Neighborhood Wildlife Gardens

Ask any Realtor and they'll tell you: homes located close to parks are worth more. That's why most HOAs in DFW have a beautification program. City parks have trees and grass. But it's up to HOAs to add more amenities, to help elevate property values even higher. A butterfly wildlife garden is one way to add more value to your neighborhood. That's why Soils Alive starting in 2026 will begin offering HOA Neighborhood Beautification kits. Our kits include 20 types of drought-tolerant plants to help you easily build a new no-irrigation, pollinator-friendly, wildlife area as a new amenity at your city park.

Beautification can get expensive real fast. Walking trails, bike trails, planting trees. Costs can range from $10,000 to $200,000 and beyond. Start small. Talk to your HOA members about a 2000 square foot butterfly garden you could do for under $1500. Check if your city has a matching program, so your HOA members pay $750 and the city helps with the rest, to raise property values helping fund the city.

If your HOA is right by a city park with open land (that the city already would like to cut back on irrigation costs), there's no reason why you couldn't ask to put in a wildlife garden to attract hummingbirds, Monarch butterflies, and more. City budgets are tight right now, with a 3.5% cap on tax revenue growth by the State since 2019. Leaders For Local Control is working to make investment easier for cities, not harder. But for now, the contributions your HOA members can pitch in goes a long way to adding beauty to green spaces in your city.

Your leadership within your HOA, the voluntary contributions made to beautify your city park, helps do those things that cities might not be able to do right now. In this article, we explain how your HOA can add more beauty to your neighborhood. It's a long article! Feel free to skip over any sections not relevant for your HOA.

A 1000 square foot community garden design that's free to use. This garden costs $600 to build. No irrigation system needed for drought-tolerant, butterfly-attracting plants that thrive in DFW's heavy clay soil.

City Programs

There are lots of great city programs going on across DFW. Learn more about what your city has to offer, or ask your Parks and Rec if you can take a great program and bring it to your city. Here's just a few cities that have great programs that HOA leaders can take advantage of:

Richardson's Tree The Town program provides trees to local residents to increase the city's urban forestry efforts. The city also helps HOAs that want to create a wildflower meadow ($100 for a 4000+ SF area), to cut down on water use at city parks and support the Monarch butterfly. The city supplies water at 95% subsidy to a variety of community gardens that grow food to donate to food banks. Your HOA can apply to split the cost of a beautification project 50/50 with the city's Beautification Matching Fund program. Deadline is March 1st, so fall and early spring is a good time to talk to HOA members about what you want to submit to the city. New projects break ground after October 1st with the new city budget.

Frisco built their Monarch View Park (1900 Koehn Drive) on 13 acres of green space in 2019. With funding from a 2024 grant of $3000 from H-E-B's Pollinators for Texas initiative, the Blackland Prairie chapter of Texas Master Naturalists was able to install 900 pollinator plants. With a second grant in 2025, another 1000 plants will be going in. PlayFrisco has collected over 25,000 observations of local wildlife with the help of 500+ citizen scientists. Their Frisco Birding Checklist helps residents discover the city's 300+ species of birds and their Critter Checklist is great for kids.
Plano has a tremendous amount of green space with over 4000 acres of parkland. Parks and Rec is using Grow Zones to reduce water use, save money, and better filter stormwater runoff and keep pollution out of the drinking water supply. Efforts to reduce the amount of water used on its 1200 acres of irrigated parkland continues. Russell Creek Park alone has over 100 acres of irrigated turf. Transitioning to native, drought-tolerant plants (at 5000 plants per acre) would cost $0.40 per SF, with volunteer help. A 2500 SF wildlife garden would require about $1000 from HOA members, 10 people pitching in $100 each, to purchase 250 plants.

Allen in September 2025 (along with City of Plano) participated in the NRPA Parks For Pollinators event. Over 70 volunteers gathered observations of 460 species in Allen. A BioBlitz is a great way to get neighborhood association leaders involved in city parks, learn about all the biodiversity in our communities, and it's something that can be done in partnership with public schools as well.
7 cities across DFW participated in the 2025 Texas Parks and Wildlife City Nature Challenge, a state-wide initiative connected to the global City Nature Challenge. In April 2025, over 1800 people documented observations of over 4000 species.

