Your landscape IS an ecosystem, and it behaves like an ecosystem, whether you think about your piece of paradise in such terms or not. Most gardening problems/difficulties and hard work stem from not understanding or downright ignoring this fact. Want a “low maintenance” landscape? Thinking about your garden as a habitat might help.
A LOT of things have been written on the topic of why you want to encourage or attract wildlife to the yard. Everything from expanding urbanization and reduced natural habitat, to decreasing biodiversity and increasing spread of exotic aggressive species, to name a few reasons. For Wellfield, the “wildlife” around us becomes key to an organically preferred approach: protecting Elkhart’s drinking water (you do know Wellfield’s relationship to Elkhart’s water supply, right?). We rely on the balancing and resilient effects of ecosystems to hold many things in check, thus reducing our dependence on expensive fertilizer or plant health control measures.
There are four essential ingredients to making habitat work for you:
- Diverse food sources
- Diverse water sources
- Diverse shelter types(a place to hide)
- Diverse locations to raise some babies
You probably can guess what the keyword might be. Yep, that is right: “diverse”. It is not enough just to put out a birdbath and check off “water source”. Not everything is going to visit the perch. Different organisms obtain moisture from different sources. If you plant a lot of different species, native especially, of various sizes, textures, root types, and plant them in layers, you are doing much already to provide these four elements.
In the coming weeks, we will take up each of these essential ingredients and examine them in turn.
Wildlife is already present outside your windows, whether you want them or not. You can either partner with them to create some win-win relationships, or you can spend a lot of time, energy and cash to banish them to your neighbor’s kingdom.
Josh Steffen, Horticulture and Facilities Manager
Miss any of Josh and his team’s latest posts? Click below to see what you’ve missed!
- Wild Yards: Give Me Shelter, Or Give Me Death!Our “Wild Yard” biodiversity series continues; today, Lead Horticulturalist Amy talks about ways to provide shelter for wildlife in your yard, to ensure you are attracting a wide range of wildlife. Continue reading
- Wet and Wild YardsLead Horticulturalist Cody continues our “Wild” biodiversity series with a look at the role water plays in your yard. Continue reading
- Wild Yards: Foodies R UsAll living things must have food to survive. The keys to attracting wildlife to your yard are knowledge and variety. Once you decide who you would like to invite into your yard, knowing what they like to eat and offering them a variety of tasty treats will increase the odds they will accept your invitation. I mean, who wants to eat the same thing every day!? Continue reading
- Wild YardsYour landscape IS an ecosystem, and it behaves like an ecosystem, whether you think about your piece of paradise in such terms or not. Most gardening problems/difficulties and hard work stem from not understanding or downright ignoring this fact. Want a “low maintenance” landscape? Thinking about your garden as a habitat might help. Continue reading
- Plant Like a Gardener, Harvest Like a FarmerVegetable gardening has gone into full swing here at Wellfield, where we just sowed our first vegetable seeds indoors. If you are familiar with the Gardens, you know we don’t have unlimited space in which to plant our vegetables, so knowing about these space saving alternatives has been key to our success. Continue reading
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Goodness, most of our landscapes are wild because they are beyond reach. We maintain what we can at ground level, but the redwoods are hundreds of feet up. We could not do much with them if we wanted to. We can only have them groomed to eliminate some of the structurally compromised limbs. The forest dictates what we can do within the landscapes.
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