If You Build it, They Will Come. And Then What?

Once an Urban Habitat 

I recently learned that the yard at our old house in Florida is being re-landscaped, a year after we sold it. As is their right, the new owners are making the house their own, including the garden. We are doing the same with our new home. They may have plans for new flower patches, but for now the colorful array of native wildflowers and butterfly host plants that I put in over the span of 10 years has been removed and is being replaced with sod. I feel heartbroken about it, but I can also see that the yard as I left it took a certain amount of specific care (that I was willing to give) or it would quickly get out of hand. It was probably a lot crazier than many people are comfortable with. I was always on the lookout for sprouts from aggressive plants so I could pick them while they were small and easy to control. Because the yard was my baby, I knew what the weeds looked like and when to start yanking out spiderwort, pipevine, blue curls and goldenrod before they took over. The new owners may have initially intended to keep the garden but perhaps it just got to be too much work for them to keep up with. Or maybe they didn't like that kind of yard. I get that. A wildlife habitat yard is not for everyone. And it is their house, to do with what they choose. I wish that they weren't replacing the garden with sod, which is a terrible waste of water and has no wildlife value, but that is another story.

By Mid Summer, it Could Get Crazy

The thing that is nagging at me the most is the loss of habitat. We had created a wildlife sanctuary in an urban neighborhood, and now it is gone. There were a lot of beautiful and interesting native plants in our yard, some rare or endangered that I rescued and propagated. We rarely had to water and never used fertilizers or pesticides. We composted the fallen leaves in place as mulch. What is going to happen to the native bees and butterflies that used the nectar and host plants in the yard? Where will the tiny pinewoods snakes, glass lizards and southern toads hunt and hide? I planted foxtail grasses and berry bushes, and left the seed heads on flowers in the winter for the birds. Will they be expecting to find seeds in that space when they migrate next year? Where will the families of brown thrashers who tossed through the leaf mulch go for their bugs? What happens to wildlife when we create safe spaces for them, but then take it away? This must happen all the time. Homes switch owners. People move. Neighborhoods change. Yards are redone. Empty lots get developed. But what happens to the wildlife? I guess the creatures move on and adapt, if they can. If there are other suitable habitats nearby, which is not always the case, especially in the city. I know of only a handful of wild, native yards in our former neighborhood, so I worry. I tend to anthropomorphize, and I keep imagining bewildered pipevine swallowtails, bees and baltimore orioles trying to find their way back to a home that is no longer there. But short of some sort of homeowner's covenant that requires nature friendly landscapes, you can't force future owners of property to carry on the plans of the past inhabitants. So what can you do? Is creating a backyard nature habitat ultimately futile? I would like to think not. In the end, I would venture that, to mangle Tennyson, "'tis better to have created a garden and lost it than to never have created one at all". We made a difference, if only for a few years. One thing that could help would be to make sure that the wildlife garden you create is not the only one in your vicinity. If you are going to create a backyard nature habitat, encourage your neighbors to plant at least a little patch of sanctuary in their yard, too, so that the loss of one habitat won't be catastrophic.

