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Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

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Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#51

Post by frereubu »

Decabytes wrote: post #10

I've always had a dream to buy a plot of land and homestead. But I have family that is getting older and needs my help more often. The though of being far away from essential services like Hospitals is not ideal. Also I'm still too early in my career to make that move. So, more recently I've been thinking of an idea I call "urban homesteading", which is just based off the idea of not waiting until the perfect circums…

I posted this on another comment, but you might be interested in permaculture, where ease of maintenance is key within a context of sustainable living. These are two of its originators talking about how they set up their plot, in a relatively built-up part of Victoria in Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss1BjW2kSNs I find it incredibly inspiring.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#52

Post by bavent »

pascalxus wrote: post #21
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…

but you also need some balance. alot of native species don't taste very good and some aren't even edible.

Don’t taste good and aren’t edible for you maybe, but all my local bugs and critters seem to love the ones I’ve planted.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#53

Post by bmitc »

onos wrote: post #42
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 don’t really understand the logic behind native only, beyond the desire not to introduce a plant or creature that would monopolize their environment.

What do you not understand about it? Just trying to address any specific questions you might have.

Here's some bullet points I've collected in my head. I'm not an expert and am still learning. See the links below. Planting native plants:

- reduces watering and fertilization needs, if not removing them, because native plants are built for the area they're planted in

- attracts native insects, which further attracts native predators like birds, mammals, and other insects. Non-native plants can attract a lot of activity, but it can be harmful to the overall ecosystem, as non-native pollinators are not evolved to interact with the regional ecosystems and are thus far less effective

- Non-native plants can not only monopolize the environment, but they can be highly detrimental to the soil, stripping it of nutrients

- Native plants are developed primarily locally and thus reduce emissions compared to having to ship around non-native plants everywhere to all the big box stores and nurseries

- Ecosystems contain individual species that evolved together. By replacing entire plant systems with non-native plants, you interrupt the system. This is not good because things get of whack. Things evolve but not in healthy ways, such as often encouraging non-native wildlife.

- Pollinators are extremely endangered but extremely important, not to just their local ecosystems but to humans as well. They are what allows our agriculture to be successful. It doesn't make any sense to smoke them out.

- Native plants are more efficient at carbon capture.

https://www.audubon.org/content/why-native-plants-matter

https://www.monarchgard.com/what-we-believe.html

https://homegrownnationalpark.org/

Honestly, the only reason to plant non-native plants is vanity.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#54

Post by Flozzin »

onos wrote: post #42
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 don’t really understand the logic behind native only, beyond the desire not to introduce a plant or creature that would monopolize their environment.

Many insects that are native to the area have co-evolved with the native plants. Which means that, non-native plants are not always the best fit for those insects. So planting native plants, usually means a plant better suited to live in that environment, but also, a plant that better benefits the native animal/insect life.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#55

Post by quercusa »

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…

Deer densities are much higher than historical averages and, when hungry enough, they'll eat just about anything.

You can see this in wild areas with lots of deer - there's almost nothing growing less than about 7 feet off the ground.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#56

Post by MR_Bulldops »

onos wrote: post #42
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 don’t really understand the logic behind native only, beyond the desire not to introduce a plant or creature that would monopolize their environment.

"beyond the desire not to introduce a plant or creature that would monopolize their environment"

That is reason enough to avoid non-natives and invasive species.

They reduce biodiversity making a habitat more brittle and boring. And they may spread beyond the bounds of your property, negatively affecting others.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#57

Post by quercusa »

onos wrote: post #42
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 don’t really understand the logic behind native only, beyond the desire not to introduce a plant or creature that would monopolize their environment.

As others have recommended, check out Douglas Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home. He's an entomologist and sets out a very clear connection between native plants, native insects, and the larger ecosystem.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#58

Post by LegitShady »

frereubu wrote: post #48
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…

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.

Re: Turn your backyard into a biodiversity hotspot

#59

Post by bmitc »

taeric wrote: post #25
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 may be easy; but by that measure, invasives are where its at. :D That said, bringing down trees is always odd to me. Definitely bring down any that pose a risk to your house. But otherwise, seems more effort than it is worth. I should probably be a lot better at pruning, as that is a ton of work. And, while intellectually I know the answer is that you are unlikely to kill the tree, I am always worried a…

I'm still not totally certain how to "manage" the trees in our yard. We are in a quite woody area with huge trees. I contacted an arborist place last year and plan on paying them to come out and teach me about the trees on my property. The previous owners cutdown some huge trees, but luckily mainly concentrated on the trees that were super close to the house. It's possible remaining trees could hit the house, and they are actually relatively likely to snap off at some point due to the wind. But I think it's relatively unlikely it will happen and we have insurance if it does. I could remove the possibility and also completely remove ticks as well if I transformed the yard into concrete, but that is of course completely self-serving. My neighbor recently had a tree crack and slightly hit his house. I can't see any real damage from my point of view, but I can only describe it as him waging war against trees on his property afterward. He removed 99% of the remaining trees on his yard (these are huge trees), including ones that couldn't hit his house even if they broke at the base of the trunk (which they never do).

Another house that has sit empty for a year and a half recently cutdown all its trees. Literally all the trees. All that's left is a graveyard of stumps, which makes it look like a warzone from WWI or something. There was probably 50 trees cutdown.

There's no way I'm cutting down the oaks, and I'm unlikely to cutdown any tree, even if it's dead since even those support insects, owls, woodpeckers, and other birds.

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