It is time we got away from the prim and proper gardening of generations past. Leave the neatly groomed rows for the vegetable garden. Late fall and early winter are the times when people take to the garden and begin cutting things back. However, this does a great disservice to the critters that call your garden home. Part of native gardening is supplying habitat for myriad native organisms. This does not end with summer. Fall and winter are critical times for small animals, especially insects, when it comes to survival. They need all the help they can get. Not always obvious to us, these little critters have been busy building nests, laying eggs, and living in and among our plants all summer. Many species of native bee for example, lay their eggs in the stems of different plants. If these get cut down at the end of summer, all the reproductive effort for the bees has been wasted. Similarly, many species of butterfly lay their eggs at the base of plants and rely on the dead material from that year to insulate them through the winter. If that insulation is cut away, the eggs are likely to freeze and no new butterflies will be born next spring. Seed heads are also important. Leaving a few seed heads atop plants like purple cone flower or any of our native grasses will provide much needed winter food for birds and rodents alike. These organisms go on to feed bigger animals like hawks or bobcats. Can you see where your garden fits in to all of this? There is no force in nature that goes around trimming back last summers growth so why should we? Naturally accumulating litter at the base of plants also allows seeds a nice place to stratify and eventually germinate. As it is broken down by beneficial fungi come spring, that litter also provides much needed nutrients for new growth. So there you have it. A native garden should take its cues from nature. Planting plants is only part of the story. How you manage your garden is just as important as what you are putting in it!
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:26:51 +0000
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