Brown Thrasher Feeding Chick

Woodland Poppymallow (Callirhoe papaver), Endangered and Rescued

Glass Lizard on the Front Porch

Pipevine Swallowtail Eggs in the Front Yard

But the question remains--what happens to the wild places after they have been preserved? What happens when the next generation does not share the conservation ethic of its predecessors? Can any place be preserved forever? This is playing out all over the country. Our national program of wilderness preservation in National and State Parks and public land, "the best idea America ever had", is being viewed with new sets of eyes. These eyes do not see wild majesty that should be left alone to protect it for the future, as President Theodore Roosevelt did when he dedicated the Grand Canyon as a National Monument, saying "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it; not a bit. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American, if he can travel at all, should see. Keep the Grand Canyon as it is." These new eyes don't see the point. They see instead vast tracts of wasted opportunity. Empty land for off-road recreation or new sub-divisions, untapped resources to be exploited, money to be made. Anti-government activists in the West occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon for weeks in a violent takeover, claiming that the land belonged "to the people", not to the government. My beloved Paynes Prairie State Park Preserve, as well as other state parks in Florida, is being seriously examined by the Governor and the aptly named Department of Natural Resources as a potential source of grazing, logging and hunting fees. Oil derricks pump and chug across the beautiful and remote high desert of Utah. It is so discouraging. Personally, I think we should be preserving more, not less of our land, and am intrigued by the idea proposed by biologist E. O. Wilson who believes that we should set aside half of the earth, free from people, to protect our planet's biodiversity. Our fragile interdependent web of life is at risk from human activity and we are all going to suffer if we don't act to protect as many of the earth's biological systems as we can. We humans are not alone on this planet.

Somewhere in Desolation Canyon, Utah

On a happier note, we have a new wildlife garden in the early stages at our new home in Georgia. It is still very new and young, and we had a native plant landscaper start the planting for us this time so it wouldn't take 10 years. Soon it will be humming and buzzing and alive with wildlife. And at least 3 other houses on our street have similar gardens, so we have strength in numbers. But someday someone else will move into our house or our neighbors' houses and they may want a new garden. And then what will happen to the wild places when we are gone?

Starting Again

Spanish Moss

Bearded Tree

Last week we took a quick trip to Gainesville (my first since we moved) and I was hit with the realization that Athens does not have Spanish Moss! Driving down I-75 and into Florida, we passed some magic line where the vegetation changed and then there were Saw Palmettos and Palm Trees. Suddenly Spanish Moss Draped Bald Cypress and Live Oak trees appeared on both sides of the road. I'm not sure I had thought about the presence or absence of Spanish Moss in Athens much before last week, but there it was. This is not to say that Spanish Moss doesn't grow in Georgia. It does. Think Okeefenokee Swamp. And certainly no picture of Savannah is complete without Oak-lined boulevards, draped with the gray-green moss. But after doing a little research I learned that Spanish Moss prefers to live in the warm, humid Coastal Plain, which covers pretty much all of Florida and the coastal regions of the Southeastern US from Texas up to about the Carolinas and down into Central and South America all the way to Argentina. Athens, however, though very close, is located in the cooler, drier Piedmont region, and therefore, no Spanish Moss for us. Spanish Moss also likes to grow on Live Oak and Bald Cypress, which we don't really have up here in the Piedmont, either.

Mossy Campground at Paynes Prairie

Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an interesting, and often misunderstood plant. Some people think that it looks creepy, that it kills trees and that it is full of bugs. None of this is true. It is not a moss, nor is it Spanish, but is actually a type of Bromeliad, related to Pineapple. Spanish Moss is not a parasite and does not harm the trees it lives in, unless the clumps get too big and heavy with rain and pull down a weak branch. Spanish Moss is an epiphyte (an "air plant") with no roots, that hangs in long drooping chains from the tops of trees, taking its moisture and nutrients from the humid air and rain. Early French explorers called the plant "Spanish Beard" to insult their rivals. In turn, the Spanish called it "French Beard". Reminds me of the French and English knights in Monty Python.

Spanish Beard

I think Spanish Moss is beautiful, soft and gray, hanging down and waving in the wind. I enjoy watching large clumps tear off and fall softly to the ground in a light breeze. Sunlight shining through gray curtain is very pretty. Spanish Moss blooms in the springtime with tiny flowers. It reproduces from seeds or grows from broken-off sections. When the plants die, the gray-green scaly outer layer sloughs away leaving the thread-like fibers that people have used for millennia to fashion into cordage or cloth and to temper clay pottery. The fiber was also used in the past to fill cushions for car seats, for horse blankets and was even made into pads for evaporative "swamp" coolers used out west. Spanish Moss was used medicinally as a tea for fevers and other ailments. Click here for a link to an article about a woman in Tampa, Florida who is keeping the dying art of Spanish Moss weaving alive.

