The Duck-Slug Principle

Above, Muscovy duck mom Hide with baby Peeps, photographed in their guaranteed-slug-free enclosure last summer.

"YOU DON'T HAVE an excess of slugs. You have a deficiency of ducks!" This is a paraphrase of a quote often ascribed to Bill Mollison, one of the founders of the Permaculture movement back in the 1970s. Permaculture is a way of designing property so that all the pieces (land, water, air, animals, plants, humans, and human constructions) work together to provide the basic necessities of life. One of the big attractions of Permaculture is that it uses natural means to do things that otherwise would have to be done through human labor.

For instance, rather than kill slugs ourselves, all we have to do is make sure we have enough ducks!

Permaculture is biased toward creating habitat for humans. Domesticated animals get more attention than wild animals do, and agricultural plants are favored over native species. Even so, a homestead designed along Permaculture design principles will make a lot more room for wildlife than a conventional property wood. Permaculture design ideas are compatible and can be very helpful in a "wild" approach to land management.

Take, for instance, control populations of pest insects. The slug/duck formula applies here too. By providing cover and food for the animals that eat these pests, I can control them without having to do much work myself.

One of the easiest ways to do that is to plant plants that attract these insects, which are usually referred to as beneficial to distinguish them from the pesty kind. Check this site for a list of plants that attract various types of beneficial insects.

For information on Permaculture, see the Wikipedia entry and the website of the Permaculture Institute.

Duck (Her name is "Duck")

More Good News

Dear all,

Earlier today I wrote a sort of two-faced post in which on the one hand I said it was great that Douglas Tallamy's new book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens is getting a lot of publicity--but at the same time I gave a gigantic ho hum to the arrival of the book itself. I received a good comment from blogger Benjamin Vogt, who is relatively new to this style of gardening and liked the book a lot. He suggested that I haven't given the book enough credit and referred me to the review he wrote for his blog, The Deep Middle.

Having read Benjamin's summary and a list of fun facts he pulled from the book, I have to say that it sounds as though Tallamy's book is one of the better ones that have come out on this topic in the last decade. If you are new to native-plant gardening and looking for a book to get you started, see what you think after reading Benjamin's review and the other links provided in my original post, which is below. If you're not already familiar with the material, this book will probably kick start your enthusiasm for native plants and give you a new appreciation for the value of insects in the garden.

Cheers,

Wild Flora

Good news from the New York Times

The Victorian-era illustration above is from the Full Color Decorative Bird Illustrations CD-Rom and Book. This example was kindly provided by the publisher, Dover Publications.

HAVING WORKED AT THIS FOR SO LONG, I'm always a little amazed, and a lot thrilled, when mainstream publications start to promote ideas I've been talking about for at least a decade. So you can imagine how pleased I was when the New York Times "Home and Garden" section recently published an article titled, "To Feed the Birds, First Feed the Bugs."

Yes!

For the article, writer Ann Ravner visited the home of Doug Tallamy, author of a new book that has been gaining a lot of attention for naturalistic gardening: Bringing Nature Home was published by Timber Press last November. Tallamy is an entomologist at the University of Delaware. You can see his academic resume (and a nice photo) at the university's website. His book has its own website, which includes a couple of items that appear to be excerpts from the book:

• "Gardening for Life" makes the argument for why it is so important for us to use native plants in our gardens and otherwise try to make these spaces wildlife and environmentally friendly.


• "Gardening for Biodiversity" is a list of what Tallamy considers to be "the 20 best native woody and perennial plant genera for supporting biodiversity in East Coast suburban landscapes."

The latter illustrates why books such as these are often a disappointment to anyone who is beyond the beginner level of native-plant gardening. Because books such as Tallamy's have to appeal to a wide audience, they are often too general to be of much help once you are actually trying to create a native plant garden in a specific region. For instance, Tallamy lists all the usual suspects of the native plant world. And because he lists genera rather than species, you will still have to find out which plants are appropriate for your region.

To be honest, I'm not all that interested in Tallamy's book (which I hasten to admit I have not read--so if I'm wrong about it, please tell me). I'm very glad he wrote it, but my initial investigation suggests that it's another in a growing list of books that cover more or less the same ground. Probably the first of them, or at least the first to get a lot of attention, was Sarah Stein's Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards, which was published in 1995. In the late 1990s, I bought a lot of these books. But eventually I tired of reading the same information over and over again. Now I spend my money on reference works that are specific to my region.

