My preference is to plant things here that are native to the area. By doing so, those plants should be accustomed to our soil and climate and should not need amendments or supplemental water once established.
Sometimes I have made exceptions to choosing true natives, however. For instance, climate change is causing some plant ranges to drift northwards and we are seeing more plants that are happy in central Texas which were formerly better known in Mexico. We would call these plants “well adapted” and an example of that here is my Mexican Olive (Cordia boissieri).
There are also a few plants here that are not native, but I welcome them because they are not invasive and because they support local wildlife. One example is the Dill (Anethum graveolens) that I had last year, and a couple of Common Rue (Ruta graveolens) shrubs that I have just added. Both of these herbs are popular host plants for some of the Swallowtail butterflies.
I bought two new Rue plants from Green Jay Gardens, and planted one each in front of and behind the house. They like full sun and so one went on the southwest corner of the front pollinator garden (bottom left in this photo)…
…and the other went in the middle of the back garden (foreground of the next photo).
One of the two new plants was already pre-populated with a young Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) caterpillar! This particular caterpillar has also been called the “Bird Poop Caterpillar” for perhaps obvious reasons.
And here are more photos from a couple of days later:
Rewilding My Lot 
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