Wet Barred Owl Drying in the Spanish Moss

Spanish Moss Flower

Spanish Moss Fiber

I have been told by reliable sources that Spanish Moss does not harbor chiggers. I've never seen "red bugs" in the moss and haven't had any trouble with them, though I have been run into chiggers in grass many times. I know their itch all too well! But there are still people who insist that they've gotten chiggers from Spanish Moss, so I'll let them keep thinking it. Maybe the moss was on the ground. Many other kinds of animals from bats to birds to snakes to spiders make their homes in Spanish Moss. It makes good nesting material, too.

Camouflaged Spider in Spanish Moss 

Carolina Wrens use Spanish Moss to make a soft nest

So after so many years of taking Spanish Moss for granted, now that we've moved away from Florida, Spanish Moss has a new, distinctively "Southern" look to me, more southern even than my home in Georgia! It evokes images of bayous and swamps, gators and wading birds, steamy summer days and the slow droning buzz of cicadas. Spanish Moss means exotic travel and adventure, which is quite an interesting change.

Images of the South

Closer to Home

Flyr's Nemesis (Brickellia cordifolia)

 "You should sit in nature for 20 minutes a day…unless you're busy, then you should sit for an hour" ~Facebook meme based on Zen saying on meditation

After wrapping up my June Journeys, I realized that I left out one of my most special natural places--my own yard! I can't believe I forgot to include it, because our garden is my personal sanctuary, the place I go when I'm stressed and want to relax. And it's right outside my door. Tucked in under big trees and sheltered by bamboo and azaleas, our back yard is like a Secret Garden. And the front yard is alive and dancing with bees and birds and butterflies. I can spend hours in the yard, sometimes working, but most of the time just exploring and watching. I have seen so many things in the yard that just took my breath away--the first bloom of the Poppy Mallow, the Cooper's Hawk perched on the bird feeder, the tiny Pine Woods Snake under a planter, the Bird's Nest Fungus, the Baby Thrashers poking awkwardly through the leaf litter, the newly emerged Luna Moth drying its wings on the patio, the Red Start eating insects in the Oak Tree, the purple and green Sphynx Moth Caterpillar that was the size of my pointer finger…I could go on and on.

Luna Moth

Brown Thrasher Brood

Rustic Sphynx Moth Caterpillar

Bird's Nest Fungus

Our house is about 80 years old with nice, old, established Azaleas and Camelias and some huge Oak and Sweetgum trees. The Sweetgum, draped in Spanish Moss, towers over the pond and is home for scores of animals. I think of the children's book, The Great Kapok Tree when I look at it and imagine it as a set of animal highways and neighborhoods. The trees help keep the back yard shady and cool. Generations of Carolina Wrens, Brown Thrashers, Bluejays, Titmouses and Cardinals have raised their young in the safety of the yard. The shelter of bushes and trees and the water source of the pond attract migrant warblers each year. Black and White, and Black Throated Blue, and Yellow Throated Warblers and American Redstarts are common visitors. Ruby Crowned Kinglets, Red Eyed Vireos and Acadian Flycatchers and a Veery stop by sometimes, too. In the spring, hungry hordes of migrating Robins scarf holly berries and cherries, drink out of the dog water bowl and leave berry poop all over the car. They're really terrible guests, but I welcome them every year, just the same.

Sweet Gum Tree

Spanish Moss Flower (Tillandsia usneodes)

Carolina Wren Chicks

On a typical trip around the yard I will start first at the pond. I like to count the Koi to make sure they're all there (there should be 7) and I scan for frogs. Sometimes an "eep" tells me I've surprised a Leopard Frog as it jumps quickly out of sight. In the summer after a rain, when the Southern Toad males have been trilling all night, I will come out in the morning to find toads strategically perched all around the pond, waiting for a hookup. By the next morning there will be mating pairs and the pond will be loaded with strands of toad eggs. A day or two later and the eggs hatch into tadpoles, and not too long after that, maybe a week, teeny tiny toadlets will be hopping all over the patio and in the bark around the bushes. I like to check on the status of the pond plants. Something will be blooming most of the warm months. Dragonflies perch on the tips of tall plants to scan the yard for mosquitoes. Sometimes I find Green Treefrogs tucked in the cool shade of a Canna or Pickerel Weed leaf. If I'm lucky I will uncover a huge Fishing Spider hiding in the pond skimmer, waiting to nab an unsuspecting minnow.

