You Have to Have a Plan

Finished Wetland

Boundaries of my Front Yard Wildflower Garden

I am currently a member of several groups on Facebook that promote the use of native plants. These are good sites for those still relatively new to this way of thinking and for help in identifying plants that are unfamiliar. Many of the discussions, however, are a bit alarming to me as they seem to ignore the real reason why landscaping with native plants is inherently a better approach than the more-traditional one - Native plants, when chosen thoughtfully, are best at creating living landscapes. Plain and simple.
There is no magic bullet associated with a plant simply because it is native. That attribute does not confer to them something special that will somehow transform a landscape from traditional lifelessness to a new energy. It is not that simple.
A few days ago, I weighed in on a thread that I've been seeing far too often; the question on Facebook is "Is this native?, followed by a great sigh of relief that it is and a vow to leave it alone or to transplant it to another location in the landscape.
"It is native, so don't let hubby kill it!'...  Followed by a discussion with a friend who espouses the random approach of adding in anything everywhere with the comment "some will emphasize spontaneity and serendipity... beautiful and amazing gardens can result from each (mine and his) approach."
No one should argue a couple of points - namely that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that to each their own. Both of those phrases were favorites of my mother, by the way...  It's just that we are not talking about beauty, we are talking about rescuing our sterile yards from the death grip that modern landscape design has foisted on us as "normal" and turning them into habitat. We do not reach that goal haphazardly through "spontaneity" or by chance. Those approaches may turn a sterile lot into something less sterile, but landscapes cannot reach their full potential without a plan and that plan has to incorporate carefully thought-out goals and objectives. We choose plants based on their attributes AND how those attributes meet our landscape goals. It's not a question of simple aesthetics - "I like this one", nor is it ever a question of "Is it native and I'll foster it then." 
We are sometimes caught up in a frenzy to do good - and that's wonderful, but we get lost in frenzies far too often and fail to use our critical thinking power. A case in point centers around our desire to help pollinators. So many posts that I encounter espouse the value of some plant because it had pollinators using it.  Please show me a flowering plant that doesn't, at least sometimes, have a pollinator on its flowers. They are few and far between. What we too-often fail to consider is the role of each plant - when does it bloom, what types of pollinators does it mostly attract, what other aspects of habitat do each of these pollinators need to persist and raise young? The other question, of course, is: Are there other choices for these pollinators that would serve a wider audience or fill a niche that is not currently in my landscape?
What I see repeated over and over on these Facebook pages is landscaping by default and "on the cheap." If it's native, I'll promote it - especially if it came for free. Realize that most things that simply pop up in a traditional yard are weeds. Not all weeds are without value, of course. I leave some of them alone IF they are host plants for butterflies I am trying to provide for, but I eliminate ALL the rest to the best of my ability, native or not, if they don't.
If we are going to achieve the creation of living landscapes that produce the maximum degree of habitat possible, we will not do it by serendipity, but by careful planning. We plant those things that will allow our landscapes to reach their full potential. It doesn't happen by chance in suburban America, it takes some investment, and it requires us to weed out EVERYTHING that isn't in our plan and that isn't willing to play nice with the rest of our planned community. Planned diversity, not serendipity.