"a Darwinian botanical Battle Royale"
February 13, 2019 8:48 PM Subscribe
"... it started as an innocent hobby."
Your county/state extension service can help with advice for planting a pollinator-friendly garden.
Habitats, not lawns.
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:24 PM on February 13, 2019 [11 favorites]
Your county/state extension service can help with advice for planting a pollinator-friendly garden.
Habitats, not lawns.
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:24 PM on February 13, 2019 [11 favorites]
Native patterns are for people that live somewhere long term.
Yep, and they're a commitment. I have an all-native front yard and about 50/50 backyard, after years of trying to create something aesthetically pleasing and maintainable that I can hire someone to keep after (I tried to do it myself for years but I just can't keep up.)
Now I might be moving into a rental after 16 years in this house, and leaving my yards behind feels like a mixed blessing: I no longer have to do the upkeep, mostly to prevent non-native grasses and things from springing up (I let it go for a while once and I never saw such a thicket of tall non-native dandelions...but also never saw such an influx of insects, which was great) but I also worry the next owner will trash it all and install a new lawn.
posted by davejay at 9:48 PM on February 13, 2019 [5 favorites]
Yep, and they're a commitment. I have an all-native front yard and about 50/50 backyard, after years of trying to create something aesthetically pleasing and maintainable that I can hire someone to keep after (I tried to do it myself for years but I just can't keep up.)
Now I might be moving into a rental after 16 years in this house, and leaving my yards behind feels like a mixed blessing: I no longer have to do the upkeep, mostly to prevent non-native grasses and things from springing up (I let it go for a while once and I never saw such a thicket of tall non-native dandelions...but also never saw such an influx of insects, which was great) but I also worry the next owner will trash it all and install a new lawn.
posted by davejay at 9:48 PM on February 13, 2019 [5 favorites]
housing in the USA is more of a commodity than housing And with the double whammy of hedge funds buying up huge amounts of rental properties and creating “rental backed securities” Cause that’s normal and sake and never less to a crash that effectively voided out all wealth for a huge chunk of the population, you’re not looking at too much change within in the “people who can afford, are able to, and willing to” convert to a native lawn.
That being said , there’s a LOT of acres of lawns out there. Like a lot a lot. Like more than corn and we have way way too much corn.
As always this whole thing has to be a multipronged attack - hey we’re on a 4 day work week now so that extra day can be spent at a locally organized native lawn club that gets funds from a general Green Deal account the town recieves to fix up homes and make then engery compliant and lead free after some quasi-goverment semi independent nonprofit bought up the bulk of the housing stock when the stock market crashed into the center of the earth.
It goes without saying the green lawns of corporate office blocks and civic structures is right out.
Or maybe the town says in order to get access to the funds, no more lawns. Native bioswales for front lawns - we’ll provide training and make some jobs and funds but this is now like having a clean water hookup and safe electricity- a public ultity.
Bavaria is trying to get laws about farms changed to create more wildlife havens and it’s good but we need to be doing everything we can think of, all the time, from every angle
posted by The Whelk at 10:25 PM on February 13, 2019 [5 favorites]
That being said , there’s a LOT of acres of lawns out there. Like a lot a lot. Like more than corn and we have way way too much corn.
As always this whole thing has to be a multipronged attack - hey we’re on a 4 day work week now so that extra day can be spent at a locally organized native lawn club that gets funds from a general Green Deal account the town recieves to fix up homes and make then engery compliant and lead free after some quasi-goverment semi independent nonprofit bought up the bulk of the housing stock when the stock market crashed into the center of the earth.
It goes without saying the green lawns of corporate office blocks and civic structures is right out.
Or maybe the town says in order to get access to the funds, no more lawns. Native bioswales for front lawns - we’ll provide training and make some jobs and funds but this is now like having a clean water hookup and safe electricity- a public ultity.
Bavaria is trying to get laws about farms changed to create more wildlife havens and it’s good but we need to be doing everything we can think of, all the time, from every angle
posted by The Whelk at 10:25 PM on February 13, 2019 [5 favorites]
Although I'm all in favor of local efforts to help blunt the disastrous insect decline, the main threat to insects is industrial agriculture. It appears that most of the damage is being done in the developed world by farming practices.
posted by eye of newt at 10:39 PM on February 13, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by eye of newt at 10:39 PM on February 13, 2019 [7 favorites]
Just a reminder that it’s not too late in the US to raise native bees this year. Mason bees require almost zero effort and are amazing pollinators
posted by not_the_water at 10:42 PM on February 13, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by not_the_water at 10:42 PM on February 13, 2019 [5 favorites]
Industrial AG is the elephant in the room, and cutting that down to be in line with sustainable policies will have broad. Positive effects - it’s just ..gonna be a big freaking deal short of saying “no these companies are too big and the executives skim too much off the top we’re bresking them up into a cooperatives under new sustainability and organic guidelines that we totslly revise the current standards are gobshite”
The Common Food Policy looks decent enough to start on, as well as the mentioned Bavarian proposals to have hedges and meadows and wild groves at regular intervals.
posted by The Whelk at 11:03 PM on February 13, 2019 [6 favorites]
The Common Food Policy looks decent enough to start on, as well as the mentioned Bavarian proposals to have hedges and meadows and wild groves at regular intervals.
posted by The Whelk at 11:03 PM on February 13, 2019 [6 favorites]
Also white clover and mint are good creeping cover before you go full on native biome
posted by The Whelk at 11:55 PM on February 13, 2019
posted by The Whelk at 11:55 PM on February 13, 2019
Unfortunately some of the more interesting plants got outcompeted by the more robust plants.
