It has a great big heart and arms that envelope a troubled spirit.
This garden is where I found my voice, a point of view and learned some patience. I found my voice first as a pollinator gardener when I fell in love with bumbles and then realized they were my introduction to all of the critters that live in a garden habitat. When ever I get to a place where I am feeling the big feels spending time just being in the garden is the best way for me get reacquainted with all of myself.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ~Confucius
xoxogail
In case you wondered-Research shows being outside has a positive impact on our health, both physically and mentally. (source)
- Boosts immune system: You get a vitamin D infusion that helps fight viral infections. The forest air you breathe in is full of phytoncides, chemicals shed by forest plants. Phytoncides’ antifungal and antibacterial qualities stimulate your body to increase the white blood cells responsible for fighting tumor- and virus-infected cells.
- Enhances cognitive functions: It's a balm for our busy brains
- Improves heart health: Lowers blood pressure
- Promotes better sleep
- Reduces stress: Improves mood. Just 20 minutes spent in any space that evokes nature can significantly reduce cortisol (stress hormone) levels.
- Supports mental health: Time in nature can improve your mood and reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression. It can alter the brain activity in your prefrontal cortex — the part regulating emotions.
Get more nature in your life
- Visit a City Parks: Take a walk, it doesn't have to be a long walk.
- Unplug and Be Present: Leave your phone behind and focus on the sounds, sights, and smells of nature.
- Regular Exposure: Aim for at least 120 minutes of nature contact per week for the best results. That's about 17 minutes a day...
- Embrace the Seasons: Take advantage of the changing seasons to spend time outdoors. It's cooling down and the leaves are starting to get their fall colors on. Get outdoors and look up at the trees.
Finally, spend time in your own garden or habitat. Be aware of what you're thinking and saying to yourself. Let go of criticisms and making a list of all the things you need to do. Don't weed, don't straighten up, just sit quietly and be. Take a look at what you've created. Celebrate the insects, birds and other critters that live in and visit your garden. You have so much to celebrate. Be at peace with yourself.
"If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything." Thich Nhat Hanh
Want to Take the Taking Care of Wildlife In Our Gardens Challenge?
The first part of this challenge is to do something or even lots of things each month that supports critters living in our gardens. Gardening with native wildflowers, shrubs and trees that make sense for our ecoregion is a good place to start or continue (as the case may be). Plants and their pollinators are a classic example of mutualism: they have coevolved through evolutionary time in a reciprocal beneficial relationship. This is also true for other critters that visit and live in our gardens.
Activities that increase our knowledge of the natural world are equally as valuable. Helping others learn about nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can do.
The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! Why post it? Because positive publicity is needed to educate our friends, neighbors and communities about how important even the smallest changes we make as gardeners can be for pollinators, birds, insects and mammals, including humans, that live all around us.
Why now? My
neighborhood is changing. Yours might be, too. Every day an older home
along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern
cedar and hackberry trees are cut down. Insects, birds, even mammals
lose their home site and food supplies when trees are cut down. During construction
soil is compacted by bulldozers, trucks and piles of
debris causing runoff; surface runoff that can carry pollution to
streams and rivers. It's
important that our neighbors have information about how important trees
are to our ecosystem. Trees contribute to their environment by providing
oxygen, improving air quality, climate amelioration, conserving water,
preserving soil, and supporting wildlife.
In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, native grasses (in my neighborhood it's poverty oat grass) and sedges, they're sodded with non-native grasses. These monoculture turf lawns contribute nothing environmentally. Here's what we lose when our diverse lawns are replaced with pristine turf grass:
- Gone are the lightening bugs.
- Gone are the ground dwelling/nesting native bees.
- Gone is the habitat for insects, spiders and other critters.
- Gone is plant diversity.
- Gone are trees that provided for hundreds of moths, butterflies and other insects.
- Gone are the nesting sites for woodpeckers, hummingbirds, Chickadees and other birds.
- Gone is a healthy foodweb.
It breaks my heart.
We can't stop the progmess, but,
maybe we can make a lot of educational noise and help our new neighbors
see the value in providing for critters and ultimately helping the environment.
A gardener can hope!
xoxoGail
Here's an
incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your
garden, and things you can do for and/or in your community. But don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check
out the
internet for ideas.
Looking for ways to get involved go here for a list of environmental advocacy groups.
Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.
Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.
Get in the garden with your children and grandchildren.
Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.
Plant your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.
Plant more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)
Plant
for bloom from late spring to early winter. Bees are most active from
February to November (longer in mild climates) late winter blooming Hamamelis vernalis
and the earliest spring ephemerals (like the toothworts, hepaticas,
spring beauties, and False rue-anemeone) are perfect plants for a
variety of pollinators.
Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.
Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native wildflowers”
If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of
space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers.
You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.
Make a rain garden in low spots to collect and mitigate runoff.
Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden.
Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.
Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.
Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.
Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from the trees in the fall and need a soft landing site and a place to live over the winter.
Allow
a fallen tree to remain in the garden. Limbs on the ground are a
perfect shelter for small animals such as rabbits, chipmunks and
squirrels and a habitat for beetles, termites and other insects.
Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles. Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs". Bugs are also good bird, toad and small critter food.
Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and they're great bird food!
Add nesting boxes for birds.
Turn
off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm.
This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes,
insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)
Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.
Keep a nature journal: You can observe visitors to your water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces.
Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)
Join WildOnes even if there's no local group you can join the national organization. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)
Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee, Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)
Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.
If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.
Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program. Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program
Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.
Take an online course on designing with native plants.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."
If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)
Join the Xerces Society.
Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info.
Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)
Support
trees by joining the effort to make sure developers don't remove more
trees than are necessary for their project. Work to make sure there are
tree removal permits and that they are actually enforced in your
community.
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Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.
