Help the Planet Starting with Your Yard

What can we do to alleviate environmental degradation?  Douglas Tallamy’s 2019 book, “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard”, has good ideas for concrete steps each of us can take:

• Shrink the lawn, up to 50% if possible: Turf grass stands up well to footsteps, but there is also the opportunity to more broadly support the entire environment by using this area to plant food sources for the 98% of species needed for healthy ecosystems.

• Remove invasive species: Use plants that are native to our area and not those that spread at the expense of native plant communities.

• Plant keystone native species: Use native plants that will produce the food that fuels insects (they make up 98% of the species on Earth). Native trees such as white oaks, cherries, willows, birches, cottonwoods, and elms are the top woody producers. Goldenrods, asters, and sunflowers are top producers in herbaceous plants.  More information is at the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder website (www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder).

• Be generous with your plantings: Most of us need to increase the number and diversity of our plantings and make them similar to the density of forests. Consider that beneath the soil, the tree roots will interlock their roots and support one another in high winds, while supplying the cover that many species need to feel safe near humans.

• Plant for specialist pollinators: Different species of bees specialize on particular plant groups when collecting pollen for their larvae. Some of the best plants include perennial sunflowers, various goldenrods, native willows, asters, and blueberries. Local bee species will thrive as they pollinate the plants.

• Network with neighbors: The best way to have a bigger impact of suburban and urban landscapes is to team up with likeminded neighbors to focus on one or more conservation goals.

• Build a conservation hardscape: Placing inexpensive window well covers over window wells can reduce the deaths of toads, frogs, voles, and other small creatures. They, too, are an important part of nature’s full cycle. Other suggestions:
  • Use motion sensor security lights that light up only when an intruder enters your yard.
  • Set your mower height at three inches (four inches is better).
  • Install a bubbler or other small water feature to serve birds.
  • Instead of one large bee hotel, build several small ones with only 4-5 holes each. Place them around the yard.

• Create caterpillar pupation sites under your trees: Replace the lawn under trees with well-planted beds with appropriate ground cover and add a fallen log for those species that bore into and pupate in decaying wood. Treasure your leaf litter and replace store-bought mulch with natural leaf litter.

• Do not spray or fertilize: Most native plants are adapted to the low-nitrogen soils that has been their norm. Creating soils rich in organic matter is sufficient for healthy plants.

In addition to the suggestions above, the video Native Plants and Natural Abundance, featuring local environmental advocate Nick Anderson, is a wealth of information. Nick presented his ideas in “Care of Creation: One Garden at a Time”, a talk sponsored by the Creation Care Group of Cape Ann churches.