This is definitely a thing that I think makes people give up on true native plantings.
A lot of native plants are surprisingly picky about where they will grow, and can be very delicate when they do decide to grow.
You can't just clear some space, toss down a pound of native seed and expect to get anything but a scraggly weed lot that you'll eventually sod over.
They aren't box store plants, where if you give them halfway decent soil and some miracle-gro, you'll get pretty flowers all summer long.
More often than not, the native plants that will do best are going to be non-showy, masses of green with the occasional bloom.
Which is not to say that you can't get a nice, multi-level, year round bloom garden, but it's going to take a lot more work than you'd think to avoid a 3 plant green wall.
posted by madajb at 11:58 PM on February 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is definitely a thing that I think makes people give up on true native plantings.
A lot of native plants are surprisingly picky about where they will grow, and can be very delicate when they do decide to grow.
You can't just clear some space, toss down a pound of native seed and expect to get anything but a scraggly weed lot that you'll eventually sod over.
They aren't box store plants, where if you give them halfway decent soil and some miracle-gro, you'll get pretty flowers all summer long.
More often than not, the native plants that will do best are going to be non-showy, masses of green with the occasional bloom.
Which is not to say that you can't get a nice, multi-level, year round bloom garden, but it's going to take a lot more work than you'd think to avoid a 3 plant green wall.
posted by madajb at 11:58 PM on February 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's true that industrial agriculture is the big culprit, but rewilding suburbia is still meaningful and can make a difference, specially if it becomes a trend. We need to save biodiversity, not least because we have no idea what we are really losing. By rewilding our own gardens while we take on the political fight against big agriculture, we are helping species survive till they can spread back again.
I mentioned in an other thread that my land is part of an EU habitat area. When it started, more than a decade ago, I thought it was a joke, or rather a ploy to get something else done*. But then I started studying the Euphydryas Aurinia we are trying to preserve, and realized how specialized it is, I also realized how there had been thousands of them every summer when I was a child, and now there is not one. I didn't recognize the butterfly, I recognized their egg-sacks. Because the wild flower they depend upon is almost extinct. So I was overjoyed last summer when I found two flowers, after more than ten years of work. And I found them in the garden of a neighboring summerhouse, not on the farmland. They had been preserved there and can spread from there, hopefully. The summerhouse garden is semi wild, which is ideal for the Devils Bit, because it grows well in in-between spaces.
Also, although the habitat is specifically for these particular species, it helps many other species, too. Not least, I am so happy to see cranes dancing again, after many years of absence.
*I thought they were trying to get farmers to stop using pesticides and fertilizers on areas with a high groundwater level. Which they maybe also were.
posted by mumimor at 12:30 AM on February 14, 2019 [13 favorites]
I mentioned in an other thread that my land is part of an EU habitat area. When it started, more than a decade ago, I thought it was a joke, or rather a ploy to get something else done*. But then I started studying the Euphydryas Aurinia we are trying to preserve, and realized how specialized it is, I also realized how there had been thousands of them every summer when I was a child, and now there is not one. I didn't recognize the butterfly, I recognized their egg-sacks. Because the wild flower they depend upon is almost extinct. So I was overjoyed last summer when I found two flowers, after more than ten years of work. And I found them in the garden of a neighboring summerhouse, not on the farmland. They had been preserved there and can spread from there, hopefully. The summerhouse garden is semi wild, which is ideal for the Devils Bit, because it grows well in in-between spaces.
Also, although the habitat is specifically for these particular species, it helps many other species, too. Not least, I am so happy to see cranes dancing again, after many years of absence.
*I thought they were trying to get farmers to stop using pesticides and fertilizers on areas with a high groundwater level. Which they maybe also were.
posted by mumimor at 12:30 AM on February 14, 2019 [13 favorites]
Saving the biosphere isn’t “but, what” it’s. “Yes, And?”
posted by The Whelk at 1:44 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 1:44 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
The pressure against this stuff is significant, though. Neighbors and HOAs want everyone to have an orderly outdoor carpet of mown grass and neat beds of showy flowers. I would like to see local governments push back by encouraging every homeowner to reserve at least part of their property for wild gardening (or shaggy non-gardening). Get the help of conservation and agriculture groups to make it easy for beginners to get starter kits for window boxes, balconies, and yards. Have volunteers come in and help with the planting for people who don't know where to begin. Teach people not to panic and kill insects, and never to use insecticides or herbicides.
posted by pracowity at 2:11 AM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 2:11 AM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Teach people not to panic and kill insects
This is one that seems harder to break than one might hope - so many people's reaction to anything with six legs seems to be "aaah kill it!"
posted by aspersioncast at 5:00 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
This is one that seems harder to break than one might hope - so many people's reaction to anything with six legs seems to be "aaah kill it!"
posted by aspersioncast at 5:00 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm waiting for my first large order of native plants to be distributed this weekend! It's through the annual plant sale by our local soil and water conservation district (East Multnomah), who also offers mostly free and really good workshops on related topics. For anyone in Portland out there, I highly recommend them.
