Guys, as the person who started no lawns on Reddit (and here) my yard is a disaster lol. I work outside all day and the last thing I want to do when I get home is yard work. That being said, I removed a bunch of invasives from my yard Monday and I’m working on a plan to tackle a corner of my yard the way I’ve always wanted to in NoLawns style with native plants. I’m always open to suggestions for the Chicago area!
A great resource to get you started on native/pollinator plants is Xerces society. They have two plant guides for your area: https://xerces.org/publications/plant-lists/monarch-nectar-plants-midwest and https://xerces.org/publications/plant-lists/native-plants-for-pollinators-and-beneficial-insects-midwest. You can cross-reference these guides with the USDA Plants database (linked above) which has county-level data (zoom way in on the map) if you only want to plant species native to your county.
It can be difficult to find some native plant species at nurseries, in which case I source seeds online and plant those instead. Sometimes they don’t work out (poor germination) but seeds are so much cheaper than buying plant starts so it’s still more frugal even if half of the species you buy are unable to germinate. It’s best to source seed as locally as possible (a company based in Chicagoland, or at least WI, IL, or IN).
You’re wonderful, thank you!
Making a mental note to add this to the wiki too lol
If you do, the full Xerces plant lists database (all US regions) is here https://xerces.org/publications/plant-lists
And the plants database is here https://plants.usda.gov/home