The Pond

Southern Toads and Egg Strands

Tadpoles

Water Lily

In the evenings my husband and I like to sit outside and feed the fish. Sometimes we sip a glass of wine and munch cheese while we listen to the splashing of the waterfall and watch the birds that come to the feeder. In the summer we can hear the high lonesome sound of the Mississippi Kites hunting for dragonflies. We watch the butterflies dip near the water and as it gets darker, we see the Zebra Longwings in the bamboo clustering together for the evening. For years we've been "attacked" (it's not actually a bad thing) by Red Admiral butterflies that dive and flutter at us when we sit on our bench. They don't like anyone to enter their territory. I read that they take turns patrolling. One rests and feeds while another dive-bombs interlopers. If we put something on the table or on the ground, the fish food container, for example, the butterflies land on it to check it out. I think that it is fascinating that generations of Red Admirals have learned the same behavior.

Red Admiral Butterfly on Patrol

In the fall and spring we can hear the call of migrating Sandhill Cranes and sometimes see them gathering in big flocks. As dusk approaches the bats and swallows come out. It is very peaceful. We've watched Bald Eagles and Vultures soar over the yard, as well as Osprey and a few assorted Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets. They have (so far) not found our pond, but I believe that the construction design discourages swooping or wading birds. The koi are very skittish and not likely to fall prey to Raccoons. But if an Otter ever discovers the pond, they koi are toast.

Koi in the Rain

I like to walk along the garden path and look at the flowering shrubs and trees. Some plants along the path include Hearts a Bustin', Crinum Lilies, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Japanese Magnolias and Dogwood. The blooming wall of Azaleas in the early spring is absolutely beautiful. The path itself always looks a little chaotic. This year we've had a bumper crop of Brown Thrashers and no matter how hard I work to keep it clean and tidy, the path looks like something thrashed it. This was a bit of a worry to me when we were getting ready to sell the house, because the path looked so messy. But the new owner likes Thrashers, so it turned out well.

String Lily (Crinum americanum)

Japanese magnolia

This path was clean for about 20 minutes before the Thrashers tossed Magnolia leaves onto it

When I pass through the gate to the front yard, I'm still in the shade of the lovely old Southern Magnolia. I prefer to let the big, leathery Magnolia leaves lie where they fall on the ground and use them for mulch. It takes a while, but eventually they break down. I like the way that they crunch when I walk through them. The tree produces huge, dinner plate-sized blossoms in Spring, followed by giant pods filled with beautiful red seeds.  Squirrels love to eat the blossom buds and I have to watch that they don't shower me with chewed bits when I walk under their branches. In the summer I can hear the scrabbling of Bluejays as they watch from overhead. In the winter the Baltimore Orioles chatter at me from the upper branches, hoping that I'm bringing more grape jelly to the feeders.

Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)