Green Spaces and Mental Health

"Serious feelings of loneliness." That's what 1 in 5 American adults reported in 2024 in a national study conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. 75% of people in the survey said they wanted “public spaces that are more accessible and connection-focused like green spaces and playgrounds."

The key part is "connection-focused." Not just grass and trees. But places to stop along the path, to talk with neighbors. Places to host picnics. Social areas. Shady spots to look out into the park and see butterflies and hummingbirds. That's what 75% of people say they want.

It would appear that DFW's population has over a million people in need of more connection-focused green spaces. That's what the data is showing us. Later on in this article, we'll highlight research by The National Recreation and Parks Association and their annual Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz which Plano and Allen did last year. We will discuss the health and environmental impacts of pesticides, the history of the Monarch butterfly, the research behind green spaces and community safety and children's mental health, how America's loneliness epidemic began, and how wildlife gardens with Giving Grove orchards can help bring us back together again. Photo Credit: Kent Ross (CC BY-NC). The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.

The Green Anole. Photo Credit: Ty Smith (CC BY-NC).

Loneliness and Green Spaces

According to the Harvard study, loneliness is most severe for adults of prime home-buying age (29% among those aged 30-44, compared to just 10% for those aged 65+). Young parents who are looking to buy a home are 3x more likely to indicate loneliness than retirees. That means that your HOA and your "connection-focused green spaces" are on their radar, when they decide to buy a home. A garden in your backyard is great. But a neighborhood garden at a city park or at a school is going to be better for the ROI, across the neighborhood.

In 2023, the U.S. surgeon general declared the issue of loneliness to be a national epidemic. His 82-page advisory highlights the problem, and provides several recommendations. One of those can be implemented by local neighborhood association leaders. The report recommended support for social infrastructure. Strengthening this infrastructure is "critical to advancing key aspects of community health, resilience, safety, and prosperity."

Neighborhood gardens are a powerful way to bring people together, connecting young and old, homeowners and renters, experienced gardeners and newbies, long-time community members and those moving in, helping to build connections cross-culturally, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and restore habitat needed by local DFW wildlife.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Photo Credit: David Alan Rogers (CC BY-NC)

Wildlife Gardens are Affordable

Unlike a vegetable garden that requires an irrigation system, raised beds, a soil test for heavy metal contamination, and endless hours of volunteers, a wildlife garden is pretty simple. Many DFW gardens you'll see are food gardens. And that's great. They are a lot of work and hard to get started.

Food gardens often need imported quality soil to amend our DFW heavy clay, raised beds, irrigation systems, access to a source of water, a fence around the perimeter, monitoring of who is harvesting what (and who's paid their dues), fertilizer, and new seeds and annual plants every year. Not to mention significant effort to install a new garden, and ongoing volunteer needs.

Plant a wildlife garden instead for your HOA, to boost property values. A wildlife garden includes drought-tolerant, native or adapted plants that love our local DFW clay soils and tolerate our hot, dry summers. No expensive soil amendments, irrigation system, or raised beds. 10 neighbors can get together, pitch in $60 and a day of volunteer work, and the garden is done. If Richardson had a wildlife garden for every 500 residents, the city landscape would be dotted with over 200 gardens, with a wildlife center for community connection within walking distance of every city resident.

Richardson recommends many drought-tolerant plants for use at city parks. You may need to get approval for these other plants that also do very well in hot, dry, clay soil: Flame Acanthus, Gray Goldenrod, Copper Canyon Daisy, Gregg's Mistflower, Fall Obedient Plant, White Yarrow, Walker's Low Catmint, Mexican Honeysuckle, Black Eye Susan, Gaura, Indigo Spires Salvia, Pink Skullcap, Four Nerve Daisy, Prairie Verbena, and Yellow Sundrop.

