Daily News-Record, June 4, 2022
- Gardeners shouldn’t create manicured landscapes; they simply cannot support a mix of wildlife. Without a variety of organisms to keep each other’s numbers in check, your landscape is doomed to overpopulations of animals, which is always going to be problematic. This month I’m adding onto my May listing of tips for creating a nature-friendly garden, with a focus on how you must obey the natural laws that rule our natural world:
- Discard common prejudices against animals and instead recognize that all organisms perform valuable functions in the environment. In other words, ignore horticultural advice to kill such critters as slugs, snails, pillbugs, and grubs that work to create good soil — the basis of successful gardening — for the benefit of your plants.
- In nature, all organic matter is recycled. Therefore, don’t send diseased plants to the landfill; put them into your compost pile or let them rot on the ground. It’s pointless to try to eradicate plant diseases from the environment; they serve to eliminate plants that are not growing well because conditions aren’t suitable.
- Don’t send woody trimmings to the landfill; make a brush pile for the benefit of wildlife.
- Keep leaves under trees and shrubs to serve as a natural mulch that provides habitat for many kinds of organisms.
- Practice patience with insects on your plants. For example, caterpillars typically feed on plants for 2 weeks at most. Healthy plants don’t suffer from being fed upon.
- Accept vines on trees — those high up can flower and feed insects and hummingbirds.
- Allow moss to grow; it serves as an incubator of firefly eggs and provides nesting material for birds.
- Water is vital for wildlife. Drinking and bathing water can be supplied via a small artificial pond or a shallow pan located at ground level.
- Tree work and shrub trimming is best done in winter to avoid disrupting animals nesting in spring and summer, but at any time of year, always check for animals making use of woody plants before taking action!
- Fence food plants. Mammals don’t know that the food you grow is only for you.
- Leave pulled plants on the ground to decrease your own expenditure of energy and to more rapidly improve soil.
- Don’t rototill once you have good tilth and are seeing critters in the soil. Unnecessary rototilling kills soil organisms that assist your plants to get water and oxygen via ground tunnels.
- Be patient! Mother Nature knows what she’s doing, but you must give her the time she needs. For example, ants took care of Gypsy Moth eggs in my yard, but it took 10 days for them to find the egg mass.
- Learn about wildlife. All creatures provide a service for the environment; that’s why they exist.
- Don’t apply milky spore disease all over your lawn to get rid of Japanese beetles as it also kills native grubs. It’s better to allow moles to feed on grubs; then just tamp down their tunnels.
- Avoid nighttime outdoor lighting; it disrupts circadian rhythms of plants and animals.
- Marlene A. Condon is the author/photographer of The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People (Stackpole Books; information at www.marlenecondon.com). You can read her blog at https://InDefenseofNature.blogspot.com