I go by my personal version of "messy gardening." All of the trimming, mowing, and raking are done very lightly. I learned to recognize which weeds are really invasive/noxious, and don't worry too much about the rest of them.
Also, cool posts on the rest of the blog. Thanks for linking to it!
posted by bread-eater at 5:09 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
I go by my personal version of "messy gardening." All of the trimming, mowing, and raking are done very lightly. I learned to recognize which weeds are really invasive/noxious, and don't worry too much about the rest of them.
Also, cool posts on the rest of the blog. Thanks for linking to it!
posted by bread-eater at 5:09 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Teach people not to panic and kill insects
We are excluding those giant aggressive red wasps from this beatific mercy, right? I am not being paranoid when I say that those wasps have a malevolent transdimensional hivemind and they KNOW MY FACE. It's them or me, and you best believe it ain't gonna be me. Everyone else is welcome to stay. Oh, and giant flying cockroaches, you are prohibited from human dwelling structures. OK, now everyone else is welcome to stay.
posted by SinAesthetic at 5:14 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
We are excluding those giant aggressive red wasps from this beatific mercy, right? I am not being paranoid when I say that those wasps have a malevolent transdimensional hivemind and they KNOW MY FACE. It's them or me, and you best believe it ain't gonna be me. Everyone else is welcome to stay. Oh, and giant flying cockroaches, you are prohibited from human dwelling structures. OK, now everyone else is welcome to stay.
posted by SinAesthetic at 5:14 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is one that seems harder to break than one might hope
Yeah, I've seen grown adults (with no allergies) panic at the sight of bees. Of one bee. One bee that wasn't doing anything threatening. Just sticking its head into blossoms or tapping its head against the window trying to get back out.
We are excluding those giant aggressive red wasps from this beatific mercy, right?
I guess, if they're actually attacking you. How many times have you been stung by one of those wasps? Bees and wasps and I hang out in the same places, and in the handful of times I've been stung since Kennedy was president it was always my fault. I have stood barefoot on the occasional honeybee in the clovered lawns of my childhood, and I believe I sat on a wasp once and got it in the thigh. But those were situations where I could see (and feel) their point.
posted by pracowity at 6:23 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
Yeah, I've seen grown adults (with no allergies) panic at the sight of bees. Of one bee. One bee that wasn't doing anything threatening. Just sticking its head into blossoms or tapping its head against the window trying to get back out.
We are excluding those giant aggressive red wasps from this beatific mercy, right?
I guess, if they're actually attacking you. How many times have you been stung by one of those wasps? Bees and wasps and I hang out in the same places, and in the handful of times I've been stung since Kennedy was president it was always my fault. I have stood barefoot on the occasional honeybee in the clovered lawns of my childhood, and I believe I sat on a wasp once and got it in the thigh. But those were situations where I could see (and feel) their point.
posted by pracowity at 6:23 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
Also white clover and mint are good creeping cover before you go full on native biome
Ashfgl no, not if you ever want to be free of mint again!
Here in Austin, xeriscaping with particular natives--red yucca is popular, as are agaves--is very popular, and I really hope we can get together the cash and time to rip up our lawn and replace it with a xeriscape. The idea is that the ground cover of grass can be replaced with sand or fine gravel, and you thickly decorate the rest of the space with a range of drought friendly natives, often but not exclusively large succulents.
You never have to mow a lawn again, and they're trendy enough that the HOA allows them. We are collectively awful at outdoor care for our place and, as the weed whacker we were using to mow our tiny scrap of yard has up and died, have only gotten worse. I love the natives--salvia! turkscap! lupine!--but I love the thought of not mowing even more.
The downside seems to be that people all plant enormous, wholly mature agaves, which have a definite tendency to realize they are surrounded by other mature agaves within a few years, go !!!!, flower with a stalk the size of a mid-sized tree, and immediately die in satisfaction at having reproduced.
So maybe don't do that specific thing.
posted by sciatrix at 6:30 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
Ashfgl no, not if you ever want to be free of mint again!
Here in Austin, xeriscaping with particular natives--red yucca is popular, as are agaves--is very popular, and I really hope we can get together the cash and time to rip up our lawn and replace it with a xeriscape. The idea is that the ground cover of grass can be replaced with sand or fine gravel, and you thickly decorate the rest of the space with a range of drought friendly natives, often but not exclusively large succulents.
You never have to mow a lawn again, and they're trendy enough that the HOA allows them. We are collectively awful at outdoor care for our place and, as the weed whacker we were using to mow our tiny scrap of yard has up and died, have only gotten worse. I love the natives--salvia! turkscap! lupine!--but I love the thought of not mowing even more.