The American Robin. Photo Credit: John D Reynolds (CC BY-NC)

Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz

Since 2018, the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) has hosted their national Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz, every September. Across the country, city residents take pictures of wildlife found at their local city parks. The 2024 NRPA BioBlitz campaign included citizen scientist observations from several DFW cities (Allen, Plano, and Cedar Hill), as well as campaigns in San Antonio, Pasadena, Galveston, Pflugerville, and Georgetown.

DFW residents have shown that they want more wildlife habitat. More and more residents are looking to interact with local wildlife and find more places to observe all that DFW has to offer. In another blog article, we highlight some of the butterflies, (non-stinging) bees, beetles, dragonflies, frogs, lizards, birds, moths, and beneficial insects you may find in your own backyard or at a city park near you. Building a wildlife garden will give your HOA neighborhood an annual September event that everyone can participate in. In September 2026, you can invite your neighborhood to create your own HOA Neighborhood BioBlitz project for free using iNaturalist.

The Giving Grove

Lots of cities have tree programs, to provide free trees to residents. When those trees also yield fruit, we can not only reduce the urban heat island effect but we can also grow food. Plum trees are a host plant for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. So from a plum you get shade, air filtration from the leaves, fruit, and butterflies...all in one tree. With DFW summers so hot, we definitely need more trees. If your city park has exposed concrete walkways, that concrete gets hot in the summer. Why not plant some plum fruit trees on the West side to shade the concrete, and create habitat to attract this gorgeous butterfly? Shaded concrete is often 40 degrees cooler, and trees cool the air by as much as 25 degrees due to evapotranspiration.

On a 100 degree day, under the tree it feels 75. Cool air sinks, while hot air rises, so you want your trees on flat, level ground to keep that cool, free air conditioning all around you while you sit in the shade (on a slope, your cool air will fall downhill). If your city had 200 mini-orchards of 10 fruit trees, each in a 200' row, those trees would cast shade across 40,000 linear feet of concrete (about 8 miles), shading 800,000 square feet (about the size of 300 homes).

Those 2000 fruit trees will dramatically reduce the urban heat island effect from concrete walking paths. Your wildlife garden can produce an enormous amount of fresh fruit from these plum trees (2000 pounds from 10 trees annually, for 15 years). While annual vegetable gardens require a lot of inputs, perennial fruit tree cultivation is easy to incorporate with native plants. Nancy Chapman talks about the work being done by The Giving Grove since 2011, creating mini fruit orchards across the country. In DFW, the Giving Grove has already setup 40 orchards with 514 trees that produce about 200 pounds of fruit per tree each year.

Dallas ISD has a fruit orchard at Nathaniel Hawthorne Elementary School, and another one at the West Dallas STEM School. Fruit trees are great for school gardens. Maybe your HOA could partner with an ISD property, open to the public, and benefit school children and homeowners. Local food banks rely on donated, local fresh fruit and your HOA can help feed our hungry neighbors. A wildlife garden can easily include a few fruit trees, offering something for us along with something for wildlife. The healthy ecosystem of a wildlife garden can help to organically treat orchard pests.

Plum trees do very well in DFW, according to Texas A&M AgriLife. They yield about 200 pounds of fruit each year over a 15 year lifespan (4 bushels, 50 pounds per bushel). Organic plums cost $3.00+ per pound, meaning that a small neighborhood garden with 10 trees can yield $6000+ of fruit every year.

Buying 10, 5-gallon potted, 2-year-old trees costs $500, for $90,000+ of fruit over 15 years. If your city had 200 mini-orchards, the 2000 trees lifetime production is 6 million pounds of food (worth $18 million+). The trees would cost $10,000 and you and your HOA members and other HOAs (across the city) would pay for the trees, so you can harvest the fruit. Annual cost of pruning, fertilizing, and disease prevention would cost about $70 per tree (10% of their annual value).

