College Creek
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“Your Garden is Defiant Compassion
Your garden is a protest. It is a place of defiant compassion.
That space is one to help sustain wildlife and ecosystem function while providing an aesthetic response that moves you.
For you, beauty isn’t petal deep, but goes down into the soil, further down into the aquifer, and back up into the air and for miles around on the backs and legs of insects.
You don’t have to see soil microbes in action, birds eating seeds, butterflies laying eggs, ants farming aphids –
– just knowing it’s possible in your garden thrills you,
it’s like faith, and it frees you to live life more authentically.
Your garden is a protest
for all the ways in which we deny our life
by denying other lives.
Go plant some natives. Be defiantly compassionate. “
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The cardinals feast on Wax Myrtle berries in our ‘biohedge’ all winter long.
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Benjamin Vogt visited Forest Garden this morning, and left a link to his “Defiant Compassion” post in a comment on my review of Ken Druse’s The Natural Habitat Garden. Benjamin writes, speaks, designs native plant gardens, and maintains his own 2000 square foot prairie style garden in Nebraska. I’m honored that he visited Forest Garden and left a comment and link to share his site.
His words move me, as I hope they move you. He has cut through all of the chatter and spoken truth:
“- just knowing it’s possible in your garden thrills you,
it’s like faith, and it frees you to live life more authentically.”
Just knowing that it is possible to help sustain the food chain, the ecosystem, and the planet through our own small efforts on our own bit of land speaks to a powerful realization. Each of us, through our own consistent choices and efforts may contribute to the great work. We don’t need 100 acres and conservancy status to make a difference. We can make a difference even in our small suburban yards.
And even better, when we can enlist the participation of a friend or two, together we have a far greater impact. This awareness spreads from person to person, heart to heart, and garden to garden.
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This morning, I finally made the time to visit the National Wildlife Foundation’s website to register our garden as a Certified Wildlife Habitat. This is something I’ve intended to do for months now. I don’t know why I thought it would be a time consuming project. It was really very simple, and took less than 10 minutes to complete.
To certify, you need to provide sources of food and water for wildlife, cover, safe areas to raise their young, and a healthy environment. The website asks specific questions in all of these areas. When you can certify that your garden provides the resources wildlife need to live, you qualify as an official habitat.
A minimal donation of $20.00 also brings membership in the National Wildlife Federation, its newsletters and magazines.
It is a symbolic step, you realize, but we are very happy to have become a part of this growing movement to support habitat and wildlife.
I intend to encourage my gardening friends, and maybe you, too, to certify your own garden as a Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation.
It shows our commitment. But it also shows our intent to work together with others to preserve native plants, native habitat, and the myriad creatures who share our gardens with us. It is too great a task for any of us to accomplish alone. But in fellowship with others of like mind, we can make a significant impact.
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When I finished registering, the National Wildlife Federation kindly sent me a press release which we could forward on to our local newspaper. Here is part of what it says:
“We are so excited to have another passionate wildlife gardener join us and create a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Over the last 40 years, nearly 200,000 wildlife gardeners have joined NWF’s Garden for Wildlife movement and helped restore wildlife habitat right in their own yards and neighborhoods,” said David Mizejewski, naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation. “Whether you garden in a suburban yard, an apartment balcony or a 10-acre farm, a schoolyard or a business park, or anything in between, everyone can create a home for local wildlife. Turning your space into a Certified Wildlife Habitat is fun, easy and makes a big difference for neighborhood wildlife,” he added.
NWF’s Garden for Wildlife program encourages responsible gardening that helps pollinators and other wildlife thrive. It encourages planting with native species like milkweed and discouraging chemical pesticide use. With nearly 200,000 locations and growing, NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitats and Community Wildlife Habitats recognize individuals, schools, groups and whole communities committed to providing habitat for wildlife, including pollinators.
Each of the nearly 200,000 certified locations provides food, water, cover and places to raise young. This makes yards, schools, businesses, places of worship, campuses, parks, farms and other community-based landscapes into wildlife sanctuaries. For more information on gardening for wildlife and details on how an entire community can become certified, visit www.nwf.org/habitat or call 1-800-822-9919. For more National Wildlife Federation news, visit: www.nwf.org/news.
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Don’t you want to be a part of this, too? Please leave a comment if you already have a certified Wildlife Habitat. And please also leave a comment if you decide to certify your yard as a habitat. The process is structured to be feasible for gardeners in all sorts of living situations. The Federation’s website offers many helpful resources to get started.
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Here are some resources from Forest Garden which might prove helpful, too:
Bringing Birds to the Garden
Butterfly and Hummingbird Gardens
Native Plants
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“Wildness is the preservation of the World.”
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Henry David Thoreau
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“The Holy Land is everywhere”
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Black Elk
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Forest Garden 