Birds benefit by Ecosystem Gardening
You may be wondering just what the heck I mean by “Ecosystem Gardening,” and I can answer that here. As you read through these articles, please be aware that I have grown in my thinking on this subject and I changed the name. In the beginning I was using the term “Conservation Gardening.” But for a variety of reasons, mostly because “Ecosystem” better illustrates what I’m talking about, I made that change. At some point, those beginning articles will be re-written, but the fairy godmother of time management hasn’t visited me lately, so for now know that I mean the same thing when using either term.
The 5 Pillars of Ecosystem Gardening — when you apply these 5 easy steps, you will automatically begin to attract more birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife to your garden.
What does Ecosystem Gardening Mean?–covers the pillars of Ecosystem Gardening: sustainability, soil conservation, water conservation, the importance of native plants, the dangers of invasive plants, the essential role of insects, pollinator conservation, butterfly conservation, bird conservation, amphibian conservation, and mammal conservation.
The Language of Ecosystem Gardening–looks at organic gardening, xeriscaping, natural landscaping, sustainable gardening, habitat gardening for wildlife, and ecological gardening, defines them, and illustrates their influence on the concept of Ecosystem Gardening.
Defining the “Garden” in Ecosystem Gardening–the garden includes all areas of your property that can be planted: the lawn, the front yard, backyard, etc, areas in your neighborhood, around your business, around your childs school and in your community. How can we give a little back to wildlife in these places?
Conservation Gardening or Ecosystem Gardening?–explains why I decided to change the name
Is Ecosystem Gardening too hard to learn? Yes, we do have to do a bit of homework to find which plants are the most appropriate for the conditions in our garden. But this is absolutely NOT too much to learn!
In What I’m Doing Here, I describe my goals in sharing Ecosystem Gardening with you, and How I Got Here describes my personal journey of developing this concept and my passion for sharing it with a community of people.
I’m going to be adding articles to this page on a regular basis, so you may want to bookmark it to come back and see what’s new. And I’d love to hear what you think, what you’re looking for, and what you’ve done in your garden. Let’s talk in the comments below.
© 2009 – 2012, Carole Sevilla Brown. All rights reserved. This article is the property of EcosystemGardening.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Carole Sevilla Brown
How about permaculture? It’s pretty much the definition of ecosystem gardening.
Thanks for putting all of these posts in one place. That was helpful.
.-= Alison Kerr´s last post ..Sixteen Things You Should Know About Life =-.
Carole,
I’m enjoying your online classes. I have a butterfly garden, it’s a work in progress. Once the butterflies came, they stole my heart. The non native plants were evicted & replaced by native plants. I have my own receipe using composted manure, coffee grounds from the local coffee shop, peat moss, earth worms from the bait shop, & mulch on top.
I’m always educating myself. I’ve researched the butterflies that have visited & learned lots about native plants. I’ve planted many nectar plants, & I’m adding more host plants this year. I have to add 1 more host plant to be a certified butterfly garden. I’ll be adding Swamp Milkweed & a few others to attract Swallowtail.
The butterfly garden is life! I was so excited when we got our first cats! Soon after, there were Monarchs that came everyday, I believe these were our cats, born into buttterflies coming home. We had 5 Painted Lady butterflies cats that became butterflies, my son released them ito the garden.
I’m now encouraging others to plant native, I have several projects lined up for this summer, getting gardens featuring native plants started for others. I have an eye for design & plant arragement, which will be useful when planning the gardens for others.
I have a facebook page showing the plants & other critters that have visited. I would be so honored if you would visit my page & give me feedback on what you think!
https://www.facebook.com/MyButterflyGarden?ref=hl