Our vision for sustainable landscaping
Here at Nate’s Natives, we believe that environmentally friendly should also mean wallet and time friendly. Our services include invasive species identification/removal, general consulting for biodiversity, and full service plantings requiring minimal maintenance.
What sets us apart?
You didn’t come this far to stop
Lasting Natural Weed Control
There’s no way around it, weeds are a big problem. Traditional landscaping consists of spaced out plants with rocks, mulch, or fabric in beds to suppress weeds.
We believe in a grass matrix style planting, with tightly placed grasses between perennials to suppress weeds, feed/shelter wildlife, and to create an orderly look for our plant beds.
We also do more than just regular plants around the house. Along with prairie flower plantings, we do trees, woodland/shade flowers, wetland plants, and offer follow up/answers for any questions you may have about your plants.
We ensure a garden shines!
Customize to your land needs.
Native plants and the insects that rely on them have had or developed a symbiotic relationship together for thousands of years. Every single native plant in the ground will attract insects that are relying on their existence for survival. The most famous example is Monarch butterflies needing milkweed to lay eggs.
The North American Audubon Society’s Grasslands and Birds report estimates that only 11 percent of tall grass prairie remains. The Metro East area that we serve is historically tall grass prairie, and it is almost, if not, entirely gone here. If you decide to plant native plants in your yard or business, you have a unique opportunity to allow your local ecosystem to recover some lost ground.
Silent fauna exodus: Large indigenous animals such as bison, elk, wolves, and black bears once flourished in the tallgrass of the Midwest but were entirely displaced as their habitats were broken up and supplanted by monoculture farming.
Near-total erasure: Only around 1% of the original tallgrass prairie persists across states such as Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota.
Pre-camera loss: Large areas of eastern grasslands disappeared so long ago that they were gone before cameras were invented, erasing them from our shared memory.
The "Underground" world: As much as 80% of a prairie plant's biomass exists underground in roots that reach 10 to 15 feet deep, meaning that plowing not only disrupted surface life—it tore apart an ancient, deep-earth living system.
Carbon reversal: Tilling the rich, dark, carbon-heavy soil of the prairie transformed one of the planet's premier natural carbon-storing ecosystems into a significant source of atmospheric carbon.
Sponge destruction: A single acre of vigorous prairie can capture up to 9 inches of rain in an hour, a flood-mitigation sponge function largely supplanted by rigid agricultural runoff systems.
