Historically, what we now call lawns started in the 17th century in England when a middle class of people started to develop. Before that only royals and landed gentry could afford the luxury of not using every inch of land they owned to grow food. Having a lawn in front of your castle/ home became a sign of wealth and prestige. The English middle class utilized lawns to advertise they had reached significant wealth and that they too could afford to have an idle piece of land. Lawns soon became an English cultural habit. When the early colonists came to America, they brought this habit with them. Lawns soon spread throughout the colonies and, indeed, everywhere else the colonists moved to. The problem is that we still value our lawns today without really having a clue why they even exist! It is now our cultural habit that feels like a mandatory imperative. We have been blindly following this habit since the earliest English settlers arrived. A lawn is a monoculture that unfortunately from an environmental view, offers a very simplified, indeed impoverished, approach to landscaping. Being a monoculture, (only one plant), the lawn is extreme in its lack of diversity so offers little if any support to native wild life. It is a sterile garden and cannot function as a dynamic community of interacting organisms either in the ground or above it. Lawns can be as sterile as an asphalt parking lot when it comes to supporting nature. Question: In the United States we now have over 40 million acres of lawns. Can we reduce that number, even cut it in half? Considering that the average homeowner’s lawn comprises, on average, about 80% of their landscape, you can see that we have created a huge problem hiding in plain sight, one that very few people even know exists! The lawn environment does not offer any sustainability by way of food, shelter or habitat to any native animals, birds or insects. Other reasons why lawns are a detriment: When you have lawns you use lawnmowers, weed wackers and leaf blowers to maintain them. Each week about 54 million Americans mow their lawns using about 800 million gallons of fuel. This practice alone contributes about 5% of the total greenhouse gases in the U. S.. Then there is the noise pollution. Some communities have recently prohibited these extremely noisy machines from being used from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.. If lawns are fed synthetic fertilizers to grow, and synthetic herbicides to get rid of weeds, we then wipe out all the healthy microorganisms that live in the soil. This leads to the sterilization of soil completely stripping it of the natural life forms that would be beneficial for a naturally healthy lawn. We have made our lawns chemically dependent! Water issues: The synthetic, (man -made), chemicals and fertilizers further harm our environment by leaching out through the soil into our well water supply, aquifers (underground reservoirs), natural watersheds, ponds, streams, rivers and eventually in our oceans. According to a study at Columbia University, 30 to 60% of urban drinking water goes into the watering of our urban lawns. My home town of Ipswich, MA this year, in the first week of April, in an unprecedented move, declared a voluntary ban on the use of watering for outdoor purposes. This voluntary ban was declared because Massachusetts, due to a lack of snow and rain this past winter/spring, already has a deficit of 3 to 5 inches below its normal rain amount. Some Solutions:
AND/OR 2. Choose to exchange little by little, lawn area for gardens. Gradually reduce the lawn area you have by putting in pollinator, butterfly, hummingbird or bird gardens. A trick I use is to carve out a new area in my lawn by using an old hose to create different ‘island’ configurations until I have a design that I really like. Lawns are great for walking. Use them for paths around your many gardens. Remember, to attract native insects, pollinators, birds and animals, use many different native plants. This will bring biodiversity to your property. Now your gardens will be able to support a complex food web. In other words, your landscape will now be able to support a diverse community of native pollinators, butterflies, birds and other animals. Mother Nature will thank you. You have now become part of the solution to a global problem where native wildlife is decreasing everywhere. NOTE: Lawns devoid of dandelion, clover and violets are a Mono Culture. Mono cultures do not support bio-diversity. One of the reasons we all have too many pests on our property is because a large percentage of our home environment is lawn space that does not provide the natural complex environment needed to have a healthy, balanced ecosystem that attracts a diversity of insects, birds and animals that can then provide checks and balances on the number of pest insects. Next Blog: All about hummingbirds – what to do to attract them to your property.