That isn't to say that these books should not be published! On the contrary, every time one of them comes out there is a chance it will catch a wave of publicity, as Tallamy's has. Each wave of publicity attracts new people to native-plant gardening. Many people who are avid native-plant gardeners today caught the bug by reading Stein. Ten years from now, it looks like we'll have another batch who were inspired by Tallamy's work.

Witness the article in the New York Times, which allows us to pay a vicarious visit to Tallamy's garden in Pennsylvania, where he and his wife have removed non-native, invasive plants such as Oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, and multiflora rose, and replaced them with natives such as white pine, black cherry, and goldenrod. The best part of the article is Tallamy's argument in favor of encouraging insects in the garden. He is quoted as saying that 96% of North American birds other than seabirds feed their young on insects.

None of this is exactly new, but it probably is new to a lot of New York Times readers. So let's celebrate. With its lovely pictures of native plants and the insects that depend on them, the New York Times article is a great advertisement for native plant gardening.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to learn more about Tallamy's book, I recommend the following:

• A review of Tallamy's book by Susan Harris at the Garden Rant blog.


• Interview with Tallamy at the Garden Rant blog.

Where Did All the (Insects and Spiders) Go?

"January" is taken from Hone's Everyday Book by William Hone, published 1826. Thanks to FromOldBooks.org for making this image available on the Net.

WITH WINTER DOING ITS WORST THIS YEAR, many of us are seeing a lot of birds and squirrels at the feeders. But other animals we see frequently in summer, such as chipmunks and most insects, are nowhere to be found. Here’s a little overview of where some of your gardening friends are spending the winter, starting with insects and spiders.

Animals that are not warm-blooded, as mammals are, have difficulty generating enough heat to use their muscles in cold weather. With cold, their muscles stop responding and they just slow down until they finally can't move any more. This is why you'll sometimes find a "sleeping" bee on a flower in the early morning: The over-eager bee got caught by dropping temperatures and became dormant before it could get home. Usually the bee will "wake up" as soon as it warms up.

Insects and spiders and other animals that are referred to as cold-blooded (though what is circulating in their bodies is not, technically, blood), typically either die with the first frost or spend cold days "asleep"--that is, in a state more properly referred to as dormancy. They are very vulnerable during dormancy, and are a lot safer if they have a sheltered spot in which to hide.

Butterflies

Some butterflies migrate to warmer climates. (Monarchs are famous for this.) But many dormant butterflies are present in and around your garden all winter. Depending on species, they may overwinter as caterpillars, in the chrysalis (the enclosure in which they transform from caterpillars into adults), or as adults. Woodpiles, brushpiles, untended flower beds, and trees with loose bark are all popular spots for overwintering butterflies.

Bumblebees

Most bumblebees die when cold weather arrives. However, the pregnant queens survive, spending winters in abandoned mouse nests or other holes in the ground, waiting for warm weather to lay their eggs and raise a new crop of worker bees. Because of their “furry” coats and ability to generate heat by shivering, bumbles are able to move around even during fairly cold weather. (They even are found in the Arctic tundra, where they pollinate the small patches of wildflowers that grow on the carcasses of dead animals.) This is why bumblebees are often the first insects you’ll see in spring. It's also why that bee you find sleeping on a flower in the morning is probably a bumble; they're the ones most likely to still be out even when temperatures are dropping.

Spiders

Dormant spiders are often found in leaf litter, where they wake up and move around on warmer days. These spiders are an important source of winter food for birds, which is why you’ll see small birds poking around in the leaf litter in your garden if you were kind enough to leave it there for them. Contrary to a widespread misconception, outdoor spiders rarely enter homes in search of heat; spiders that are adapted to life outdoors probably can’t survive indoors, as the indoor air will be too dry for them. Spiders found living inside homes are usually nonnative spiders that are adapted to living in dry, warm climates. If you take them outside, they will probably die.

Diapause

Many insects experience not only dormancy but also diapause. Unlike dormancy, which is a physiological reaction to dropping temperature, diapause is a genetically programmed response that often triggered by changes in the length of the day. In diapause, the animal doesn’t just stop moving but also stops developing; this is nature’s way of ensuring that it will be at the proper stage of development (e.g., emerging from the chrysalis) at the right time of the year (e.g., when flowers are in bloom).

Appreciating Insect Damage

The illustration above is courtesy of Dover Publications. I believe these are sphinx moths and their larvae, one of which is shown munching on a leaf. Caterpillars eat leaves in order to survive and grow up to their adult forms. Without insect damage, no caterpillers, no butterflies and moths.