The downside seems to be that people all plant enormous, wholly mature agaves, which have a definite tendency to realize they are surrounded by other mature agaves within a few years, go !!!!, flower with a stalk the size of a mid-sized tree, and immediately die in satisfaction at having reproduced.
So maybe don't do that specific thing.
posted by sciatrix at 6:30 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
(also, fire ants are not native to the US, so kill them all with my blessing.)
posted by sciatrix at 6:31 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 6:31 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Sure, if you're not going to poison everything else at the same time.
posted by pracowity at 6:36 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by pracowity at 6:36 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Well, yes, absolutely. I am specifically thinking about the kinds of targeted initiatives that involve poisoning the nests and only the nests. Fire ants will also wipe out local insect species, including local ants, bees, and caterpillars, so controlling them is actually beneficial for the local ecosystem as well. For example, there's a nest I need to tackle that has taken over the trunk of one of my native red mulberries, making the tree incredibly unhospitable for any other local fauna.
posted by sciatrix at 6:40 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sciatrix at 6:40 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love the look of yards like this, but damn they take a lot of work to keep from becoming a complete overgrown jungle or a monoculture of something very aggressive. Too much work for me. I don't enjoy yard maintenance and from personal experience all that wild stuff is much more time and energy than running the electric lawn mower once every week or two. You can't just let it go, you have to weed, prune, and tend to it or it will get out of hand and you just have an ugly abandoned lot. My yard is mostly "lawn" -- which I define as green plants that I mow on a regular basis. I don't care what grows there, as long as it doesn't have thorns. I have some garden beds with flowering perennials and shrubs that bees like, I don't use pesticides, I don't mind the dandelions and whatnot, and I've planted clover all over my lawn.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:07 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:07 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
It's possible to load your yard with native plants and not have it look like your house is vacant. The author of this piece kind of skips over the aesthetics of their situation, and there's also a conspicuous lack of long shots of the overall yard, which leads me to believe that the reason this difference isn't mentioned in the piece is because their native yard was an absolute mess.
I'm going all-natives in our front yard right now,* but I'm also trying to keep it looking reasonably yard-like, rather than "the swale behind the abandoned Shoney's." Local governments absolutely need to play a role in encouraging A) better use of yard space than shitty grass and B) increased use of native plants, but devolving your suburban front yard in to an impenetrable thicket and then crying foul when your neighbors complain doesn't make you nearly as much of a victim as the author thinks they are.
Also, as a general writing tip, if you ever find yourself typing the words "I was different from other kids, more curious," and the thing you're trying to accomplish with your writing isn't "establishing the narrator as an insufferable asshole," you should definitely reconsider your word choices.
* For those that are curious, we're in Northeast Florida, Zone 9A. When we bought the house the yard was nothing but grass and a row of little hedges. Since we've moved in we've trained crossvine and passionflowers up the porch, replaced the hedges with clethra, oakleaf hydrangea, and cinnamon ferns, and planted a redbud, a chickasaw plum, some fakahatchee grass, two seagrapes, some Florida-native blueberries, a grapefruit (not technically a native but citrus has been here long enough that I can live with it) and a Southern magnolia, and we also ripped up a big patch of grass and converted it to a mixed wildflower garden using seeds we got from the Florida Wildflower Cooperative (blanketflowers ended up dominating the rest but for a while we also had powderpuff mimosas and something called "Rattlesnake Master"). I love our yard so much. One tool that has helped a lot is our state's Native Plant Society's landscaping website. It's been so, so useful.
posted by saladin at 7:15 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
I'm going all-natives in our front yard right now,* but I'm also trying to keep it looking reasonably yard-like, rather than "the swale behind the abandoned Shoney's." Local governments absolutely need to play a role in encouraging A) better use of yard space than shitty grass and B) increased use of native plants, but devolving your suburban front yard in to an impenetrable thicket and then crying foul when your neighbors complain doesn't make you nearly as much of a victim as the author thinks they are.
Also, as a general writing tip, if you ever find yourself typing the words "I was different from other kids, more curious," and the thing you're trying to accomplish with your writing isn't "establishing the narrator as an insufferable asshole," you should definitely reconsider your word choices.
* For those that are curious, we're in Northeast Florida, Zone 9A. When we bought the house the yard was nothing but grass and a row of little hedges. Since we've moved in we've trained crossvine and passionflowers up the porch, replaced the hedges with clethra, oakleaf hydrangea, and cinnamon ferns, and planted a redbud, a chickasaw plum, some fakahatchee grass, two seagrapes, some Florida-native blueberries, a grapefruit (not technically a native but citrus has been here long enough that I can live with it) and a Southern magnolia, and we also ripped up a big patch of grass and converted it to a mixed wildflower garden using seeds we got from the Florida Wildflower Cooperative (blanketflowers ended up dominating the rest but for a while we also had powderpuff mimosas and something called "Rattlesnake Master"). I love our yard so much. One tool that has helped a lot is our state's Native Plant Society's landscaping website. It's been so, so useful.
posted by saladin at 7:15 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
I've tried. Maybe it is our climate. Our summers are short so anything that can grow will grow like mad when it can. Gardens -- even native plantings -- require constant tending and weeding or they become completely overgrown and choked out by aggressive plants. I got tired of dealing with burrs, thistles, and invasive stuff like Japanese Knotweed and dog-strangling vine. Not to mention the Virginia Creeper that climbs over the fence from my neighbours' yards and tries to choke all the trees and shrubs.
