Native Plant Signage and Education: How Botanical Belonging Expands Plant Access in the Local Community

Abstract

This capstone was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for EVRN 615, taught by Dr. Kelly Kindscher and Dr. Ali Brox.Despite the importance of native plants in local ecosystems, an underutilized space for their application resides in household gardens and residential areas. While these plants are overlooked for countless reasons, a leading contributor is the lack of education surrounding their importance and implementation. The difficulty of sourcing and transitioning residential gardens to include native species leads many individuals to avoid growing these plants despite their incredible benefit to maintaining a diverse ecosystem and improving ecological health. Public education starts on a small scale and Botanical Belonging, a native plant nursery in Tonganoxie, Kansas, hopes to be a native plant resource for both new gardeners, and experts alike. By working with Botanical Belonging, we can gauge the current community knowledge of native plants and contribute to expanding this education on a local level. Engaging with community members at the organization’s native plant sales will provide valuable data on how best to direct further education in future work. If native plants continue to be ignored by the average homeowner, their implementation will become more difficult as current ecological problems become exacerbated. By providing basic information on these plant species through new signage and collecting data on consumers' knowledge, we hope to supplement Botanical Belonging's educational practices. While the current implementation of native plants is severely lacking in urban and residential spaces, expanding the availability of educational material will inspire a greater appreciation of native species and their benefits