Healing our home turf and environs

Nature doesn’t observe our property lines. The lives of plants, animals and all the unseen microorganisms that sustain life in the soil are circumscribed by different boundaries and connected in innumerable ways. Like us, plants and animals require food, water and a safe place to feed and reproduce (i.e. habitat). We have more control over our lives. We shape our surroundings to suit our need for beauty, privacy, relaxation, eating and other activities. They are constrained by such things as seasonal availability of food, soil type, temperature, rainfall, competition, predation, presence of specific pollinators or plants, safe access to specific crucial habitat such as vernal pools, deep woodlands, open fields. It’s easy to see that bulldozing for roads and houses destroys or fragments habitat. Less obvious is how we unwittingly break the web of life around us in our landscaping. Nothing is simple and everything is connected. How could we know that turtles can’t climb over Belgian block driveway edging to get from woods to water, that small mammals and amphibians are stopped by stone walls (unless built with gaps to let them pass) or that our fences keep out the foxes that eat the mice that carry Lyme disease and live in the barberries overrunning the forest floor? We can support wildlife and reconnect fragmented habitats by making native plants a big part of our home landscapes. Two beautiful native trees that are among the best wildlife plants are blooming right now. Dogwoods have been spectacular this spring in both woods and yards. They feed more than 100 species of moths and butterflies, which are in turn eaten by birds, whose young need protein. In fall, dogwood berries ripen at just the right time, with just the right nutrients for migrating birds, unlike the lovely alien Kousa dogwood, which supports no birds or lepidoptera. Any native maple is a major boon to wildlife. My favorite, a small understory tree known as moosewood (moose browse it) or striped or painted maple (for its green and white striped bark) is little known although it’s all around us. Its green chains of bell-shaped flowers add quiet grace in spring, buttery yellow foliage brightens the scene in autumn and the painted bark stands out in winter — an all-round great plant for landscape beauty and wildlife alike.On Thursday, May 26, the Kent Energy and Environmental Task Force will sponsor my photographic talk, “Landscaping with Native Plants: Healing Our Home Turf.” The talk, which will be held in the Dickinson Science Building’s auditorium at Kent School at 7:30 p.m., is free of charge. Come learn more about how to garden and landscape with nature and see inspiring examples of home landscapes featuring hardy, adaptable local native plants. For directions, go to www.kentEdrive.org. Karen Bussolini is an eco-friendly garden coach, a NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional . She can be reached at kbgarden@charter.net or 860-927-4122.