The day was bitterly cold, but Libby and Penny were eager for our big adventure. Libby has been fascinated by nature since she was quite young. In fact she is so curious and eager to learn that I gave her my entire set of Golden Guides, which she reads every night as her bed-time story.

Their father is a stay at home Dad (Mommy is a pediatrician) who has made outdoor and nature activities a priority. They go to the zoo, the local Arboretum, parks, fishing, and so much more. He’s amazing to watch as he finds new adventures to share with them every day.
This day we were headed to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in northwest Philadelphia for Winterfest, a full day of both indoor and outdoor activities to share the wonder of nature with kids and adults too.

This day was bitterly cold, so Libby and Penny decided that they wanted to stay inside and make stuff, and explore the exhibits.
You can see in the photo above that Libby’s wingspan is as big as a Red-Tailed Hawk, while Penny’s wingspan is slightly larger than a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. I think she’s as big as a Cooper’s Hawk. Libby says she’s growing so fast that soon she’ll be as big as the Turkey Vulture!

It was so much fun to watch them make snowflake Christmas cards from nature-themed calendar pages. Their guide for this activity shared her knowledge of the birds that each of them had chosen to make their snowflakes from.

So even though it might be cold outside, there’s always something fun happening at your local nature center!

This 2-day intensive course will occur on June 17 & 18, 2014 in the beautiful LEED Platinum Bosarge Family Education Center and also on the grounds of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

As part of the required curriculum for students, I’ll be teaching Gardening for Wildlife: Ecosystem Gardening. CMBG describes my contribution:

Habitat loss is the number one cause of declining wildlife populations. In this Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens class on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 and 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, conservation biologist Carole Sevilla Brown, will teach you why gardening for wildlife is as important as it is rewarding. She will explain how, by incorporating certain native plants and gardening practices, you can create welcoming habitat in your garden to attract more birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife, conserve natural resources, and encourage biodiversity. In the classroom and in the gardens, Carole will provide examples for creating a lively (and lived-in!) garden habitat.

Carole Sevilla Brown is the author of the Ecosystem Gardening blog and website and founder and managing editor of the team blogs Beautiful Wildlife Garden and Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. A conservation biologist by training, she has spent more than 20 years as a consultant designing, installing and maintaining wildlife gardens for people who want to share their space with birds, butterflies, frogs and toads, bats, reptiles and amphibians, and yes even insects! She firmly believes that conservation begins in your own backyard and is passionate about teaching people to become stewards of their properties.

The exciting news is that you don’t have to be enrolled in the Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture to attend this exciting 2-day intensive workshop. Check out this page to register: Gardening for Wildlife: Ecosystem Gardening

Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture

The field-based Certificate in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture program instructs amateur and professional gardeners alike about Maine’s diverse flora and its uses in ecologically responsible horticulture. The program is tailored for Maine gardeners by featuring the climate conditions, specific challenges, plants, and natural communities found right here in the Pine Tree State.

Students benefit from engaging, hands-on courses describing native plants, how they function and reproduce, their natural habitats, and best garden applications. They discover how plants interact with their growing environment, and they learn to select appropriate native plants for various site conditions. They will become skilled at preparing and maintaining gardens using sustainable methods such as composting, integrated and organic pest management, and low water inputs

Growing for Pollinators: 10th Annual Garden Symposium, with Carole Sevilla Brown, William Cullina, and Dr. Frank Drummond

I’ll be following up this 2-day intensive workshop on Ecosystem Gardening for Wildlife by also speaking at the Growing for Pollinators Symposium with William Cullina and Frank Drummond.

I’d so love to meet you in person in either event!

