To all of you with losses, my heart goes out to you! So far this season the loses are small, but not the person who's had one. Those ag lands that went up, those nurseries that burned the houses lost are all connected to real people with pain. Any of us could be there next week, living like we do next to potential fire.
One thing everyone can do is take nature home. Millions of bugs died in the fires, not the main concern of any of us, but a habitat impact even so. Why take "nature" home? They take less water, plant one. Native plants feed native bugs, plant one. Native plants live through the drought, plant one. When you plant something from the nursery that started in Asia, Africa, Australia or Europe (all good continents by the way) few of our bugs can't eat them. Therefore we have fewer and fewer birds. Birds need the protein, especially in the spring when raising their young that comes from eating invertebrates (those bugs). Plant a monkey bush, mine has beautiful red flowers right now and; it's a very close cousin to the salmon-colored native growing just up the hill. |
| Don't miss little green bug above! |
Below is the grand Matillija Poppy that needs lots of space! I planted three from my neighbor's plant and now I have 600 square feet of these seven foot tall. giants. Native! And the bugs love 'em!
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| Cal Poppies, Deer Grass, Wooly Blue Curls, Purple Sage, Blue Jeans Ceanothus (cultivar) |
3 comments:
Love the sentiment of this blog. We're particularly sensitive here in Hawai'i to the question of invasive species. But unlike the mainland we have essentially a closed ecosystem that creates additional complexities because although introduced species have often out-competed the native ones, in some cases a new balance has begun to be established among the introduced species. For example, in areas where native birds have been pushed out by avian malaria, habitat loss, and predation by introduced mammals like mongoose, rats and cats, we're finding that the latter three are checking each other's population growth and also the controlling the growth of alien birds that otherwise would pose a serious problem. Going native is always good advice, but sometimes it isn't possible, practical, or effective.
Dennis: Thanks for linking me to your blog. Lovely plants and fun writing! This is where I started pounding out my thoughts (Blogger) and who knew I'd end up with my own blog and column at Fine Gardening, then a book. Keep those typing mallets pounding, dude!
Thanks for the comments guys! Heard Nicole Milarano from UCSB talk about invasive species, esp. grasses today. Awesome!
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