I am aware that there are habitat checklists that don't even get into native or not plants. Their lists are pretty basic: little to no lawn, water source (preferably fed by non city water), x bush types for shelter, x bush types for berries, 1-whatever trees, grass/flowers for seed eaters, and so on. (I think the National Wildlife Federation has one such list--yes, it does and boy oh boy
is it dead basic requirements.)
For me, the native part started off as a conservation curiosity spin-off. The more time I spent walking around Gardner, seeing the same damn plantings 50 times over with a handful within that get picked as part of the mix in various forms in those yards, with so few of them actual natives when there were perfectly lovely native equivalents that maybe weren't that gaudy bright pink that was trendy at some point or what have you (same gaudy pink that all 50 houses with that plant have--and no one does anything with it other than use it as one of the anchor color spots)...I thought, "Can't we be better caretakers?" I admit, I also thought, "Yeah, I'm so over this since house ten." Of course it didn't help that our house came with most of the repeat offenders. (Hullo, Christina pink azalea!)
The caretaker part was because you know how most lower-middle income American yards look. Sparse and a lot of it is comprised of half dead lawn. Rarely do I see a bird bath. Once in a blue moon, there is an empty bird feeder. One thing I really notice during my walks about town is where you do see wild life--typically the rare gem where someone actually put some thought into it even if it looks like they're working from a limited budget. Care and thought are there, not just "Oh we need to have some X". You do rarely see, among the standards, that one small bed, window box or planter that you just know someone from that household adores and cares for more than anything. Maybe it's a time problem? Maybe it's a lack of info handed down? I don't know.
I'm actually really lucky in the immediate neighbor sense. Because we're on the short end of the block, we mostly border with three other properties (and a smidge corner of a fourth). One has most of the usual plantings, but a bit more land and the former owners at least made some attempts within overall to make it unique and varied. The current owner hated all the wind break bushes in front of the house until I explained the possible reason they were there. Now she doesn't talk about cutting them down, though she is still eyeballing the pear trees because she's tired of the squirrels eating all the fruit. She still has no clue about anything gardening related except mowing the lawn. She does adore the birds and buys huge bags of feed for year round. We're getting to be friends and she's starting to like her yard more each time we talk about wildlife and plants. She does care, but I think this is all new to her and she is older and the family she has living with her does next to nothing to help her maintain the property.
One is a rental where the renters pretty much are responsible for the yard and actually do a bit more than the usual (including their recently legal pot plants). They actually grew beans on a trellis they bought the last few years. He loves exotics that have to be brought indoors in winter. She just loves their above ground pool and greenery in general. (She is also a granddaughter of the family our home belonged to, but she did not inherit it.) We are friendly, she keeps inviting me to use the pool bur I never seem to go. Sean hates their late night parties but they do them a lot less now that pot is legal. (They used to have a smoking tent which was replaced by an open screen house.) They have lots of lawn furniture and the grass in the back is like what you see at campgrounds and parks due to the traffic. The front they keep respectable average with little wood decor bits.
Thankfully the shorter end is where the spraying used to be and now the new neighbor seems hell bent on having nothing but mud lawn in the back which their dogs run around in constantly. There's very little vegetation left for them to raze and pile at the far back of their property (against the wee corner neighbor's fence) or trees to cut down and burn way too close to the thick patch of trees on our west side neighbors lot (the renters). He always seems to use his burn barrel for leaves and woody bits the older kids haven't used for weekend campfires when the wind is coming from the south, and you can see the wrath in his eyes glaring at the neighbor side border trees that dare drop leaves on his lawn. He cuts his mud lawn with a weed wacker. I've never seen a mower. We only speak between when the dogs are barking at me and they are yelling at them to stop. I couldn't tell you any of their names and they've never asked for mine. But I know all the dogs' names.
The smidge corner neighbor has ALL the usual Gardner plantings, but they have a long rectangle lot, so most are either in front of the house, or jammed around the border with a standard mostly dead lawn in the middle with all sorts of things littered all over the lawn. We've never had a passing chance to speak to them.
Ok...that went a bit long, but compared to most boring Gardner same sames...at least we only have that smidge corner as immediate neighbors. The rest of the homes we can see are all same sames.
The caretaker part does also come from a place where I was educated quite early about environmentalism and conservation. (My first answer to the "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was to be a marine biologist.) I am too young to remember alternate license plate gas lines my mother sat with me in the car, but my family spoke of them and other ecological matters though extended family wasn't as concerned. I even still have my mother's copy of "Silent Spring".
I can't recall if you've mentioned Marinelli's book before, or it's on my list to read but it certainly sounds familiar. I'll see if I can get a copy from our library now that they've got a pick up system in place.
One book I have fallen in love with is: "Native Plants for New England Gardens" which I stumbled upon at my local library. My interest in natives grew even deeper after I found
a 2018 podcast with the authors talking about what they do and how the book came to be. I can't remember if I had learned about the various gardens (native, educational and/or ornamental) in MA prior to finding that book or not, but I think at least some (on top of already knowing about Amherst's Ag school from my stint at grad work there before I transferred to another M.F.A. program in MN).
Then there's the wildcrafting interest I've had, and how angry I got when I found out how much is stripped by "small businesses" mostly making oils. They could grow the stuff in their yards instead of take it from the forests. It can still be wild...but that's another ramble and I've probably rambled too much as it is already.