I've settled on a yard of mostly grass with some beds with flowering shrubs and perennials and a bunch of trees in the back yard. At any rate the yard space gets used by the kids running around, which they couldn't do if I filled it up with not-lawn native plantings. Some of our neighbours have beautiful yards full of native plants and almost no grass. They are also out there almost every day tending to their yards. I have no interest in that.
When I seeded grass last year after our backyard was completely torn up from renovations I used Eco-Lawn seeds. Astonishingly more expensive than all the other types of grass seed ($10 a pound), but it delivered on their promise of low-maintenance, drought-tolerant grass. I mow at most once every week or two. I never water, fertilize or weed (except for thorny things) the lawn.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:59 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've settled on a yard of mostly grass with some beds with flowering shrubs and perennials and a bunch of trees in the back yard. At any rate the yard space gets used by the kids running around, which they couldn't do if I filled it up with not-lawn native plantings. Some of our neighbours have beautiful yards full of native plants and almost no grass. They are also out there almost every day tending to their yards. I have no interest in that.
When I seeded grass last year after our backyard was completely torn up from renovations I used Eco-Lawn seeds. Astonishingly more expensive than all the other types of grass seed ($10 a pound), but it delivered on their promise of low-maintenance, drought-tolerant grass. I mow at most once every week or two. I never water, fertilize or weed (except for thorny things) the lawn.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:59 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
if they're actually attacking you
This. Red paper wasps can be aggressive, but generally wasps aren't going to sting you unless you're waving your hands around or disturbing their nests. I will fuck up a wasp with extreme prejudice if it's getting aggressive, and I knock their nests off the house, but people freak the fuck out about them and it's rarely justified. See also roaches; unless it's in your house it's just a detritovore doing its thing and you can chill out.
not if you ever want to be free of mint again!
I mean it's non-native, but why else would I ever want to be free of mint? I harvest that shit for six months, dry what I don't use fresh, and drink mint tea for the rest of the year. I wish my oregano was that hardy - in CA it would take over the yard but the mid-Atlantic seems to knock it back to nothing every year.
Re the backyard jungle thing, I use your "mow whatever grows there occasionally" strategy, allowing enough time for things to flower between mowings and leaving some patches where taller things seem to thrive. There's a mix of natives and non-natives back there, but the native stuff seems pretty happy where it shows up, and as long as I regularly knock back the bamboo and dandelions (I hit the heads with a torch once a week from May-October, and eat the greens in Spring), I get a lot of native green-and-leafy stuff.
At this point I think anything that isn't a monoculture is probably preferable to "lawn," so I don't mind the clover and plantain - even though they're non-native they seem to attract pollinators and birds.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:11 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
This. Red paper wasps can be aggressive, but generally wasps aren't going to sting you unless you're waving your hands around or disturbing their nests. I will fuck up a wasp with extreme prejudice if it's getting aggressive, and I knock their nests off the house, but people freak the fuck out about them and it's rarely justified. See also roaches; unless it's in your house it's just a detritovore doing its thing and you can chill out.
not if you ever want to be free of mint again!
I mean it's non-native, but why else would I ever want to be free of mint? I harvest that shit for six months, dry what I don't use fresh, and drink mint tea for the rest of the year. I wish my oregano was that hardy - in CA it would take over the yard but the mid-Atlantic seems to knock it back to nothing every year.
Re the backyard jungle thing, I use your "mow whatever grows there occasionally" strategy, allowing enough time for things to flower between mowings and leaving some patches where taller things seem to thrive. There's a mix of natives and non-natives back there, but the native stuff seems pretty happy where it shows up, and as long as I regularly knock back the bamboo and dandelions (I hit the heads with a torch once a week from May-October, and eat the greens in Spring), I get a lot of native green-and-leafy stuff.
At this point I think anything that isn't a monoculture is probably preferable to "lawn," so I don't mind the clover and plantain - even though they're non-native they seem to attract pollinators and birds.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:11 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
Don't get me wrong ... I'm an entomologist with a background in pollinators. I love bees! I want to encourage this sort of thing! When I put plants in my yard I go for bee-friendly native perennials. Just don't underestimate the amount of work it takes to pull this off.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:13 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:13 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
our six-flat yard is mostly the native violet, some clover, flagstones and trees. The neighbor keeps many things (like peppers, rosemary and some flowers) growing in pots, but we never could get grass to take over the small space. I'm glad. I don't like "American lawn grass". I'm sorry to hear it's even more work to have a yard that is native.
posted by crush at 9:38 AM on February 14, 2019
posted by crush at 9:38 AM on February 14, 2019
I'm sorry to hear it's even more work to have a yard that is native.
Eh, aside from actively invasive and destructive species many non-native plants are pretty benign and controllable. We're not reversing the Columbian Exchange - it's done, now we have to deal.
