About Us
In 2007 owner Lisa Newell started Cultivated Gardens, a garden design and maintenance business in the Farmington Valley. The focus has always been on organic, sustainable practices with an emphasis on plants that are native to the northeast. In 2021 Lisa began growing her own native plants from seed, and Rewild Native Plant Nursery was born. Our goal is to support the growing interest among homeowners to garden in ways that meet the needs of pollinator insects and birds (which rely on the insects to feed their young), and to help homeowners achieve a home landscape that is both beautiful to us and beneficial to the wildlife around us.
We help homeowners see the ecological value of gardens and “wild” areas in their yards, and to reduce the area devoted to traditional lawns, which provide no ecological value (i.e. support no wildlife).
We believe that:
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we all have a role to play in saving biodiversity.
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we are ALL responsible for ecological stewardship; we can’t leave it to conservationists or scientists.
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there no such thing as an “ecologically insignificant” area; every outdoor space is an opportunity to help restore nature.
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the beauty from a thoughtful, healthy native garden is as important and satisfying to us as it is to wildlife.
Why plant native plants?
In addition to being essential to a healthy local ecosystem, native plants are beautiful! Because they've evolved here, they're uniquely suited to our environmental conditions. Native plants are drought and cold tolerant and don't require special fertilizers or soil amendment. They're tough!
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Native plants, insects and birds have co-evolved over thousands or hundreds of thousands of years in our specific geographic region. They rely on each other for pollination, food and habitat in a complex ecosystem that has been disrupted and, in some cases, eliminated by human activity. Plants that are not native to our ecoregion do not provide the food and habitat necessary for native insects and birds to survive and reproduce. Without healthy native plant communities wildlife cannot survive. If we’re going to save insects and birds and enjoy all of the rewards they bring us, we must provide them with the food and habitat that they require in the form of native plants.