For our DFW alkaline soil, Texas A&M recommends several plum varieties including Methley, Santa Rosa, Bruce, Morris, and Ozark Premiere. Plums on Guardian rootstock need about 20' spacing and get about 12-15' tall.....perfect to host a picnic under their shade. They do need to be watered in their first 2 years to get established, so being within 100' of a water pipe is important. City of Richardson subsidizes community garden water at 95%. For trees, they only need water in their first 2 years (and the cost for water is about $15 per tree, 3000 gallons). You might ask the city to provide water for 2 years, after which the trees will do fine on their own.

Plums do need proper care, and can get several diseases. But they are easy to maintain with a few proper steps. Black knot disease (A. morbosa), brown rot (M. fructicola), and bacterial spot (X. campestris) can be managed with a copper sulfate fungicide (USDA organic approved). Aphids can be controlled organically by Beneficial Insects (lady bugs, green lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, soldier beetles, assassin bugs, earwigs, etc).

Shothole borers (Scolytus rugulosus) are secondary pests. As Texas A&M AgriLife Extension explains: "Most insect borers are attracted to weakened, damaged, dying or dead plants and are 'secondary invaders' because they attack only after a plant has been weakened by another stress." A healthy diet for the tree (providing the proper micronutrients), siting the trees properly (not in water-logged soils) can avoid stressors that invite attack by borers. Insect damage may be seen as a symptom the tree needs something it's not getting, as a result of where it was planted by the gardener, not as a tree deficiency.

Plant the trees on the Western side of the garden, to cast shade across native plants that want protection from the harsh heat of sunset. Walkways that run North-South should have the trees on the West side to shade the surface in afternoon. In this protective shade of fruit trees, there are many plants that will thrive and invite hummingbirds and butterflies including Turks' Cap, Yarrow, Frogfruit, Chile Pequin, American Beautyberry, Scarlet Sage, Horseherb, Pigeonberry, and Southern Wood Fern.

The Monarch Butterfly

The City of Richardson has had a long commitment to restoring habitat for the Monarch butterfly. This effort is thanks to the work of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission. A wildlife garden can help restore habitat for one of the world's most iconic butterflies when you use less herbicide on your lawn and you plant milkweed to help this butterfly's population thrive.

When the Monarch butterfly migrates south in the fall, it travels along the western and eastern corridors. For many decades, the population has been in decline due to heavy use of chemicals. Silent Spring was published in 1962, alerting Americans to the risks of new, modern chemical "miracle" compounds. Rachel Carson's book describes how DDT had "entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals, including human beings..." An executive of the American Cyanamid Company wrote: "If man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth."

Those insects from the "Dark Ages"? They help pollinate our crops and give us food to eat. In fact, most of our food relies on the work of pollinating insects, who boost our economy by $15 billion annually and only ask for habitat in exchange, at a time when over 20% of pollinators are at elevated risk. What modern scientific research has taught us, 50 years later, is how ecosystems include mechanisms to naturally keep "insects and diseases and vermin" in balance. Beneficial insects - like lacewings and lady beetles - help protect our food supply by attacking insects that harm food crops (like aphids), for free, so long as we provide the habitat they need. It's a win-win relationship with nature. In 1972 the EPA banned DDT.

Miguel Angel Cruz Dominguez tells the story of El Rosario, one of the places the Monarch overwinters in the Sierra Campanario sanctuary, a place that's been cared for and nurtured for many generations. Scientists were in fact very much in the dark about where the Monarchs went for the winter until local people helped them in 1976 (the work of Fred Urquhart, published in National Geographic: "Found at last: the monarch's winter home").

Although a lot of work has been done in the past 50 years, there's still a lot more to do. We need more homeowners to cut back on chemical use. And we need more homeowners to plant milkweed, to support the Monarch population. During the 2023-2024 winter, the World Wildlife Fund and other researchers documented a 59% decrease in Monarch overwintering areas in Mexico. Widespread use of herbicides along the migration corridor harms the milkweed plant, needed by the Monarch to feed its young. When we plant milkweed in our home gardens, we can be part of the solution.

