HOW TO CREATE PLANT AND ANIMAL DIVERSITY IN YOUR GARDEN
Traditionally, we have looked toward the countryside, the unsettled areas and the fields as the places where more kinds of plants and animals live.
Where agriculture is still important, monoculture is the rule rather than the exception. Farmers grow corn, maize or cotton in their fields and poison every other volunteer plant that comes up. We are lucky to live near the Hill Country, where open spaces still make room for native trees and animals to grow, but civilization is encroaching rapidly, and hilltops and hillsides are becoming covered with huge houses and landsca pesf eaturing non-native plants such as palm trees.
City gardeners are now providing more natural diversity than the countryside.
Not only are gardeners in citie s and towns makin g their world more beautiful, they are making it more sustainable and healthy.
The diverse plants that gar- deners add to the cityscapes provide refuge for native insects and larger animals by making space for them to forage for food, find shel- ter and hide from preda- tors. Not only do healthy organic yards look good, smell good and sometimes taste good, they encourage all kinds of life.
Butterflies, birds, lizards, frogs, lightning bugs and so many more animals are being crowded out of the countryside by develop- ment and factory farming. City gardens provide a ref- uge and are fun for the gar- dener in the process.
The point is not to add a burden to the shoulders of gardeners but to celebrate the benefits of gardening wherever you are. When you add native plants, heirloom plants or food plants to your landscape, you are creating a collec- tion of diverse plants and
helping maintain biodiversity in the world. Planting wildlife-friendly trees and
other plants can make a huge difference. Oak trees, for example, benefit every- thing from caterpillars to songbirds. Even fish prosper because the invertebrates they feed on favor oak leaves on stream bottoms. Oaks are said to accommodate 537 species of wildlife. Imported trees from China generally host
fewer than five. Adding specific plants like milkweed will encourage the butterfly population. Food and flowers in the garden will draw pollina- tors and keep them healthy
and active. Simply having green spaces keeps stormwater in the soil rather than adding to flooding and runoff that overwhelms neighborhoods and sewage treatment plants.
Now is the time to add new plants to your garden. Instead of choosing one variety of flower, chose several. Zinnias, daisies, coneflowers and any flower with a flat-topped landing pad will draw in butterflies. Flowers like salvia,
Turk’s cap, bee balm and others with tubular flowers will delight hummingbirds. Flowers that provide sugary nectar and proteinrich pollen are the favorites of bees. Bees love almost all flowers, but their favorites include yarrow, sun- flowers, a sters and goldenrod. Birds love flowers that produce easily acces
sible seeds such as sunflowers, coneflowers and milkweeds, as well as oak trees, trees that produce nuts and berries and those that provide a broad canopy for nest building.
Combining flowers, fruit, vegetables and herbs in your garden serves sev- eral purposes. The diver
sity makes for an attractive garden and one that is con stantly changing over time. Different scents and tastes encourage pollinators and discourage pests who often find their favorite snack by smell. This casual approach to companion planting can help all your plants flourish.
In addition to vegeta- bles in my vegetable beds, you’ll find poppies, calendula, mullein, basil, gar- lic and occasional volun- teers. The tomatoes and peppers grow steadily as
the poppies come and go, meanwhile attracting pol
linators and looking great. The onion and garlic discourage pests, and when it is time to harvest the gar- lic, other veggies are beginning to sprawl and need more room. Pulling out the mature beets encourages me to pull some weeds too as well as making room. Later in the summer, seed ling zinnias will come up to add color and attract some butterflies as the veggies finish their round. It is a cycle of growth and decline and, in the process, serves as my little patch of biodiversity.
There is a lot of informa- tion on the internet about how biodiversity works and how home gardens can provide crucial habitat for endangered and threatened species. The Audu bon Texas page is full of information about choosing plants to encourage birds. They point out that Texas provides critical habitat for about a 632 of North America’s 914 bird species. By choosing one native tree to replace an exotic, you can make a huge difference in the lives of birds that pass through. It’s not just the bra nches of the tree that provide shelter and nesting, but the caterpillars that chew on the leaves and the other crea
tures that live in the garden. Birds need it all. It’s all connected.
Gardeners are important contributors to those connections. Whatever frustrations we suffer with heat and drought and tomato hornworms, the pleasure of k nowing that we are doing our part to contribute to sustainability and nature’s vigor makes it all worthwhile.