There are degrees of nasty, too: Plenty of native pollinators have adapted to use certain invasives (I mentioned plantain above, which is wind-pollinated but feeds native bees and pollinating flies just fine, as does clover). There are (IMO pretty wrong-headed) attempts in e.g. CO to poison or kill certain invasives and try to reintroduce "natives" whose environmental clade has completely changed since they were native - that often just means killing off a species that's now filling a niche and re-introducing one which is doomed to failure.
Humans aren't great at understanding ecology. I'm no expert here, but curtailing the use of pesticides and herbicides and allowing things in your "lawn" to flower seems far more responsive to these concerns than busting your ass trying to bring your urban or suburban lawn back to some sort of poorly-understood primitive "natural" state.
Happy to hear if my thinking about this is flawed somehow.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:42 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Eh, aside from actively invasive and destructive species many non-native plants are pretty benign and controllable. We're not reversing the Columbian Exchange - it's done, now we have to deal.
There are degrees of nasty, too: Plenty of native pollinators have adapted to use certain invasives (I mentioned plantain above, which is wind-pollinated but feeds native bees and pollinating flies just fine, as does clover). There are (IMO pretty wrong-headed) attempts in e.g. CO to poison or kill certain invasives and try to reintroduce "natives" whose environmental clade has completely changed since they were native - that often just means killing off a species that's now filling a niche and re-introducing one which is doomed to failure.
Humans aren't great at understanding ecology. I'm no expert here, but curtailing the use of pesticides and herbicides and allowing things in your "lawn" to flower seems far more responsive to these concerns than busting your ass trying to bring your urban or suburban lawn back to some sort of poorly-understood primitive "natural" state.
Happy to hear if my thinking about this is flawed somehow.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:42 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Natives may be more work at first but if you find the right plants for the location and baby them for a couple of years they should require nothing more than occasional weeding and water in very severe droughts. I have a few corners that are quite independent. Ground covers like woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) and wild ginger (Asarum canadense) will suppress weeds and grow in shade so they can be planted under shrubs.
Finding these plants is the hard part especially since nurseries often sell "nativars" which are selected from natives for qualities like flower color or abundance but at the expense of traits that make them valuable to wildlife like nectar. And there is a lot of discussion now about how close you have to source your plants for them to be effectively local and so of use to your actual insect population. Around here the annual plant sale of the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society is a great source and would probably do for parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts. TheNew England Wild Flower Scoiety is another source for southern New England and has useful publications. For other parts
of the country and world look for similar organizations.
Going native gets more complicated and more fascinating the deeper you get.
posted by Botanizer at 10:53 AM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Finding these plants is the hard part especially since nurseries often sell "nativars" which are selected from natives for qualities like flower color or abundance but at the expense of traits that make them valuable to wildlife like nectar. And there is a lot of discussion now about how close you have to source your plants for them to be effectively local and so of use to your actual insect population. Around here the annual plant sale of the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society is a great source and would probably do for parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts. TheNew England Wild Flower Scoiety is another source for southern New England and has useful publications. For other parts
of the country and world look for similar organizations.
Going native gets more complicated and more fascinating the deeper you get.
posted by Botanizer at 10:53 AM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Some people want zero-maintenance outdoor spaces, whether green or stone. Some people like to fiddle with things and would be dissatisfied with gravel and deck chairs. Some people want bright ornamentals. Some people want a sea of green. Some people want to feed the birds and bees and butterflies. Some people want to feed themselves. There are options for everyone.
But first, do no harm. Don't release nasty chemicals or invasive non-natives into the environment, don't erode the soil, and don't waste water.
posted by pracowity at 11:26 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
But first, do no harm. Don't release nasty chemicals or invasive non-natives into the environment, don't erode the soil, and don't waste water.
posted by pracowity at 11:26 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
devolving your suburban front yard in to an impenetrable thicket and then crying foul when your neighbors complain doesn't make you nearly as much of a victim
What's wrong with impenetrable thickets? It's such a German/ English / American thing to view that as a fail. I grew up in a place where everyone had impenetrable thickets in at least half their yards and hedgegrows abounded and they are very fun to play in as a kid. Plus birds love them.
It cools your house too, a good large thicket is as useful as an air conditioner.
posted by fshgrl at 11:59 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
What's wrong with impenetrable thickets? It's such a German/ English / American thing to view that as a fail. I grew up in a place where everyone had impenetrable thickets in at least half their yards and hedgegrows abounded and they are very fun to play in as a kid. Plus birds love them.
It cools your house too, a good large thicket is as useful as an air conditioner.
posted by fshgrl at 11:59 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
fimbulvetr, in the thread about how 40% of insect species could become extinct in a few decades, I posted a template for calling political representatives to get on this issue by consulting entomologists.
Do you have critiques of this script? If you think it's workable, you're in Canada, so do you think my Canadian friends could use it if I adapt the political representative language (from Members of Congress to MLAs and MPs), and "Entomological Society of Canada"?
I assume there's a patchwork of outreach to homeowners, depending on the inclinations of municipal and state lawmakers and industry (City of Calgary pdf, BC, etc). In your opinion, could it help to ask political representatives about strongly pushing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) educational initiatives and subsidy programs to homeowners?