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I have learned many composting techniques from both my Polish grandparents and my mother and father. It was a way of life that was passed on as naturally as the language I learned to speak. My grandparents and parents lovingly tended to their compost piles, adding all kitchen vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, leaves and of course the ‘cow pies’ that we gathered whenever we went for a Sunday ride in the country and came upon any cow pasture. My parents kept small buckets in the trunk of the car to collect these gifts from the cows, as well as any sea weed that washed ashore at Lynn Beach after a storm. A tour of their vegetable and flower gardens was not complete until you visited the compost pile. Its black humus was so soft, fragrant and clean you were tempted to eat it by the spoonful. My father, in his Irish humor, kept a tablespoon hanging by the compost pile, just in case anyone wanted to taste it. No one ever took him up on his offer, but it didn’t stop him from asking. We all knew, the better the compost pile, the better the return of flowers and vegetables! We finished the growing season with the annual ritual of spreading the aged compost on top of the soil of next year’s vegetable and flower gardens. *** Recent research has shown that the smell of humus exerts a strong physiological effect on humans. Breathing in the scent of Mother Earth stimulates the release of the hormone, oxytocin, the same chemical that promotes bonding between mother and child. A little history: Composting has been going on since plants evolved to grow on soil. Each year Mother Nature produces foliage in the spring and in the autumn the leaves fall to the ground. In nature, this leaf humus is mixed with the decomposing bodies of animals, insects and trees giving a nearly neutral PH, (ranging from 6.9 – 7.2), which is perfect for most plants except for acid-loving plants. After a year or two this decayed matter becomes food for living green plant species. Humans just need to take a lesson from Mother Nature. How the process works: The natural process of composting is carried out by the thousands of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, and small insects and earth worms. They all live naturally in the soil and on its surface. These organisms, like all living species on our planet, need water, food and air. They feed on organic waste materials converting them into compost. This process generates sufficient heat to keep the organisms going as well as killing off most harmful bacteria. Microbial activity will raise the temperature in the center of the compost pile’s core to 140 degrees and destroy pathogens and weed seeds. As the organic material is consumed, the available oxygen diminishes and the temperature in the middle of the pile will begin to drop, finally slowing the process to a stop. Turning the pile frequently will add more oxygen to the pile and the heat will build again, speeding the decomposing process along. This process usually takes about three months. Some common things to add to your compost pile: Shredded paper (no color ink or shine), coffee grounds, tea, animal manure such as from horses or chickens (no dog manure), eggshells, fireplace ash, fruits, vegetables, yard waste such as leaves and grass clippings (don’t add grass clippings if you use a synthetic fertilizer!) hay, straw and wood chips. Do not compost: Meat, fish (fish now has too much mercury in it!), dairy products, fats, oils, cat and dog waste, diseased plant materials, hardy weeds, any green plant material including grass that has been chemically treated and any part of an invasive plant. Why do we compost: No matter what method you choose to use, composting provides huge benefits to the garden as well as to the environment. It enriches the soil by feeding the soil food web, the microorganisms. It improves the texture, drainage and composition of the soil. This leads to happier, bigger and more productive plants while eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers. Composting also increases the general health of the plant by boosting its immune system so it can fight plant diseases and pests. And it keeps valuable organic material from ending up in our landfills! (The EPA reports that 23% of all landfill is from yard waste). A word of caution: Do not get free compost from your town’s dump or transfer station. This free compost is not monitored and often will contain invasive plants including their seeds. It can also be contaminated by harmful chemical insecticides, pesticides or herbicides. Rule of thumb - The bigger your garden spaces, the bigger your compost pile needs to be. As your gardens get bigger, so should your compost piles. TIP: You can make a good compost with nothing more than fallen leaves, grass clippings and plant prunings. Even if you do not turn it over or layer it, eventually everything in your compost pile will decompose. Assembling your compost pile:
Bag Composting: This is a very easy composting method and is fine if you have a small garden. Place leaves and green and brown material into a black plastic bag. Add two shovels of dirt or manure. Add water to dampen the material. Poke 10 holes in the bag and place it in a sunny spot. Turn a few times each week and add water if it dries out. The finished compost will be ready in about 6-8 weeks. Trench Composting: This method works especially good in your vegetable garden. At the end of the growing season dig rows of 12” deep trenches and fill with organic brown and green material. The next spring, plant your seeds or plants in rows next to these trenches. The following fall the new trenches will go where you planted the this year’s crops. And the next spring, you plant where your first trench was and so on. Compost Tea: This is a liquid organic fertilizer that you can make yourself. It will improve the overall health of your plants and the soil they are in. This practice has been used by farmers as a plant tonic for centuries. Recipe:
