As we celebrate Earth Day, our horticulture team shares an ecological gardening resource guide. Whether you’re a skilled gardener, or just developing your green thumb, there’s always more to learn!
Selecting Plants for Pollinators
Help attract and support native pollinators with a diverse range of plants. Flowering plants help provide nectar and pollen throughout the season and may also provide shelter and nesting sites. Selecting a variety of options is key for robust support.
Xerces Society – Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Lists
Book: Bringing Nature Home, by Doug Tallamy (Contains suggestions for tree selection)
Native Plants for Urban Environments
Prioritize native plants to help create resilient, easy to maintain plantings that are adapted to the local environment. In turn, they help support the local ecosystem and provide valuable resources to native wildlife.
Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Native Plants for Urban Conditions Spreadsheet
View additional resources on our Horticulture page.
Where to Buy Native Plants
Choosing trustworthy growers for plants is very important, especially when your aim is to enhance the environment. It is best to avoid big box stores because there is typically no way to know where the plants came from or what type of growing practices were used to produce them. The biggest risk is that you could unknowingly introduce pesticides or fungicides to your garden that are harmful to the environment. Here are some of our favorite local nurseries that cater to the retail market:
Gowanus Canal Conservancy – Lowlands Nursery
Dropseed Native Landscapes – Native Plant Nursery
You can also mail-order native plants. Selecting native plant nurseries as close as possible to your community helps to ensure that the plants will be adapted to the local environment. In some cases, these nurseries offer local ecotype plants, meaning that the seeds the plants were grown from were sourced from nearby natural plant communities. This ensures that plants have evolved to be suited to the environment.
Ecological Design Principals
Looking at natural plant communities provides the greatest inspiration for creating healthy, balanced, and functional plantings. Several leaders in the field of ecological horticulture have published the lessons they have learned from this study in the form of useful tools.
BOOK: Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes, by Claudia West and Thomas Rainer
BOOK: Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change, by Larry Weaner and Thomas Christopher
BOOK: The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden, by Roy Diblik
Soil Health
Soil is the foundation for growing healthy plants. Much more than just dirt, healthy soil is a complex system containing a variety of living organisms and non-living elements. Understanding this system better is key to good gardening.
Penn State Extension – Practical Tips for Healthy Soil in a Home Garden
BOOK: Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition, by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis
Soil Testing
Before applying any sort of fertilizer or soil amendment, it is essential to know what is in your soil to begin with. A soil test will show you what the levels of essential nutrients are in your soil. It will also explain what the optimal levels of those nutrients are and provide recommendations for improvement.
Urban Soils Lab at Brooklyn College
Using Compost & Mulch
Compost and mulch can help support healthy plant growth. Compost helps add nutrients to feed plants, while mulch acts as a protective cover, helping to retain moisture. For both, proper use is critical.
Penn State Extension – Mulch – A Survey of Available Options
Lead
Almost all urban soils are affected by lead to some extent, but by understanding the precautions to take, you can still garden safely.
Lead Abatement Resource Center – Urban Gardening
Attracting Beneficial Insects & Holistic Pest Control
By far, the best way to manage pests in your garden is to work with the beneficial insects that are already there and that prey upon the pests. Learning about these ‘good bugs,’ leaning how to recognize them or the sign of their presence, and about what other resources are needed in your garden to sustain their populations is incredibly helpful.
BOOK: Attracting Beneficial Bugs to your Garden – A Natural Approach to Pest Control, Revised and Updated Second Edition, by Jessica Walliser
Limiting the Spread of Invasive Species
There is not a lot that individuals can do about invasive species that are already established in an area aside from weeding invasive plants from your property. But by being informed, exercising some caution, and making judicious decisions, you can prevent spreading invasive species to new areas or introducing an invasive species to your area. Here are some things to know:
Illinois Extension – Best Practices for Sharing Plants – Jumping Worms
Penn State Extension – Spotted Lanternfly Management Guide
National Wildlife Federation – Invasive Species
If you would like to know more about broader efforts that are being made to manage invasive species in New York, here are some organizations to follow:
LH PRISM – Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management
LIISMA – Long Island Invasive Species Management Area
Things to Know About Pesticides
Remember that every pest management action, even if completely organic, may have unintended and undesirable consequences! When choosing an option to manage pests, it is important to know the options that are available and choose the ones that pose the least risk to human health, the environment, and non-target organisms. In almost all cases, before getting to this point, it is recommended to monitor a situation over time and do some research to better understand it.
NRDC – NYS Birds and Bees Protection Act
UCONN – Insecticides: Low Toxicity Options
NJ DEP – Alternatives to Pesticides: Gardening
Plant Disease & Insect Diagnostic Services
University cooperative extensions provide tremendous low-cost services, performed by highly knowledgeable scientists to state residents. This is a great option for getting to the bottom of landscape problems that are hard to diagnose. Be sure to visit the website and read the guidelines for collecting and mailing a sample before getting started. It is often best to begin by emailing pictures to the extension office and provide as much background information as possible.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County
Plant Identification Apps
Wondering if a plant in your garden is native or invasive or simply looking to expand your plant identification knowledge? iNaturalist is a great, open-source free app to assist with plant identification and knowledge.
iNaturalist, PlantNet
Organizations to Follow to Grow Your Knowledge
These are just a few of our favorite organizations to reference for growing horticultural knowledge and skills while working with nature to sustain and enhance a healthy and balanced ecosystem.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Ecological Landscaping Alliance
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York
Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes – offers free webinars
The Long Island Native Plant Initiative – annual conference and periodic plant sales
This guide may be periodically updated. Version 1, compiled by E. Manlove 2026.