This year, in this column, I have devoted much time and attention to the benefits of including native plants in the home landscape. It is a worthy endeavor indeed. But it's important not to overlook or take for granted the biodiverse natural setting we all live within—the Pine Hills region of Plymouth. This area is rich with native plants and trees. It is a part of the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens, now a rare temperate coniferous forest ecoregion of the northeast. This type of ecoregion once stretched from North Carolina to Nova Scotia but now only covers three distinct areas: the coastal plain of New Jersey, Southern Long Island in New York, and ours, which stretches from Plymouth to Cape Cod, including the islands.

Our rolling Pinehills are made up of forests of pitch pines and a variety of oaks. The trees are widely spaced, providing sunlight on the forest floor and a dense understory of lowbush blueberries, mountain laurel, bracken fern, and bearberry. Thankfully, by covenant, two-thirds of Pinehills' 3,000 acres will remain natural.

It was this wildness that I immediately fell for when Aaron and I made our first drive through Pinehills. Yes, there are manicured entrances to many pocket neighborhoods. Yet, the edges along Stonebridge Road and Sacrifice Rock Road are left natural. On a recent late summer walk, I marveled at the diversity of native plants growing alongside the trails and roadway: Queen Anne's Lace, Common Evening Primrose, Tansy, Chicory, Wild Raisin, Common Milkweed, Goldenrod, Common Thistle, and Bird's-Foot Trefoil. I frequently spot at least one Pink Lady's Slipper in late spring on a morning dog walk. Posts of these rare pink beauties always appear on the Garden Club's Facebook group page in late May and early June.

In his book Nature's Best Hope, entomologist, ecologist, and conservationist Doug Tallamy doesn't discourage a landscape of ornamental plants so long as we leave patches of natural landscape in between to support biodiversity. We are fortunate to live in a community where we have an abundance of both.

Lisa Remby has been a resident of Pinehills since June 2020 and started the Garden Club in 2021 to meet new people through the shared love of plants and gardens. She earned her Master Gardener's certification in 2009 while living and working professionally in arts and tourism in Wisconsin. Now retired, you can find Lisa touring gardens near and far when she and her husband Aaron are not working in their garden on Climbers Path.