Non-Invasives and Natives

[monatives]

Hola fellow guerillas! 
Saw a post about using bamboo and wanted to bring up a few points about using non-invasive plants in our efforts to green our urban and not so urban areas.   Understandably we feel that any plant is better than no plant but we also want to be sensitive to our native environments and the creatures that share them with us. 
Many invasive plants such as bamboo and other grasses will actually invade our watersheds and the few remaining native areas we have, pushing out not only the native plants but also the wildlife that inhabit those areas.   We've been making efforts to actually remove plants like Arundo donax from our lagoons and other watersheds throughout California to restore breeding habitat for our native birds.  The LA River and San Elijo Lagoon are two such projects.
There are so many gorgeous native wildflowers that make the perfect seed bombs and thousands of native plants that would be perfect for our mini-restoration efforts in areas that are near natural environments like rivers, freeways, etc..  Not only would we be greening those neglected areas but we would also be providing habitat for all of our displaced birds and butterflies!  Native plants are also perfect for some of our inner-urban ggarden efforts as they are extremely drought tolerant and don't need amendments.

Anyone else out there using natives in their ggardens??  Would love to hear about your efforts!

Here's a few interesting links:
California Invasive Plant Council- www.cal-ipc.org
California Native Plant Society- www.cnps.org

[TierraYlibertad]

Good post! dont forget too just after the rainy season look for Acorns that are just begining to germinate pot them and when they grow bigger plant them in a wild place and look over them.