It all started with an invitation from The Conservation Foundation to attend a virtual presentation by Dr. Doug Tallamy, a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware.
At the time I was overseeing Kent’s recovery from West Nile virus, so I missed it. But one night, as I was not sleeping on the most uncomfortable bed next to Kent in the rehab hospital, I searched online for Dr. Tallamy. I knew that he encouraged the use of native plants, but didn’t know of his expertise regarding insects.
Since it was an insect (the mosquito) that was responsible for my sleepless nights and days of worry (not to mention Kent’s suffering) and since Dr. Tallamy included his email (and phone number!) on his website, I sent him an email at 11:32PM with a question about mosquito control and was so delighted when I received his response at 4:55AM!
Now that life is more normal, I made a list of New Year’s resolutions and one of them is to read more. The first book on my reading list is “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard” by Douglas W. Tallamy, my new friend.
Doug encourages us to plant native ferns, grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees. The big idea in this book is that because over 80 percent of land in the United States is privately owned, we can’t count on public lands to be the responsible party when it comes to conservation and restoring ecological function. Doug encourages us to make changes in our own home landscapes, turning our gardens into conservation corridors that become part of his vision of a “Homegrown National Park.”
Very similar to the Conservation@Home program of the Conservation Foundation, both concepts offer homeowners the knowledge we need to restore ecological function with minimal expense or costly changes to infrastructure.
A simple act, for example, is to plant milkweed for butterflies. As you will read in Doug’s book, many insects and birds are very picky about the plants that they need to survive. The larvae of monarch butterflies will only eat leaves of milkweed, so their mothers only lay their eggs on milkweed. (Does anyone remember going to heroic lengths to get their baby to eat? I do!) For a first step, in the spring choose a milkweed plant. My favorite is “Asclepias incarnata ‘Ice Ballet.’ Three months of vanilla-scented, white flowers from midsummer to fall that also attract hummingbirds.
There are lots of suggestions and surely something that you will want to try in your yard.
