Question about switching from gardening to native plants

A couple years back I had to choose between keeping my big vegetable garden beds or tearing them out for native plants. I went with natives because the pollinators were disappearing and honestly the veggies were a lot of work. Now I have this patch of black-eyed Susans and milkweed that took off after about 18 months and it's way less maintenance. Has anyone else done this switch and regretted losing the fresh tomatoes or was it worth it for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

grantf7312d ago

My neighbor did the exact opposite last year, tore out all his flower beds to put in raised veggie boxes, and now he's constantly out there fighting squash bugs and deer. Meanwhile I'm sitting on my porch watching bees go absolutely nuts over my purple coneflowers. My kids love picking the seed heads off the black-eyed Susans and tossing them around the yard like little grenades. The only thing I really miss is having fresh basil for pesto in August. But driving ten minutes to the farmers market for a basket of tomatoes feels like a fair trade for not spending my whole summer watering and weeding.

laura_allen12d ago

Hold up, is losing fresh tomatoes really that big of a deal? I mean, I get it, homegrown taste is good, but you can get decent ones at a stand for like three bucks. People act like they're giving up a kidney or something. And honestly, if you're spending your whole summer fighting bugs and watering, maybe gardening just wasn't your thing in the first place. Switching to natives because you're tired of work is fine, but let's not pretend it's some profound moral choice. It's just plants for crying out loud.