A tip for house plants: When you finish using your tea bag, instead of throwing it in the trash, put it on top of the soil of your house plants. Then every time you water, micronutrients from the tea will seep down into the soil of your potted plant. Eventually when you replace them, just put the tea into the compost pile (minus the tea bag). If you drink coffee, place the used grounds in a container and into your refrigerator where it will attract odors and keep your refrigerator smelling fresh. When you replace the grounds after a month or two, just add them to the top of the soil of your house plants (or add to your compost pile). COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next blog will be on the history of the lawn and how to gradually shrink its size by creating native wildlife gardens on your property. Everyone, no matter what age, is enticed and enchanted by the flying jewels of the garden, the butterflies. Planting a butterfly garden will awaken a sense of wonder in yourself as well as your children or grandchildren. Butterflies are magical and also so common that they are the ideal creatures to capture the imagination and start a life-long relationship with nature. Anyone can be successful in planting a garden to attract butterflies. Butterflies need two types of plants to fulfill their destiny, to lay eggs, so there is a next generation. NECTARING PLANTS: The first plant they need is flowering annuals, perennials, bushes or trees. Flowers provide nectar. Nectar to butterflies is like gasoline for cars. Butterflies need nectar to supply energy so they can fly, find a mate and if a female, lay her eggs. All flowering plants have nectar. Nectar, which is composed of water and about 20% sugar, is nature’s way of attracting insects to flowers so they can be pollinated. The colors and perfume of flowers advertise that nectar is available. Sugar is manufactured by the plant during photosynthesis. The sugar content varies slightly in different flowers so all insects including the butterfly, soon figure out and remember what plants have the highest content of sugar in their nectar. NECTAR PLANT CHOICES: You can easily pick and choose from many native perennials and annuals to add to your garden to satisfy the butterfly’s need for nectar. A good starter list for annuals, (annuals are not native plants), with a high sugar content in their nectar includes: snapdragons, orange marigolds, red salvia, orange lantana, daisies, cosmos, petunias, nasturtiums and zinnias. A native perennials list with a high sugar content in their nectar includes: phlox, yarrow, black-eyed susan, lavender, liatris, verbena, coneflower, beer balm, hyssop, goldenrod, asters and rue to name a few. If you wish to incorporate bushes with high nectar content consider: Sweet Pepperbush, Butterfly Bush, Ironweed and Buttonbush. As an additional benefit, your garden full of nectaring plants, will also attract native bees and other pollinators. HOSTS OR LARVAL PLANTS: Now that you have provided fuel for your butterflies, all you have to do is add hosts plants to your butterfly garden. They are the secret to a successful butterfly garden. Hosts plants are native plants that butterflies require to lay their eggs on. The caterpillar is hatched from the egg. By eating the leaves of hosts plants caterpillars quickly grow and develop. However each butterfly species needs a specific host plant with which it has specifically co-evolved. Why? All plants defend themselves by manufacturing toxic chemicals in their leaves to keep animals and insects from eating them. Each butterfly species, over a long evolutionary time period, has figured out how not to be harmed by the chemicals of at least one plant. And this plant becomes their host plant, a plant that a caterpillar can eat. HOST PLANT CHOICES: Make a list of the butterflies that live in your area that you would like to attract to your garden. Then, find out their host plant. Here is a short list of butterfly species and the host plants with which they have co-evolved: Monarchs – milkweed plants, Swallowtails – dill, parsley and rue, Painted Ladies – asters, ironweed, mallows, Blue Azures – lupines, Cabbage Whites – any vegetable in the cabbage family, Fritillaries – violets, Silver Spotted Skippers- cone flowers. TREES AS HOST PLANTS: Some butterflies have evolved with trees as their host plant. Here are a few examples: The Mourning Cloak – willow trees. The Viceroy and Hairstreaks - willow trees, Red-Spotted Purple – apple trees, Anglewings – elm trees, White Admiral –hawthorns, Spicebush Swallowtail –spicebush tree. For those of you who love moths: The Sphinx Moth (also called the hummingbird moth) – Cherry trees, Luna Moth – Hickory trees. A HEADS UP: I have seen many gardeners, after designing and implementing a beautiful butterfly garden, add a bird feeder to their arrangement. With this one action they have changed their butterfly garden into a bird garden. Birds eat insects and butterflies are insects! Place your bird feeder far away from your butterfly garden. WATER: All species on this planet need water! Butterflies love water but must keep their legs dry. Their legs have small hooks on them so they can pierce the outer layer of a leaf. Then through a quick chemical analysis, they can tell instantly if the plant is the host plant they are looking for to lay their eggs on. Thus, they must keep their legs dry. A trick that I use is to fill a bird bath with colorful marbles or small stones and add water. As long as the stones or marbles on the top are above the water, they will give the butterfly a dry place to land on. Butterflies have extremely long tongues that they keep rolled up in their mouths and only use when gathering nectar or sipping water. On top of the dry stones/marbles, they can shoot their tongues down between the crevices and get the water they need while still keeping their legs dry. Next time you see a butterfly gathering nectar or sipping water, count its six legs. If you count seven you know that you are seeing its tongue. They look very similar! RECAP: Step one: plant perennial and annual flowering plants. Step two: Plant native host plants. Now you will not only have a beautiful and easy to care for nature garden but you have created a nursery for caterpillars that will soon develop into the next generation of butterflies! Mother Nature will thank you for becoming an agent in making positive and sustainable environmental choices in your own backyard. LEPIDOPTERA: Butterflies and moths are insects in the order Lepidoptera (from Greek ‘lepis’ meaning scale and Greek ‘ptera’ meaning wing). There are 125,000 species of moths and 14,500 species of butterflies in this order. Moths evolved first around 190 million years ago which explains why there are so many more species. These delicate flying insects sought protection by flying, mating and gathering nectar only at night. Butterflies, which descended from moths, made their entrance only when flowers evolved around 120 – 140 million years ago. They are day-time moths! They have many forms of protection to allow them to fly and gather nectar and mate during the day. Sometimes their color offers them camouflage. However, their major source of protection is that their wings are made of thousands of individual scales all of which are capable of easily detaching if a bird grabs onto them. This simple adaption allows them to fly off while the bird is left with only a beak full of scales. The next time you see a butterfly, take a close look at its wings. Do you see any parts missing? METAMORPHOSIS: (from Greek ‘meta’ meaning transforming, and “morphe” meaning shape) Moths and butterflies are insects that undergo, what is termed, true metamorphosis because it takes place in four stages. First stage, the EGG -Eggs are laid on host plants by the adult female butterfly. They are a little larger than the size of a period at the end of this sentence. They are usually laid on the underside of the leaf for protection. Second stage, the CATERPILLAR – (This is sometimes called the LARVAL stage) – This is the feeding stage. When emerging from the egg, the caterpillar will be very small, about ¼”. The caterpillar is a 24 hour a day eating machine and will quickly grow to around 2 ½”. It takes about 4-5 different stages to get to the mature size. Each time the caterpillar outgrows its skin, it splits it in two by gulping air into its lungs, and emerges its new larger size. It then eats its old skin, a valuable source of protein. After repeating this action 4-5 times it will reach its full growth. This takes a couple of weeks to complete. Hormones then tell the caterpillar to stop eating and to look for a good leaf to attach itself to for the next stage. Third stage, the PUPA - (called a COCOON for moths and a CHRYSALIS for butterflies) – This is the transition stage. In the pupa the structure of the caterpillar completely breaks down and the adult structure forms. Special cells that were present in the caterpillar grow rapidly and become legs, eyes, wings and other parts of the adult butterfly or moth. Depending on the species of moth or butterfly this stage can last from a few weeks to two years. Forth Stage, the ADULT - This is the reproductive stage. The butterfly and the moth actively search for mates. Once the female is fertilized by the male she starts laying hundreds of eggs, one at a time, usually on the underside of a leaf of a host plant so that they are not easily spotted and eaten by predatory insects. After laying their eggs, except for a few exceptions, (notably the Monarch), butterflies and moths die. They have completed their mission to ensure the next generation. A NOTE OF CAUTION: Get to know the word NEONICOTINOIDS also called Neonics. Neonics are a class of insecticides chemically similar to nicotine. They are often added to the soil of potted plants to kill insects. They are harmful to the nervous system of all insects. Once added to the soil they are quickly ingested by plants. Scientist do not now how many years the neonics remain in the soil, in the plant, in their nectar and leaves. Before buying any plant at a garden shop or store, please ask them if their plants have neonics. If they do, ask them to buy plants that don’t have neonics added to them or find another source that doesn’t use them. After all the hard work you have done in your garden to support butterflies, bees and beneficial insects, you don’t want to poison them. I sometimes wonder how many of us actually think about the importance of soil when we go about our way daily. And yet soil, along with the sun’s energy, water and oxygen, is the reason our planet can be home to humans and all other living species. After reading this story, if I have done my job well, the next time you are walking outside, maybe you will pause for a moment to think about the teaming, vital life under your feet, and give a heartfelt thank you for all the gifts it bestows on us. Soil is composed of two components, the living and the non-living. The non-living part consists of mineral particles, clay, sand and silt that range in varying amounts depending on which environment they are in. One would expect to find more sand near the sea shore and more silt or clay near wetlands. Our soil in New England is especially acidic. That is because all soil is influenced by the rock base under it. In our case granite is the base under our thin 4-6 inches of top soil. The minerals that granite gives off, as it slowly decomposes and wears down, gives the acidic level to our New England soil. Because our soil has a high acidity level, all our native plants, which have evolved under its influence, are acid loving plants. To explain further, acidic loving plants are really iron loving plants. Acidity releases the iron in the soil for easy consumption by plants. Iron is a micronutrient and is necessary in all plants for their production of chlorophyll. TOPSOIL: Why do we have such thin top soil in New England? The Laurentide Ice Sheet withdrew from New England about 18,000 years ago. Remnants of this ice sheet can still be found in Greenland today. We can thank this glacier for the formation of our irregular sea coast, Cape Ann, Cape Cod, lakes and ponds, eskers*, moraines*, drumlins*, glacial erratics* and for the richness of rocks in our soils today. It also removed all our topsoil. It is often said that New England’s number one crop is rocks! It takes at least one hundred to five hundred years under the right conditions, depending on climate, latitude, vegetation and other factors, to make one inch of top soil! And because of poor farming techniques, over grazing of farm animals and the cutting down of forests, much of our valuable topsoil annually gets washed down stream or out into the oceans when it rains. MICROORGANISMS: Good soil that is capable of supporting a living element