Faculty: Certificate Program in Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture

Bill Cullina

Executive Director Bill Cullina previously served as Director of Horticulture for the Gardens and before that was Nursery Director for the New England Wild Flower Society. He is a well-known author and recognized authority on North American native plants. He lectures on a variety of subjects to garden and professional groups and writes for popular and technical journals. His books include:

• Wildflowers
• Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines
• Understanding Orchids
• Native Ferns, Mosses, and Grasses
• Understanding Perennials

Lois Berg Stack

Dr. Lois Berg Stack is the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Ornamental Horticulture Specialist. She conducts applied research and organizes workshops and conferences for nursery, greenhouse, garden center and landscape professionals in Maine and New England. Some of her current projects focus on plants that support native bees and honeybees, and production of chokeberry as a nutraceutical crop. She also works extensively with home gardeners on landscape topics such as management of invasive species and selection and management of Maine landscape plants.

Lauren Stockwell

Certificate Program instructor Lauren Stockwell is a botanist and environmental consultant. Her business, Stockwell Environmental Consulting, Inc. provides comprehensive environmental services including natural resource identification, resource evaluation, and related permitting. She has led many botanical field walks and has taught several prior classes at the Gardens.

Melissa Cullina

Melissa Cullina is Director of Education & Staff Botanist for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Formerly Botanist with the Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Cullina specializes in aquatic and coastal botany, field identification, and rare species conservation.

Ted Elliman

Ecologist Ted Elliman is currently Vegetation Management Coordinator for the New England Wild Flower Society, where for the past five years he and his dedicated corps of volunteers have located, documented, and controlled invasive species in natural areas for land trusts, conservation organizations, and state agencies across the New England landscape. In his present position, he also conducts botanical inventories, rare-plant and natural-community documentation. Previously, Ted worked as a contract ecologist for the National Park Service and several other agencies doing rare-plant and natural-community surveys and invasive-management projects on the Appalachian Trail (from Maine to Pennsylvania) and the Boston Harbor Islands. He has been a natural history tour guide to western China for the last 15 years.

Irene Brady Barber

Irene Brady Barber is currently both a landscape designer for Cosmic Stone & Garden Supply and a seasonal horticultural educator at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. With an academic and professional background in both communications (human behavior) and horticulture studies, Irene is working to complete a professional certification in the field of horticultural therapy, which is the focus of much of her teaching at the Gardens.

Lisa Cowan

Lisa Cowan, PLA, principal of Studioverde, with offices in Cumberland, Maine, and Austin, Texas, is a nationally recognized landscape architect with expertise in ecology-based planning, landscape design and land management. Lisa is an officer in the American Society of Landscape Architects Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network and has been writing and lecturing on the design of beautiful, high-performance landscapes and the new Sustainable Sites Initiative rating system. Lisa’s work includes the design of the landscape art feature at the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Bangor, Maine; a LEED Gold residential landscape in Falmouth, Maine; a scenic overlook in Trenton, Maine; and an extensive portfolio of ecological design and construction methodologies for wetland, riparian and upland restoration.

Justin Nichols

Staff Horticulturist Justin Nichols has been professionally maintaining gardens for more than 20 years, the last six here at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. He has a master’s degree in education and enjoys teaching horticultural topics to people of all ages.

The sad fact is that most nursery owners, horticulturalists, and garden center managers have little to no understanding of the ecology of a garden or its relation to the environment beyond the garden fence. And very few gardeners have this information either.

Its not their fault. As a culture we dont teach ecology in school, and only those with an interest in the subject choose to study it.

But its not like only those with an interest in ecology need to have a healthy environment. We all need that.

Imagine how different our world would be if at a very minimum every politician, whether local, state, or national, understood ecology and the important ecosystem services that are provided by a healthy environment, which our survival is dependent on. I dont think they would be so quick to enact policies that trash our environment if they really understood the long term consequences.

In the meantime, the responsibility for acquiring this knowledge falls on each of us as homeowners, business owners, and land managers.

And yes, it is a lot to learn:

• What plants are native to your region?
• Which plants are invasive and should not be planted in your area?
• What plants will provide for the largest numbers of wildlife?
• How chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides kill all of the beneficial wildlife in the soil?
• And more

Ive been told that this is simply too much for anyone to learn, its impossible.