Yes, Big Ag is the elephant in the room; and also I feel like maybe, if more homeowners are encouraged to learn about IPM, and how their voices can make a difference in their own neighborhoods, that could encourage them to take action re public pressure on Big Ag...
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:09 PM on February 14, 2019
Do you have critiques of this script? If you think it's workable, you're in Canada, so do you think my Canadian friends could use it if I adapt the political representative language (from Members of Congress to MLAs and MPs), and "Entomological Society of Canada"?
I assume there's a patchwork of outreach to homeowners, depending on the inclinations of municipal and state lawmakers and industry (City of Calgary pdf, BC, etc). In your opinion, could it help to ask political representatives about strongly pushing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) educational initiatives and subsidy programs to homeowners?
Yes, Big Ag is the elephant in the room; and also I feel like maybe, if more homeowners are encouraged to learn about IPM, and how their voices can make a difference in their own neighborhoods, that could encourage them to take action re public pressure on Big Ag...
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:09 PM on February 14, 2019
I'm sorry to hear it's even more work to have a yard that is native.
No one should feel bad for not being able to have a successful native garden in a developed area without putting in a lot of work. Keep in mind that there is nothing "native" to a flattened landscape that had all it's topsoil scraped away when the development went in. If you've got some remnant soil because you live where yards are large or some place where your house was a stand alone construction it's much easier to be successful with the flora that originally grew in that place. Additionally, in California we have the issue of all "natives" being lumped together in nurseries in spite of the fact that we have, at absolute bare minimum, nine floristic regions (Jepson uses 35). Natives tend to be specialists, preferring a particular soil/water/climate regime that many average gardeners cannot provide easily. So you'll see coast redwoods with a species of coyote brush from scrubland and flowering plants from serpentine barrens sold together, all with cultural needs wildly different than each other and nonexistent in the average garden in the Bay Area. The familiar plants in nurseries are generalists, less fussy about culture because they have been selected and/or bred for those characteristics that make them reliable garden plants. If you'd really like to help out native fauna, native annuals tend to be easier and are a great source of food and habitat for pollinators even when a full on native garden would require too many inputs for success or sustainability.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:39 PM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
No one should feel bad for not being able to have a successful native garden in a developed area without putting in a lot of work. Keep in mind that there is nothing "native" to a flattened landscape that had all it's topsoil scraped away when the development went in. If you've got some remnant soil because you live where yards are large or some place where your house was a stand alone construction it's much easier to be successful with the flora that originally grew in that place. Additionally, in California we have the issue of all "natives" being lumped together in nurseries in spite of the fact that we have, at absolute bare minimum, nine floristic regions (Jepson uses 35). Natives tend to be specialists, preferring a particular soil/water/climate regime that many average gardeners cannot provide easily. So you'll see coast redwoods with a species of coyote brush from scrubland and flowering plants from serpentine barrens sold together, all with cultural needs wildly different than each other and nonexistent in the average garden in the Bay Area. The familiar plants in nurseries are generalists, less fussy about culture because they have been selected and/or bred for those characteristics that make them reliable garden plants. If you'd really like to help out native fauna, native annuals tend to be easier and are a great source of food and habitat for pollinators even when a full on native garden would require too many inputs for success or sustainability.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:39 PM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
That script should be fine.
posted by fimbulvetr at 4:17 PM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 4:17 PM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Once the Queensland heatwave is over my plan is to dig up pretty much our entire side garden and fill it with natives. It's pretty cool that our local councils have free native plant programs, you can only get a half dozen or so a year, but it still helps, as (for some reason) native plants tend to be a little expensive at the nurseries.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:32 PM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:32 PM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Yay suburban ecology! I highly, highly recommend Doug Tallamy's book on this topic, Bringing Nature Home.
To follow up on a point raised by aspersioncast, about giving up on efforts to restore ecological communities invaded by invasive species -- I don't know the specifics of such communities in CO, but around my neighborhood in central NC, areas blanketed by english ivy, kudzu, Japanese stilt grass, and Japanese wisteria are a common sight. It's true that in these places, many native species still grow, but have lost so much ground just to invasives, let alone areas like turf lawn that are intentionally ecologically sterile.
A healthy ecosystem is diverse, supports multitudes of insect pollinators (most insect species are plant specialists, feeding and laying eggs on 1 or 2 plant species), and contains a lot of redundancy in terms of niche partitioning. So you get lots of flowering vines, hundreds of species of native bees, many badass insect predators like hanging thieves, lots of plant leaves with visible bug bite marks in them. Long evolutionary time scales let this kind of diverse, interconnected web of plant-animal relationships develop. Healthy ecosystems support more animal biomass, grow more plant biomass (eg. big trees), counteract soil erosion, can survive fires (assuming that's part of their evolutionary history), and filter the watershed, often used by large urban areas downstream. They're pulling economically important weight even if you don't give a fig about plants and animals.
