Plant native wildflowers from seed or starts. A great beginner goal to help declining bird and pollinator populations and beautify your garden is to have 30% of your yard host wildflowers.
Get comfortable with worms. The famous fish bait, red wigglers, are hugely beneficial to your lawn, flower beds and gardens. You can add worms to your soil, begin a small worm farm or add worm poop, aka worm castings, to lawns and garden beds for healthy soil and plants without chemicals.
Make better planters. Improve your planter soil by filling the bottom third with sticks, twigs and leaf litter. This will require less soil and will break down over time to feed the soil with nutrients. Add those worm castings and mulch to your planter with locally sourced, undyed moss to help retain moisture.
Include habitats for good bugs and birds. Our yards need to be balanced working ecosystems. We can use bug snugs, native bee hotels and designated brush piles to make safe homes for birds and bugs that are critical for a healthy yard.
Don’t spray. This is maybe the most difficult change but with the highest impact. Spraying adult mosquitoes does not help reduce population – removing standing water and using mosquito dunks do. Spraying our lawns removes critical food sources for birds and bats.