has a structure that is composed of about 25% water, 25% air and 50% solid matter, of which least 5-10% should be organic material. In addition to the sun’s energy, all living species on this planet, including plants, need water and air. However, for any plant to grow it must have a living component in the soil. These living components, sometimes referred to as the Soil Food Web, are microorganisms. Most microorganisms in the soil cannot be seen by the human eye. They include bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. In addition, small arthropods (insects) and finally earthworms round out this important list of essential participants. All microorganisms also need water and air. Thus, you will find them living only in soil that has not been compacted and has a good structure. Compaction squeezes out the air and water from soil. Have you ever noticed that nothing grows on a path that has had constant use? Without the presence of these organisms, the soil is dead, lifeless and just dirt. It is incapable of supporting any growth of vegetation. These microscopic organisms have many roles to play on this planet. In this blog I am going to talk about only two important functions. First, they are responsible for the decomposition of all dead species on this planet from a leaf to a bird to a giraffe. If it weren’t for microorganisms, we would be forever walking on our dead! As they facilitate the decomposition process, all the microorganisms also absorb and lock valuable nutrients in their bodies. Mother Nature does not waste anything, and if it were not for these organisms, valuable nutrients from the bodies of all dead species would be washed away by rain water, or be wasted by leaching through the soil. Instead, the microorganisms consume these nutrients and use them as food. PHOTOSYNTHESIS: Green plants are the only species on our planet that have the pigment chlorophyll. They alone are capable of making their own food directly from the sun’s energy in the process called photosynthesis. Chlorophyll’s unique job is to absorb sunlight and change it from light energy to chemical energy that can be utilized right away or stored for future use. This energy gets converted to sugars, carbohydrates and starches and is then stored in the roots of plants. Chlorophyll is found in leaves which are the food factory of all plants. It is the reason why all plants are green. Plants also are the only species where part of their bodies live above the ground and the other in the ground! An interesting note is that plants cannot move to go find food because they literally are rooted where they are. Yet Mother Nature has figured out a unique way, through the process of photosynthesis, for them to be fed. One of the plants major roles on this planet is to pass all this food energy onto all other species, both above the ground as well as in the soil. RHIZOSPHERE: The second key role microorganisms play is in their vital interaction with all green plants and it happens at the root zone. This is the key to why we have such diversity of life on this planet. Where the plant’s roots are located and the area directly around them is called the rhizosphere. The rhizosphere is teaming with microorganisms! One third of the plant’s food supply is used for immediate growth needs, 1/3 is stored for next year’s growth and 1/3 is given to microorganism in exchange for the nutrients that the microorganisms have harvested from decaying dead bodies. Green plants want the nutrients that microorganisms have and microorganisms gladly share some of their hard won nutrients with the plant roots in exchange for sugar and starches that otherwise they would not be able to acquire. This is a great example of a symbiotic relationship where two different biological organisms come together in a long term biological interaction that is beneficial and necessary to both. To create a thriving ecosystem above the ground, you need to create an equally thriving system in the ground! There is a saying among organic gardeners, farmers and environmentalists, “Feed the soil, not the plant”. Mother Nature has always relied on the exchange of nutrients for sugar at the root level that occurs between microorganisms and plants. This vital service, that evolved around two billion years ago, happens all over the planet in all green plants from the smallest blade of grass, flowers and vegetables in your gardens to the largest tree. Simply put, the actions of microorganisms are essential to the health and success of all green plants on our planet! We, as gardeners, can follow Mother Nature’s example and feed the microorganisms in our gardens by top dressing our garden soils with organic materials such as leaves and compost. After the microorganisms have broken down the organic materials into nutrients, they in turn will share these nutrients with the roots of all your plants in return for sugar and starches that your green plants make. So the next time you are out for a walk, you just might want to look at the ground you are walking on and think of the billions of vital interactions between microorganisms and the roots of plants all over our planet that is taking place. In future blogs I will address the subjects of composting, using leaves as mulch in your garden and how plants pass on the sun’s food to all other above ground species on our planet. *Eskers: A long ridge of gravel and other sediment, typically having a winding course, deposited by meltwater from a retreating glacier or ice sheet. *Moraines: Material usually rock or soil that is left behind in a mound by a moving glacier. *Drumlins: A low oval mound or small hill, typically one of a group, consisting of compacted bolder clay moulded by past glacial action. *Erratics: Deposited rocks differing from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests that were carried and deposited by retreating glacial ice. Note: Humans all over the planet consume roots of plants directly getting not only the suns energy but the nutrients the roots received from micro-organisms. We call this food, root vegetables, and it includes, to name a few regional favorites, carrots, parsnips, radish, beets, potatoes, yams and turnips. The nutrients we receive from plants we call vitamins. A note of caution: Chemical fertilizers such as Miracle