Native Landscapes Can Be Hard to Plant. But Help Is Here.

Turning your front yard into something other than a manicured greensward sounds like a bold new idea, even today. Imagine how it felt, in 1992, to see former lawns in Wisconsin that were already many years into their transition to prairie-like spaces, with no turf grass in sight.

Positively radical.

I was collaborating on a book called “The Natural Habitat Garden” with Ken Druse, a writer and photographer, traveling across the country to see the vanguard of the native-plant movement. We spent a day north of Milwaukee with Lorrie Otto, an early leader in what became a nationwide push to ban the pesticide DDT and a force in the formative years of Wild Ones, a membership organization promoting native landscapes. Ms. Otto sent us to visit other members’ home landscapes that were wild-ish, like hers — gardens unlike any we had ever seen.