Comments on: Helping Your Neighbors Learn to Love Wildlife

By: Citizen Scientist in the Wildlife Garden

Citizen Scientist in the Wildlife Garden — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:22:36 +0000

[...] yard. Perhaps just as important or even more so, you will gain knowledge and data that can be useful to others such as neighbors, the city or conservation organizations. Dragonfly Nymph [...]

By: Wildlife Gardens for Kids, NOT Disney yards

Wildlife Gardens for Kids, NOT Disney yards — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:42:54 +0000

[...] Invite your neighbors to visit your wildlife garden [...]

By: stone

stone — Sat, 21 May 2011 16:01:44 +0000

I’m reading this a bit late…
I’ve gardened under some adverse conditions… as a kid when the cows and goats and stuff had free rein, and I was still trying to grow cool natives…
Later, when I had possums and raccoons tearing up stuff in my kitchen, and armadillos that dug plants out of the ground as quickly as I could plant them, even when I went out and replanted them… I had plants that I replanted 5 or 6 times in a single night!
I had a garden where the deer were in herds of 25 and 30 plus… They tend to be willing to eat almost anything in those conditions, and get a little crazy, jumping uphill over fences that they can neither see through or over… into tiny courtyard gardens!
I promise, when the wildlife is destructive enough, they start looking like they belong on the menu, It’s no longer a case of trap and relocate, there is a lesson to be drawn from the story of “Old Yeller”… Other people don’t want our pests.
At the same time, my garden is a welcome haven to black widow spiders and rattle snakes… those animals are helping.

By: Carole Brown

Carole Brown — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:14:01 +0000

Lisa, your friend Carole (love how her name is spelled ) is doing a wonderful thing. When people see gardens that are full of life, that have birds and butterflies and all manner of other critters they often want to have some of that, too. It’s all about education. We need to learn what is the best thing to do to help wildlife in our gardens.

By: lisa

lisa — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:57:19 +0000

A woman in my town (Carole Berney, Watertown, MA) does a slide show every so often of wildlife in and around our town… can’t remember off hand what she calls it, but it is accompanied with beautiful music, words, poems, and her own narration. It is phenomenal to see organic gardens, intermingled with our very limited wild areas, and then see bird’s nests, butterflies, foxes, frogs, coyotes, possums, raccoons, turtles, etc., all in one urban town. People FORGET that they (animals) were here first and are having to adapt to us taking over their turf with those ridiculous lawns… her slide show brings people to tears, it’s so wonderful, and it will be shown at the library and then local schools… kids can then talk to their parents. In my office, we have a garden club, and have a person come in and talk about wild edibles now and then AND bring goodies made from same. Nothing like dandelion jelly or Japanese rhubarb coffee cake to shift a few perspectives. Good luck!