NATIVE PLANTS
The installation of native plants is on the rise in the organic gardening world. As the name states, here in the US, native plants are those which have originated in North America and which have evolved to excel in a specific region. They are easier on the environment because they need no extra water than the rain fall that occurs naturally in their region. Also, they have evolved to a resistance to pests and need little or no fertilizer when planted in the appropriate spot. They are called "low-maintenance" plants for all of these reasons and lists of your native plants can easily found online (I like http://www.plantnative.org/).
Beyond strictly native plants, it is possible to incorporate plants from similar climate zones in order to expand your plant list.
CLIMATE ZONES
The climate hardiness zone map is great place to start when you want to make sure a certain plant will make it through your winter since every plant is labled with its appropriate zones. This map doesn't account for rain or snowfall or for high heat hardiness but these factors can be found online as well (check out http://www.noaa.gov/ and http://www.ahs.org/ for more information). Once you establish what climate zone you are in, it's time to pick out your plants, which leads us to Project #2: Making Sense of Plant Tags.
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