(gentle upbeat music) >>It has been a very exciting time to be a gardener.

A lot of people are finally starting to realize the joys and benefits of gardening, and along with that, the joys and benefits of native plants.

So in this bed, I'm going to be adding in some native plants that I have picked up.

Later on, I'm going to be planting some more Amsonia in this bed, which is a nice native plant.

Blue blooms early in the season, and beautiful fall color and also Green and Gold, one of my favorite evergreen ground covers makes a nice little mass.

And the pollinators love the nectar from the blooms.

So those are going to be going in a little later.

So in this garden, it's a mix of native and non-natives now, and I have already added some natives, such as this Thuja here and this Little Bluestem.

Now, this is a cultivar Little Bluestem that has variegated leaves called Chameleon.

So in between these, I'm going to plant in a Eupatorium 'Cori.'

I want a nice mass of this Eupatorium 'cause it has this nice light blue bloom and it blooms later in the season.

So the late season pollinators can really take advantage of this.

Now, I have really, really compacted soil here from years of having dogs.

So I will have to add some soil conditioner.

Now, the soil conditioner is really finally grated mulch.

So what happens is as it's in the soil and it breaks down, it takes up the space of the compacted soil or your clay soil and makes it a lot better.

So we're gonna get this guy out of the pot.

Look at these nice roots.

Now, always remember, as you're planting, score the roots.

You don't want them to continue to grow in the pattern that they are in, in the container.

Give those roots a chance to start spreading out into the soil.

Then we'll get them in here, tuck it in nicely, and voila, we have a new plant to take over this section.

Then we have a nice little mass here, and I think this is going to really work out great.

Nice fall color.

And it fits the color scheme that I'm going for.

There's always going to be a native version of a plant that you can use to fit whatever scheme you're going for.

It might take a little research, but we can do it.

We all can go out and get our hands dirty and start adding some native plants to our landscapes, even our existing landscapes.

Just go out and just add some in and you will reap the benefits and so will the ecosystem.