Hello again to the great gang of gardeners, it’s so nice to be back with you, thank you. Here we have some extremely important work to do, once again. And as promised in earlier posts, we will have fun working together as ONE on this next project. Fun and excitement, because it will create a deep and contagious feeling of hope, compassion, self-worth, love and much inspiration for us all. When we all work together on this project we can do something that will make a giant difference by helping Mother Nature, and all life on Mother Earth, our home. Our topic again is biodiversity and working together to improve and save lives. Just imagine the feeling of passion and joy we will feel for each other and our planet, while really making a much needed difference for the better. By promoting biodiversity in our lawns, and, in turn, helping plants, insects, birds and many other small animals to survive, we will be creating lasting benefits to ALL Life on Earth. So exciting and amazing this will be!
It’s really important that you understand we are not knocking lawns. They have many many benefits when managed responsibly. Lawns are well-known for their aesthetic appeal, adding so much beauty to so many homes and neighborhoods. Their surface is soft and safe, ideal for recreational activities. Lawns have a cooling effect, a process called evapotransportation, along with erosion control. There’s an air quality benefit by trapping dirt and dust, and absorbing carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen. Lawns reduce noise pollution and are known to have a very relaxing effect, thus reducing stress.
Lawns, though, take up much of the needed space that could be used for native plants and flowers that promote the biodiversity that will save lives. The biodiversity that we lost so much of over many years.
“There can be no purpose more inspiring than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us”. Well said, from the late Edward O.Wilson, known as one of the most eminent biologists, naturalists, and authors of our time.
And from one well-known author and professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, Douglas W. Tallamy, who has taught insect-related courses for 40 years, is promoting a new system that is designed to renew biodiversity throughout our neighborhoods everywhere. He calls it “The Homegrown National Park”. It’s a program asking us to adapt just a section of our lawns to native plants, flowers and trees. In the United States alone there are millions of acres of land covered in lawns. We can quickly and easily restore a section, up to half, of them to a viable habitat by regular citizens with minimal expense, minimal training, without any costly changes to infrastructure, and while retaining, and actually adding much more beauty to our yards. It’s free to join with no restricted seasons. And by joining and doing this you will experience a new and beautiful relationship with nature, maybe for the very first time, right in your own front or back yard! Just think about how spreading love and inspiration will feel. There’s so much good we can do together! We would love to see more of the birds, insects and other small animals promoting life in our yards, producing food for humans.
The whole idea is genius and promises to help all of Life on Mother Earth! It will look and feel like a miracle!
If each American landowner with a lawn converted a portion of it to productive native plants, together we could collectively restore some semblance of an ecosystem function to more than 20 million acres of our land in this country alone. That’s bigger than the combined grounds of approximately 13 national parks located in the United States. This would create the largest park system ever! Together, we will create many miracles! And that’s because we have found something so special and promising that will also surprise you as to how simple and easy this new project is! It is a great and amazing approach to a new way of adding more beauty, biodiversity and conservation to our planet that starts in our yards! And you will be able to register your portion of land with this new park system and have your garden certified as a part of this national park system.
Adding these plants to our lawns also creates “rain gardens”. Lawns do not absorb rain very well like plants and trees. In Seattle, homeowners are receiving an average of $4,000 when they install rain gardens and cisterns in areas where sewers are overflowing.
This message is another urgent call to action by working together as one for one much needed purpose, saving our planet.
Much of my research has been through the studies, books and projects of wildlife scientists and ecologists like Professor Tallamy and Biologist Edward O. Wilson and a well-known professor of biology Dave Goulson at the University of Suxxex who wrote many books including Silent Earth, and more than 300 articles on the science of ecology and conservation. Also, I have learned so much from Garden For Wildlife and The National Wildlife Federation organizations, along with accumulating a great amount of information from many articles by Gardener’s Supply, Garden Rant, Fine Gardening, Eden Brothers, Epic Gardening and so many more.
Thank you again for your interest and if you need help in learning which plants are native to your home, just send in a with your zip code and we will help you. We encourage sharing your thoughts, concerns, advice, experience and questions.
Please look out for our next biodiversity post discussing how we can help our beautiful and endangered butterflies.