Wild Flora's Wild Gardening: organizations

Showing posts with label organizations. Show all posts

A few plums

HERE ARE A PARTICULARLY INTERESTING ITEMS picked from the latest installment of the Wild Ones organization's e-mail newsletter:

Wild Ones now has its own channel on YouTube. At the moment they have 7 videos including tours of the new Wild Ones Ecocenter now and 11 months ago. The rest are photo contests from 2003 through 2008.

The website of the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System now has an educational offering titled Managing Invasive Plants: Concepts, Principles, and Practices. This is designed for people who are managing large natural areas on public land in the United States but some ideas could be adapted to gardens and smaller landscapes. From the gardener's standpoint, the most useful information is in the section on management, particularly physical, chemical, and biological methods of control. If you have enough land, you may be interested in the sections on prescribed grazing (I'm planning to take a good look at the section on goats) and prescribed burning. All the sections are overviews, so if you already know a lot about control of invasive species you may find that there is not much new here.

The Pollinator Partnership is offering a number of handouts that were prepared for the 2008 Pollinator Week last June. These are in pdf format and include:

A Healing Environment

Every natural garden, however small, can incorporate a private spot for contemplation. Water in some form is a lovely addition; this photo shows the surface of a small pond I am fortunate to have near my house.

EVEN A TINY NATURAL GARDEN IS A HEALING SPACE. On the heels of yesterday's news about Deborah Dale, whose natural garden was destroyed by the city of Toronto, what should arrive in my inbox but the latest "Science Matters" newsletter from the David Suzuki Foundation, titled "Get Outside--It's Good For You." Suzuki writes:

"Just being outdoors or having access to the natural world has been proven to have physical and mental health benefits. And new research has now found that the more diverse and vibrant an ecosystem is, the healthier it is for us.

"... Although many people may not realize it, there's actual biological value in having experiences with nature, value that is measurable and quantifiable. It's long been established that general health, mental fatigue and physical injury all recover faster when patients have access to natural areas. Studies have shown, for example, that surgery patients recover more quickly when they have views of natural landscapes outside their windows, rather than views of bricks and concrete.

"Some people attribute this connection with nature to the perceived benefits of having access to fresh air and fewer distractions. But it actually goes much deeper. Famed Harvard ecologist E. O. Wilson calls this connection to the natural world biophilia. It's a term he coined and it simply means that he believes humans have an innate kinship with other living things.

"So I'm sure Dr. Wilson wasn't the least bit surprised by a recent study published in the science journal Biology Letters. The study found that the psychological benefits of urban greenspaces increase with the diversity of life found in them. Researchers interviewed more than 300 park-goers in the medium-sized city of Sheffield, England, and compared their answers to an analysis of the species richness, or biodiversity, of their parks.

"They found that while the overall size of a park influenced the visitor's perception of how it made them feel, even more important was the diversity of life. Bigger parks made people feel better, yes. But species-rich parks were even more beneficial. In fact, the researchers report that visitors to the greenspaces were actually able to consciously perceive differences in species diversity - especially with plants.

"As it turns out, when it comes to our health and well-being not all parks are created equal. Simply providing a grass field, for example, is likely to be far less beneficial than a natural area with a greater diversity of plant and animal life. We now know that humans are able to, consciously or otherwise, judge the overall diversity and vibrancy of greenspaces. What's more, the more diverse and vibrant those ecosystems are, the greater their value to humanity in terms of our own personal health and well being. With three quarters of Canadians now living in urban areas, we must hope that our city planners and municipal politicians are paying attention to this kind of research. It underscores the need to both protect our most diverse ecosystems, and to design our cities to have larger and more green spaces. Ultimately, our health depends on it."

You can subscribe to this newsletter for free by visiting the David Suzuki Foundation online. If you do visit, I encourage you to take the Nature Challenge.

A Plug for a Great Organization

IF YOU LOVE THE GARDEN'S SMALLER CREATURES, one organization you'll want to know about is the Xerces Society, which is based in Portland OR and is devoted to the conservation of insects and other small animals. Their book Butterfly Gardening: Creating Summer Magic in Your Garden (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990) contains all sorts of great information on attracting butterflies. (And here's a link to their online pdf about butterfly gardening.)

Here are some of the plants and plant families the Xerces Society recommends for feeding adult butterflies. All of these would make excellent additions to a flower garden. For photos of several of these plants, see the post previous to this one. Most of these plants are highly adaptable, but you'll want to check to make sure they're appropriate for your region.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia spp.)
Milkweed (Asclepias spp.)
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium spp.)
Daisies (Chrysanthemum spp.)
Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.)
Yarrow (Achillea spp.)
Stonecrop (Sedum spp.)
Goldenrod (Solidago spp.)
Asters (Aster spp.)
Yarrow (Achillea spp.)
Globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa)
Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea)
Ageratum or flossflower (Ageratum houstonianum)
Coreopsis or tickseed (Coreopsis spp.)
Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
Indian-blanket (Gaillardia pulchella)
Gumweeds (Grindelia spp.)
Gayfeathers or blazing-stars (Liatris spp.)
Zinnias (Zinnia spp.)
Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpiodes)
Pinks (Dianthus spp.)
Pincushions (Scabiosa spp.)
Lavender (Lavandula spp.)
Mints (Mentha spp.)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Sage (Salvia spp.)
Thyme (Thymus spp.)
Onions (Allium spp.)
Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii)
Hibiscus (Hibiscus spp.)
Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Phlox (Phlox spp.)
Wild strawberry (Fragaria spp.)
Shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa)
Jupiter's beard or Red valerian (Centranthus ruber)
Verbenas (Verbena spp.)

