ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250013
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Hoein' and Growin'
SOURCE: SARA THORNE-THOMSEN
Contemplating what to plant in your garden this spring or what to add to your landscape plantings? Consider the needs of the earth, the spirit of the garden, if you will, as you plan. A garden's spirit is easily undermined when we become overly zealous in pursuit of a garden that dazzles the eye. In "Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yard" (Houghton Mifflin, 1993, 1995), Sara Stein writes eloquently about the dangers of grooming "the life out of our land" with fertilizers, pesticides, and mostly-motorized equipment.
Stein advocates gardening with nature and re-creating ecosystems fragmented or destroyed by development. She recommends gardens that bring plants, birds, animals, insects and even soil microbes together once again to sustain one another. When she and her husband realized that mowing and clearing their overgrown five acres in Pound Ridge, N.Y., had destroyed the habitats of grouse, pheasants, foxes and other animals, they began to disassemble their formal gardens. Roses were replaced with native shrubs such as winterberry (Ilex verticillata) and sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina) and the Korean lilacs along the driveway were replaced with aromatic sumac (Rhus glabra). Irises now grow among native grasses such as sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula).
Stein explains that "Birds are a good indicator of a healthy landscape. Their disappearance was my first clue that we'd done some wrong. Their reappearance was my first evidence that we were getting it right."
The land has its own interconnected life support system easily upset when we create yards of manicured lawn, accented with plantings of yews and the occasional rhododendron.
Even small yards can support a diversity of plants that include a few native shrubs and trees to attract the wildlife that has fled with the destruction of its habitats. Add a hedgerow around the edge of your property to reduce mowing time or turn an existing hedge into a hedgerow (no trimming required) by planting a variety of shrubs and small trees. Trees that provide a year-round supply of berries are good choices: hawthorn (Crataegus spp), whose fruit persists into the winter; summer-fruiting serviceberry (Amelanchier spp); late summer and fall-fruiting mountain ash (Sorbus spp); and berry-bearing hollies (Ilex spp.) Stein provides an extensive list of hedgerow shrubs that offer both food and shelter for wildlife.
Reduce mowing time even more by planting a bed of perennial wildflowers that requires little care beyond a good mulch. Some hardy favorites are: Queen-Anne's-lace (Daucus carota), which attracts beneficial insects; the purple cone flower (Echinacea purpurea), whose flowers entice bees and butterflies and whose seeds birds love; black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), which thrives in sun and partial shade; bee balm (Monardas fistulosa and didyma), whose tubular flowers are favorites of hummingbirds; and butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), whose flowers butterflies love.
The butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) blooms most of the summer and attracts a variety of butterflies. Buddleias are ideal shrubs for a small yard or garden, because they can be cut back almost to the ground every spring and will grow up again into a graceful, but not overwhelming bush.
"Noah's Garden" provides food for thought and ideas for restoring the diversity and efficient functioning of the natural community. Every property owner, gardener or not, has a responsibility to tend what Stein calls "an ecosystem's intelligence-its ability to run itself and to sustain its inhabitants." A garden that guzzles water or requires a battery of pesticides and herbicides to keep its dazzling complexion lacks genuine health beneath the dazzle.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB