You may not realize this, but many garden center plants have been introduced from other continents and can be extremely harmful to our state’s native plants.

These “alien invasives” not only thrive here, but also can spread aggressively. Eventually, they crowd out native plants needed by wildlife and pollinators, resulting in a poorer environment with less animal and plant diversity.

So what to plant in your yard and garden — and what to avoid?

According to the New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team, many of the worst offenders have been landscaping staples for years: Chinese and Japanese wisteria, Japanese clematis, English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, porcelainberry, Norway maple, Callery/Bradford pear, winged burning bush, wintercreeper, Japanese barberry, butterfly bush, Linden viburnum, Japanese meadowsweet and Chinese silvergrass. It’s best to avoid all of them.

What to plant instead for a beautiful yard and a healthy environment? A new program called Jersey-Friendly Yards makes it easy to decide. Its website, www.jerseyyards.org, is presented by the Barnegat Bay Partnership and has many helpful features, including an extensive plant database and an online tool, to help you design a landscape plan.

The plant database lists hundreds of trees, shrubs and flowers that are native to New Jersey, as well as plants that are not native but aren’t harmful because they don’t aggressively spread.

Here are some examples of beneficial plants: flowering dogwood, white fringetree, persimmon, American holly, spicebush, serviceberry, Eastern columbine, butterfly weed, purple coneflower, beebalm, cardinal flower, black-eyed Susan, Virginia bluebells and wild geranium.

The website’s “Interactive Yard” tool provides step-by-step instructions for making your property the healthiest possible environment. For instance, it provides advice on removing impervious surfaces, getting rid of invasive plants, adding beds around the house, harvesting rainwater, attracting pollinators, and starting a vegetable garden.

The Jersey-Friendly Yards program was developed by the Barnegat Bay Partnership with a grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The partnership, composed of more than 30 organizations and agencies, has been working for years to improve water quality in Barnegat Bay. The bay, like many rivers in New Jersey, is threatened by runoff water filled with fertilizers, sediment and trash.

A critical part of the organization’s efforts involves reducing “people pollution” carried from yards into waterways through stormwater runoff. Jersey-Friendly Yards is the latest of many initiatives designed to educate the public.

“In my mind, the future of conservation is going to be in our yards,” said Karen Walzer, of the Barnegat Bay Partnership. “If we start with our own yards, it will go a long way for conservation in New Jersey.”

This spring, make sure your yard and garden are Jersey-friendly. Visit the website and take advantage of all the great advice assembled there.

For more information about preserving the state’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website, www.njconservation.org.