Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot • Hacker News Board

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#181

Post by schiffern » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 2:56 AM UTC

jlglover wrote: post #30

bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

I completely agree with most of your points. I have a spot in my garden where I want to plant a large native tree, probably an oak. I would love to plant all natives, except that they quickly get eaten by deer in my neighborhood. Even many "deer resistant" varieties like coneflower and beebalm. Of course, this make no sense, since deer and native plants should have evolved to survive beside one another. I think this…

You might consider a splash of bone sauce[0] to deter deer.

[0] https://www.permaculturenews.org/2014/06/05/bone-sauce-a-too...

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#182

Post by clbrmbr » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:00 AM UTC

coffeebeqn wrote: post #167

pascalxus wrote: post #28

Personally, I like to plant as many different types of fruit trees, fruit vines and berries as I can and as much diversity as I can. But, I find sticking just to natives is kinda limiting. It's nice to prefer natives but I wouldn't be too religious about it.

Most regions do have tens of fruits and berries to choose from but some are hard to find. I don’t think most Apple or raspberry or peach trees are invasive so it’s not really that big of a deal to get some you like

Around me there’s a (non-native) pear tree (Prunus calleryana) which is the primary tree in old neglected fields with poor soil. I wouldn’t mind if it bore edible fruit, but alas those hard little pears are astringent to the point of being painful. The Eleagnus umbellata I don’t mind however, as they build the soil and the berries are delicious and produced in copious amounts. The bear like them, too.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#183

Post by clbrmbr » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:04 AM UTC

When starting my medicinal herb garden I created a spreadsheet to compute a score for each species I was considering, taking food and medicinal value plus native/invasive/non-invasive alien into account.

One thing to keep in mind is, a plant can be invasive in one region, but totally harmless in another. Just because it is a problem in Florida doesn’t mean you must avoid it in Vermont.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#184

Post by andsoitis » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

ilyt wrote: post #19

bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

Yeah, I also don't understand appeal of "just a square of land filled with immaculate lawn and not much else. It's essentially space wasted for nothing.

You can play polo on it. Or if you’re not as wealthy, then croquet.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#185

Post by ascotan » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:14 AM UTC

bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

I've been using the "Seek" app for plan identification and I'm floored to the amount of overgrown ornamentals from Asia everywhere. It seems like landscapers love to put non-native exotic grasses, trees, and shrubs all over the place.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#186

Post by hunglee2 » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:21 AM UTC

bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

this is great - more people should take this approach. Individual efforts like this might be enough to help native species hang on in face of government indifference. I'm reminded of that story of the survival of the Chinese Alligator, which I believe is mainly down to the efforts of a single woman who protected the nest sites which happened to be on her farm, and raised the hatchings beyond year 1 before release back to the wild. Every little bit matters!

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#187

Post by empyrrhicist » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:29 AM UTC

LegitShady wrote: post #58

frereubu wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't already, you might enjoy learning about permaculture. This is a short and easily-accessibile introduction - two of its originators, David Holmgren and Su Dennett, talking about how they designed their house according to its principles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss1BjW2kSNs The part of your comment which prompted the comparison was "... native plant species are easy. If you plant them in the right…

I had a neighbour who did a permaculture front yard that was ridiculously beautiful, but unfortunately the tall grasses etc became a haven for rodents which caused problems for multiple neighbours. Sometimes there are good reasons why a regular grass yard might be ok.

Are you in a city with rats? Otherwise I feel this is often overblown/misattributed. Like, mice are everywhere, permaculture or no.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#188

Post by hosh » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:39 AM UTC

I’m glad to see these ideas starting to get into the mainstream.

From homeowners opting out of monospecies lawns, to people apply permaculture design to urban spaces, to guerilla gardeners reclaiming abandoned urban wastelands, there are a lot of practical ideas around.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#189

Post by hosh » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:47 AM UTC

bmitc wrote: post #3

After getting a house with a decent sized yard and trees, I have been having a lot of fun with planting native plants. While my neighbors are cutting down trees, which is honestly hard to watch, and paying landscapers to plant non-native plants, I'm spending a lot of time researching and planting native plants. It is honestly one of the more fulfilling things to walk outside and see all sorts of bees, butterflies, mo…

Native plants and species are already suited to the area, so it is a great place to start.

What I am finding though, is that the main difference between an invasive species, and a native species that is vigorous, is that the native species has a lot of interactions with other species within the local biome. And invasive species does not, so runs unchecked without a predator, or does not provide any benefits for other species. If they did, they would be “native”. Over time, the biome will adapt, and interactions will start arising.

There very much are circumstances in which an invasive, resilient species is the right thing. For example, Jerome, Arizona, is an old copper mining town with a devastated ecosystem. Tailings from the copper mine poisoned the land. It’s at a steep incline, with severe erosion. Houses had been sliding off the slope.

When the mine shut down, and the population dropped to about 100 residents, fhe mayor at the time brought in an invasive tree called the Tree of Heaven to save the town. That mayor hired an aircraft to seed it all around Jerome. This tree is invasive, difficult to kill once established, drives out other species, and produces copious amount of seeds. Crucially, it can survive soil that has been poisoned by the mining tailing. It grows everywhere in Jerome — and holds what soil is there. This terrible, aggressive plant is helping to remediate a land trashed by human activity.

https://youtu.be/Oayt7eru2nc

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#190

Post by culi » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 3:52 AM UTC

neonnoodle wrote: post #103

During the process of buying our house, one of the disclosures was that the house has a huge inground swimming pool, but some aspect of the plumbing was broken, and nobody knew how much it might cost to repair. So, as-is. Nobody in our house swims, and the costs of repairing and running the pool would be excessive. At first I thought about having it drained and either removed or converted to some kind of outbuilding…

Yeah if you get a sufficiently thriving ecosystem going mosquito control deals with itself. But, especially if you live anywhere near the tropics or subtropics, I'd make sure to keep updated on West Nile Virus and other less common ones like dengue, zika, etc