Where i grew up you could have an edible native plant that mosquitoes hate, fixing nitrogen as your ground cover, but no the hoa says grass not mint. I wanted to do guerrilla gardening with wild strawberries there too, but never got around to it.

That said, one non native plant belonged there, the earth made the dandelion one of her greatest and most beloved children, and who am I to disagree.

There was a little old black lady in Tulsa many years ago whose entire front yard was a mix of native plants and garden. It was very nice and organized, nothing tacky at all. City rolled up and razed it flat. She was crying on TV, I was some mix of enraged and crying.

One winter I lost every plant I owned, and that loss kept me away from houseplants for over a decade. I cannot imagine her pain.

Anyway, where I'm at now I'm basically free to treat our house like white trash. No one can say jack about how I'm keeping it and I've shared some ecosystem success stories in this thread.

plus the soil can carry invasive weeds, and diseases, or pests too. and ornamental plants often come from places like asia,,,etc. people are still growing latana camara in some places.