garden beds. After convincing my husband each spring that we do indeed have space for more plants, the magic began to slowly happen. As more native plants filled in the spaces, an entirely new universe was created. Sitting on the front steps enjoying the sun on my face, I still marvel at the world I helped create filled with buzzing insects and chirping birds. It is a pure joy for me to experience.
Redesigning a yard, using more native plants and changing the way we maintain our garden might seem like small, isolated actions. But when combined with the efforts of our neighbors, they stitch together a quilt of wildlife sanctuaries made from millions of gardens spreading throughout the country. Remember that environmental activism starts at home. Think global and act local, especially in your own backyard.
The cardinal flower( Lobelia cardinalis) beautifully frames the Gude Garden at Brookside Gardens.
plantings also retain soil moisture them to slowly decompose over and minimize disturbance from winter. This helps soil quality by stormwater runoff. This ecological providing nutrients and adding approach not only eliminates the organic matter that better retains need for mulch but also reduces moisture during dry summer watering and weeding. months. The enriched soil also
Another maintenance practice eliminates the need for harmful to consider is better preparing synthetic fertilizers. gardens for winter. The traditional Incorporating these lessons system ensures that everything in my home garden has been a rewarding journey. When we first pur- is neat and tidy in the landscape. Brookside Gardens’ approach chased our house in Silver Spring, increases the landscape benefits we inherited a front yard filled with to insects and wildlife throughout turf grass and garden beds of nonnatives like Burning Bush, English the winter. We delay cutting dead perennial stems until late spring as ivy and Liriope. Once these invasive they can host bees or other insect plants were eliminated, I dedicated larvae inside. Fallen leaves are every year to removing sections of raked into the plant beds allowing grass that gradually expanded the
CITATIONS
1
Wagner, David L., Grames, Eliza M., Forister, Matthew L., Berenbaum, May R., and Stopak, David.“ Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts”. PNAS, January 11, 2021, 118( 2). https:// doi. org / 10.1073 / pnas. 2023989118.
2
Natural Resources Council of Maine.( n. d.). Public Land Ownership by State. https:// www. nrcm. org / documents / publiclandownership. pdf
Jason Gedeik is the Adult Education Manager at Brookside Gardens, a Montgomery Parks operated public garden located within Wheaton Regional Park. He enjoys teaching and curating lecture series, workshops, garden tours and the annual GreenScapes Symposium. Jason also manages Health & Wellness programs that utilize the beautiful gardens for activities such as tai chi, yoga, forest bathing and meditation retreats.
10 plenty I spring sowing 2025