Right now I can look out the window at a vast expanse of snow, which arrived far earlier this year than it ordinarily does. But on the Internet, something is always in bloom! In my files I found this link to an August entry from one of my favorite online newsletters, "The Week at Hilton Pond." Published by the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, based in York, S.C., these weekly updates never fail to be informative, and are usually illustrated with beautiful photos. I particularly enjoyed this unconventional look at insect-damaged leaves, in which the usual ("Quick, get the insecticide!") response is replaced by a naturalist's appreciation for natural beauty wherever it's found. As you look at these photos, keep in mind that plants are able to withstand substantial insect damage without suffering any ill effects. Typically if a plant dies as a result of insect activity, it was already weak for some other reason. So except for extreme infestations, it's rarely necessary to run for the insecticide just because you see a chewed leaf. It's quite ok to just stop and enjoy what Hilton Pond calls "the artsy side of insect damage."

Quick Take: An Ode to Be Visited

"THIS WEEK AT HILTON POND" is always worth a visit, but this week they have an especially visit-worthy installment. "Ode to Goldenrod" is a photo essay with text devoted to the many small organisms that make their homes among these flowers. The photo essay is composed of large, perfectly focused close-up shots of creatures such as the jumping spider (shown gazing at the photographer calmly, using four of its eight eyes), the green lynx spider and a batch of its hatchlings, a katydid, several wasps, and of course the ever-present and always beloved bumblebee. The photos are all accompanied by text that discusses the life and habits of the creatures pictured.

"This Week at Hilton Pond" is a weekly newsletter posted to the website of the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History. According to the author, Bill Hilton Jr., the newsletter is devoted to phenology, "the study of change in nature--including the unfolding of seasons and the sometimes subtle ways in which plants, animals, and habitats respond to different photoperiods, variations in temperature, and other biotic and abiotic factors." I had never heard that word until I read it at this website, but I think I will be using it often in future. (In fact, these days I often think that I am much more a phenologist than I am a gardener!) My only complaint about "This Week at Hilton Pond" is that they don't seem to maintain a browsable directory of entries. You can search the site for a topic if you know what you're looking for, or you can page through old entries in the series by working your way backwards from the current installment, but there is no list of topics you can browse. (Or at least I didn't find one.) But this is a quibble compared to the quality of the writing and photography on this blog.

For my own reflections on goldenrod, please see this post.

The Ingredients of a Wildlife-Friendly Garden

HERE ARE SOME of the basic ingredients of a wildlife-friendly garden:

Food: You can provide food for birds (and probably squirrels and other animals too) simply by hanging out a bird feeder. But most wild gardeners also try to grow plants that produce nuts, berries, nectar, pollen, and sap that birds and other animals like to eat.

Clean water: All animals need water year-round. (Birds require water not just for drinking but also for bathing, to keep their feathers groomed.) A birdbath, particularly one that is kept thawed in winter, is welcomed by birds and often by other animals as well. Some people build ponds for wildlife; though a large, deep pond is a big project, a shallow pond suitable for birds can be built (using a liner) in just a few hours. Providing clean water also means keeping existing water sources clean – free of herbicides, pesticides, and other contaminants – and not allowing the banks of streams and ponds to be eroded.

Shelter: Animals also need somewhere to raise their young, hide from predators, and shelter themselves from cold. Many people provide birds with nest boxes (also known as bird houses) for nesting or “roost boxes” for winter protection. However, planting the right trees and shrubs can be an even more effective way of providing shelter for animals. Evergreen plants -- pines, junipers, cedars, yews – provide good winter shelter.

If you have a place for them, rock piles and brush piles also make wonderful shelter for animals. (Instead of hauling away brush the next time you prune, try piling it in an inconspicuous corner of your yard.) A dead tree – or “snag” – is considered highly desirable real estate by woodpeckers and many other creatures. If a tree dies on your property, are you sure you want to spend money to have it removed? As long as it doesn’t present a safety hazard, consider leaving it -- the animals will thank you.

Minimizing harmful practices: In gardening as in the rest of life, often what you don’t do is as important as what you do. For instance, wildlife-friendly gardeners try not to use pesticides, which kill beneficial insects along with the pests we are trying to target. (Most of us find that the birds and beneficial insects we attract to our pesticide-free yards eventually take care of most garden pests for us.)