Falling In Love With Your Garden

Spiderwort (c) Alison Kerr

[Guest post by Alison Kerr as part of the Show Off Your Wildlife Garden Series. Is your garden next? I hope so!]

Photo is Tradescantia ohiensis – native spiderwort which is one of the earliest prairie flowers every year and my favorite.

When you move to a new place there is much to discover about the local wildlife and native plants, even more so when you move to a new country.

Back in 2001 Eastern Kansas was a mystery to me. I had no idea which garden plants might be native, which seedlings were weeds, or how to maintain my garden. Everything was new and different. Nothing was like Scotland. And gardening was just work, not something to enjoy.

Something needed to change; I wanted to love Kansas and cherish my garden.

I’m not a lover of lawn – too much work for too little reward.

Thus, with paper and pencil, a measuring tape, a native plant catalog from a local nursery, and the advice (and later considerable back-breaking help) of my ever-patient and energetic partner I came up with a plan for a prairie and woodland garden to replace some side-yard lawn.

Then I put on my gardening gloves, got out my spade, and started to learn to love Kansas one plant at a time.

Learning the native plants of my region

And there was a lot to learn. Somehow I’d failed to notice how much rain ran through my garden. And I’d forgotten that trees have roots. And I hadn’t looked up and realized that trees which had been drastically trimmed in my neighbor’s yard that year would later shade out my prairie.

But there were good things to learn too: how the wildflowers seed themselves; and that every year holds a mystery, as the composition of my garden and which plants are dominant changes.

Wildlife in my Garden

Rabbits visit my garden, and a vole has moved in under the wild ginger roots. Chipmunks scurry back and forth. Robins give me pleasure every day, and ants climb up and down the red maple tree in their endless quest to gather food.

Sometimes I see very strange spiders – once there was a huge orb spider web. Freaky! Another time I found a yellow spider which perfectly matched the flower it was living on.

My favorites are the summer fireflies which can first be seen at dusk. And though the orange milkweeds which I planted rarely show themselves, one of the weeds I learned to recognize was a keeper, bringing my kids monarch caterpillars to study and enjoy every year.

This year I’ve built a rain garden. I’m waiting to see hummingbirds and I have plans for a butterfly garden.

I’ve decided. I’m in love with Kansas. It was my garden which worked this magic. What about you?

Alison Kerr is author and editor at Loving Nature’s Garden where she inspires your green gardening adventures, love of nature, and the growing of fresh, local food. Follow her on Twitter @alisonkerr

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