When a species is invasive - it has recently entered a new and unfamiliar ecosystem where it flourishes - it usually has few to none of these animal/ecological relationships. Nobody eats them. Nobody lays eggs on them because their caterpillars would not recognize them as food. Insect generalists may pollinate the invasive, or they can reproduce and spread without animal help. A few native insects may "adopt" an invasive species, particularly if they are genetically similar to a native species they are more accustomed to, though this is always a slow process. Invasive plant communities can look lush and green, but they are often ecologically useless, especially when compared to the diverse community they have displaced.
Invasive plant species were introduced by rich white guys who wanted a cool, pest-resistant plant for their gardens. That's an understandable goal, and they probably didn't mean for those plants to escape cultivation, but they did anyway. But the fantastic news is that we have SO MANY COOL plants native to each region of the States! And everywhere! It gives such an irreplaceable sense of place when local areas have local plants. It breaks my heart to see someone who loves plants and animals plant a bunch of Mediterranean herbs to "save bees" (meaning, invasive generalist European honey bees), when they could have so much more bee and butterfly (and moth/fly/beetle/spider...) diversity in their garden feeding and reproducing on native plants, feeding nearby nesting songbirds (and frogs/lizards/salamanders...), and bringing beautiful and fascinating ecological relationships to their friggin' doorstep.
posted by Drosera at 7:16 AM on February 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
To follow up on a point raised by aspersioncast, about giving up on efforts to restore ecological communities invaded by invasive species -- I don't know the specifics of such communities in CO, but around my neighborhood in central NC, areas blanketed by english ivy, kudzu, Japanese stilt grass, and Japanese wisteria are a common sight. It's true that in these places, many native species still grow, but have lost so much ground just to invasives, let alone areas like turf lawn that are intentionally ecologically sterile.
A healthy ecosystem is diverse, supports multitudes of insect pollinators (most insect species are plant specialists, feeding and laying eggs on 1 or 2 plant species), and contains a lot of redundancy in terms of niche partitioning. So you get lots of flowering vines, hundreds of species of native bees, many badass insect predators like hanging thieves, lots of plant leaves with visible bug bite marks in them. Long evolutionary time scales let this kind of diverse, interconnected web of plant-animal relationships develop. Healthy ecosystems support more animal biomass, grow more plant biomass (eg. big trees), counteract soil erosion, can survive fires (assuming that's part of their evolutionary history), and filter the watershed, often used by large urban areas downstream. They're pulling economically important weight even if you don't give a fig about plants and animals.
When a species is invasive - it has recently entered a new and unfamiliar ecosystem where it flourishes - it usually has few to none of these animal/ecological relationships. Nobody eats them. Nobody lays eggs on them because their caterpillars would not recognize them as food. Insect generalists may pollinate the invasive, or they can reproduce and spread without animal help. A few native insects may "adopt" an invasive species, particularly if they are genetically similar to a native species they are more accustomed to, though this is always a slow process. Invasive plant communities can look lush and green, but they are often ecologically useless, especially when compared to the diverse community they have displaced.
Invasive plant species were introduced by rich white guys who wanted a cool, pest-resistant plant for their gardens. That's an understandable goal, and they probably didn't mean for those plants to escape cultivation, but they did anyway. But the fantastic news is that we have SO MANY COOL plants native to each region of the States! And everywhere! It gives such an irreplaceable sense of place when local areas have local plants. It breaks my heart to see someone who loves plants and animals plant a bunch of Mediterranean herbs to "save bees" (meaning, invasive generalist European honey bees), when they could have so much more bee and butterfly (and moth/fly/beetle/spider...) diversity in their garden feeding and reproducing on native plants, feeding nearby nesting songbirds (and frogs/lizards/salamanders...), and bringing beautiful and fascinating ecological relationships to their friggin' doorstep.
posted by Drosera at 7:16 AM on February 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
I would love to do this but our town mandates that we mow the field we own next to our house. We let it grow wild once and they sent us a notice. We do have a wild field and woods in the back that has been declared wetlands so developers can't ruin it. This formerly small farm community when my grandparents lived here is now McMansion and expensive condo suburbia. I'd be happy to get rid of lawns altogether and replace them with wildflowers. I think we are among the last people in town who take care of our own yard rather than having landscapers.
posted by mermayd at 8:39 AM on February 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by mermayd at 8:39 AM on February 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
mermayd - what's the wording like on the rules you're supposed to follow? There are sometimes ways to turn that sort of mandate on it's head. One way is to 'discover' that a rare native plant is growing in your field.
posted by unearthed at 12:28 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by unearthed at 12:28 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
another thing, mermayd: if you can just wait a bit before you mow it, a lot of insect species will have the time to reproduce and a lot of birds will have enough time to feed them to their young. AFAIR, we can mow after June 23rd, but it might even be earlier. Without harming our still theoretical butterfly, that is.
posted by mumimor at 1:37 AM on February 17, 2019
posted by mumimor at 1:37 AM on February 17, 2019
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I swear to god there was an article in the Houston chronicle about how the new developments in the Katy wetlands, destroying hundreds of acres of flood protection for the city, were ideal commodity housing for oil industry workers who never live any place more than three years. It blew my mind.
That kind of metatisized settler mentality is what you are up against. Always Be Colonizing
posted by eustatic at 9:00 PM on February 13, 2019 [17 favorites]