There Were No Fences

Arrowwood Viburnum ( V . dentatum ) Parsley haw ( Crataegus marshallii ) Simpson stopper ( Myrcianthes fragrans ) A lot is written about the need that birds have for invertebrates to feed their nestlings. It is true that such food is a critical link in creating a living landscape. Invertebrates are the key to a great many things and everything we do to promote them in our landscapes is critical too. Invertebrates feed a great many things. They also serve as the vector to pollinate our flowering plants and when they do, it creates the other critical food source for birds and other wildlife - fruit. The need to provide fruit for birds is often lost in the discussions I read in other literature that discuss the importance of native plants for birds. That is a significant omission and it must be rectified if our landscapes are truly to function in the way we desire.  The truth is that very few birds rely on insects and other invertebrates during the winter months. Even birds such as wo...

I spend a lot of time watching my plants to see how they are being used by the wildlife that now visits my landscape. More than most, I suspect. It's really the only way to evaluate what I've planted. Over the many years that I have been planting what I call "living landscapes", I find that plants don't always perform in the way I envisioned. The plant choices we make have to perform or they are nothing more than the plastic nonnatives that blanket my neighborhood.  Too many view plants as aesthetic considerations - a way to improve property values or to cheer us up with their color and novelty. Those concepts are anathema to everything we need to think about when it comes to landscaping. No one wants their landscape to be ugly. Aesthetics are important. We need to see beauty around us, but beauty HAS to include the beauty of living creatures living around us too. As I peruse the many social media gardening sites that I am a member of, I see far too many posts fro...

Male hooded warbler - Photo by Christina Evans The end goal of my new landscape has always been to provide habitat for the greatest diversity of wildlife possible. The butterflies, bees and other pollinators have become fairly well established here over the past 2 years. When I first began planting this new landscape there was virtually nothing here. No bees, no butterflies, and just a few of the birds that would occur nearly everywhere - the so-called urban species like grackles and cardinals and they did not nest here.  My new landscape was a virtual desert for the living world. I was starting from scratch. It was to be expected. The area around me was one too.  Yards of nothing but well-manicured turf grass and pruned shrubs and trees not native to Florida and that supported nothing with food or shelter. Over the past 2 years, I have watched for signs that I was succeeding with the birds. That would come from the appearance of migratory birds. After all, I live near the wes...