Backyard
we’ve planted more pollinator-friendly plants and left more things as nature intended, our backyard has become an almost enchanted place, with bird, bee, and small mammal activity. I often joke that we live in a Disney movie, and that all we need is for Snow White and some dwarves to show up!
Creating Homegrown National Park isn’t just a feel-good proposition, i.e., knowing that you’re helping the environment. There’s so much benefit to us personally, as well: relaxation, serenity, beauty, exploration and discovery, the music of birdsong, and the soothing sound of even a tiny fountain. You can create your own “happy place,” without even going across the street.
Along with describing the personal benefits of creating HNP, Tallamy shares two basic statistics. First, lawns in the United States occupy about twenty million acres. Second, twenty million acres is bigger than the combined areas of the Everglades, Galveston, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Canyonlands,
Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Badlands, Olympic, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Denali, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. Says Tallamy, “If we restore the ecosystem and function of these twenty million acres, we can create this country’s largest park system.”
It’s not just that this would be a really cool idea. There’s a need to steer us toward a new approach to conversation. Tallamy says that “Conservation that is confined to parks will not preserve species in the long run, because these areas are too small and too separated from one another.” He points to the huge ecological value of the land between these isolated habitat fragments. “Restoring habitat where we live . . . will go a long way toward building biological corridors that connect preserved habitat fragments with one another.”
There are many steps along the way from nothingbut-lawn to something you might call a national park. It might seem a daunting project, but the steps don’t have to be huge, and they don’t all have to be done at once. There are also a ton of resources available to help you plan.
Tallamy’s book is one starting point, and is helpful in getting a deeper understanding of how complex the environmental web is. Another aid is the National Wildlife Federation (https:// w w w.nw f.org/Garden-forWildlife). Here you’ll find lots of information on how to garden for wildlife, along with clear-cut steps on how to turn your property into a Certified Wildlife Habitat®.
At https://www.pollinator. org/7things, you can learn how to register your property as a Pollinator Habitat Site. Visit the website of The Herb Society of America, and learn how you can become part of their GreenBridges™ program. In exploring these resources, you may find that you already do a lot to help pollinators and other wildlife.
Enter our contest!
How is your property already like a National Park, and what do you see and do there? I’m interested to know if there are things that you’ve done on your own property, e.g., reducing the amount of lawn, planting more native trees, creating pollinatorfriendly gardens, that would fall into Tallamy’s idea of creating a Homegrown National Park.
Write and tell me about your property and why it’s a good candidate for HNP: what trees and plants there are that support wildlife, what you’ve planted, what your practices are, if you’ve found a way to provide a water source. And then tell me what you’re seeing right now, and if any new species have shown up based on new plants you’ve added to your landscape. As a friend told me recently, “We don’t have big game here—no bear, no bison—but we have a lot going on. It’s like a party! They all come up on the deck—squirrels, chipmunks, even rabbits.”
What are you observing? Which plants are attracting which pollinators? What have you invited that you didn’t use to see? Did your property already have parklike features when you arrived? Describe what wildlife you see/enjoy as a result. Overall, what are the positive effects you experience from living in a HNP?
I’m suggesting this in the form of an informal contest. I’ll select the three most inspiring/intriguing/unusual entries and feature them in a future column of “From the Ground Up.” Send your entries by July 30 to pcbaxter@verizon.net, or by regular mail to Pam Baxter, P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442.
One more thing
If you can, as part of your entry, tell me which national park your property most resembles. For example: “Our yard gets tons of early morning light, so it makes me think of Acadia National Park.” (Acadia, on the coast of Maine, is the first of the national parks each day to see the sunrise.) Or, “Saguaro National Park: we’ve turned our patio into an experiment in xeriscaping, planting cacti and succulents.” Or, “Listening to the burbling of our fountain reminds me of . . .”
Note: Although we may not be visiting the parks, we can still support them, especially since they’re seeing reduced revenues from the lack of visitors. Go to https://www.nationalparks.org/ for more information and make a donation. The parks always need public help, and we want them to be there for us when we take to the road again.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail. com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s book for children and families, Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets, is available on Amazon, along with her new companion field journal, Explore Outdoors, at Amazon.com/author/ pamelabaxter.