help im trying to relax by looking at gardening posts on pinterest but half of the things they say are wrong
The concept of “bug hotels” “frog houses” “toad houses” are cute but the best habitat for small creatures isn’t PVC pipes or clay flowerpots or whatever, it’s literally just rotting logs, brush piles, rock piles, leaf litter, and lots of plants instead of flat, open mowed grass. You do not have to buy anything
The idea of moss lawns is great but in most places moss doesn’t naturally grow in homogeneous, lawn-like sheets. Different species of moss like different surfaces: some grow on rock or concrete, some on wood, some on soil, and it depends on the light levels and moisture levels and chemistry of the substrate which ones will live there. The soil ones are usually found on stream banks, steep slopes, and on humps in the ground created by the root ball of a large tree wrenching out of the ground when the tree falls (fun fact these humps are an important characteristic of old growth forest). Thick, lush colonies of moss can take YEARS to grow.
Also the trick of blending moss with buttermilk does not work- it’s a plant, it doesn’t like to be shredded up! In my experience moss is incredibly hard to transplant because the habitat preferences for each species are so specific.
That being said, reuse what you already have— if you have bricks, cinderblocks or broken ceramic items, you can definitely use them in your back yard habitat
Bird houses are worthwhile as they simulate things like cavities in trees that have rotted out internally, which might be hard to find in urbanized environments.
If your yard is soggy, please consider constructing a water-retaining wetland garden. It’s as simple as digging a wide, shallow hole where the water likes to gather and stacking logs in and around the water.
At one side, you can spread pebbles, at another side, add some sand so butterflies can drink up minerals, and keep another side of it mud to attract helpful insects like dirt-dauber wasps. (They are chill and will not harm you.)
Rushes and cattails are super easy to dig up from ditches on the side of the road. But watch out! There are some species that can be SUPER invasive in some places.
And propagating a willow is the easiest thing in the world— snip off a twig and put it in some water and it will start growing roots.
Watch out, weeping willows aren’t the native willow in most places! But the wild native ones aren’t too hard to find. Here in North America, they’re scrungly things, often more shrubby than tree, and they don’t weep. It’s easiest to tell them in the spring, when the catkins (flowers) are out.
The willow is the second best kind of tree for caterpillars of butterflies and moths, next to oak. In North America if you grow a good willow thicket, you may be blessed with a red-winged blackbird nest.
The significance of the caterpillars is not only in the caterpillars themselves, but in the fact that lots of birds require caterpillars to feed baby birds.
If wet, grow willow, if dry, grow oak. And if you see a plant that is scrungly and unattractive, try to learn about it to see the virtues it may have, which likely are neglected in gardens due to outer appearances
Hey can you elaborate on the moss hump thing? because I found two and thought it might have been created that way.
Yes! That looks like exactly what this is! You can see the rotted remnants of the tree trunk.
When a mature tree falls and its root ball is ripped out of the ground, it creates a small hill and next to it a hole in the ground, this creates variations in shade, moisture, and soil that allows for the establishment of different plants. This raised up area will not gather leaf litter like the rest of the ground, so it is perfect for moss, and the decomposing roots make it very fertile. And the hole in the ground can fill with water and create a tiny pond.
This little microhabitat can only be created from the life and death of a tree, which takes decades, if not centuries.
