Work with Your HOA
Simple Steps to Build Support for Native Plants & Biodiversity
Why Native Plants Matter
Traditional lawns might look tidy, but they're dead zones for wildlife. They also guzzle water, depend on chemical fertilizers and herbicides, and pump out emissions from gas-powered mowers and blowers.
None of these chemicals stay put. They run off into our waterways and onto surfaces where children and pets play, posing documented health risks.
Native plant landscapes offer a safer, healthier, and more vibrant alternative. They support pollinators and birds, reduce water use, and thrive without harmful chemicals.
Beyond a safer outdoors for your family, you'll experience the joy of creating a beautiful space, filled with life and color, right at home.
Getting Started: Your Action Plan
Transitioning your yard to native plants within an HOA can be straightforward and impactful.
1. Understand Your HOA’s Guidelines: Review your community’s landscaping rules. Pay attention to guidelines about plant height, appearance standards, and approved plant lists.
2. Create Intentional Designs: Design gardens that look organized and deliberate. Incorporate clear borders and paths to visibly demonstrate planning and care. Add extra emphasis by using habitat signs to showcase that your garden is part of a movement.
3. Educate and Inform: Share simple information with your neighbors and HOA about the benefits of your local native plants, including lower water bills, fewer pesticides, and vibrant wildlife. Also consider serving on your HOA board to be an insider voice for biodiversity.
4. Start Small and Expand: Begin with one visible area. Demonstration projects help neighbors and board members visualize the potential of native landscaping.
5. Collaborate with Your HOA: Proactively suggest updates to landscaping guidelines. Provide examples of other communities successfully incorporating native plants. (See examples further down the page.)
6. Grow Community Support: Host garden tours, distribute easy-to-understand flyers, or organize neighborhood gatherings to encourage conversation and build enthusiasm.
For more detail guidance and inspiration, download A Guide To Nativescaped Yards and HOA Sanctions by Leah Larabell.
Overcoming Common HOA Challenges
- Approved Plant Lists: Suggest adding region-specific natives. Generate your list from our North American Keystone Finder.
- Propose Changes to Your HOA Plant Palette: Work with your HOA to identify and remove invasive species from approved plant lists. Common offenders include English ivy, butterfly bush, privet, Callery pear, and Norway maple.
- Height and Appearance Rules: Use tidy, defined planting beds and pathways to show clear maintenance and intentionality.
- Gardening Restrictions: Propose appealing options such as raised beds, dedicated pollinator spaces, or community gardening plots.
- Watering Requirements: Clearly demonstrate how native plants significantly reduce water consumption once established.
- Chemical Mandates: Advocate gently for "no-spray" policies, emphasizing health and environmental benefits of chemical-free gardening.
For more tips and sample ordinance, check out this page from our friends at Wild Ones.
Responding To Citations
If your native garden receives a citation, take the following steps:
- Request details about the specific rules or ordinances violated.
- Calmly demonstrate the intentional and ecological benefits of your garden.
- Invite HOA officials to tour and see the organized nature of your planting.
- Reach out to HNP for a formal letter of support.
- Our friends at Wild Ones also have a volunteer legal team of Wild Lawyers. Need help from a Wild Lawyer? Contact Support@wildones.org.
Success Stories to Inspire Your HOA
For detailed examples and guidance, check out this NWF Guide to Passing Wildlife-Friendly Property Ordinance.
Talking About The Facts
Positive Impacts of Ecological Landscaping
• Flourishing Widlife: Over 1,300 moth species have been documented at a 10-acre native habitat research site maintained by Doug Tallamy.
• Reduce Pests: Implementing native plantings, such as prairie strips, can lead to a significant reduction in pest populations. Research indicates that these practices can reduce the need for insecticides by up to 95% in certain agricultural settings, as they support habitats for natural pest predators like ladybugs and parasitic wasps.
• Save Pollinators: Restoration efforts that incorporate native plants have been shown to significantly boost pollinator populations. For instance, rewilding agricultural lands in Scotland led to an 11,500% increase in bumblebee numbers over two years, highlighting the profound impact of native flora on pollinator abundance.
• Enhanced carbon sequestration: Ecologically managed soils capture up to 30% more carbon.
• Reduced Emissions: Ecological landscaping has nationwide potential to reduce lawn equipment emissions by ~30 million tons CO₂/year.
• Conventional landscaping releases 21,800 tons/year of harmful PM2.5 emissions, equivalent to emissions from 234 million cars.
• Reduced Toxins: Traditional lawns use 7–9 million pounds of pesticides/herbicides annually (e.g., 2,4-D), causing serious ecological harm.
Demand for Ecological Land Care:
• 62% of homeowners seek eco-friendly landscaping, prioritizing sustainability.
• Industry survey shows high satisfaction among homeowners adopting ecological landscaping due to health, cost savings, and improved aesthetics.
Professional Opportunities:
• The landscaping industry employs 1.3 million; growing by 65,200 new jobs by 2033.
• Ecological land care practices could create an additional 375,000 specialized jobs in five years.
Emerging professional identity: “Biodiversity Land Stewards,” trained in ecological methods, representing a significant and valuable new workforce sector.
• Avoid Toxic Chemicals: Reduced exposure to chemicals found in common landscaping pesticides drastically improves health outcomes.
• Improved Human Well-Being: Exposure to green spaces is consistently linked to improved mental well-being and tangible environmental benefits.
• For instance, this study published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research found that spending just 20 minutes in a park increased participants’ well-being scores by 60%, regardless of physical activity levels.
• Ecological landscaping reduces air and noise pollution, improving physical and mental health.
• Chemical Saturation: American homeowners use up to ten times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops.
• Family Well-Being: Pesticides in conventional landscaping linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, and reproductive issues.
• Exposure to lawn pesticides increases leukemia risk by 6.5 times in children.
• Reduce Waste: Ecological landscaping practices significantly reduce yard waste (~35 million tons annually in the U.S.).
• Conserve Water: Native landscaping reduces water usage by 60–80% compared to traditional lawns.
• Save Money: Grass lawns are expensive and waste resources; switching to native landscaping cuts maintenance costs and saves money long-term.
You Have the Power to Create Change
Your community leadership is making this movement happen, and we’re here to equip you and amplify your success stories. Let us know how you're bringing your land back to life, so we can showcase your victories and motivate fellow stewards. Together, we will create thriving habitats that support both people and wildlife.
Highlight Your Efforts on the HNP Biodiversity Map
Special Thanks
We extend our sincere thanks to Leah Larabell from High Garden Tea for her generous contributions to this page. Her thoughtful and thoroughly researched insights on planting native in HOA communities were foundational in shaping our guidance.
For a deeper dive, you can download Leah’s detailed report here.
Let Us Help You Get Started Planting Native!
GET STARTED GUIDES: Get Started | Shrink Your Lawn | Remove Invasive Plants | Make a Home for Wildlife | Design a Native Landscape
