Link To Latest Published Article, “Drought Gardening for People and Wildlife” 

Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), a native plant, suffers in drought conditions.

 ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 

The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA daily newspaper) and The News Virginian (Waynesboro, VA daily newspaper) both recently published my article, “Drought gardening for people and wildlife” at the following links, respectively:

 

https://dailyprogress.com/opinion/column/marlene-condon-drought-gardening-for-people-and-wildlife/article_4bd921fa-45c9-11ef-9111-0bc7c5d7ea25.html

 

https://newsvirginian.com/opinion/column/marlene-condon-drought-gardening-for-people-and-wildlife/article_3a2d7b10-e4c9-531b-992e-d8cc8bd87b5d.html

 

If you can’t access it at either of these sites, I am reproducing it below for your convenience.

 

Sincerely,

Marlene

  

Drought Gardening for People and Wildlife

 

Once again, Virginia is suffering from a significant lack of rain. With each drought building upon the last, the pattern we are in does not bode well for our collective future. Therefore, if you own land, it’d be wise to manage it in the best possible manner to preserve water.

 

Limiting how often your property is cut is perhaps the foremost action people can take to preserve water, especially to conserve ground water. Most lawns are trimmed way too short, eliminating the "umbrella effect" gained from taller grass.

 

Longer blades shelter the ground, suppressing water evaporation from uncovered soil due to sunshine and wind. Water that goes back into the atmosphere is water that doesn't reach the water table to feed your well.

 

Leaving alone unused areas of grass, such as ditches and hillsides, would be extremely prudent for water conservation. Hillsides are subject to water runoff if there are not enough plants to hold the water in place, and ditches can collect water not only to recharge the soil moisture, but also for the use of wildlife. It’s time for aesthetics to take a back seat.

 

As early as June 25, grass cut way too short in Albemarle County had turned brown.

When it comes to gardening, you should only water when flowers begin to show signs of wilting. They can withstand this process (if it’s not prolonged), which forces them to grow more roots to help survive unusually dry conditions.

 

Common horticultural advice suggests you remove “competing” plants (aka, “weeds”) because they “steal” water from your plants, but it’s best if “weeding” is minimally done, especially during drought periods.

 

When I was young, I listened to the “experts” one time, and one time only. I reluctantly pulled wildflowers from among my veggies and quickly learned my lesson. My plants were wilted by the next day because the soil was no longer shaded by the "weeds". As with grass, you don’t want bare ground around your plants.

Of course, you can make more work for yourself by putting down a mulch layer in place of the plants you pulled, but living plants in proximity to one another do a great job of maintaining soil moisture—and you don’t need to buy them. As every gardener knows, Mother Nature is constantly trying to fill even the smallest of bare spots.

 

You should always follow Mother Nature’s examples, and this is one of them. Conservation of water is one of the reasons plants are always filling in any bare spot they can find.

 

Lastly, prepare for the future by investing in some type of water storage. Rain barrels don’t hold much liquid, but they will do if your gardening efforts are minimal.

 

For larger gardens, you’ll need to consider greater storage capacity. I have two 350-gallon containers sitting under my deck connected to the nearby downspout. I’m thus able to keep plants watered and my two small artificial ponds filled.

The oft-repeated assertion nowadays is that native plants don’t need watering. Could this be the reason so many newly planted trees around town have died? 

We can help wildlife during drought by making water available in our yards. Bird baths are great for birds and flying insects. Many kinds of 6-legged creatures drink water, or make use of it in other ways. For example, I’ve watched honeybees collect water from my bird bath to bring back to the hive to cool it.

 

Toads drink water through their skin, so placing a bird bath on the ground is a great way to help them—and mammals—to obtain water. Whether the bath is on the ground or a pedestal, it’s vital that the bath be shallow: a two-inch maximum depth at the center.

A Tufted Titmouse gets a drink of water while a House Finch family enjoy taking a bath in July of 2015.

Do not use mosquito dunks or any other pesticides in bird/toad baths to kill mosquitoes; it’s totally unnecessary. Mosquito eggs will be slurped up by animals drinking water. Additionally, all animals require clean water so you should be dumping out the water every few days anyway (preferably on your plants), which will dump any mosquito eggs within it.

 

Help hummingbirds by hanging sugar-water feeders for them. Water-deprived plants can’t make much, if any, nectar to feed these small birds. Or grow nectar-producing plants in pots that can be kept watered.

 

During drought, most native plants are not getting the amount of water they need. Now is the time to be realistic, rather than idealistic, and embrace so-called invasive plants. Most of these plants, such as Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), do fine in drought and continue to feed our pollinators (and deer) that could otherwise starve.

 

Drought will likely bring a dearth of seeds come fall for seed-eating birds. Please consider putting out bird feeders for them when that time arrives.    

Placing unwanted tomatoes in the yard, especially during drought, helps Box Turtles to get the liquid they need.

NATURE ADVICE:

 

If global climate change has brought recurring droughts to your area, it’s time to prepare for similar future scenarios. Homeowners, as well as government entities, such as highway departments, and farmers who cut grass for hay, must rethink how they manage landscapes under their control. It’s no longer business as usual; changing weather patterns require changing routines.

