Visit Your National Park

 

December 2023

 

Pickaway to Garden

Visit Your National Park

By Paul J. Hang

 

Perhaps you have heard about the Homegrown National Park movement. Doug Tallamy, author of the influential book “Bringing Nature Home” and others, makes the case that all of our gardens and lawns make up way more acreage than all of our National Parks combined. And, in his book “a new garden ethic,” Benjamin Vogt says the following. “The entire world is now a garden—a space altered by human influence—and this understanding creates some stark realities in how we rethink the most intimate places we inhabit and are exposed to everyday: our suburban lots, our urban roadways, our parks and schoolyards.”

 

Both authors use statistics and studies that show how many species, mammals, insects and plants, have gone extinct and how many more are endangered. Washed any bugs off your windshields lately? Most organisms depend on plants for life. If plants are endangered then everything up the food chain (that includes you and me) are endangered. Many plants are still being discovered and we have yet to discover what uses many plants have and how they function in our ecosystems.

 

So….why do we garden? We garden for pleasure, exercise, for beautiful flowers, food, etc., but what about gardening for the planet or, closer to home, the country? Doug Tallamy is encouraging us all to think of our gardens as part of a new National Park. Don’t have a garden? Encourage those in charge of public spaces, parks, gardens, open areas to be part of the new Homegrown National Park.

 

Many (most?) species depend on consuming certain foods. This is especially true of insects. They eat the plants they evolved with, and only those plants. Birds, for the most part, rely on insects for food particularly when raising their young. Other animals also rely on plants and the insects that eat them for their survival. Ninety percent of those insects rely on native plants.

 

The idea of the Homegrown National Park is to create natural habitats in local communities to serve as biological corridors between parks and preserves, and public and private landscapes to proliferate pollinators needed for the reproduction of 85% of the world’s plants. If you plant native plants, you have created a wildlife oasis. Native plants are best suited to the birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife in your area. We can all be rangers and caretakers in our own National Park. Happy Holidays!

 

You can read more about it at: www.homegrownnationalpark.org or find Doug Tallamy on You Tube. Gardening questions can be asked at the Master Gardener Volunteer Helpline at our local Cooperative Extension office at 740-474-7534.

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Things to do in the garden:

 

Thankfully, there are not too many things to do IN the garden as much as there are things to do ABOUT the garden. If you haven’t already done so, clean up crop debris. Get the vegetable garden ready for spring. As mentioned before, leave stems in the perennial beds 18 inches high for overwintering beneficial insects’ eggs and pupae. If it remains dry, continue to water evergreens and perennial plants, particularly those planted this year, until the ground is frozen hard.

 

On nice days wander about your place (your National Park). Notice the birds, listen for their songs and calls, old  nests, egg masses, perhaps a Mourning Cloak butterfly, see the colors and textures of bare trees and plants. Notice how some plants continue to develop. If the local temperature reaches 50 degrees they grow, only to cease when the temperature falls below.   

 

Those bitter cress weeds are small now. I find them in between the bricks of my walk. They, false dead nettle and ground ivy in the beds and in the lawn are trying to gain a foothold now while they have little competition. The biennial mullein with its fuzzy lamb's ear-like leaves is growing flat against the earth. Rosettes of poison hemlock and teasel continue to grow. Dig them up while you have the chance or spray with an herbicide according to the directions on the label. Get them before the weather turns warm and they turn tougher.

 

If the ground remains open it’s still not too late to plant lilies, tulips and daffodils. You may find some bargains. Avoid the soft and shriveled ones. Check houseplants for insects. Move clay pots inside to prevent breaking. Plant native seeds directly over snow or frozen ground. Go to www.backyardhabitat.info.

 

Wrap young tree trunks with hardware cloth or the plastic wrap made for that purpose. Protect them from ground level to about 18 inches.  This also goes for newly planted shrubs. Place fencing around them. This prevents mice, voles and rabbits from using the bark as lunch. If they girdle the plants, they will die. A little light pruning of trees and shrubs while they are dormant won’t hurt. Damaged, rubbing or simply inconvenient small branches can be removed. Never top trees in any season. When harvesting or buying firewood use only from local sources less than 20 miles. This helps prevent the spread of bugs and diseases harmful to trees.

 

In the vegetable garden, write down and/or map where you planted what this year. This will aid in crop rotation. Use sand and/or ice melt, not rock salt, on your walks, salt is harmful to plants including grass and contaminates ground water. Gift ideas for gardeners: a good spade, soil knife, scuffle hoe, gloves, mud boots, books.