Native Landscaping aims to put FONTT’s advocacy and website resources into direct action through activities that provide the material, labor and examples to further our mission. We put boots on the ground and plants in the soil to strengthen biodiversity through the following three initiatives:

Biannual native plant sales

FONTT organizes native plant sales, in spring and fall, for FONTT members, subscribers, and friends. We source most of these plants from Bona Terra, a Maryland nursery that specializes in plants native to Maryland and Virginia and particularly in local ecotypes of those species. Since our first sale in spring 2023, our 40-plus customers have purchased pots and plugs of more than 100 native plant species, including 30 ecotypes.

To encourage more of our members and subscribers to participate in our sales, FONTT inaugurated yard tours in 2025. Three FONTT members offered tours of their yards, to show what various native species look like “in real life” and to explain how light, water, soil, and browse conditions in the yards have affected the species. We plan to continue offering yard tours in 2026.

To make ordering easier for our customers, we created a Resources webpage for the fall sale, including a chart describing all the species on sale (size, water and light requirements, flowering period). The chart drew from the more extensive information on FONTT’s Select Natives webpage, which provides annotated lists of trees, shrubs, perennials and ground covers native to Maryland. We plan to update the Resources webpage for the 2026 plant sales.

Homegrown Takoma

Through this initiative, Takoma Park residents can have native trees planted in their yards with sturdy metal fencing installed to protect against deer browse. Recipients pay only for the cost of the fencing materials ($20-$30 pre-tariffs).  FONTT advises on tree care and monitors the health of the trees through annual visits. The trees are grown in containers from seed or small seedlings collected in local yards by FONTT members or treeDC.  

The trees are offered through the spring and fall native plant sales or residents can contact FONTT.

Read more about the initiative here.

Remove and Replant

Through this initiative, we seek both to educate residents about the harm invasive plants cause, even in yards, and encourage people to take action. To accomplish this, we will showcase residents who have cleared the areas around their homes of invasives and then replanted with an attractive collection of beneficial native plants.

FONTT will assist with advice, help with removal and replanting, and free native shrubs. While FONTT will only have the capacity to help a small number of residents directly with removal and replanting, we can use events and our communications channels to broadcast these residents’ stories throughout their neighborhoods and wards.

The idea is to motivate additional residents to take similar action in their own yards by holding up the good examples of nearby neighbors. Social comparison has been shown to be a very effective method for inducing behavioral change.*

This initiative has been in a testing and design phase in 2025, with plans to graduate to a small pilot project in 2026.

• M. M. Thiel, M.H. Goldberg, and S. van der Linden. 2023. “Field Interventions for Climate Change Mitigation Behaviors: A Second-Order Meta-Analysis.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.