 

DISCLAIMER:

 

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Fighting A Losing Battle against Lawns, Pesticides, Lights, and Attitudes towards Plants and Wildlife

Even as the grass was turning brown (going dormant) and not growing due to a severe drought this past summer, the mowing needlessly continued along my road.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 

When I left the house in pre-dawn darkness this morning to exercise, I expected a pleasant, peaceful walk, with the only sounds being that of birds singing and chirping as they awoke. But no, despite the very early hour, what should come roaring up behind me on the roadway but three huge riding lawn mowers, moving from one section of a large property to another. They were still mowing when I returned more than an hour later!

 

Unfortunately, I don’t live far from some extremely wealthy people, all of whom maintain huge amounts of lawn. They mow every single week, regardless of whether the grass even needs it—such as during this recently past summer, when my area suffered the worst drought I’ve lived through in the 45 years I’ve resided in Virginia. The mowing didn’t stop taking place until the overly short grass turned completely brown and was obviously not growing.

 

Compounding the impact of all this mowing is the fact that the less well-off living nearby feel required to mow their own lawns lest they be viewed as socially inferior if they don’t follow the example set for them by the well-heeled. As a result, every house with a lawn along the entire length of my road gets mowed within the span of the same few days.

 

Maintaining a lawn doesn’t contribute to the wellbeing of wildlife. The act of mowing kills animals as it chops anything to bits that gets caught in the blades. Mowing cuts “weed” flower heads, such as dandelions and clovers, immediately depriving pollinators of a source of food. Pesticides are expressly employed for killing organisms living there. And, of course, the air and water pollution as a result of running a small engine impacts humans as well as wildlife.

 

This scenario is repeated over and over throughout the country. Consequently, I’ve come to the conclusion that we will never be able to save the natural world because so many folks continue to maintain an excessive amount of lawn, even in this time of “enlightenment”.

 

Radio and television gardening shows, and gardening columns and books, all exhort people to do away with as much lawn as possible, yet I see no real movement in this direction. Over the past few decades, an increase in the acreage devoted to lawns and the necessary mowing to maintain them has become more widespread, in fact.

 

Adding to my despair is the incredible amount of pesticide usage, not only included in lawn and garden maintenance, but also inside people’s homes. Neighborhood blogs make appallingly clear how often pest control companies are being called by homeowners.

 

If the “problem” is insect-related, you can rest assured poisonous chemicals are going to be employed, often both inside and out. If the “problem” is a mammal or reptile simply visiting the premises or trying to reproduce there, pest control folks will trap and kill it (it’s against the law in Virginia and many states to relocate wild animals), although these companies often tell folks they are not going to dispatch the animals.

Then there are the unnecessary lights. Lamp fixtures burn 24/7 outside numerous homes and barns, not only in my local area but anywhere I travel. Parking lots and buildings are often so illuminated at night that it seems to be daytime.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that the ubiquitous amount of lighting in society is responsible for the dearth of moths and thus the dearth of caterpillars (there are far more species of moths than butterflies). Moths are supposed to be mating at night, but instead they are attracted to, and hang around, all the lights out there.

 

When moths don’t procreate, they don’t produce caterpillars, which in turn results in fewer moths. It’s a vicious circle that has been going around for so long that moths are practically nonexistent these days. No amount of native-plant landscaping is going to bring back animals driven to near-extinction by lighting that, rather than diminishing, is increasing along with development.

 

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, the negative attitude of most people towards wildlife is hard to change. Far too much of the populace has become completely intolerant of having wildlife anywhere near where they live, perhaps because ignorance breeds fear, and nowadays few folks have any real understanding of and connection to wildlife. They’ve grown up in a bubble full of people and sanitized surroundings where wildlife is demonized.

 

The lack of knowledge of our natural world even extends to plants, which ends up adding yet more pesticides to the environment and taking away yet more habitat from wildlife as people get rid of what they see as undesirable plants.

 

An entire mythology has been created about so-called invasive plants. The resultant zeal to remove them is yet one more assault upon the environment that harms wildlife. Whether it’s spraying poisons upon plants or cutting them down (or often, both), habitat is destroyed. It’s beyond my comprehension how anyone can see these actions as beneficial to our natural world.

 

I can only conclude that I have been basically fighting a losing battle. After expending much time and effort over the past 28-plus years to get folks to better understand nature, I’m losing heart. However, I am not totally giving up (yet!). I’m working on two books I’d like to see published, and I need time to work further on that front.

 

Therefore, I plan to start posting once a month instead of every two weeks. This post serves as the commentary for the month of October. After that, I’ll post on the first Saturday of each month.

 

 NATURE ADVICE:

 

If you care about the natural world and haven't been “activating”, as I like to say, please start. Far too often, I’ve been a lone voice for the natural world, and that just doesn’t cut it.

 

Politicians and people in charge of natural areas don’t listen to a lone voice in the wilderness; they do listen when many voices speak as one. That’s the very reason the “invasive” plant folks have been able to infiltrate government and local neighborhoods. They’ve gathered a crowd of like-minded cohorts to spread their mythology far and wide, which gives it a semblance of credibility it doesn’t deserve.

 

I hope many of you will take up, or continue, the good fight. It’s vitally important not only for the natural world, but also for the benefit of mankind.