Happy Pollinator Week! To celebrate, join me on garden stroll.
Follow me down the garden path on this virtual habitat tour created for a special event yesterday with Howard County Bee City in central Maryland.
In this video you’ll learn many tips for addressing common challenges, including:
- creative planting strategies for coexisting with deer and other mammals
- nurturing vigorous native species that provide food and shelter while also inhibiting the spread of invasive plants
- filling large spaces on a budget by recruiting natives that volunteer in your habitat
- … and much more!
To learn about small-space pollinator gardening, watch the full event, which features a virtual tour of the townhouse pollinator garden of Julie Costantino, who leads the Bee City campaign for the Howard County Office of Community Sustainability:
Pollinator Gardening in Small and Large Spaces
And find a toolkit for getting started under the “What You Can Do to Help Pollinators” section of the Live Green Howard page:
Pollinator Garden Design Templates & Tips
Happy Planting!
The film is missing, says ‘no content.”
Hi Jane, are you talking about the link toward the bottom of the post to the recorded WebEx event? If so, just hit play, and it will start. I noticed the initial screen says that, too, but it’s lying to you. 😊 For the actual habitat tour, you should be able to see it at the top of the post – it’s an embedded link from YouTube. If you can’t see it in the email, check out on my homepage – click the frame with my face in it to play it. Let me know if you have any more trouble.
I am in love with your habitat. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Hi Sharon! Thank you! I think we are similar in our predilection for wanting to be ensconced in plants – which is why I felt so at home in your beautiful habitat.
Thank you so much, Nancy. I always learn something from you in person, your writing, and virtual tours.
Your personal experience is so valuable.
Hi Ginger! Thank you for watching it! I miss you. I’m sure you saw those ferns by the fence and the ones up the path in the top pic – those are yours and are doing so well. <3
The tour of your gardens opened just fine. i learned so much on that walk. thanks
Oh great! Thanks – I’m so happy you were able to watch.
loved this! Thanks so much!!!
Thanks, Jo-Ann! 🙂 Well, we couldn’t do the in-person one after all, but at least we are lucky enough to live in an age with nice cameras on our phones.
Hi Nancy . . . what a treat to be invited into your personal native wonderland! You and Will have accomplished so much — it’s beautiful and amazing to see, and you’re providing such a wonderful habitat for so many creatures. I’m sure you love living in an environment that feeds your spirit! In a word, WOW!
Thank you for continuing to inspire us.
Hi Debbie! Thank you! I really appreciate your watching it. We certainly have fun living here and seeing all the life around us for sure. I can’t imagine life without these plants and animals. Hope you are doing great in your new place! <3
spectacular and educational tour.
very practical
Hi Curt! Thank you! And thanks so much for watching. 🙂
Nancy, I so enjoyed the tour of your garden. You’re an inspiration! My jewelweed is doing well (after you introduced me to it!) as well as my violets.
Hi Patty! Thank you! Yay, I’m so glad you have happy violets and jewelweed too! <3
Great video!
Hi Jason! Thank you! 🙂
Thanks for everything you do. I have started to turn my yard into a habitat for animals by saving the violets, self-heals, white clovers, etc. I also added 2 stumps and a brush pile. I also have a compost pile and I don’t plan on mowing the lawn in the yard again. I also put water out for the birds and other animals. I have been using iNaturalist too. I’m really enjoying it all but I do have a concern. I am worried that I will get a lot of ticks in our yard and the dangers that go along with that for our family including our dog. Could you please let me know your thoughts? Thank you, Carl
Hi Carl,
Thanks for checking in about this. Of course, it’s a frequent and understandable concern. In general, studies show that nurturing habitat that attracts predators can help with tick control. That means both direct predators, like opossums – who eat ticks while grooming – and indirect ones, like bobcats, foxes and hawks who prey upon animals like mice who tend to be the main transmitters of Lyme-carrying ticks.
As far as I’ve seen, those studies are done on a rather broad landscape scale. And studies on Lyme incidence and control strategy in my area seem to be focused on manicured backyards where people mowing most things down and engaging in various kinds of “cleanup.” Unfortunately I haven’t seen any comparison research on home habitats with very diverse plant and animal populations.
In our own space, when I’m walking or gardening in tall grassy areas, I often put on light pants tucked into socks, and I shower to wash off any ticks who may be in my hair but unattached and also do a quick tick check. But I can tell you that my husband and I have almost never gotten a tick on us. Recently I thought I had one, but it was a seed from my morning toast! We used to have a dog who would occasionally bring in ticks, but it wasn’t very often. We used a topical preventative for her.
So my own experiences are anecdotal, as are those of wildlife-gardening friends who’ve had similar experiences, but in the absence of research on this type of yard, I hope that is helpful. What I’d recommend is that in the areas where you want to walk, you can just trim down some paths or make woodchipped paths. With your stumps and brush pile, you’ll definitely have a lot of insect eaters, including tick eaters. Maybe watching your dog for a while and seeing where she/he goes and whether she is picking up ticks after being in certain spots could also help.
Here are some of the interesting articles and studies on the role of connected habitat and predators in helping to control Lyme transmission and/or ticks. I think there is other new info I can also pass along after I get a chance to dig it up.
http://www.caryinstitute.org/sites/default/files/public/downloads/lyme_facts_vf.pdf
http://www.caryinstitute.org/newsroom/why-adorable-mouse-blame-spread-lyme-disease
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/science/ticks-lyme-disease-foxes-martens.html?_r=1
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2018/06/ecological-tick-control/