{"id":8175,"date":"2020-08-10T14:46:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T14:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=8175"},"modified":"2020-08-31T14:31:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T14:31:13","slug":"habitats-at-home-how-anyone-can-help-canadas-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/habitats-at-home-how-anyone-can-help-canadas-wildlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Habitats At Home \u2014 How Anyone Can Help Canada\u2019s Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Native plant gardening is an effective way anyone can make a positive impact on their environment.<\/h2>\n

It creates habitat for wildlife, beautiful greenspace and helps with climate change mitigation. There isn\u2019t a garden too small. If you are in an urban area, balcony and rooftop gardens or community spaces are especially important to migrating wildlife, such as Monarchs or goldfinches, in an otherwise \u2018desert\u2019 of concrete and grass lawns.<\/p>\n

Freshly mown grass may look appealing to us but it is seen as a desert by many pollinators and other wildlife. I set about changing this by creating a mini-habitat restoration project in my backyard this spring.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Freshly mown grass may look appealing to us but it is seen as a desert by many pollinators and other wildlife. I set about changing this by creating a mini-habitat restoration project in my backyard this spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have a confession to make \u2014 gardening does not come naturally to me. As of the beginning of this year, I had almost no experience gardening beyond cutting the grass and trimming bushes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A striped Sweat Bee on our Black-eyed Susans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But what I do know is the importance of biodiversity, the human impact on it and the needs of wildlife. For example, pollinator populations are declining due to habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and increased disease but they are also one of the main beneficiaries of an at-home habitat restoration.<\/p>\n

That is why I decided to create an \u2018oasis for wildlife\u2019 project in my own backyard.<\/p>\n

My Native Garden<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Evidence of a Goldenrod Gall Fly in my garden, which is part of the Carolinian region\u2019s native biodiversity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started by researching plants native to my area, the Carolinian zone.<\/p>\n

I found out that many plants and seed mixes labelled as wildflowers or pollinator friendly aren\u2019t actually native! The ecoregional planting guides<\/a> by Pollinator Partnership were especially helpful as I navigated the complex world of native, naturalized and invasive plants.<\/p>\n

I purchased seedlings from a native plant nursery<\/a> as well as perennial seeds of native and naturalized plants in the spring of 2020. I also created a small vegetable garden to further understand the connection between pollinators and our food. Now, I have started to see the fruits of my labour.<\/p>\n

I was surprised by how easy and affordable a native plant garden is to maintain. I don\u2019t have to mow as large of an area of lawn, constantly trim or use compost. And I didn\u2019t need to purchase topsoil or fertilizer for the native plants. I found this a welcome respite when we spend so much time on lawn maintenance. Statistics Canada reported<\/a> on a typical day in 2005 nearly 11 per cent of Canadians aged 30 and over spent time working on their lawn or garden, with the average participant spending more than two hours doing yard work!<\/p>\n

Lawns \u2014 A Modern Invention<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also learned that the lawn is a relatively modern invention<\/a>. Mown lawns began with nobility in Europe in the 18th<\/sup> century. It was labour and time intensive and therefore used as a status symbol. This trend was brought to North America by the gentry and was reproduced on large estates, including the likes of George Washington who hired English landscapers to create his lawn.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the early to mid 20th<\/sup> century, with the rise of suburban neighbourhoods, that lawns became commonplace. This was originally done to mimic upper class housing. It seems less important now that I\u2019ve learned this; a garden adds more curb appeal than a lawn to me.<\/p>\n

Part of the Natural Order<\/h3>\n
\"\"\n
\n American Robin visitor.\n <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"\"\n
\n A Viceroy Butterfly on a native dogwood.\n <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Furthermore, native plant gardening helped me understand my local ecosystem. We are used to living apart from the natural world \u2014 I think a lot of us see our home as a place exclusively for our family but it would be beneficial for all of us to open up our homes to wildlife.<\/p>\n

We had a Northern Cardinal family raised in our yard this year as well as goldfinches, Blue Jays, Red-tailed Hawks and other birds come through. Cottontail Rabbits moved in, Black Swallowtail Butterflies visited alongside a multitude of other pollinators \u2014 such as bumble bees, hover flies and beetles.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true; if you plant it, they will come.<\/p>\n

Learn more about wildlife-friendly gardening at CWF’s Gardening for Wildlife<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Native plant gardening is an effective way anyone can make a positive impact on their environment. It creates habitat for wildlife, beautiful greenspace and helps with climate change mitigation. There…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":8244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[631],"tags":[8528,609,8502,8526],"class_list":["post-8175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-connect-with-nature","tag-cardinal","tag-gardening-for-wildlife","tag-growitdontmowit","tag-wildlife-friendly-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8353,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8175\/revisions\/8353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}