THE GOOD
We’re always encouraging folks to create wildlife and pollinator habitat in their yards, but if you’re like most of us with a lawn and some smallish landscape beds by the front walkway, it might be difficult to know where to start. Here are a few steps you can take, doing all three or doing one, depending on your time, energy and resources.
Step 1: Remove Invasives. The landscape industry has historically used invasive plants as part of their traditional landscaping package around homes and offices, so most of us have at least one invasive species to manage, and we’re so used to seeing
them that we might not even be aware that these plants are problematic to the local ecosystem. Some common invasives are Japanese barberry, Bradford pear, burning bush, butterfly bush, and Rose of Sharon. Removing these plants from our home gardens is a good step toward showing kindness to the earth. Pennsylvania now has an “Invasive Replace-ive” program, and if you remove invasives from your yard you may qualify for up to 5 free native replacement trees.
Step 2: Plant Native. You’ve pulled out that butterfly bush (Yay!) and now you need to replace it, so you pop down to the local nursery, but how can you tell what’s native? Ask! Be sure to tell your favorite nursery that you’re looking for native plants, free of neonicitinoids (which harm pollinators). The more we ask, the more our nurseries will carry neonic-free native plants. There are also a host of online resources that you can check out, from what is a native plant, to where to buy them.
Step 3: Shrink the Lawn. Ready to give up a bit of lawn and convert it into habitat? There are a number of ways to remove turfgrass, from digging it out to solarizing to sheet mulching. This article from Homegrown National Park outlines the pros and cons of some of these methods. We used the sheet mulching method for the pollinator garden that we’re installing in Johnsontown Park, and this involves laying plain brown cardboard over the grass and then covering that with a layer of leaf mulch, and leaving it all in place for a couple of months to smother the grass.
THE BAD
Terrible, terrible mulch volcanoes… Yes, it’s a myth that these mulch piles are beneficial to trees, although they are a common site in our landscaping and along our roadways. A mulch volcano forms when mulch is piled at the base of a tree, adding more and more each spring season, creating a volcano shape that peaks part way up the tree trunk.
These mulch volcanoes may be created with good intentions – the thinking is that the mulch will add nutrients and help retain soil moisture. But they can actually cause a lot of harm to the tree in a number of ways. The overly-deep layers of mulch will smother the root system, hindering the tree’s ability to respire. Plus, all of that material piled against the trunk will hold too much moisture against the bark, inviting disease and rot. And, the stifling atmosphere may cause the tree’s roots to girdle, or wrap around the trunk, thereby suffocating and eventually killing the tree.
So, just say “no” to mulch volcanoes! A thin layer of mulch can have benefits in helping with moisture retention, but best practices are to keep that mulch layer thin, and keep it well away from the base of the tree. Learn more about volcano mulching here.
THE “UGLY”?
“Ugly” and “messy” and “unattractive” are all such subjective words, but the desire for a neat and tidy garden at all seasons is one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the journey toward creating habitat. As each spring rolls around and we dust off our winter cobwebs, many of us are anxious to get outside and clean up those gardens. But, wait! Our pollinators are still sleeping in the fallen leaves, and our songbirds are still pecking at last season’s seedheads – a vital food supply for them in the sparse months of late winter and early spring.
Let’s challenge ourselves to see the “beauty in the brown.” The tan and sepia tones of dead stems and leaves may look bland to us, but they are providing critical habitat for the critters that pollinate our veggie gardens and fruit trees for us, and the birds that provide endless hours of birdsong to brighten our summer afternoons. If you can leave last season’s stems and grasses standing, great! If you’re under pressure from neighbors or a Homeowner’s Association and you must “tidy up,” try waiting as long as possible for this year’s pollinators to wake up from their slumbers. When you do go outside to trim, leave the cut stems at the base of each plant in order to create natural compost over time. Soon enough, this year’s greenery will burst forth and hide last season’s spent stems. For more tips on when and how to tend your spring garden, check out this article from Benjamin Vogt.