Grow are synthetic fertilizers that have been engineered to directly feed plants to make them grow. However in doing so, they kill all the microorganisms in the soil thus leaving a dead, sterilized soil. Your plants are now chemically dependent on artificial fertilizers and can no longer receive food otherwise from the soil. Scientist who manufacture these chemical fertilizers do not know how long they will remain in the soil. Scott’s lawn fertilizer is also a synthetic chemical fertilizer. Using it will kill all the healthy microorganisms in the soil, sterilizing it and making your lawn chemically dependent on a yearly use of more chemical fertilizers. Both Miracle Grow and Scott’s companies are now offering organic fertilizers. This simple story explains three layers of the web of life, plants, insects and animals and their intricate and necessary interconnection. I am using the Black-capped Chickadee as an example of how these three layers work together because it is so well known in New England. This is but one example of how plants, insects and animals interact and pass on the sun’s energy. This energy we call food. First, some basic facts. Although chickadees eat a variety of food including seeds throughout the year, they, along with 96% of terrestrial birds in North America, rear their young on insects. Why insects? Insects have more protein in their bodies than any other species on our planet including the meat from animals. During the time the baby birds are in their nest they are extremely vulnerable. They need to grow quickly and fledge as soon as possible. For this to take place a huge amount of protein is necessary to spur growth. Thus Mother Nature has provided them with the best possible food to encourage quick growth – insects. The densest protein is found in caterpillars which is the larval stage of butterflies and moths. Although mother chickadees could feed their offspring any insect, it turns out that 95-100% of insects they hunt for are caterpillars. If you have already read Doug Tallamy’s and Richard Darke’s excellent book, ‘The Living Landscape’, you will be familiar with this example. Research has shown that chickadees feed their chicks an average of 390 to 570 caterpillars a day depending on the amount of chicks they have. If chicks are in the nest from 16 to 18 days before they fledge, that means it takes between 6,240 to 10,260 caterpillars to fledge a single clutch of chickadees! Chickadees are small birds weighing about a third of an ounce. What if you had a red- bellied woodpecker nest in your yard? Red-bellied woodpeckers weigh eight times more than chickadees. How many more caterpillars would be needed to fledge a clutch of red-bellied woodpeckers? The big question is, how and what can you do to get enough caterpillars living in your garden or your landscape to feed even one nest of chickadee chicks? The answer is to plant native perennials, shrubs and trees that are the host plants for caterpillars. Every butterfly and moth species has co-evolved with a specific native plant that acts as a host plant where it can lay its eggs. The best known example is the Monarch butterfly which can only lay its eggs on the milkweed plant. The monarch, over evolutionary time, has been able to figure out how to get past the noxious chemicals in the milkweed. All plants have chemicals that they manufacture in their leaves as a defense mechanism against being eaten by animals or insects. Insects are either herbivores, they eat plants, or predators, they eat other insects. Herbivores have evolved to get food from the sun by eating plants. Predatory insects get the sun’s energy from eating herbivores. Birds eat adult insects as well as eggs and caterpillars, thus getting their energy from the sun. Green plants play many necessary and remarkable roles for the healthy functioning of our planet. They are the only species on earth that have the pigment chlorophyll. This pigment allows plants to make their own food directly from the sun. We call this process photosynthesis. The plants then pass on food (energy) to all other living species on our planet in the web of life or the food chain. To answer the question of how to have nesting birds on your property, the answer is to plant as many native trees, bushes and perennials as you can. If you plant many different species of native plants you will attract many different species of native insects that depend on them for food. The more insects you have, the more birds you will attract. And perhaps, you may indeed have enough caterpillars to attract nesting birds. In future blogs, I will explain how to design and plant a butterfly garden and what native plants are needed to attract birds. Note: I want to thank Vicky for the inspiration of this blog story. Vicky is a former student who four years ago took my 5 week environmental gardening course that I teach annually for the Mass Audubon. A week before this past Christmas, I received a lovely card which included a deeply touching note inside explaining that the story I told in class of the connection of chickadees and caterpillars “moved (her) so much that (she) became better educated about native plants and pollinators and gardening for wildlife”. She went on to become a N.H. Natural Resources Steward and co-founded an organization in N. H. that encourages people to grow pollinator gardens. She is now ”inspiring others to bring nature home”. Vicky’s story is a great example of how when you plant seeds (literally or figuratively as in ideas) you never know how they will grow and what unexpected beauty and surprises they will bring. Interesting Facts: The Black capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) is a passerine. Passerine birds are sometimes known as perching or song birds. They are distinguished from other orders of birds by the arrangement of their toes, three pointing forward and one back which facilitates perching. It is a small, non-migratory North American bird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests and residential neighborhoods. It is the State bird of both Massachusetts and Maine. It can adapt to our winter climate by lowering its body temperature during long cold nights. It has an excellent memory that helps it relocate caches where it stores food. Chickadees adaptation