In July 2025, a Xerces Society press release drew attention to the impact that insecticides continue to have on monarch butterflies in the western corridor. The western monarch population has declined by nearly 95% since the 1980s, with fewer than 10,000 individuals counted in 2024. Using beneficial nematodes to organically treat turfgrass insect problems (like chinch bugs, grubs, and mites) can reduce our use of insecticides, keeping this butterfly safe.

The Ebony Jewelwing. Photo Credit: David Martin (CC BY-NC)

50 Years Later

What modern science has taught us the past 50 years is that it's important to use chemicals wisely, when they're needed, and to be careful to apply them directly where they are needed. Don't overdo it. Using less also keeps our waterways cleaner, with less pollution in our creeks and rivers. Here's a few reasons why Beneficial Nematodes are a great organic way to treat insect pests, why spot-treatment of weeds is better than broadscale application of herbicide, and why organic lawn care is most important if you have a small dog. Beyond Pesticides writes about why a responsible use of these chemicals is so important:

28 million pounds of herbicides were applied across lawns in the US in 2012. Being careful to spot-treat weeds, with up to 80% reduction of chemical used, would prevent 22 million pounds from entering the environment every year. 100% organic may be unrealistic. It's almost impossible to control weeds organically. But an 80% reduction would be incredible. An 80% reduction is the same as 4 out of 5 homeowners going 100% organic. That might not be realistic, but an 80% reduction is very doable. We can all cut back on our use.
For small dogs (under 20 pounds), ask your veterinarians if they recommend organic lawn care, or if they recommend organic in the backyard and only using minimal chemicals in the front yard. "A study published in Environmental Research found that dogs whose owners’ lawns are professionally treated with pesticides are associated with a significantly higher risk of canine malignant lymphoma."

The Southern Leopard Frog. Photo Credit: Joshua Liverman (CC BY)

Green Spaces and Schools

Schools that have gardens often see an increase to academic performance. Strong school performance also does well for home property values rising. Most of the benefits we’ll talk about in detail (down below) are the result of neighbors helping neighbors. It’s thanks to the connections people make with each other, creating the gardens, caring for them, getting their hands dirty, coming together, collaborating. Here's a few places your HOA might build a wildlife garden (and how to do it):

At a public-school campus in your neighborhood. Meet with the PTA leaders and school principle and talk about the benefits for school children.
At a city park nearby. The city's 50/50 cost share Beautification Matching Fund is one option to get support to install a butterfly garden. Honestly, with the cost being only $600 you might also just find 10 HOA members to pitch in and get it paid for.
Although you may not need any funding from the city, you'll still need approval.
Meet with your Parks and Recreation Commission, or attend a meeting and take 5 minutes to present your concept, to ask if they can create a streamlined approval process to build new wildlife gardens in the city.....gardens that also incorporate fruit trees.

The Eastern Giant Swallowtail. Photo Credit: David Alan Rogers (CC BY-NC)

Bowling Alone

HOAs that build connection-focused green spaces help bring neighbors together. Across the country, neighborhood associations are feeling the pinch of low volunteerism and low community engagement. It's hard to get folks to participate! There's some hope that we can do better going forward. Robert Putnam in his book, "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" (2000), describes the trend that began in the 1950s of Americans spending less and less time with others.

His research confirms what we already know: television is easy and it isolates us. Suburbs make us dependent on cars, and with cars come traffic congestion, and people would rather just stay home. Or walk to their neighborhood park to see friends. Putnam's book reveals how "we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures." He estimated that the fall-off in civic engagement after 1965 was 25 percent due to electronic entertainment (especially television).

Ray Oldenburg, in his 1989 book "The Great Good Place," coined the term "the third place" to describe those informal social spaces beyond home and work at cafes, libraries, gyms, parks, places of worship, and community gardens. Oldenburg claims that the decline of Third Places has contributed to the erosion of community, civility, and increased isolation and division within American society. A wildlife garden can be a third space for neighbors to gather. Creating spaces that need us, where we want to show up and meet others, helping people to connect, is what neighborhood wildlife gardens are all about. Talk to your HOA members about hosting a March and September "Screen-Free month." Ask 30 members to each host 1 daily activity at your park, and invite members to get outside and meet neighbors. That TV show will still be there in April and October!

