Last summer, hidden gardens across the North Fork opened their gates to visitors, offering a glimpse of a wilder landscape — alive with hummingbirds, bees and butterflies, and largely free of irrigation systems, fertilizers and chemical sprays.

For years, scenes like that have existed in pockets across the East End, tended by a small but passionate group of gardeners, conservationists and environmental advocates. Now, after years of groundwork by organizations like the Group for the East End, the North Fork Environmental Council, the North Fork Audubon Society, local civic associations and environmental groups, and more recently ReWild North Fork, that movement is beginning to break into the mainstream.

Native plant gardens — once considered niche and even unconventional — are becoming more visible across the North Fork, more coordinated and more widely embraced. At the center of the current momentum is Rewild North Fork.

Launched two years ago as a new chapter of ReWild Long Island, ReWild North Fork has grown into a network of community gardens, volunteers and partnerships that now stretches across the region.

What began with a single community native plant garden in Southold has expanded to roughly 15 gardens across the North Fork, with more planned this year, according to ReWild North Fork co-founders Nancy DePas Reinertsen and her husband, Ralph Reinertsen.

“The whole idea of the program is you walk past the garden and see the butterflies, see the bees, see how it looks,” said Reinertsen. “And you say, ‘I can do that on my own private land.’”

Making native gardens more visible is proving to be key in spreading the gospel of the native plants movement.

‘Aligned efforts’

For decades, organizations including the Group for the East End have promoted native plants through habitat restoration projects, workshops and educational programs. Those efforts helped establish the ecological case for replacing traditional lawns with landscapes built around plants that evolved locally, support wildlife and require very little watering.

But for many residents, the idea has remained abstract and aspirational.

What has changed in recent years is the ability to see those landscapes up close, in neighborhoods, public spaces and, increasingly, in civic and municipal settings.

This spring, one of the most visible examples will take shape behind Southold Town Hall, where a native plant garden is set to be installed as both a habitat and a public gathering space.

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“This has been the accumulation of aligned efforts,” said Town Councilwoman Anne Smith. “You’ve had these priorities for a long time. What’s cool about it is it’s becoming more visible to the public, and that’s the goal of this — to have [a native plant garden] somewhere people naturally go and wonder, ‘What is that?,’ and then get an education.

“It’s the awareness that’s building and the fact that the town is saying, ‘Yes, we’re interested in promoting this and using our space to teach others.’”

The project, developed through the town’s Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) in collaboration with ReWild North Fork, represents a significant step: native landscaping is moving onto municipal property in a prominent, highly trafficked location.

It will be at least the third native plant garden on Southold Town land, following the installation in 2023 of a sprawling native plant garden incubator on town property at the Custer Preserve on Main Bayview Road and last fall’s installation of a native plant garden on the grounds of Mattituck High School.

“We submitted an application on behalf of the board for a garden [behind] Town Hall, and we got it,” said ReWild volunteer Inga Van Eysden, a member of the council. “It’s really exciting because the town supervisor [Al Krupski] really liked the idea … they’re going to put in a garden and try to make it a seating area both for employees and for people visiting Town Hall. That’ll happen this spring.”

Many town officials are actively supporting the broader effort to promote native plant gardens. Last fall, Krupski, Smith and Town Board member Brian Mealy were down on their hands and knees in the dirt in the courtyard at Mattituck High School with the school’s botany club, planting seedlings for a native plant garden.

Mealy also works closely with the town’s CAC, helping connect volunteers, town staff and environmental groups to move projects forward.

“It really is a cooperative, community effort,” he said recently, about the growing interest in native plant gardens.

‘Like-minded people’

ReWild North Fork’s growth has also been fueled by partnerships with established environmental organizations. ReWild is working closely with the Group for the East End on a series of joint programs this year, building on decades of advocacy and expanding it into more hands-on, community-driven initiatives.

“It’s like-minded people getting together and helping each other out,” Reinertsen said.

The movement is also extending into the North Fork’s agricultural and hospitality sectors, including a new collaboration between ReWild North Fork and Sparkling Pointe Vineyards, a Southold winery known for its sustainable practices.

“They’re one of the wineries that are really trying to do things the right way,” said DePas Reinertsen. “Those are the kinds of partners we want to work with.”

Through that collaboration, the winery now includes ReWild educational materials and native seeds in its bi-monthly “Bubbly Box” wine subscriptions, introducing customers to native gardening at home. The winery is also planning to create a pollinator garden on its grounds as part of a walking tour through the vineyard — another highly visible example of native landscaping in a public setting.

ReWild Long Island’s spring and fall native plant sales involve close collaboration with local growers. Plants can be preordered in late March and picked up in May at the North Fork Flower Farm.

Flower farm co-owner Al Martinez-Fonts, another master gardener, said the partnership reflects a broader shift in how North Fork businesses are thinking about sustainability.

“People come out here because they love the landscape,” he said. “So it makes sense to show them ways we can protect it — not just in vineyards, but in the spaces around them.”

Together, these efforts — from Town Hall to wineries to backyard gardens — are helping shift native planting from a niche environmental concept into an manageable undertaking.

‘A burst of colors’

But advocates acknowledge that the transition is also full of challenges.

Unlike traditional lawns, native gardens can appear messy or dormant part of the year. That perception remains one of the movement’s biggest hurdles.

“Part of the problem with pollinator beds is that certain times of year, they don’t look all that good,” said Nick Krupski, Southold’s waste management director, who maintains native plants in his yard.

“I have some in my backyard, and when they’re in season, they last a long time. You can plant all these different species of flowers and you just have color for months. We don’t do anything besides planting it and letting it grow and throwing a little water on it.

“In winter, it looks much sloppier than manicured beds and lawns, but we have a huge chunk of the season where it’s just a burst of colors over there. And you see the butterflies over there every day, and the honeybees and everything.”

RELATED: Why native plants and gardens are starting to replaces lawns on the North Fork

Supporters say that understanding the seasonal rhythms of individual native plants is important.

“Well-designed native gardens can produce months and months of color,” said DePas Reinertsen, a master gardener, pointing to plantings that bloom in succession from early spring through late fall. “You just have to learn how.”

Beyond beauty, the environmental benefits are substantial.

Native gardens require little to no irrigation once established, reducing water use. They eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. And they help restore habitat for vital pollinators like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds — species whose populations are declining worldwide.

The ecological argument, long championed by environmental groups, is now being reinforced more widely on the North Fork than ever before.

Garden tours, workshops and plant sales are drawing growing crowds. Homeowners are experimenting with wildflower meadows and pollinator beds. Schools, civic groups and municipalities are installing demonstration gardens. And each new project adds another point of visibility, and another example of what a different kind of landscape can look like.

After years of advocacy, that network is becoming increasingly visible, and increasingly influential.

“I think people are beginning to realize that everybody has a responsibility to help the environment and sort of work in collaboration with Mother Nature to achieve the best things,” Reinertsen said.

How to help

One thing ReWild North Fork is sorely lacking at the moment is enough volunteers to meet the growing interest in native plant gardens.

“We desperately need volunteers,” DePas Reinertsen said.

The ReWild spring native plant sale, when North Fork residents can order their plants online, began March 23. The plants come from six different nurseries and are delivered to the North Fork Flower Farm, where ReWild volunteers organize them.

“We’ll have 1,000 to 2,000 plants each spring, from little tiny trays to three-gallon trees. And we have to put them all in order,” DePas Reinertsen said. “So Ralph uses his Latin from high school and we put them in alphabetical order by the Latin names of the plants, and then start putting people’s orders together. It is a mammoth task.

“But many hands make light work.”