Native Plant Habitat Certification

This program exists to recognize the importance of planting, nurturing and protecting native plants in your landscape. With your work, you demonstrate that even a small residential property can help sustain the native ecosystem—its plants, wildlife, water, soil, and air—a vital contribution to a world that has lost so much. Creating and preserving a native plant habitat is always a work in progress: it will have its ongoing tasks and its ongoing and unfolding pleasures. We hope to help you appreciate and enjoy the process.

Once your application is completed, a member of the certification committee will arrange to visit you on your property as part of the certification process. Having a guide to help you explore the plants, site conditions, (and sometimes the wildlife!) on your property can be a fun and inspiring way to see it with new eyes.

Note: If you are actively cultivating any Category 1 or 2 invasive plants, as listed by the Georgia Exotic Plant Pest Council: http://www.gaeppc.org/list/, GNPS will not certify your site. Some of the more common plants on this list are: privet (Ligustrum), kudzu, Chinese wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle, mimosa (Albizia julibrissin), English ivy, autumn olive (Elaeagnus), and chinaberry (Melia azedarach). We can help you identify these and others during our site visit, but if you do not know what they are, chances are you are not trying to grow them.

There are two certification levels, Silver and Gold (see below for details). Both have a certification program fee of $30, paid before you are given a link to the online application form. You must be a member of GNPS to participate; if you are interested in certification and are not yet a member, all you need to do is join! 

Upon certification, you will receive a sign designating your certified level: Gold or Silver. Be sure to ask about the custom stakes coordinated to match your sign and securely mount into your garden (extra fee for stake). We would welcome a photo showing off the native plants in your garden. Your photo will join others on the website to help inspire future applicants.

To summarize, it is a four-step process to become certified:

  1. Pay application fee,
  2. Receive a link to an application form,
  3. Submit the form, and
  4. Work with the certification team when they contact you.

Start the process with step 1 by paying the application fee. Just press the big button below!

Thank you for your interest in the GNPS Habitat Certification program!

 

 

Certification Requirements

Silver

  • 1/3 of the entire property grounds in native plants representing 4 (four) or more categories listed below. There must be a minimum of 3 species in each of the four categories.
  • No cultivated Category 1-2 invasive plants and invasive plants must be in the process of being actively eradicated.
  • 4 out of 8 sustainable gardening practices.
  • In general, the habitat should be established for at least a year before being certified.

Gold

  • 2/3 of the entire property grounds in native plants representing 4 (four) or more categories listed below. There must be a minimum of 3 species in each of the four categories.
  • No cultivated Category 1-3 invasive plants and invasive plants must be in the process of being actively eradicated.
  • 4 out of 8 sustainable gardening practices.
  • In general, the habitat should be established for at least a year before being certified.
Native Plant Categories
  •  trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, vines, ferns/mosses/lichens, grasses/sedges, water/bog plants.
Sustainable Gardening Practices
  • Have features that support wildlife
  • Practice composting
  • Avoid using herbicides and pesticides
  • Capture and use rainwater
  • Use soaker hoses
  • Minimize lawn areas
  • Mulch or allow leaves to remain
  • Reduce use of fossil-fuel-powered lawn equipment

Have questions?

If you still have any questions about the program, email us at habitatcertification@gnps.org. We’d love to hear from you!

News & Events

Pember Residential

Pat Pember was awarded a Gold Certification for her residential property in Cumberland Harbor in Saint Mary's. She has planted over a hundred native plants of substantial size for the past two years. Large deep green mounds of Tripsacum dactyloides (eastern gamagrass...

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Keeler Residential

Sandy Keeler received a gold certification for her residential property outside Waycross. Nearly a decade ago, Sandy moved an older house to an open pastured site and immediately started to establish a native plant garden. She started with an impressive collection of...

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Avondale Estates Garden

Beth and Rick Langhorsts' wooded property required several years of non-native invasive plant removal. It was then replanted with understory trees of eastern red bud (Cercis canadensis), chalk maple (Acer leucoderme), and more. Also, installed were native shrubs...

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Earth Stewardship

Sally and Bob Hilton take on the responsibility of being stewards of the natural community. Their native plant habitat hosts many insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. There is always something in flower throughout the growing season in the Hiltons' yard. A few of the...

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Layers in Landscaping

Cathy Rouse has a sunny front lawn with a perimeter of native forbs, grasses, and vines including giant ironweed (Vernonia gigantea), purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis), Stone Mountain daisy (Helianthus porteri), and vasevine (Clematis viorna). The backyard is...

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