The Fiery Skipper. Photo Credit: Ken-ichi Ueda (CC BY)

Community Organizations

There's a lot of organizations and groups in DFW involved in community gardening. If you need inspiration, there are so many people doing incredible things. Here's just a short list of a few to get in contact with. Most of these are related to growing food, but not all. Your idea of what the space can be will grow as your plants grow:

The American Bumble Bee. Photo Credit: Tex Anne (CC BY-NC)

Community Gardens in City Parks

How can city park land be used to meet the need for more connection-focused green spaces? The Missouri-based MOST Policy Initiative summarized some of the benefits of green spaces in a 2024 publication. A few excerpts are below:

“Community gardeners interviewed in 2010 rated stress relief as the most important reason for gardening (56%), as well as staying active (50%), and staying healthy (42%)...Another study from 2013 showed a benefit in lowered body mass index (BMI) for community gardeners vs their neighbors: Women community gardeners’ average BMI was 1.48 lower than their neighbors’ BMI, and men community gardeners’ average BMI was 2.52 lower than their neighbors’...In a survey of 300+ community gardeners, most said that they felt their gardens improve their sense of community and have a positive effect on their neighborhoods in engaging diverse populations...”

“The National Recreation and Parks Association profiles two examples in its handbook on best practices in establishing [food] gardens in city parks.... [In both cases] the Parks and Recreation departments provided the land on city property and initial start-up support. The gardens are often managed by community-led groups.....Community gardens could enhance the overall value of parkland, since several studies show that property values tend to increase in areas surrounding community gardens, typically by >10%. Parks themselves are associated with a 10-20% increase in property value for nearby homeowners. In the city of Seattle, as the city’s budget for park maintenance and operations has decreased, community gardens’ integration into parks has reduced staffing pressures since the garden sites are maintained predominantly by gardeners rather than Parks crew.”

The Differential Grasshopper. Photo Credit: Ryan Philbrick (CC BY-NC)

Community Safety and Health

This section may or may not be applicable to your neighborhood. Your Crime Watch program may benefit from having more people out in the neighborhood, keeping an eye on things. How do gardens affect community safety? Long gone are the days of letting the kids run free until dinner time in the neighborhood. Today’s children spend up to 44 hours a week in front of a screen, and less than 10 minutes a day playing outdoors (Children & Nature Network). Creating more community gardens can help ease anxieties and help to get children (and us adults) back out again. In a 2023 study published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, researchers offer an overview of academic research about neglected urban spaces, crime, and violence. A few excerpts are provided below:

"Residents with overgrown, untended lots nearby their homes have been found to have higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress...Unmaintained areas have potential to directly threaten the safety of neighborhood residents: Violent crimes are more likely to occur near unmaintained, vacant lots than maintained lots...The social health of neighborhoods is also significantly impacted by vacant land, through lower neighborhood satisfaction and increased perceptions of social disorder...."

"Indicators of physical disorder also impact perceptions of neighborhood investment, which may signal a weak sense of community in the neighborhood...Fear of crime is also a significant health consequence of vacant land... Researchers have reported that fear of crime can have negative consequences for health and well-being, by reducing mobility and physical activity, causing individuals to stay home...Fear of crime can deter residents from walking in their neighborhoods, creating a cycle of avoidance, which researchers suggest perpetuates the continued decline of vacant, unkept land in the area."

