Your landscape IS an ecosystem, and it behaves like an ecosystem, whether you think about your piece of paradise in such terms or not. Most gardening problems/difficulties and hard work stem from not understanding or downright ignoring this fact. Want a “low maintenance” landscape? Thinking about your garden as a habitat might help.
A LOT of things have been written on the topic of why you want to encourage or attract wildlife to the yard. Everything from expanding urbanization and reduced natural habitat, to decreasing biodiversity and increasing spread of exotic aggressive species, to name a few reasons. For Wellfield, the “wildlife” around us becomes key to an organically preferred approach: protecting Elkhart’s drinking water (you do know Wellfield’s relationship to Elkhart’s water supply, right?). We rely on the balancing and resilient effects of ecosystems to hold many things in check, thus reducing our dependence on expensive fertilizer or plant health control measures.
There are four essential ingredients to making habitat work for you:
Diverse food sources
Diverse water sources
Diverse shelter types(a place to hide)
Diverse locations to raise some babies
You probably can guess what the keyword might be. Yep, that is right: “diverse”. It is not enough just to put out a birdbath and check off “water source”. Not everything is going to visit the perch. Different organisms obtain moisture from different sources. If you plant a lot of different species, native especially, of various sizes, textures, root types, and plant them in layers, you are doing much already to provide these four elements.
In the coming weeks, we will take up each of these essential ingredients and examine them in turn.
Wildlife is already present outside your windows, whether you want them or not. You can either partner with them to create some win-win relationships, or you can spend a lot of time, energy and cash to banish them to your neighbor’s kingdom.
Josh Steffen, Horticulture and Facilities Manager
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Navigating through the Prairie with the Compass Plant: August’s Native of the Month
The native plant of the month for August at Wellfield Botanic Gardens is the compass plant, or Silphium laciniatum. Compass plant is a member of the asteraceae family, the same family that includes sunflowers and asters. This perennial plant is native to the area and is a common prairie plant and a key food source …
Continue reading Navigating through the Prairie with the Compass Plant: August’s Native of the Month
Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is an invasive species native to Europe and Asia which can be described as a perennial with a woody and square stem with purple flowers. L. salicaria can grow upwards of 6 feet and in Indiana, starts to bloom in July and into September. This wetland plant was introduced to the …
Continue reading Combatting Purple Loosestrife
Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata): July’s Native Plant
Phlox paniculata, also known as Garden Phlox or Tall Phlox, is an herbaceous perennial native to the eastern and central United States. This plant is in the Polemoniaceae family and is hardy to USDA zones 4-8. P. paniculata is a clump-forming perennial that grows 2-5 feet tall, with elliptical, opposite, 3-6 inch dark green leaves. …
Continue reading Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata): July’s Native Plant
Ailanthus altissima, more commonly known as Tree-of-Heaven, is an invasive species growing across the United States. This deciduous tree is native to Asia, originating from both China and Taiwan. Valued for its ability to thrive in poor conditions, this fast growing tree, planted extensively along the east coast of the United States in the 1700’s, …
Continue reading The Invasive Tree-of-Heaven
Nothing False about this Native!
June’s Native of the Month: Baptisia australis The perennial Baptisia australis, with the common name blue false indigo, is June’s native of the month at Wellfield Botanic Gardens. B. australis is native to most of the eastern United States. The genus name comes from the Greek word meaning “to dye” (from the prefix bapto) coming …
Continue reading Nothing False about this Native!
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