Natural gardening and garden visits

I enjoy encouraging the folks in programs that I do to think about gardening for nature and creating a natural garden. 

A Master Naturalist/Master Gardener friend in the Low Country of South Carolina calls her similar program  'Gardening as if life mattered.' It's a much more powerful title, and compelling. Her journey as a gardener,  from understanding how to develop spectacular perennial borders to creating a sanctuary garden (as a survivor of a life-challenging illness) to wildlife gardener is inspirational.

We can all plant more plants 'that matter' -- that is, plants that work for a living, wherever we live in the world. 

It's a joy to have plants whose flowers are visited by butterflies and bees, whose leaves are eaten by caterpillars, and whose fruits are enjoyed by birds, mammals, and others.