to humans has made it quite bold including learning to feed from the hands of people. It is easy to identify by its distinctive black cap, white cheek feathers and black bib and is a daily visitor to backyard bird feeders. It often nests in hollows of birch or alder trees but will also nest in nest boxes built to its specifications. Both moths and butterflies constitute the Lepidoptera order of insects. Lepis comes from the Greek work scale and pteron means wing. In other words, the Lepidoptera has wings composed of thousands of small scales. They are analogous to the feathers of birds and perform the same functions. There are about 180,000 species known to humans. Approximately 90% of Lepidoptera species are moths and the other 10% are butterflies. Most moths are active at night. Butterflies, which evolved many millions of years later when flowers arrived, are active during the day time when flowers and nectar are at their peak. The caterpillar is the second of four stages of development of the moth and butterfly. The first stage is the egg, most of which are the size of a period at the end of a sentence. The second stage is the caterpillar or larval stage. This is the feeding stage. Its sole purpose is to eat and grow. As it grows it bursts its outer skin and out comes a larger caterpillar. It does this 4 to 5 times as it grows from a caterpillar about 1/8” long to one that is about 2-3” long. The third stage is the pupa stage or transitional stage. Here the caterpillar, if it is a butterfly, uses its last layer of skin to make a chrysalis and if it is a moth, a cocoon. The fourth stage is the adult or reproductive stage. Here you have the fully transformed butterfly or moth. The sole purpose of this stage is to mate and if you are a female, lay eggs. An interesting fact is that whereas butterflies need nectar as food to power flight and live from a few weeks to many months, most moths have no mouths at all and live very short lives, sometimes only days, with only enough time to quickly mate and lay eggs. The four stages of growth of the butterfly and moth are called a complete metamorphosis. Metamorphosis in Greek means a change of form, appearance or structure. Many cultures, including the ancient Greeks and the Aztecs, marveled and were perplexed at the wonder of a lowly crawling caterpillar being transformed as if by magic into a beautiful flying being. And so, the butterfly became the symbol for spiritual rebirth and transformation. The Greek word for butterfly is psyche, the same word they use for soul. This is a story of a unique partnership between a wild turkey and a squirrel that are currently living on my farm. At the end of the story I will give you a little background on each of these species. This story starts in the summer of 2019 when I first noticed the tailless squirrel on the ground beneath our bird feeder. At first I thought it was a strange rabbit because it hopped as it moved, and had a small nub of a tail. Upon closer look I saw that it was a squirrel without any tail. Because she had no tail other squirrels chased her away. Without a tail she could not communicate with other squirrels and they perhaps felt threatened by her. She did however make friends with the many birds that ate on the ground and seemed content to join them as she filled her belly. Every day I threw extra bird seeds on the ground. She continued to be a daily visitor to our property through the summer and fall of 2019. I feared the worst would happen when the winter snows came and she would not have a tail to keep herself warm. And indeed I did not see her at all that winter. However in March, in of 2020, along with the Covid-19 epidemic, the tailless squirrel materialized. I was surprised and thrilled to see her. What a resilient being! From then on she has been a daily visitor to our property. The next part of this story starts on a warm August day in 2020 when I noticed a wild turkey with a broken leg under our bird feeders. She hopped along on her good leg and gingerly put pressure on her broken leg. She, too, had been banished from her flock and primary group. Often in nature weak, sick or injured animals are banished so that predators are not attracted to the group. On a regular basis I saw other wild turkeys chasing her away from the bird seeds that were on the ground under the bird feeders. When I could I waited until I found her alone or with other small birds that frequented the bird feeders. Then I threw extra seeds on the ground as I softly made a ‘cluck’ sound. Soon she got to recognize me both by how I looked and the sounds I made, and I was able to feed her whenever I found her at the feeder. When I did not see her on the ground or in a nearby tree, I often would cluck softly. If she was nearby she often would cluck back to me so I could find her. Her favorite roost was in the big pine tree that was about 10’ from the feeders. I named her Limpy. The third part of this story is the best part. One day in September I noticed Limpy, and the tailless squirrel eating side by side. From that day on, whenever Limpy arrived on our property, so did the squirrel. Often, I would find only the two of them eating together with no other birds around on the ground. Now I could feed both of them at the same time, always announcing myself first with soft clucks. I knew that the tailless squirrel had made it through the past winter, but could Limpy. After speaking with many native wildlife veterinarians and native animal rehabilitation experts, I was reassured that as long as turkeys can continue to fly they can roost and avoid predators. They are extremely hardy and would do fine when winter storms and snows arrive. As of December 30th, Limpy has made it through the first three winter storms, including a nor’easter on the 17th that had sustained winds of 40 mph and a snow accumulation of 16”. As I write this, she is happily perched in her favorite pine tree overlooking the bird feeders, looking well fed and healthy and with shiny, glossy feathers. Interesting FactsSquirrels are rodents in the Order, Rodentia. However, did you know that the Order Rodentia is the largest order in the Mammalia Class? That’s right, squirrels are mammals just like you and I. