Ever feel like the environment is being destroyed and there’s nothing you can to that would make a difference?
I feel like that alot. I’m feeling it more so right now in watching coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its devastating impacts on the people and wildlife who rely on that ecosystem for their survival.
This is a wake-up call, and we need to take a hard look at our own use of fossil fuels in our lives and in our gardens.
It is so easy to get overwhelmed, to think that protecting the environment is just too hard, and nothing we could do in our own gardens could ever possibly make any difference at all for wildlife or a healthier environment.
What if doing just one thing for the environment or wildlife really did matter?
You may have heard me say before that if every one of us did just one thing in our gardens to help wildlife or protect the environment, that the cumulative benefit would be huge.
Our gardens really do matter. The actions that we take to protect the environment and benefit wildlife really do make a difference.
We don’t have to solve huge problems like saving the rainforest or cleaning up the gulf. We just have to do one thing to help wildlife in our gardens.
What is YOUR one thing?
Now I know that many of you are doing more than just one thing, and have in fact devoted your entire garden to helping wildlife.
But if you were going to help your neighbor get started, what one thing would you suggest they do first?
If you are just starting to help wildlife in your garden, what is the one thing you did first?
I am asking for your help and suggestions because I am going to be starting a weekly feature devoted to “Just one Thing.”
Every week, I’ll write about a simple, easy to implement idea that would help wildlife in our gardens.
We’re not talking about re-designing your entire garden, we’re talking easy. Add this one thing and know that it matters.
So what are your suggestions? What would you do first? Thank you so much for your input!
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
Hmm. I think setting up a birdfeeder might be the obvious one. It might not help THAT much–birds need bugs more than seeds!–but I think it’d get people interested in wildlife as part of the garden, and it’s a good place to start. And it was certainly the first thing that I did, myself.
The other stupidly simple one I’ve found is a little sunken watering hole I made out of nothing more complicated than a plastic azalea pot and a hole in the ground. I dug the hole, put the pot in so the rim was level with the ground and dropped a little of the fill dirt back in it, stuck a stick in it so stuff could climb out, and called it good. Took about twenty minutes, most of which was digging the hole, required no specialized equipment. It’s not even that visible–there’s a beauty berry and some hyssop mostly blocking it unless you know where to look. Occasionally I splash water in it to clear out mosquito larvae, at the same time I’m filling the bird baths.
I’ve seen wrens perching on the stick to drink and mourning doves sipping at the edge. Dragonfly laid larvae in there. Three tiny brown frogs now live there full time. It was absurdly easy, and the frogs thrill me to no end.
Great tips, Ursuala! An easy water feature is going to be my first tip so I’d love it if you took a picture of your azalea pot pond and told us all about it by submitting it at the Show Off Your Wildlife Garden page.
Feeders were the way I started too. There’s something really cool about being able to see the birds up close, but then I learned that I needed to do things beyond the feeder and began planting more stuff just for the birds.
I’d be happy to take a photo, although it’s honestly not a pretty object, it’s just a round puddle, and I don’t want to present the notion as an eyesore! But I’ll see if I can get a shot that’s somewhat appealing when I get back into town.
I did a bunch of things, but the biggest one is taking out a whole pile of lawn to create a garden. There was nothing on the property when we bought the place.
The feeders were an automatic start.
Then I started putting in plants for birds and bees, a bird bath, and continued to expand the beds. But that’s a story for another time. Soon.
Stacey Cornelius recently posted..When you don’t take no for an answer
We live close to the beach dunes and have plenty of seagrape trees around our area. Composting the seagrape leaves on-site around plants like the lariopes looks really nice. Also, we like to keep the bird bath dish clean with fresh water, regularly.
I would say cut out the chemicals. So many people don’t realize that when they spray chemicals on their plants, they are harming beneficial insects and possibly birds and other insect eating creatures.