My Developing Landscape

Wetland

Deciduous woodland

Wildflower Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been several months now since I began work on my landscape - five months to be exact. When I moved here in mid-October, there was virtually nothing here to interest any form of wildlife. The front yard was a monoculture of turfgrass with a large camphor tree near the driveway. The back was also a sea of turf and a tangle on non-native morning glory and balsam pear covered nearly every square inch of fenceline. I saw my first bee - a southern blueberry bee after about 6 weeks, but that was about all I saw. Even honeybees were rare. Butterflies, except a rare gulf fritillary, were absent. Since that time, I have been carefully planning my new landscape, purchasing plants, adding plants that I have grown myself, and watching for results. 

At this time, life has made an appearance. This is especially true for the pollinators.  I've left small patches of Spanish needle (Bidens alba) unweeded in a few of the corners and they are constantly abuzz with bees of all kinds - especially honeybees and metallic green bees. As my two species of tickseed (Coreopsis leavenworthii and C. lanceolata) have come into bloom, they have drawn the attention of small carpenter bees in the genus Ceratina. I've also begun to notice more butterfly activity. In addition to the gulf fritillaries that have produced young on my winged maypop (Passiflora suberosa), monarchs quickly discovered the various milkweeds that I've planted. They have eaten my swamp white milkweed (Asclepias perennis) to the ground and also have feasted on the three swamp milkweeds (Asclepias incarnata) that I planted next to it in my created wetland. Other butterflies have flown over and through my landscape, but have not stopped yet to lay eggs although I have planted their host plants; checkered whites, eastern black swallowtails, white peacocks, and giant sulfurs. Butterflies, and many bees, are especially good at detecting what they need from great distances so the arrival of all this new life is not unexpected. It's amazing, nonetheless. The urban desert that I have moved into, like all such deserts, maintains a tenuous connection to the natural world despite all of our efforts to stomp it out with pesticides, gravel, and plastic non-native plants.

Attracting birds and other wildlife will take longer. My screech owl box remains unused, for example, and the only birds I see with regularity are grackles and fish crows. Around me, however, are a few others. I see a gray catbird and a pair of northern cardinals at times and I sometimes find evidence in the way of a feather or two of blue jays. Certainly nothing that nearly every yard in this part of the world doesn't already have. With the annual spring migration coming to a close once more, I did not have any of the songbirds I once hosted pass through. It was a "silent spring" so to speak. While more former landscape in Seminole once hosted up to 30 species of wood warblers and nearly every tanager, bunting, grosbeak and thrush possible in my part of Florida during migration, there is nothing here yet to attract them. To change that, I have planted several dozen species of native trees and shrubs that have wildlife value. As they start to mature, the insects they attract, the fruit they produce, and the nesting sites they will provide should change my mostly birdless yard into one more resembling where I moved from.  At least that's the idea. I will continue to report on my progress as things change.