Resources
The Rhizome resource shelf
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Rhizome tools link straight into the site. Everything else opens an outside organization we trust — we don't run those sites, and we don't get anything for linking them.
Planting videos
Watch before you dig. These walk through site prep, sheet mulching, plug spacing, and first-season watering.
How to plant a native garden, start to finish
Prairie Moon Nursery
Full walkthrough of removing turf, laying out plugs, and mulching a small native bed.
Sheet mulching to kill lawn without chemicals
Community garden how-to
Cardboard-and-compost method — the easiest way to open ground on a school campus.
Seed starting and winter sowing in jugs
Winter sowing tutorials
Cold-stratify native seed in milk jugs over winter — cheap, low-equipment, club-friendly.
Watering and weeding a first-year planting
Native plant extension talks
What survival looks like in year one, and which seedlings are weeds.
ERA
Rhizome Restoration was built with the EcoRestoration Alliance (ERA). ERA is a global network of restoration scientists and practitioners working to reverse biodiversity loss and restore living ecosystems.
EcoRestoration Alliance
ERA
The ERA home page: research, member projects, and the next-generation metrics behind the restoration movement that Rhizome is part of.
What ERA measures
EcoRestoration Alliance
ERA tracks outcomes like biodiversity recovered, water retained, resilience built, and local weather moderated — not just acres or carbon.
ERA in the Rhizome curriculum
Rhizome
Learn how ERA's work connects to the native garden movement in the Seed, Sprout, and Root Level certification lessons.
Finding native plants in your area
Start with our own ecoregion tool, then cross-check with these regional databases before you buy anything.
Rhizome ecoregion + nursery finder
Rhizome
Enter your zip for an ecoregion plant list and Rhizome-recognized nurseries ranked by proximity.
Native Plant Finder
National Wildlife Federation
Zip-code search ranking plants by how many caterpillar species they host.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center database
University of Texas at Austin
Filter thousands of natives by state, light, soil moisture, and bloom time.
Homegrown National Park
Doug Tallamy
Keystone plant lists by ecoregion — the highest-impact species to plant first.
Seeds, plugs & nurseries
This shelf now lives on its own page: Native Plant Suppliers, with trusted seed and plant growers sorted by region.
Native Plant Suppliers
Rhizome
Trusted national and regional seed and plant growers, plus guidance on seeds vs. plugs and how to double-check that a species is native to you.
Rhizome-recognized nursery directory
Rhizome members
Member-submitted native nurseries, reviewed and published by ecoregion.
Identification & observation apps
Free apps for logging what grows and what shows up to visit it.
iNaturalist
Cal Academy & National Geographic
Photograph anything living, get an ID, and contribute to real biodiversity data.
Seek by iNaturalist
iNaturalist
Camera-only, no account needed — the safest option for younger club members.
Merlin Bird ID
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Sound ID for birds — great evidence that a garden is being used.
Bumble Bee Watch
Xerces Society
Submit bumble bee photos to a continent-wide monitoring project.
Club & organizing toolkits
For leaders starting a chapter, pitching an administrator, or running a first workday.
Press release generator
Rhizome
Auto-fills a local-media template with your club's real garden numbers.
Badge directory & requirements
Rhizome
Every badge, what counts as evidence, and how to propose your own initiative.
Action library
Rhizome
Ready-made projects: teaching, advocacy, seed exchanges, nursery partnerships.
Youth safety & permission basics
Rhizome
What we ask of members under 18, and what we never publish about you.
Science & background reading
Where the curriculum's claims come from, if you want to go deeper or cite something.
Xerces Society pollinator conservation resources
Xerces Society
Regional planting guides, pesticide guidance, and habitat assessment sheets.
Why native plants matter
Audubon
Short, citable overview of the food-web argument for native landscaping.
EPA Level III ecoregions
US EPA
The ecoregion framework behind Rhizome's regional plant lists.
Know a resource that belongs here? Submit it as an initiative on the Act page — useful additions are credited to the member who found them.
Tools are only useful once something is in the ground.
Take one thing off this shelf this week
Contribute
The best resources come from members
Found a nursery, a video, or a regional guide that made your planting easier? Add the nursery to the directory or propose it as an initiative — both are reviewed, and both earn recognition.
A note on outside links
Regional accuracy matters more than any single list. Always check a species against your own ecoregion before planting it — a plant native to one state can be a problem two states over.