But look at how our culture has changed in just the last 10 years:

• Weve learned how to use email
• Weve learned how to use Facebook and Twitter
• Every time we get a new cell phone, we have to learn how to use it
• Weve learned iphones, ipods, ipads

In my lifetime I have had to learn many things. We did not have computers at home when I was young. Then only rich people had computers. Then there was the TRS-80 (we called it the Trash 80). And now there are laptops, netbooks, macbook airs. And the smartphone in my pocket is a more powerful computer that anyone could have imagined even 10 years ago.

In fact we learn new things all of the time.

And understanding the ecology of your garden and how what you do there impacts the world around you seems kind of easy compared to some of those things above.

So where should you start?

Find a native plant nursery near you, or a local chapter of your state native plant society and spend some time talking with the nursery owner or the members of the native plants society. These folks are passionate and knowledgeable and will be your best resources for the plants that will work best in your garden.

Print out a list of invasive plants in your area and carry it with you in your wallet. Every time you go to purchase a plant, pull out this list and check to make sure that your plant is not on that list.

Spend some time getting to know the conditions in your garden. Where does the water collect after it rains? How many hours of sun does each area of your garden really get each day? What type of soil do you have? Knowing these things will allow you to put plants in the right place for them in your garden (and will also show you which plants will not thrive in your garden).

Do online research to locate organizations, books, native plant sales, and many other people eager to share their wisdom with you.

Owen Dell has a great line in his excellent book, Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies, where he says that a gardeners best tool is a lounge chair. Take some time to just sit and watch what happens in your garden. By observing what happens you will gain all of the knowledge you need to create welcoming habitats for wildlife.

But if you’ve ever experienced that sucking of the teeth and aghast looks that some gardeners do when talking about your wildlife garden, you totally understand this side of the equation. So I ask Are Wildlife Gardeners Real Gardeners?

What are the “Real Gardeners” meaning when they suck their teeth at us?

Sometimes they think that our gardens are nothing but an ugly overgrown mess, because our gardens have been stereotyped that way.

They don’t understand that if we chose to, we could design a completely formal garden using nothing but native plants. Or a cottage garden, a Japanese Garden, or any style of garden we choose.

They don’t seem to mind our quaint exclamations of joy when we find a new bird or butterfly in our garden, they can even sometimes handle the fact that we’re thrilled to find caterpillars munching away on our plants. Gasp!

They’re not quite sure about encouraging rabbits to make their homes in our garden, and they are very skeptical about our delight when we find a snake. Oh the horror!

So what is the problem?

It’s our choice of plants.

I mean native plants, EWWWW!

They’re ugly. They’re boring. They don’t have fancy cultivar names.

In fact, some “Real Gardeners” get quite worked up over the subject of native plants. They despise them. I’ve even seen a very well known garden writer completely trash an excellent book because in three pages of it’s total of 389 pages it talked about the value of native plants in our gardens.

They don’t know (or don’t want to know) that without native plants in our gardens we would not have the wildlife that we do.

We know that if we want to create welcoming habitats for wildlife in our gardens we have to increase the amount of native plants in our landscapes. No native plants means no insects, which means no baby birds, no caterpillars, and no wildlife.

They don’t understand why we don’t fall into a swoon when some fancy new peony is released to the market.

They don’t understand why we’re not racing out to the nursery to get the latest fancy cultivar into our gardens.

They don’t understand our frustration because some native plants are quite difficult to find for sale.

And they don’t understand that the entire reason we garden in the first place is for the wildlife. My garden is for the birds (and the bees, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, toads, bats, snakes and other wildlife that makes its home in my garden).

Wildlife gardeners know that they have a responsibility to become the steward of their small piece of the planet and make decisions that will protect the environment, contribute to ecosystem services, and provide for wildlife.

