Lexington, KY - Give your favorite gardeners the gift of increased awareness this holiday season --
the awareness that their gardens can make a difference, that gardening is a powerful practice and that plant selection is an ecological statement.
Here are some books that say it best.
"Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens," by Dr. Douglas W. Tallamy, opens a whole new gardening world for many people. Tallamy is a professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. While Tallamy affirms that habitat destruction is proceeding apace, he then challenges gardeners by saying we have the power, through our plant choices, to make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity.
Tallamy has done the research to prove that "There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. Most native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plant species disappear or are replaced by alien exotics, the insects disappear, thus impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals."
I am among those who heard his call and my gardening life has forever changed for the better. I kept some of my favorite non-invasive exotics, including some daylilies and such, but 70 percent of my garden is packed with beautiful natives. My gardening spirit soars when I see all of the new visitors --
birds, butterflies and insects are happy to live outside my back door. There's food for everyone.
It can be hard to know where to start when adding native plants. You might include some information about the Lexington Chapter of Wild Ones with your gift. This group is full of people ready and willing to reach out to advise the aspiring native plant gardener and monthly events inspire us in our vision. See their website, www.wildones.org/chapters/lexington, for more information.
Once your friends have more native plants in their gardens, they will surely want to identify their new garden visitors. A brother and sister from Louisville, Judy Burris and Wayne Richards, will help them do just that with their book "The Life Cycles of Butterflies: From Egg to Maturity, a Visual Guide to 23 Common Garden Butterflies." This volume contains great information about host plants for caterpillars (you can't have butterflies without caterpillars) and preferred nectar plants for butterflies, as well as excellent photographs of the cycle from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.
After reading this book I began to find spicebush swallowtail eggs on my spicebush, monarch eggs on my milkweed, and more. It's great fun, and easy, to raise and release butterflies. "The Family Butterfly Book" by Rick Mikula provides all you need to know.
Burris and Richards' most recent book, "The Secret Life of Backyard Bugs," is also worth a look.
Sue Reed, the author of "Energy-Wise Landscape Design," starts off her book by asking: "If someone told you that there was one single way you could save energy and money at the same time, heat and cool your house more efficiently and effectively, improve the beauty, utility and value of your property, get a big benefit from a small investment while also contributing to a cleaner, healthier environment ... would you be interested?"
What gardeners wouldn't want to know that they could save energy, simply by making small changes in the way they design and build their landscapes?
The author covers two basic methods for saving energy. First, our gardens and grounds can be designed so they help keep our homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter. And second, we can create landscapes that are hardy, low maintenance and require little in the way of outside resources. Your gardening friends will learn things like how to place a shade tree by figuring out where its shadow will fall at certain times of the day and how long of a shadow a tree of a certain height, in a specific location, will cast. This book is loaded with understandable technical information, design tips and lots of how-to coverage.
Yes, it's getting colder and winter is on its way. But the winter solstice, marking the shortest day of the year, is on Dec. 22. The holidays will come, the days will get longer, and before you know it your gardening friends will be putting all of the new information you've provided into practice. Better buy yourself a copy of these books, too, so you can keep up with them.