Magnolia Seed Pod

I planted Powder Puff Mimosa in a big triangular bed in the front of the yard and the soft green of the leaves and the puffs of pink make me happy. Basilica Spiders build webs all over the Sago Palm in the center and Eastern Glass Lizards prowl beneath the leaves of the mimosa, in search of crunchy snails. The front yard is always in transition. It started as a huge lawn when we moved in. I added some flower beds that grew and grew until they eventually took over the whole yard. I have had many different design plans over the years. The current idea is a Florida native plant cottage garden. I used bits of broken concrete from a patio we tore out to make short walls and define the path, and I really like the effect. The Brown Anole lizards and Pine Wood Snakes like the wall, too. I've been adding native plants to the landscape for 10 years and some of them are mature and well established. Two Coral Bean bushes blaze with scarlet spires in the spring and produce bright seeds in the summer. The Wooly Pipevine is plentiful enough that the Pipevine and Goldband Swallowtails know they can lay eggs in our yard and the caterpillars will have the food they need to grow. Yellow Passionvine is spreading and can support some Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing caterpillars, but the plants are tiny and get gobbled up in a flash. Luckily, there is a lot of Passionvine in the neighborhood to support a healthy Fritillary and Zebra population. I pulled out all the tropical Milkweed, but we have several varieties of native Milkweed and they are starting to take hold. Tiny Whorled Milkweed bloomed for the first time this year, in the mini sandhill I was trying to create. Butterfly Milkweed is blooming now and two types of Swamp Milkweed are ready for the Monarchs when they decide to come.

Front Garden

Eastern Glass Lizard

Tiny Pine Woods Snake

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars, Just Hatched

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar on Fennel

Coral Bean Spires (Erythrina herbacea)

Coral Beans

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias perennis)

I decided 2 or 3 years ago to concentrate taller flowers near the house and use clumps of grasses closer to the street area. The grasses are doing very well and some have started to spread on their own. Some of the grasses and wildflowers seed so well that I have a lot of sprouts to give away each year. That is definitely a down side to gardening with wildflowers. It is hard to tell a wildflower or grass where you want it to spread. Wood Sage, which is blooming right now, spreads with underground runners and pops up all over the yard. But if I see it growing somewhere I don't want it, I just pull. Problem solved. Snow Squarestem and Blue Curls spread by a whole lot of seed and can be weedy, but the sprouts are easy to recognize and pull. Woodlands Poppy Mallow, a plant I rescued from an area about to be developed, continues to grow and has self seeded a little, too. One sturdy plant decided to grow in a crack in the front step, and while it is pretty, it is also easy to step on. The roots are under the cement, so I can't pull it out to replant. I admire its persistence. Carolina Scaly Stem, another rescued plant, but one that I bought at a plant sale, has adapted very well to our yard and is growing now in various flower pots, under trees and in the gaps between the flagstone in the back yard.

Delta Flower Scarab Beetle on Yellowtops (Flaveria linearis)

Wood Sage (Teucrium canadense)

Lopsided Indiangrass (Sorghastrum secundum)

Tough Little Poppy Mallow

Woodlands Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe papaver)

Carolina Scalystem (Elytraria caroliniana)

Most of the wildflowers die back each winter, but that's when the flowering shrubs can shine. In the past couple of years I added a few more shrubs to the already established landscape, concentrating on bushes such as Simpsons Stopper and Shiny Blueberry with berries for wildlife. The Camelias start blooming as early as December, and the Azaleas, Dogwood, Viburnum, Mock Orange and Sweet Shrub follow in succession throughout the spring. Beach Sunflowers, Tickseed and Rosinweed are early bloomers and paint cheery splashes of yellow on the yard as it recovers from winter. Blue Eyed Grass, Spiderwort, Toadflax and Carolina Petunia do the same but in blues and purples.

Indian Azalea

Blanketflower (Gaillardia sp.)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)

Beach Sunflower (Helianthus debilis)

Scentless Mock Orange (Philadelphus inodorus)

