Imagine millions of us creating wildlife habitats in our own yards. My husband and I bought our current house with a very large yard and a ravine with a small creek in the middle of town. I took my lifelong houseplant green thumb outdoors for the first time and began gardening at 44 years old.
I’ve donated to international conservation groups since I was in college. In the summer of 2017 I attended a pollinator conference that changed my life. Doug Tallamy and Heather Holm were speakers, among others. I came home and ripped out almost all of my plants and began replacing them with natives to my area.
There are many species of insects, birds, and animals that were already here due to the old oaks, evergreens, hickories, hackberries, black cherries, and other trees but even more have arrived due to the increasing plant diversity. I slowly began to realize most of the green I was seeing was invasive plants nearly taking over my yard. Thus began the battle to remove them.
It has been challenging as another new invasive plant seems to arrive in my yard each year and the old ones never go away. It’s also rewarding because roots and seeds of native plants that were already there trapped under the dense cascading oriental bittersweet, the spreading Asian honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, garlic mustard, etc. began to reappear.
It’s such a joy to watch and photograph breeding hawks and robins, various dragonflies, hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and the occasional fox or coyote. We’re bordered by four major roadways that traverse the city so it is even more remarkable that I can clearly hear cars, construction, and even a car crash once, and still be able to walk outside and watch the quiet beauty of plants and insects and the dance between predator and prey on multiple levels.
Recently, I’ve been foraging in my back yard. I’ve made several posts tagged #backyardforaging if you want to search Facebook. I remember my cousins and I being shocked at our grandpa eating what we thought was a clover but may have been sorrel when I was around 10 years old. When my mom was a girl, he and my grandma had chickens, an outhouse, and the women of the family ground their own corn by hand for tortillas. All in Northwestern Illinois in the 1950s!
I’m trying to reconnect to the land. Our family joined the millions of “first world people” that thought technology and chemicals would elevate us from having to toil in the dirt. It has been a failed experiment and now our health and the Earth is suffering as the rest of the world has mimicked us. It is our birthright to part of the Earth, not above her, not controlling her. People are beginning to understand and the native plant movement is growing.
My interest in plants and animals and especially environmental concerns began as a teen. The college I attended now offers an environmental major. It’s never too late to learn and never too late to start. My native plant obsession began at age 47. I may not have degree in botany but I have experience and a Master Conservationist certificate. I’m just one person making a difference. If everyone planted just a few native plants in their yard or on their balcony, we could change the world!
I recommend reading Nature’s Best Hope and Bringing Nature Home both by Doug Tallamy. Follow me in my backyard (and front yard) adventures and help spread the movement!
Tiny Urban Wilderness 