We know that every choice we make in our gardens can either positively impact the world around us or create negative impacts such as the chemicals that run off from gardens that destroy soil organisms, pollute our streams, kill off wildlife, and poison our waters.

If we look all the way back in our history to the very first gardeners we see that the first man and woman were told to take care of their space and become stewards of the wildlife that lived there.

Since that time we as humans have done a very poor job of taking care of our planet. Wildlife gardeners are working to reverse that damage.

So are wildlife gardeners “Real Gardeners”? I say yes!!!

Note: I really don’t believe in the Us vs Them mentality. I think most of us make the best choices we know how to make. Lack of knowledge or commitment to positive change are things that can be overcome. It is up to each of us to help educate our friends and neighbors about the benefits of gardening for wildlife and making our world a better place. Many of you are actively involved in this education and I say Kudos to You!

Even though I live in the highly urban and over-developed city of Philadelphia, there is still a large selection of natural areas to visit right here in my city.

Last weekend I made one of my regular visits to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, located adjacent to the Philadelphia Airport. And even though this space is surrounded by oil tank farms, landfills, city development, highways, and the airport it’s easy to see why creating welcoming habitat for wildlife in our urban gardens is so important.

Planning a visit to your local natural areas can provide lots of inspiration for your own wildlife garden. You’ll get to see what native plants work best in your area, and get to observe the wildlife species that benefit from these plants. And you’ll get lots of ideas to add to your ecosystem garden….See the photos and read more of A Visit to John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens

Urban Habitat at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge

The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful example of how habitat can be created even in urban areas.

The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum is located in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania, about 1 mile from the Philadelphia International Airport. In fact standing on the road around the impoundment at the refuge is a good spot to watch planes taking off and landing at the airport, which doesn’t seem to be the best place for a wildlife refuge at all.

Signs of the urban nature of this wildlife refuge are everywhere. You can see the oil refinery tanks on the other side of Darby Creek from the impoundment road.

Gulf Oil donated a portion of this refuge to the city, but has maintained an oil pipeline that runs through the refuge.

But last week was the Philadelphia Flower Show, and I must admit to a guilty pleasure. My dear friend Bill Schaffer and his wife Kris Kratt of Schaffer Designs always have an incredibly creative and artistic display at the Flower Show, and I go every year to see what how they’ve outdone themselves this year.

Philadelphia is also known for its street art, and there’s lots of fun stuff to see just walking from the parking garage to the Philadelphia Convention Center, where the Flower Show is held.

This year I was pleasantly surprised to find a display that was educational and amusing. “A Backyard Battle” by the Mercer County Community College Horticulture Program.

The Horticulture Program at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) is a comprehensive and hands-on program designed for students interested in pursuing careers in the field of horticulture, landscaping, and garden design. The program offers a range of courses covering a variety of topics, including plant science, landscape design, garden maintenance, and more.

Students in the program benefit from a combination of classroom instruction, laboratory work, and hands-on field experiences. This allows students to gain practical experience and develop the skills they need to succeed in the industry. Additionally, MCCC’s horticulture program is unique in that it offers students the opportunity to participate in a variety of hands-on projects, such as planting and maintaining the college’s own gardens and greenhouses.

The faculty at MCCC is experienced and knowledgeable, and provides students with personalized attention and guidance throughout the program. The program is designed to be flexible, allowing students to customize their learning experience based on their individual interests and career goals.

Upon completion of the program, students will be prepared to work in a variety of roles in the horticulture industry, including positions in garden design, landscaping, nursery management, and more. The program also provides students with the opportunity to earn certifications in areas such as arboriculture, landscape design, and pesticide application.

A systemic pesticide is absorbed into all parts of the plant: leaves, flowers, pollen, and nectar which means that any caterpillar feeding on that plant, any butterfly sipping some nectar, or any native bee collecting pollen are often killed simply by visiting plants treated with neonicontinoids.