Birds know about the feeders in our front yard. With the move pending, I have downsized from 4 feeding stations in front and back to just one in the front and it has been hilarious (and a bit sad) to see the birds jostle to fit themselves in the much smaller space. I decided the other day that it was like watching a clown car in reverse. One dove flies in and knocks another off a perch, followed by a Bluejay, followed by yet a Cardinal and so on. Only the Crows seem to have been left out, because they can no longer stand on the platform and inhale suet. I'm sure they'll find a way, though. Crows are smart. The front yard feeders have been enormously satisfying and we set them up in front of our dining room so we could watch them from the table while we eat. Besides the usuals (Cardinal, Titmouse, Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves...) we get the seasonal visitors such as Orioles, Goldfinches, Chipping Sparrows, Pine Warblers, White Wing Doves and Catbirds. Occasionally a hungry migrating bird will stop by and I've seen Indigo and Painted Buntings and a Rose Breasted Grosbeak. The hawks hunt doves in the yard and in the winter Cooper's Hawks can be seen perching on top of the feeders. Mockingbirds used to nest in the Confederate Jasmine by the corner, but wised up and moved after losing chicks to cats one too many times. They teach their young to come to the feeders as soon as they fledge. When we moved to the house 10 years ago Red Headed Woodpeckers were regular visitors to the feeders, but that ended when the neighbors across the street cut down all of their pine trees. I had hoped that they would just find new trees close by, but they moved on. Mississippi Kites nested on our street for a few years, too, but they have not been back for a while. I'm not sure why. They still fly over but nest somewhere else. I was worried about what would happen to the birds that have come to rely on me for their food when we move away and finally decided to leave behind some feeders for the new owners.

Bird Clown Car

Baltimore Oriole

Cooper's Hawk

Juvenile Mockingbird

Mississippi Kite Adult and Juvenile

The native bees really like the garden. Bumblebees, wasps, honeybees, sweat bees, bee flies and many other insects buzz the blossoms and nest in the bee houses that I set out for them. The leaf cutter bees chew perfect round holes, especially out of Red Bud leaves. The honey bees compete with the Orioles at the jelly feeders. Carpenter bees, with their "shiny hinies" wiggle down deep inside the Azalea blossoms in spring. I have not seen many grasshoppers or katydids in the garden, but there are many kinds of dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies, moths and spiders. Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders established a colony on the side of the house and I try to ignore the huge cobwebs and egg sacs they leave behind each winter because I want them to return.

Sweat Bee on Green Eyes (Berlandiara subacaulis)

Common Green Darner Dragonfly

Basilica Spider

Grass Mantis

Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider After the Frost

Lacewing Eggs

Besides the big spiders, the side yard is a haven for Chickadees, Northern Parulas, White Eyed Vireos and Bluejays. Thick leaf mulch from the debris we blow off of the roof is full of bugs for Carolina Wrens. The Thrashers don't go to that side of the house, maybe because they prefer to toss leaves on the pathway! Hummingbirds fly in to buzz the flowers in the front yard, then retreat to the branches Crape Myrtle, far away from me and my big scary camera lens. Late at night, Barred Owls call from the Live Oak that stretches over the house. I have seen Raccoons up there, too.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

In addition to wildlife and koi, there are also our pets--2 dogs and a cat. Clyde and Lola, the dogs, enjoy chasing off squirrels but have not caught any. Clyde is afraid of the Owls and stands close to the door when he hears them. They bark at stray cats that come into the back yard and probably help keep otters away, too. But mostly they lie on the patio in the sun and snooze with one ear cocked, listening for any danger from which they they need to protect us.  Dedos, the cat, watches birds and squirrels from his window perches all around the house. He makes funny little chirps and "mewps" while he watches them feed or hop on the ground, as if they are just too much for him to bear. He is very disturbed when he sees cats in the yard and races from window to window trying to get a better look.  Dedos likes to watch me when I am outside.

The Pooches

Watching...

It's been a fun yard and we've shared it whenever we could. A Mockingbird nest researcher documented the birds in the Jasmine. A Zebra Longwing researcher studied the ones that clustered in the bamboo at night. The yard was part of a 3 year long native bee and pollinator study (Plant for Wildlife) and has been on the Florida Friendly Landscape tour 3 times. I've passed on extra sprouts to anyone who would take them, and tadpoles from our pond and caterpillars from the yard gave young visitors at Morningside a demonstration of metamorphosis. I have lots of great memories. It will be sad to say goodbye, but there is a new yard waiting for me. It's a good feeling to leave behind something so beautiful and full of life.

3 Stages of Monarch Life