What does your home landscape have to do with climate change, species loss and suburban ecology? Plenty. Our home landscapes are mini eco-systems. Ecosystem you say? Yes, that’s the tiny microcosm in your own yard that supports life; the beginning of the food web for insects, bees, and caterpillars up through birds and small mammals.
Fall. The beginning of the end of my gardening season. Time for fall clean up and start preparing my garden for winter. Now days I clean up a lot less and I’m asking you to do the same when preparing your garden for winter (or a lot less where you can). By leaving those perennial and grass seed heads alone, you are providing the birds much needed food in winter.
Why keep bees? Well the more you know about bees and colony life the more amazing you will find them. They get most of their resources from flowers so as a result, the colony follows the life cycle of flowering plants. In spring they build up their work force by hatching babies. In the summer when flowers are most abundant they ramp up resource collection and are most active.
In my work, I want to help you, the average homeowner become as sustainable as you can on your small piece of this third planet from the sun we call home. It can sometimes feel impossible to make a difference, but if everyone of the 75 million single family in suburban homes in the US were to make a small effort, real change can be made.
