Go Wildscaping

You read the title right. We’re going on an adventure.

Our story begins with a land ravaged by destruction, flood, and famine. A poisoned land grown increasingly barren. A land thrown wildly out of balance.

We might not notice at first, looking out the door. The sun is shining. The grass is green.

In fact, huge areas of lawn – accompanied by a small variety of exotic, ornamental shrubs – are green as far as the eye can see! The people around us appear prosperous. Certainly, they don’t look like they’re starving. Sure, we might think, the weather has been a bit more unpredictable in recent years, and flooding may be more common, but it doesn’t usually seem to affect us much. And where is this so-called destruction?

Excellent question. The destruction lies right in front of us.

For humans are not the only creatures that dwell in this world. There are wee folk hiding in the last patches of meadow, marsh, and woodland. (There are also some rather large creatures as well, but even these prefer to hide from our sight.) And almost none of these creatures can eat the lawn or the exotic shrubs.

Well, isn’t that kind of the point? We don’t want a chewed-up yard, do we?

The interesting thing, though, is that these creatures also eat each other. Therefore, with enough diversity of these creatures and the plants they depend on, the creatures keep any one of them from causing too much destruction.

How monstrous! Why would we want such savage beasts living just outside our door?

The answer is that these creatures also possess a certain magic. Merely by existing, these creatures sustain the life of this land.

To begin, the plants these creatures depend on draw water into the ground, slowing it down and cleansing it; they moderate the sweltering summer heat or the frigid winter chill; and they clean the air and, indeed, make it breathable. The creatures hunt in, make homes in, and raise their young on these plants. In return, these creatures give nutrients to the plants, protect the plants, and help create and spread the plant’s offspring. You can’t have the plants without the animals, and you can’t have the animals without the plants. And you can’t have humans without both.

Okay, we get it: the circle of life, we’re all connected, yada, yada. But why do the creatures need to be in our yards when they can just go live in nature where they belong?

Simple. First, we forget sometimes, but we humans are part of nature, no matter how far away we think we live from it. Just like there is no wholly separate place of “Away” when you throw something away, there is no wholly separate place of “Nature.”

Second, there’s little habitat left for our friends. Remember the whole destruction bit? Every time land is cleared for new houses, shops, and so on (and we’ve built a lot), the plants and animals don’t simply spirit themselves away to that mysterious realm of “Nature” left untouched by humans. They don’t have that kind of magic. Even the ones who escape the bulldozers must still navigate vast residential areas to find new homes. And what little they find won’t conveniently be empty of competition and full of resources for them and their offspring. It makes sense that if plants can’t move, and animals can, and it’s also true that plants are essential to animal survival, then even the animals lucky enough to relocate won’t all be lucky enough to survive the change or the competition.

Third, the plants we typically use in our yards not only provide very little in the way of food or shelter for animals, their roots simply cannot absorb the same volume of rain the land once could. That problem only worsens with increased development and increased severe weather.

We are then left with a land of destruction, famine, and flood.

So that is why we must start with our yards. We can provide shelter and food here at home for our wee friends (and sometimes the not so wee ones, yes). We can slow and clean more water, trap more carbon, and make the world a more beautiful and interesting place. It’s here where our adventure begins! (And not to brag or anything, but we are the band of heroes.)

Thus, with garden spades for swords and work clothes for armor, we are going to restore the land, reconnect with nature, and save the wee folk, the magic, and life itself!