Your garden will make a difference.
Welcome to Nature in My Backyard, a certification program administered by Ohio Native Plants with support from the Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland and the Shaker Lakes Garden Club, together with the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cuyahoga County. It is designed to help you understand the most essential steps for building biodiversity in your backyard.
We have designed a Step-by-Step Guide that provides suggestions for meaningful, manageable and measurable actions that you can do to create healthy habitat for wildlife. The first step is to register your garden.
With your enrollment you will join a network of gardeners in Ohio committed to stewarding birds, pollinators and wildlife in you own backyard, front yard and patio. The guide will show you how to plant native plants, provide habitat for wildlife, remove invasive species, build a healthy ecosystem and will encourage you to learn and tell others! To better prepare you, please watch this 24-minute video, here.
If you live Cuyahoga County, you may
schedule a Free Garden Visit
Garden visits are scheduled May 1 through October 31, as weather and the growing season allows and will take place rain or shine, unless the weather is severe. The visit will last approximately 90 minutes. We will tour your yard and help you identify invasive species, make recommendations about how to remove them and recommend what native plants would do well in your growing conditions.
Register Your Garden
Get certified and display your sign or register for an in-person on-site visit.
“I learned about Nature in my Backyard from a table during a plant sale event. I was already planting natives, but meeting the NMB volunteer was a complete game changer. I’ve learned so much through Nature in my Backyard. Thank you for what you are doing!“
— Misty, Shaker Heights
Plant natives and save the world!
Upcoming Programs
Join us for Brown Bagging it in My Backyard, a monthly Zoom presentation on the 2nd Wednesday of each month.