Neonicotinoids affect the central nervous system of insects resulting in paralysis and death, which is surely not your goal if you’re goal is to create a pollinator garden!

Now these chemicals are being discovered in many leading garden centers in plants that have been pre-treated with this toxic poison.

Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides that are widely used in agriculture and horticulture to control pests such as aphids, mites, and whiteflies. They are called “neonicotinoids” because they are chemically similar to nicotine and work by affecting the nervous system of insects.

Neonicotinoids have become popular in recent years due to their systemic action, which allows the chemical to be absorbed into the plant tissue and provides protection from pests for the entire life of the plant. This makes them highly effective at controlling pests, but it also means that the chemicals can persist in the environment for long periods of time and can have unintended impacts on non-target species, including beneficial insects such as bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

Studies have shown that neonicotinoids can have significant negative impacts on bee populations, particularly when the chemicals are used on flowering crops that bees rely on for food. Neonicotinoids can also contaminate the nectar and pollen of plants, which can harm bees and other pollinators that feed on the plants.

As a result of these concerns, several countries, including the European Union, have placed restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the safety of neonicotinoids and has proposed restrictions on some uses of the chemicals.

Given the growing body of evidence linking neonicotinoids to declines in bee populations and other wildlife, it is important to be mindful of the potential impacts of these chemicals and to consider alternative pest management strategies that are less harmful to the environment and to non-target species.

Several years ago, I posed the question at Ecosystem Gardening “Is Sustainability Only About Human Benefit?” I asked this question because advocates of bamboo as a sustainable flooring and other building materials seemed to blithely ignore the fact that bamboo is considered an invasive plant (a plant from a foreign location that is causing damage to natural ecosystems), and has degraded many natural ecosystems, making them less able to provide for the needs of wildlife.

In the comments people left at that post, and especially at the Facebook page I was basically painted as an ignorant fool for advocating for wildlife gardens. Humans are part of nature, therefore our actions are just as benign as the bird who poops out the seed of some invasive plant, allowing it to spread through another ecosystem was the essence of the argument against what I had said.

Yes, humans are part of nature. And we have repeatedly shown that we make very poor decisions that continue to cause great harm to our ecosystems, the wildlife that depend on them, and the health of our planet. We have a very poor track record in our selfish quest for more resources, more space, and more income from development. And yet we are loath to take any responsibility for the harm our actions have caused.

The good news is that we can remediate some of these negative impacts by adding more wildlife gardens and welcoming habitats for wildlife at our own properties.

PawPaw Tree (c) Irma McVey

Ro has a particular fondness for Zebra Swallowtail butterflies, which at this point, are not present in Cape May. But they are found in Delaware, a short hop across the Delaware Bay.

Being an optimist, Ro has planted PawPaw trees (the host plant for the Zebra Swallowtail) around her garden, in hopes that one day soon, the Zebra Swallowtail will make the leap across the bay and find in her garden a welcoming habitat.

One of the hallmarks of Ro’s Ecosystem Garden is the expansive meadow/former horsepasture. In order to keep succession at bay, this meadow is burned every year in the early spring. Otherwise, it would be overrun with rasperries, sweet gum, and black gum, among others, on a march to return this field to forest. Since grassland birds are in such danger of extinction due to loss of habitat, Ro prefers to keep this area as a meadow to support these endangered birds.

This property is very close to a Nature Conservancy preserve, the Hidden Valley Ranch, where many owls nest, and raptors, coyotes, skunks, opossums, and many other wildlife live. Many of these species hunt or feed in Ro’s meadow because she is providing food and habitat that welcomes these species.

Although Ro does on occasion add native plant plugs to her meadow, she is content to see what appears spontaneously, having been “planted” by the birds or a native plant from the seedbank in the soil that finally has the right conditions to germinate.

