A Garden is a Community

A garden is a community, whether we realize it or not. As soon as we put seeds or plants in the ground, they begin forming relationships with the other lives around them, from microorganisms in the soil, like the fungi that bind the surface of arid-country soils and help them hold water; to the insects that hop, flutter or buzz in to graze on and pollinate--or feed on other insects; and the larger wildlife from hummingbirds to rabbits and deer. Those myriad relationships may in fact determine whether our plants thrive or not.

A healthy garden community, one with an abundance and diversity of relationships, makes for healthy plants. Using fewer synthetic chemicals, especially pesticides and herbicides, and picking plants adapted to our region and our specific location, including soil, exposure and watering regime, are all key to garden health. And of course healthy plants contribute to a healthy garden community.

Your Garden Could Save Pollinators

Wildscapes, garden communities based on native and regionally appropriate plants and managed with few or no pesticides, can provide crucial habitat for beleaguered species of pollinators–birds, butterflies, native bees and others–and in the doing, bring us the joy of experiencing nature in our daily lives.

Biologists say that pollinators’ partnerships with plants play a part in providing one in three mouthfuls that we eat and drink. Yet many pollinators are in trouble: Colony Collapse Disorder is decimating European honeybee colonies, whole species of native bees like bumblebees are vanishing, monarch butterfly populations are in peril, hummingbird populations are experiencing drastic fluctuations.

What can we do to ensure a healthy food supply and the future of the birds, butterflies, and other species that brighten our lives and weave the global community that sustains this planet? Two of the biggest factors affecting pollinator populations are habitat loss and pesticide use.

Replace Lawn with Pollinator Habitat

We have the habitat–right at home in our yards, pubic parks and golf courses, farms, orchards and other managed landscapes. Lawns occupy some 40 million acres of the United States and are some of the unhealthiest habitat around.

If we devote a portion of our lawn area to wildscapes, gardens that use native and regionally appropriate plant species in designs that mimic natural habitat, imagine the difference we’d make for birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators. (And the water, money and energy we’d save.)

Biologists who study native bee populations say that an 8-foot- by 10-foot patch planted with bee-friendly plants without pesticides is enough to make a significant difference for these inoffensive and hard-working pollinators.

Good Design Mimics Nature's Architecture

The two keys to providing effective habitat are design and health. Habitat design involves using plants pollinators will recognize and be able to use, and mimicking the “architecture”–the structure and scale of natural habitat. If the natural habitat is woodland, design a woodland garden, using shade and layers of plants similar to a natural woodland. If it’s prairie, design a prairie garden; if it’s desert, a desert garden and so on.

Relationships are Crucial to Garden Health

A healthy garden relies on the relationships between plants and their various partners to control “pest” populations, not on harmful synthetic chemicals. Take grasshoppers. If you live where bluebirds do, provide bluebird nest boxes for grasshopper control. The nesting parents are tireless hunters of insects to feed their growing young. Grasshopper nymphs are nutritious and easily caught food.

House sparrows, those drab birds with the monotonous cheep-cheep-cheep voices that have colonized cities and urban areas across the continent (they're actually native to Europe but were introduced here in the late 1800s) also eat grasshoppers. House sparrows aren't as pretty or graceful as bluebirds, but they'll do the trick.

The bottom line is this: Simple changes in the way we garden can have big impacts on the health of our landscapes, and on restoring a healthy community to our earth.

Join Audubon Rockies and Plant Select in promoting wildscaping. Be a habitat hero.