There Were No Fences

  My tree-planting efforts here have been largely successful, but many will not be nearly mature by the time I leave - either through a move or by passing on. It takes faith to plant trees that will outlive me by most accounts. It takes a special kind of faith to plant them in a rental property that I do not own, but it gives me a lot of joy to do so and that joy outweighs everything else. Though my front yard is dominated by my wildflower meadow, I have even planted a few trees there - all on the north side where their shade will not impact the amount of sunlight my meadow requires. I've made the mistake in the past of planting trees and shrubs on other sides of my wildflower plantings and as they matured they blocked sunshine that my meadow required. I was careful here. Eventually, I hope that my maturing "forest" will provide the food and cover that my birds require. The flowers in the spring will feed my pollinators and the foliage of many will provide sustenance to n...

Caterpillar of common buckeye Southern dogface sulfur   Phaon crescent I have spent a lot of time and energy planting my landscape to provide for pollinators. Some, like the bees and pollinating wasps are now a diverse part of my pollinating fauna, but I am still awaiting quite a few of the butterflies. I am always excited to see one using my landscape, but only a few have become firmly established by laying eggs and multiplying.  A lot is written these days about monarchs and I am sensitive to their significant drop in population numbers, but I worry a bit more about all the others that seem to be below everyone's radar these days. So many are simply not as charismatic as a monarch and few are as large and showy. In my mind, it stands to reason that if one butterfly is suffering from the widespread use of pesticides and loss of host plants with which to raise its offspring, the same must be true for a great many others. My bible for Florida butterflies and what to plant here ...

Pine hyacinth - Clematis baldwinii  A few days ago, my partner Jane Mussey and I set out to Colt Creek State Park to explore a bit and specifically look for Calopogon orchids that I had heard were blooming there following a prescribed fire. The Park is not far from our home and I had never visited it so I was especially interested to see what it held in terms of natural history.  Calopogon orchids of all types respond to fire. Most of the time, they make their appearance within several weeks of a burn and then disappear from all but the best trained eyes until the next one.  The time was right to look for them and I knew that it was either now or never. We arrived knowing nothing about the burn's location. I figured that it would be fairly noticeable at some distance from the main drive so it seemed an easy task as we entered the Park. As we paid our entrance fee and picked up a Park map, I asked the employee at the gate house if she could tell us where on the map the bur...

Wild petunia ( Ruellia caroliniensis ) My wildflowers are filling in nicely since I first planted them three years ago. Some, like this wild petunia have done almost too good, but it's a problem I could easily rectify if I wanted to by selective thinning.  Better to be too successful than the opposite. I sometimes hear from readers that I must be rich because my wildflower areas are so full of purposely planted wildflowers and native grasses. It makes me laugh as I am far from it. I'm just experienced enough to know how to plant. Folks on the internet are always looking for seeds in which to start their wildflower "meadow" as if that approach will save them money and yield more widespread impact. My experience has taught me that this is an error also.  At least here in the Florida I live in, creating a bare space like I might have done up north and then scattering seed will result in virtually no wildflowers and a busload of weeds. Seeds are not generally economical u...

My Backyard Woodland, May 8, 2021 I did not plant my deciduous woodland until I had installed the wildflowers in the front. I still had a lot of planning to do with this and I had a good number of woody plants yet to purchase for it.  The wildflower meadow was a fairly easy decision. I had a good number of the plants I wanted already in pots and I was eager to do something for the pollinators in my neighborhood.  As I wrote several years back, there were literally no pollinators here at the time. I had to pollinate my key lime by hand. There were no bees to be found here. That changed as the wildflowers and native grasses took hold. Once they were here, it was time to plan and plant the woodland. A woodland needs to function as a community. It is not a collection of individual plants, but an extended family of plants that function together.  I chose trees and shrubs that were, for the most part, deciduous so that I would get ample sunlight to the understory for the spring...

 A lot has been written and reposted a great many times about the importance of caterpillars to the success of nesting birds. There is no doubt that the vast majority of songbirds rely on them to feed and fledge their nestlings. I have planted my landscape to do just that.  For the most part, it has been done with my butterfly plants as my woody species are still too small to attract the attention of most butterflies and moths. The neighbor behind me has several mature live oaks ( Quercus virginiana ) and a large sweet gum ( Liquidambar styraciflua ), so I have these as well. I have left several snags alone that overhang my back fence and I suspect that these are valuable to the downy and red-bellied woodpeckers that visit my landscape daily. Invertebrates of all kinds - from spiders to earthworms have been encouraged here and the fact that I do not use a lawn company to spray by lawn means that there are things like mole crickets beneath the turf. As a renter, I am required t...