The spring was unusually rainy this year and a very welcome plant to arrive in the meadow is one of Ro’s favorite, Nodding Ladies Tresses. New also this year, the small pink-flowered Maryland Meadow Beauty. What an amazing thing when a volunteer to the garden is such a welcome treasure!

Tropical Milkweed with Monarch Caterpillar (c) Irma McVey

This garden is filled with milkweed to provide hosts for Monarch butterflies. Ro loves this particular insect and plants every species of aesclepias that she finds that will survive the conditions in her garden. These include swamp milkweed, common milkweed, butterfly weed, and tropical milkweed, from which Ro diligently collects seed every year because this plant is an annual in Cape May.

Red Chokecherry (c) Irma McVey

Ro has a wide variety of fruiting/berrying shrubs and trees to feed wildlife from her Ecosystem Garden, including one of her favorites, the Red Chokecherry and Eastern Red Cedar. Many birds feast on these fruits, which Ro has planted specifically to support them.

Invasive Porcelain Berry (c) Irma McVey

Some advice from Ro for wildlife gardeners: be vigilant about removing invasive plants or your garden will be swallowed up by these nasties. In Cape May, the bane of every gardener is the highly invasive Porcelain Berry, which will over run roadside edges, gardens, open space, and is prevalent in every protected space in Cape May. Ro fights an ongoing constant battle in her attempts to keep this plant from swallowing her garden.

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to visit other wildlife gardens. I love meeting other passionate wildlife gardeners and seeing what they have done to create welcoming wildlife habitats in their garden spaces.

And one of my all-time favorite wildlife gardens to visit was Irma McVey’s. I first met Irma at a wildlife garden workshop given by Pat Sutton. Every week for 8 weeks we met to learn about creating wildlife habitat gardens, attracting birds, butterflies, and other wildlife, and choosing the best plants to attract wildlife to our gardens.

Sadly, Irma McVey passed away about a year ago, and I was saddened not only by the loss of my friend, but also that this beautiful wildlife garden would pass into the hands of someone who would not appreciate this incredible wildlife habitat.

Shortly after Irma’s passing my mom became quite ill, and I needed to go to Florida to take care of her. I became my mom’s full-time caretaker, and hope that I was able to bring her some comfort and joy prior to her own passing.

After spending over two months caring for my mom and then settling her estate and planning her memorial service, I received a phone call from two very dear friends of mine who wanted to let me know that they had just finished the settlement process on Irma’s house!

Although Kathy and Hugh live in Maryland, they had been informed that this house was available in Cape May and after seeing it, they decided to make an offer. Kathy had done an internet search and discovered the articles I had written here about my visits to Irma’s wildlife garden as well as the memorial tribute I had written for her.

Imagine their surprise to discover this connection between me and this garden. And imagine my surprise to learn that my friends would now become the stewards of this important wildlife garden! Now this is an amazing example of a whole different kind of cycle of life — the passing of a wildlife garden from one caretaker to another.

Kathy Woods is passionate about wildlife. So passionate about their care and well-being that she has devoted herself to wildlife rescue and rehab at her Phoenix Wildlife Center. I can remember one time I visited her and Hugh that there was an injured Loon in the bathtub. From Eagles and hawks to songbirds, baby foxes, raccoons opossums, turtles, and so much more, Kathy works tirelessly to heal injured wildlife so that they can return to their life in the wild.

Hugh Simmons is an amazing birder and nature photographer who has been active in his local and regional Audubon societies for many years. And he recently joined the Board of Directors for the National Audubon Society.

I was so blessed to have met them both on my amazing trip to Veracruz to see the phenomenom of the River of Raptors, and we became fast friends.

This past weekend I spent a totally spontaneous time with them at their new home in Cape May, Irma McVey’s former wildlife garden, which is now Kathy and Hugh’s wildlife garden, and full of birds, butterflies, bees, and so much life.

I am so thrilled that they have made this garden their own! And I wish Kathy and Hugh very hearty congratulations on their recent wedding. It only took them 23 years