Biodiversity can be as close as your own garden space

AMENIA — Gardeners don’t stop being gardeners in winter, as evidenced by the enthusiastic turnout for a winter gardening talk held at the Amenia Free Library on Saturday, Feb. 22.

About 45 aspiring and accomplished gardeners gathered to view a film about the Homegrown National Park movement, a grass-roots conservation effort to regenerate biodiversity by planting native plants and battling invasive intruders across the nation.

Co-founder of Homegrown National Parks in 2019, gardener Michelle Alfandari of Sharon, Connecticut, shared ideas that could be incorporated into local yards and gardens to advance toward a solution that would quash invasive species and encourage natives. The resulting climate benefit is to wildlife species that thrive in an environment of biodiversity.

Alfandari founded HNP in collaboration with Professor Doug Tallamy, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware’s School of Agriculture. Both manage a Biodiversity Map that invites all gardeners to register on the map their native plantings, whether acreage or even a patio pot, seeking to turn the national map green with biodiversity.

Each property owner is encouraged to pursue four objectives: support the food web to support habitat — invasives detract from that web, but an oak tree helps — sequester carbon from the environment, manage the watershed, and support pollinators. Plant choice matters.

Relationships with nature are collaborative, not adversarial, the film advised.

“How do you get people inspired?” Alfandari asked hypothetically, noting that once people have direct experience, they are well on their way.

A grassroots organization, HNP now boasts more than 140,000 acres and 250,000 followers on social media, Alfandari said. As a grassroots movement, the organization is not limited by regulations.

“Trying to convert lawn into meadow is complicated,” Amenia Garden Club President Ken Monteiro observed, suggesting instead that gardeners look under existing trees on their property and create native beds under those trees. The strategy will lessen lawn mowing and protect beneficial insects that may drop down from the trees. Caterpillars are extremely beneficial and an important food source for birds.

From the audience, local gardening expert Maryanne Snow Pitts suggested leaving a rectangle of lawn unmowed. Another gardener shared his experience with finding goldenrod and Queen Anne’s Lace appearing in his rectangle.

All agreed that the fad of leaving the entire lawn unmowed has proven to be unpopular with neighbors.

Once invasives are removed, native plants will be encouraged to move into the space, Alfandari agreed.

Audience questions soon gravitated to methods for removing invasive plants, something of interest to everyone, while noting the problem that birds often nest in invasive overgrowth.

Debate ensued about the use of Roundup or Glyphosate with arguments on both sides.

Concluding the event, Monteiro asked the audience to provide suggestions about the local function of the Amenia Garden Club and its place within the community.

For more information about HNP, go to www.homegrownnationalpark.org. And to learn more about the Amenia Garden Club, go to www.ameniagardens.org.