Not Enough People Are Talking About This

I have been gardening a long time. For many years I have subscribed to about a half dozen magazines and read most of them cover to cover. I earned my master gardener certificate. I’m a garden club member and a garden consultant. Yet I learned something at the Central South Native Plant Conference that I never knew before, and it’s not just a little thing. This is HUGE.

Here are the things I knew before the conference: insects eat plants, and many animals rely on insects and/or the animals that eat insects. Here is the thing I had no idea about: insects won’t eat many of the foreign plants we commonly put in our gardens. In fact, there is a plant – I wish I could remember the name – the Japanese version looks so much like the native that a butterfly will lay eggs on it, thinking it will be a food source for her children. As the newly hatched caterpillars feed, they are poisoned by this imposter and die. Isn’t that one of the saddest things you ever heard?

Douglas Tallamy, author of the book “Bringing Nature Home,” was the keynote speaker at the conference. He used the plight of birds to illustrate the problem. There were a lot of scary statistics about the decline of bird populations, and if we as a society don’t change course, it’s going to get a lot worse. About 99% of birds rely on insects and/or spiders (which eat insects) to feed their young. If we want to save the birds, we must plant things that feed the insects that feed the birds. Plants labeled as pest-free are bad. They aren’t pests, they’re bird food. For me, it’s a revelation. Hallelujah! I have seen the light!

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Here is the good news: although the average person can do very little about so many of the global issues we face today, in this case, the answer is the average person. The suburbanization of America doesn’t necessarily mean a loss of habitat for insects and other wildlife. Let’s do away with much of our foreign grass lawns, remove the invasive plants and use more natives. To get even more bang for your gardening buck, consult Tallamy’s list that ranks natives based on how many caterpillar species they feed. – Birds think caterpillars are super delicious.

Most people are very busy, so I try and keep my blogs short. Please read the book for more eye-opening information. Your garden matters, and what you plant in your garden matters. I want to end this blog with the words Tallamy wrote when he signed my book, “Garden as if life depended on it!”