A great resource for CT gardeners, and others interested in environmental news, is ct environmental headlines , which lists anything and everything to do with climate, energy, conservation, sustainability, preservation, and a ton of other topics.
Prep time: 35 minutes Chill time: 2 hours Makes about 3 1/2 cups Nan-Si Clancey of Weimar was looking for tropical fruit salsa recipes. We featured three salsa recipes in last week’s Mailbox
Garden as if life depended on it! Doug Tallamy wrote these words in my copy of his book, Bringing Nature Home . No, I’m not a special friend or acquaintance, he wrote similar, if not identical words inside all the books he signed that day. On the other hand, though, I am special. I’m a gardener with extraordinary power … I can choose to plant whatever I want. You are also extraordinary, as you have exactly the same power as I. And if we, as gardeners, do just a little of what Tallamy suggests – increase the number of native plants growing in each of our gardens– we, individually and together, may be able to make a significant difference in the nature of our future. Professor Tallamy chairs the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark. There he teaches insect taxonomy and ecology courses and researches how insects and plants interact. You can delve into his research simply by searching his name in Google Scholar. You’ll see studies like Squash beetle feeding behavior in the journal Ecology, or Effects of non-native plants on the native insect community of Delaware in Biological Invasions … you get the picture, he’s an insect junkie. But he’s still able to write compelling, and very readable non-scientific explanations of the side-by-side evolution of local insects and local plants that enables them to support not only each other but the many birds and other creatures farther up the food chain … and how non-native plants are simply not as palatable or user-friendly, so to speak, to local insects … and when faced with fewer or no native food, insects either vastly decline or disappear … and when this happens local birds have fewer insects and caterpillars to feed their little bird babies … and weaker or fewer bird babies means fewer birds to feed other creatures farther up the food chain. Ok, any grammar or English teacher reading this is probably cringing at my run-on sentence, but I think I’ve made my, or more correctly Tallamy’s point. Fewer natives = fewer bugs = fewer birds = less food for all.
Winter may be just days away, but my gardens still offer a touch of holiday cheer.