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, flying squirrels, marmots, groundhogs, and prairie dogs. Because of the earliest known fossils, it is believed that squirrels have evolved in the Eocene geological epoch about 56 to 33 million years ago. They are indigenous to the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa and were introduced by humans to Australia. Did you know that tree squirrels can descend a tree head first because their back ankles rotate 180 degrees, enabling their hind paws to point backward and thus grip the tree bark from the opposite direction? Their paws are versatile and sturdy, great for climbing and grasping. They have slender bodies with bushy tails and large eyes. Their large eyes indicate that they have a very good sense of vision. They live in almost every habitat from tropical rain forest, to the driest of deserts. They are predominantly herbivorous, subsisting on seeds and nuts, but may eat insects and even very small vertebrates. Their teeth are typical for all rodents. In the front of their mouth they have large incisors for gnawing that grow throughout life and cheek teeth for grinding that are set in back of the incisors. The tail of the squirrel has evolved to serve them in many ways. First, it is used to keep rain, wind and snow off them as well as to keep them warm. When it’s hot, the squirrel pumps additional blood through its tail to stay cool. When jumping about through trees it is used as a counterbalance. It is even used as a parachute when jumping. However, it is also used as signaling between squirrels. It is used to communicate, danger, dominance, warning and its availability with the opposite sex. As you can see, if a squirrel loses its tail, it is at a very big disadvantage! Turkeys are birds in the Class Aves and Order Galliformes. They are an upland ground bird native to North America. The wild turkey is the same species as the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey. The male is called a tom and the female is called a hen. The males are easily identified especially when they are displaying for a hen by fanning their tail feathers. Males also have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. The male is substantially larger, 11 to 24 lbs, than the female, 5 to 12 lbs, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze and gold iridescence. The female has feathers that are duller overall, in shades of brown and gray. These colors are better for camouflage purposes against predators while the female is sitting on eggs or guarding her young. Despite their weight, turkeys are agile and fast fliers. They usually fly close to the ground for no more than about a quarter of a mile. Although they have good eyesight in the day, their vision is poor at night. At twilight most turkeys roost in trees some up to 50 feet high or more. It is much safer for turkeys to sleep in numbers high in the trees to escape becoming victims to nocturnal hunters. Turkeys prefer hardwood and mixed conifer-hardwood forests with scattered openings such as pastures or fields. Turkeys do not migrate. In the snowier northern parts of the species’ habitat, it is very important for this bird to learn to identify large conifer trees so they can fly onto the branches and shelter from blizzards. They are omnivorous and forage mostly on the ground. They prefer eating acorns, hazelnuts and nuts from chestnuts and hickory. They eat various seeds and berries from the juniper, blueberry and bearberry. They also eat leaves, buds, fern fronds, roots and insects. Occasionally they will eat a small reptile such as a salamander. They also eat a large variety of grasses. Turkeys have many vocalizations: gobbles, clucks, chucks, putts, purrs, yelps and cackles to name a few. The gobble is used by toms in spring to announce its presence to females and competing males. It can be heard up to a mile away. The females respond with a yelp sound to let males know their location. Males are polygamous, mating with as many hens as they can. They strut and display for females by puffing out their chest feathers, spreading out their tail and dragging their wings. Courtship begins during the months of March and April, which is when turkeys are still flocked together in winter areas. When mating is over females search for nest sites usually a shallow dirt depression camouflaged with woody vegetation. Hens lay a clutch of 10 to 14 eggs which are incubated for at least 28 days. The chicks which are called poults, are precocial, mobile from the moment of birth, and nidifugous, leave the nest shortly after birth. Wild turkeys are not usually aggressive towards humans unless frightened, provoked, startled or cornered. Turkeys are habituated to seeing people. Male turkeys occasionally attack parked cars and reflective surfaces, thinking they see another turkey and must defend their territory. A Personal ReflectionBoth Limpy and the tailless squirrel have reaffirmed in me what I have observed in my horses, dogs, parakeets, canaries, cats, turtles, chickens, ducks, roosters and also native birds and animals for over 65 years - all species have an innate wish and drive to live their lives to the fullest extent possible. The human species, including me, has much to learn from them. I am forever grateful for my life long association with animals. I humbly admit that they have been some of my greatest and most profound teachers and have made me a more compassionate and humane human. At the same time because their life spans are much shorter than ours, we get to observe more frequently the two great mysteries, bookends, of life – birth and death. The witnessing of these events creates in me a singular presence, a profound, deep and complete silence, and a moment that is timeless and contains no words. And the final offering of animals, especially our pets, is the precious gift of unconditional love. These animals are capable of giving love purely and without the conditions we as humans often attach to our loving actions and connections. Living with domestic and wild animals has enriched my life in ways too numerous to list. I cannot imagine a life without them!
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AuthorConsultant, designer and educator transforming commercial and residential landscapes sustainably Archives
March 2023
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