During the past week, I read The Humane Gardener by Nancy Lawson. I enjoyed this book - both the content and the photos. There were a lot of interesting facts as well as steps to take to help make one's garden more beneficial to wildlife and insects.
Some of the things I found particularly interesting were:
- Monarch butterfly numbers in the eastern United States have plummeted by more than 90 percent in two decades.
- One-third of all North American birds - 432 species - are at risk of extinction and in need of urgent conservation action.
- Worldwide, populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish have declined by 52 percent.
- More than 40 percent of invertebrate pollinators, especially bees and butterflies, are in danger of vanishing from the planet.
- Among the host of reasons for the losses - habitat destruction, pesticides, climate change, invasive species - the average homeowners holds in his or her hands some of the most reversible: in the United States we've covered with turfgrass more than 40 million acres - an area about eight times the size of New Jersey.
- Humane gardeners embody the ethic of compassionate landscaping.
- More than mere decoration, plants are the foundation of any humane garden.
- Instead of hundreds of Dutch bulbs for median strips, plant native grasses and fruiting shrubs in their place.
- A Seneca Nation policy uses only indigenous species in new landscaping of public spaces, the first of its kind among US Native nations.
- All plants have value somewhere, and ecologists worldwide contend with introduced species that are out of sync with their surroundings.
- If a monarch doesn't have swaths of goldenrod, asters, and other late-flowering plants lighting her fall migration path, she may run out of fuel.
- A succession of flowers, fruits, and seed heads can help ensure no one goes hungry.
- Start with a dozen native wildflower species - four for each season of bloom and adding a few grasses, some fruiting shrubs, and two nut-bearing trees.
- Create borders that benefit wildlife: add native trees and shrubs like arborvitae and hollies and semi-evergreen vines such as coral honeysuckle. Plant deciduous hedges in layers, mixing shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers that can provide food and cover for birds in winter and privacy for you.
- Rather than wood mulch, imitate natural growth patterns by adding sedges, grasses, and native groundcovers as "green mulch" among taller plants.
- A rose by any other name - or a holly or sunflowers, for that matter - is sometimes not even recognizable to wildlife.
- Bluebirds love pokeweed berries. Fall-migrating birds depend on it and other native plants.
- A landscape filled with exotics that carry little nutritional value could spell trouble for migrating birds. They lure birds with cues such as color or abundance, but offer little in return.
- Power foods for migrating birds: Virginia creeper, blueberry, serviceberry, elderberry, dogwoods, viburnums, spicebush, black raspberry, bayberry, and winterberry.
- Staghorn sumac feeds 300 bird species and serves as an emergency food source in the winter. Squirrels and rabbits like the bark, and deer graze on the fruits and stems.
- Broomsedge provides seed and cover for birds. Caterpillars feed on the grasses, and bees use the plant for nesting material.
- Though Americans spend billions of dollars to hang feeders filled with seeds and berries, such handouts are largely useless to growing avian families. The nestlings of 96 percent of North American terrestrial bird species survive on spiders and insects, mostly caterpillars, who are themselves babies with specialized habitat needs.
- Add oaks, black cherries, and willows which feed hundreds of species of butterflies and moths at the larval stage. Plant asters, goldenrods, and native perennials that do double duty, with leaves that nourish caterpillars and flowers that feed adult pollinators.
- Dragonflies are voracious consumers of mosquitoes, eating up to 300 a day, while a single bat can devour thousands of insects each night.
- Mow from the inside out, starting at the center of your lawn to give animals time to move to the periphery and avoid being trapped in the center.
- Remove fallen fences, wires, and twine, which can become entangled in the legs of foxes and other animals.
- Other outdoor adornments, from Christmas lights to metal garden accents, can entangle wildlife and should be monitored frequently if used.
- Use streamers, ribbons, opaque decals, mesh screens, reflective tape, pie plates, and other items on or by windows to help break a mirage.
- Glaring outdoor lamps disrupt the natural cycles of fireflies and other creatures of the night.
- Put covers over sunken wells around basement windows. Skunks, snakes, toads, salamanders, mice, rabbits, and even fawns can be trapped in basement windows.
- Manmade bodies of water also are deadly to animals. Install a FrogLog or Critter Skimmer to provide angled escape places for toads, mice, spiders, and other small creatures who fall into swimming pools or ponds.
- Wash feeders with a 10% bleach solution once a week. Change water in birdbaths daily, removing debris with a scrub brush.
- Opossums have no way to fight back when challenged. All they can do is drool, hiss, and swap before playing dead. They have 50 teeth, but they don't know how to use them in an aggressive way. Yet they are among the most abused mammals, intentionally run over, set on fire, and doused in insecticides.
- Opossums are so nonaggressive. You have to really provoke an opossum to get bitten.
- The more vegetation that you share with wildlife, the more productive and conflict-free your garden will be.
- Rabbits keep dandelions in check. Deer and groundhogs provide pruning assistance. Nesting birds and pollinators prey on aphids and other crop-nibbling insects.
- Predator urine, sold as a natural way to scare off wild visitors, is collected from coyotes, foxes, and other animals raised in wire cages on fur farms.
- Provide shelter and a feeling of safety for cautious songbirds by surrounding a snag with serviceberries, redbuds, fruiting shrubs, or other understory species helpful to wildlife.
- Woolly bears, the caterpillars of Isabella tiger moths, are among many creatures who produce an antifreeze-like substance to survive the winter under leaves.
- Turtles, birds, and many other animals can find shelter and insects in brush piles made from branches and twigs.
- Avoid using leaf blowers, which can be catastrophic, ripping like tornadoes through habitat and removing essential shelter and food.
Websites to Check Out:
- Cavity Conservation Initiative
Books to Read:
- Real Gardens Grow Natives
- The Midwestern Native Garden
- The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden
- Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants
Native Plant Sources and Supplies
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
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