Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Natural Landscaping

Do you have a passion for native plants and natural landscaping? Do you wish you knew more about native plants and biodiversity? If so, I invite you to join this blog and learn about native plants, natural landscaping and biodiversity a little at a time.

As Executive Director of Wild Ones for 17 years, one of the things I enjoyed the most was to share with members and others the new and interesting information I learned about things related to the Wild Ones mission. So now as I continue on with my next life adventure, [Read more…]

Great Backyard Bird Count starts Today

The annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) starts today. People from all over the world will record the birds they see in their backyards or anywhere (parks, school yards, hiking trails, snowmobile trails, work. etc) over the next four days. All a participant has to do is count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days at one site during February 15-18, 2019 and submit the info to GBBC.

How to get Started

If you’re a first time counter, get started by registering here or if you’re already registered, sign in here. You can upload your count(s) to the GBBC website using your computer or the eBird Mobile Application.

There’s also a photo contest as part of the count. Here are the rules.

Some History

Formally started in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, last year a record 6,456 types of birds were reported through the GBBC– nearly half of all known species in the world. The reports are used by scientists to track things like population numbers and cycles. ‘The effect of weather on migrations and how diseases such as the West Nile virus affect birds in different regions. ‘And differences in bird diversity between cities, suburban, rural and natural areas.

Explore what others are seeing in your area or around the world by going to the map showing current GBBC/eBird Submissions

Other Tracking Programs

There are many tracking programs for many different elements of our ecosystems now readily available because of the Internet. Here are some others in which you might be interested.

Christmas Bird Count

Project FeederWatch

eBird

Beecology

The Big Bug Hunt

The North american Butterfly Monitoring Network (major list of a variety of monitoring programs)

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Snowstorm Maya

Yesterday would have been a good day for me to catch up on some work, but instead I spent the day lounging around, watching snowstorm Maya do her thing. Although I know the snowstorm has caused a lot of stress (and lots of car accidents), I can’t help but love the way Mother Earth looks today as I gaze out my office window. I love the look of the white fluffy snow.

You’re probably sick of seeing photos of snow, but I thought I would share just a couple with you today.

One last tidbit. Did you know there was a website devoted just to snowflakes? It’s fantastic Snowflakes.com

Note: To enlarge the photos, click on the photo and when it comes up, click again.

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Millennials and Gardening

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea). Note Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) toward bottom of photo.
Pollinator-friendly native plants include Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata). Shown here is a visiting Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

I read an article the other day published in the Green Industry Pros e-magazine which stated “driven by social media trends and environmental consciousness, Millennials are shaping landscape design and lawn maintenance services.” That statement, of course, piqued my interest since most people I know who are environmentally conscious are middle-aged or older (Boomers).

The article explained Millennials enjoy entertaining outside so they want a fun, yet peaceful place to do so. They also are more keenly aware of the effects of climate change and the importance of pollinators to their wellbeing. They want to grow “plants with a purpose.” So, they are interested in growing fruit trees and their own vegetables and herbs, and in planting pollinator-friendly gardens. They are also willing to pay more for organic lawn and garden products, and to have maintenance of their outdoor spaces done by others rather than do it themselves.

Gardening Information

As I read through the article, I realized much of what they were saying was based on the 2018 National Gardening Survey sponsored by Garden Research. Although I have not read the survey results, I understand it covered a variety of different aspects of gardening. As I gleaned information from the articles I was able to find on-line regarding this survey, however, one other special piece of information to me was on how consumers get their information.

Interestingly, in the past females over 55 years of age were the biggest consumers of gardening information and via printed matter. Today, it’s the younger generation under 35 and male, and they’re getting their information on-line from websites and through social media and smart phone apps. This means natural landscaping and native plant gardening organizations such as Wild Ones will need to provide more educational offerings on-line and through apps if they are to successfully accomplish their missions.

Very pricey, the National Gardening Survey 2018 Edition is available for $1,295.

The What Gardeners Think Survey is available for $895.

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