa want to take over, but the improvements have been noticeable. It all started with the Tallamy book, but I have still have a long way to go to match the Atlanta Botanical Garden (on the left).
Tallamy will be leading the discussion as part of the Fuqua Lecture series at the Atlanta Botanical Garden beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 18th. If you cannot attend the lecture, it will be broadcast live. See the Garden's events page for details. If you're interested in either one of the books check out the online version of Destination: Books where both books are listed.