The Widow Skimmer. Photo Credit: Gail Taylor (CC BY-NC)

Children’s Mental Health

What about neighborhood gardens and children's health? According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, nearly 20% of children and teens nationwide (aged 3-17) years struggle with a mental, emotional, or behavioral challenge. The AAP cites a CDC study (2021-2023 data) indicating about 20% of adolescents age 12-17 have unmet mental health needs. The AAP in July 2025 conducted a literature review of 50 studies, concluding that access to quality mental health care is not equal for all children (“Disparities in Pediatric Mental Health Care in Emergency Departments: A Scoping Review”). Nature therapy can play a big role, especially with school gardens.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD provides some insight into the effects on children and teens of community violence. The VA reports that in the US, more than one third of children age 10-16 have been victims of direct violence. “If affected by violence, a child may have to cope with physical, medical, or mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Some people think that young children are not harmed by community violence because they are too young to understand or remember. However, studies have found signs of PTSD in babies and young children."

The Common Eastern Firefly. Photo Credit: Katja Schulz (CC BY)

What To Do Now

Start thinking about what your HOA wants to do in the spring time. The best time to plant a wildlife garden is in September-October. The roots can grow deep during winter, before their first hot summer. Your city Parks and Rec may have a deadline (in March) to ask for matching funds. So now's a great time to see if you could find 10 HOA members to pitch in $100 each, and qualify for matching funds to build a garden next year. If you have 150 square feet available in your backyard (or front yard), you can buy the plants you’ll need for your home garden, and support the Richardson ISD Council of PTAs. Does your HOA have landscaping requirements that are friendly for low-water, drought-tolerant, native plants? Lots of native plants add beauty to landscapes, but you may want to update your approved plant list. Here's 25 plants that should be on every HOA approved plant list for DFW.

Create a garden at your home this fall, or join Soils Alive at one of our plant sales in April 2026. Invite neighbors over in the spring as it blooms. Download the iNaturalist app on your phone and take a stroll through your nearest city park. See how much wildlife you can find. Make a list of the wildlife that you wish you were able to find, from our list of common DFW critters. Once your HOA wildlife garden gets built, your community will have a space to observe wildlife, in the shade of a few fruit trees, a place for neighbors to meet and talk.

You could set aside the 1st Saturday of the month to bring some food, a picnic blanket, play some music, and make it a party in the garden. Invite the whole neighborhood to come out. Find out which of your friends is musically talented and ask them to play. A wildlife garden that doesn't need much maintenance is a joy just to be in, to watch all the wildlife that comes to visit. Just sitting and sharing that moment with people in your community, counting our blessings.

Every neighborhood in DFW has what we need. We have people. We have land. Almost everybody has $60 to pitch in. We spend on average 180 hours on Facebook each year and many more hours with TV. If 100 people invested half of that time to improve our communities, we'd have 4.5 full-time workers every year building gardens.

Let's remember.....20% of American adults want to buy a home in an HOA that has created "connection-focused green spaces." Your HOA might be one of several communities they're considering. Soils Alive is just one of many resources all around you, including Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, your city's community garden program, Parks and Recreation teams, and so much more. We hope this guide inspires your HOA team of leaders and your Top 20 neighborhood volunteers to think about what you can do to bring a bit of nature closer to home.

The Snowberry Clearwing. Photo Credit: Karalyn (CC BY-NC)

Soils Alive since 1997

Soils Alive is a small, family-owned business, serving DFW since 1997. Our organic Liquid Compost supports the health of organic fruit tree orchards, organic gardens, wildlife areas, and residential turfgrass lawns. We offer ecofriendly lawn care based on the latest science and modern techniques of environmental stewardship. Our lawncare is ecofriendly because we use up to 80% less chemicals. We can also offer 100% organic if you prefer. We believe in responsible use of lawn chemicals and finding ways to cut back. We like to do what works, and be mindful of how our actions have consequences on our neighbors who rely on the drinking water of our rivers and creeks downstream from us.

We don't lock homeowners in to annual lawn care contracts. And we don't have a 1-800 corporate phone number when you have a question or concern. For over 25 years, we've helped DFW homeowners protect local wildlife and keep pets and kids safer. We support your neighborhood school, by offering discounted lawn care for those who join their school's PTA as a new member. Get in contact with our team if you need more resources for your neighborhood or school. We're here to take care of this one planet we all share....one wildlife garden and ecofriendly lawn at a time.