by Elaine Schmerling
Spring is the time for planting! Flowers are budding! Birds are singing! Plants are out at garden centers to buy. But did you know that your choices of plants impact the environment?
Judaism has a rich tradition of stewardship of the earth. We are commanded to take care of creation (Genesis). From a commandment in Deuteronomy to not destroy trees in wartime, the rabbis then deduced Bal Tashchit (Do Not Destroy) as an ethic to protect the natural world.
But what if I told you that we are losing “biodiversity”—species and numbers of all kinds of plants and animals—at a record rate, partly because of our gardening choices? Although many reasons are out of our control, we CAN make better choices to bring back birds, butterflies, fireflies, and more to our yards.
Plants native to our area have adapted over thousands of years to support whole ecosystems. If you like birds, consider this: all birds feed insects to their young. Even seed-and nectar-eating birds cannot survive without insects. And of all the insects, caterpillars are the perfect baby bird food, often providing 75% of the food birds feed their young. Exotic shrubs and flowers from other continents—plants typically sold at many retail and box stores—rarely support this web of life. Worse, many have escaped to our “natural” areas that we set aside for wildlife. Woodlands are too often now smothered with invasive plants. These invasive species can kill trees and out-compete natives. Even beautiful spring flowering bulbs like daffodils are escaping and can alter the soil pH away from what is needed for our native wildflowers to thrive.
Don’t know to plant? Mt. Cuba hosts the premier display of native plants to the “Piedmont,” our geographic plateau. Visit their trial gardens and display areas which rival any gardens for beauty. Use their plant finders; read their finished reports online to help select the best plants! We have more resources than ever before, including Brandywine Conservancy’s online native garden hub. See Youtube videos from “Delaware Naturally” at delawarenaturally.org. Find a native plant sale near you. Go to a quality nursery and ASK for native plants (if we don’t ask and buy, they won’t sell!).
Think of the “ecosystem services” your garden can provide, in addition to beauty. Doug Tallamy, a University of Delaware professor, has inspired many people with books such as Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope, as well as podcasts and Youtube videos. He shows that we have more acreage in mowed grass (that supports very little) than all our national parks combined! Therefore, he started a “Homegrown Park” movement (https://homegrownnationalpark.org/) to help homeowners reverse the tremendous biodiversity losses happening in our lifetime. Think of what grass-mowed areas you could instead plant with native trees and shrubs that can absorb more stormwater, as well as produce more oxygen and support more life than mowed grass. WE have some power to help reduce flooding and change the trajectory of species losses.
Would you, your children, and your grandchildren like to see butterflies? Read what you can plant to not just attract them for nectar—like “Butterfly bush” from Asia which does not support a single caterpillar or insect which feeds birds—but to actually support them and feed their babies. Many caterpillars need specific plants to eat, such as the amazing monarch butterfly which migrates to Mexico. Its caterpillars only eat milkweed, and its population is in severe decline. There are several different varieties of beautiful milkweeds which may be tamer for your garden. But there are others—how many of the 120 different butterfly and 131 moth species native to Delaware have you seen? Our state butterfly, the Tiger Swallowtail (large yellow and black) is the most plentiful, but even that has been declining.
Decaying logs, leaves, and debris can also be important habitat and decompose to recycle nutrients back to the soil. Many butterflies, for example, overwinter as larvae in leaves. The black swallowtail larvae even mimics leaves to escape predation. The Evening Cloak butterfly overwinters whole under logs. Did you know that firefly larvae overwinter in leaves? We watch them all summer like fireworks in my neighborhood! What child isn’t delighted by them? Yet they too are declining. In heavily landscaped neighborhoods where all the leaves and stalks are carted away each fall and replaced with purchased mulch (when leaves do a better job and are free!), and/or where the houses are surrounded only by mowed grass, people may not see fireflies at all on summer nights.
Many native bees overwinter in dry stalks. Carting away all this “debris” every fall may be killing beloved butterflies, fireflies, and more. Consider some spots for “leaving the leaves” and stalks—if not as mulch, perhaps at some side and back areas. HOW we garden matters.
Can we change our aesthetic to include living creatures? Certainly Mt. Cuba’s gardens show how it can be done beautifully. If you only hire landscapers, is there a way to work with them to preserve life as part of their services?
Native bees, especially bumblebees, are important fruit and vegetable pollinators. Not only are European honeybees in decline, but so are our native bees which can substitute for honeybees for many crops. People have tried, but cannot invent machines to do bees’ work for any reasonable cost. It is much more cost-effective and efficient to let bees do the job—but they need help. They need plants, especially asters and goldenrods (keystone species), to survive. There are hundreds of varieties of each—many non-aggressive. Another consideration: most insects, including bees, are very sensitive to chemicals which should always be used carefully.
Native shrubs are huge supporters of wildlife and often have lovely fall color, like the pinkish Pinxterbloom azalea. Its huge pink azalea flowers are frequented by bees, unlike the Asian varieties which are evergreen. Native Spicebush supports bees when in bloom, hosts the Spicebush swallowtail butterfly’s caterpillar, and makes a nutritious fall berry for birds. Native viburnum shrubs (NOT the Asian varieties) are powerhouse shrubs, with bees visiting the flowers while the plants feed over 100 species of caterpillars. Their berries ripen in the fall and are high in fats, exactly what migrating birds need to fuel their long flights. Most non-native shrubs typically produce berries very low in fat, more of a “candy” type food for them with low nutrients that cannot sustain birds’ migrations as well.
We have more information than ever before on how to save our planet and the amazing creatures in it. We just need to act. One garden at a time, one plant at a time. I hope you can consider adding native plants to YOUR yard. Look at the Homegrown national park site—Doug Tallamy suggests adding one “keystone species” per year. Think of it as protecting the earth, practicing Tikkun Olam—repairing the world.
About the Author:
ELAINE SCHMERLING is a Delaware Nature Society, National Wildlife Federation, and Certified Wildlife Habitat Steward. She is also Natural Lands Steward of Ardentown and is currently Chair of the Arden Club Gardeners Gild. Shehas resided in the Arden’s for 32 years and is an active member of the Jewish community.