Acknowledgments

I've been writing and speaking about native plants, ecosystem-inspired landscaping, and wildlife-friendly gardening for quite a few years now, and I want to acknowledge that many of the posts appearing in these pages will draw on my previous work. There's no copyright infringement, as I will only be copying myself. But it's only fair to acknowledge publications and organizations that have supported my work in the past. These include Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments, which published one of my favorite essays, and Northwest Garden News, a monthly newspaper whose publisher and editor, the lovely Mary Gutierrez, was nice enough to let me be a columnist for several years. Organizations that have allowed me to speak include the Washington Native Plant Society, countless gardening clubs, and Molbak's Nursery in Woodinville, WA.
I also want to acknowledge friends from whom I learned most of what I know about "wild" gardening, especially Russell Link, author of Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, and Brett ("Greenman") Johnson, who is by far the most knowledgeable plantsman I have ever known; if you live in the Seattle area and want plants or consulting services, please let me put you in touch with him.

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About this blog and its owner

I’ve lived and gardened in Chicago and the Seattle area, and now I live on 250 acres in eastern Canada. Most of my life has been spent as a journalist and editor, but after moving to Seattle I took a detour and ended up designing and installing wildlife-friendly gardens. For a long (sorry) but (I think) funny essay about this experience, please click here.

In this blog, I try to combine my gardening experiences with journalism-type research to come up with items that I hope will be useful to you, the gardener who wants to be kind to wildlife. The blog will probably be most useful to people living in areas where I have some practical experience, namely the band of states and provinces that are on either side of the United States-Canada border.

Being self-employed, I go through spells when I’m self-unemployed and am able to post frequently, and spells when I’m involved in a project and not able to post. This site is a labor of love and, alas, like so many labors of love it often has to take a back seat to labors of lucre.

If you like what you find here, please consider joining the site as a member or adding it to your “follow” list. The modules for this are below.

Q&A

Question: I have a neat old elm tree in the front yard which is sorely afflicted with mistletoe. I don't know quite what to do with it, as every windstorm drops branches, bark and other parts down on the yard below. I know the infected wood will have to go, at least that is what I'm told, but a considerable amount of tree must be removed in the process. It is a dear tree, and I don't want it to come to fatal harm. What should I do? From Mary

Answer: Dear Mary, old is not ugly, dying is not bad, and dead is part of the natural order. At least if you're a tree.

Old, diseased trees, and the dead trees they eventually turn into, play just as important a role in an ecosystem as the young, healthy ones do--even more important because, thanks to the misguided practices of the past, dead and dying trees have become so rare. Holes in dead and dying trees are vital nesting spots for many birds and small mammals. Dead branches and other litter (which is not necessarily a sign of disease--healthy trees drop litter too), if left to decompose naturally, are also important for ecosystem health.

When working with old trees it's important to get advice from an arborist who understands their value and won't be in too much of a hurry to make drastic changes. Before hiring an arborist, I'd ask him or her to explain the ecological value of dead and dying trees. Ideally I'd want to work with an arborist who could show me examples of dead or dying trees he/she has left standing (aka snags).

I don't know much about mistletoe because I've never lived anywhere that it grows, but I wasn't surprised to read in the Wikipedia that it is an ecologically important species. All too often, valuable native species are classified as pests just because they don't fit preconceived notions of attractiveness. To me it sounds like a pretty cool plant and one I would be happy to have in my garden.

All in all, as long as the tree doesn't pose a hazard to people or property (the advice of a professional could be helpful in making this decision), I would leave it alone to live out its life in dignity and peace. If the tree does pose a hazard, I would look for an arborist who is willing to do the least amount of work necessary to remove the hazard, making every effort to leave as much of the tree as possible and not destroy its appearance.

With any luck you will find someone who appreciates the aesthetics of old trees--who recognizes the beauty, as well as the ecological importance, of big holes, broken limbs, and gnarly wood. (With any luck, we will all find people like this as we get older--but that's another story!)

I like to answer questions! Send me a question at wildflora at gmail dot com and I'll try to answer it. If you provide an email address, I usually respond privately within a few days. (If I forget, please forgive me and send me a reminder.)

Looking for a question and answer that appeared here previously? I am archiving them at my new website. Currently you'll find one question and answer about how to get rid of a multiflora rose and another about how to move a bumblebee nest.

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