Yesterday I celebrated New Year’s Day at the Nature Preserve near my home. The experience was so right, so delicious, that I decided to again vote for myself today, and get out to another natural area nearby: the Wilton Wildlife Preserve in Saratoga Springs, NY, which contains sandy pine flats and lots of Blue Lupine (Lupinus perennis), which is the host plant for the federally and state endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. Essentially this butterfly species has become threatened because their habitat has been usurped. The Preserve maintains the necessary open meadows with controlled burning. This season is significantly quieter than spring, summer or fall for a garden designer, and I relish the down time to draw wildlife gardening inspiration from natural habitat spaces.
My ambition while rambling through the trails is to quiet my mind enough to become alert to plant behavior models and patterns.
Perhaps Eastern White Pines are happily living in co-operation, reaching toward the sun in a grand yoga-like phototropism salutation? And, for this ecological moment, peace reigns quietly.
Elsewhere there may be evidence of competition, as sucession unfolds her inevitable process, peace can’t pervade eternal. Struggles for resources develop as trees get too big to share, and some fall and become humus. (In a wildlife garden setting, that is when we dig up the extra plants to share with our friends.)
Nature’s innate generosity with the native wildlife can be staggering, and certainly a characteristic I’d like to assimilate into my garden design strategy and style. Little Bluestem Grass Schizachyrium scoparium offers seeds for overwintering birds, and a modicum of shelter year round.
Same color of inspiration with Goldenrod, Solidago spp.. Native birds eat the seeds of wildly occuring Goldenrod and native bees’ habitat is supported by offering pollen late in the summer and early fall, when it is harder to find blooming flowers.
Not sure what this plant is, but those seeds look dense and caloric!
My goal as a garden designer is to create naturally beautiful and low maintenance garden spaces. The curves, plant proximity, layering, arrangement and shapes of naturally occuring ecosystems is the truth my brain needs to absorb for any hope of being successful with designing a blank canvas in a suburban backyard. Books are helpful. But a mental re-arranging, a reprogramming of what the world is supposed to look like is invaluable.
The places to visit are ubiquitous if I vote with my time judiciously.
John Muir famously admonished us to, “Climb these mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as cares drop off like autumn leaves.” Finding naturally beautiful places to visit and learning to cherish them is a ginormous priviledge. Seeking wildlife garden inspiration from nature herself is a nourishing practice that develops my interior world with a beauty not my own. I am reassured of a jen na sais quoi that exists, is accessible and no one can steal from me.
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I love to go to the natural areas around here too to see the designs nature has to offer…a perfect start to a wonderful new year!
Donna@Gardens Eye View recently posted..A New Journey
Happy New Year Donna! Hope you get lots of time in nature in 2013.
I had never heard of the Karner Blue before. Now I want to find one and hold up a tiny sign saying “GOOD LUCK LITTLE GUY!”
UrsulaV recently posted..Starting the year with the Old Farmer
Oh please, Ursala…. Draw a self portrait of you and a Karner Blue Butterfly with your little sign! I’ll post on my webpage and the Karner Blue lovers will flip out! Thanks for your mental positivity.
It’s so sad that the Karner Blue, the Mission Blue, and almost all of the rest of the Blues are in such dire straits because we’ve done a bang up job of destroying all of their habitats across the country. You’d think we’d learn to change our ways, and I am still hopeful that we will before it’s too late.
I too, love to walk around the parks and other natural areas near me and observe how the plants function together in patterns arranged by mother nature. It really helps me to learn how things will work best in my own wildlife garden.
Thanks so much for sharing the beauty of this special place!
Carole Sevilla Brown recently posted..The Ecosystem Gardening Story
Didn’t realize you were up in saratoga springs, a place a visited often (well the track, anyway). My sister is up in Glens Falls and is an avid gardener. It is so nice to go and see nature the way it is meant to be and that sure helps in creating and using native plants in the home landscape. If you emulate natures plans, I think you have better success. Smart of you to get out to gather your thoughtful plans!
Rootin for the Blue Butterfly!
Loret recently posted..A substitute White Christmas!
Thanks Loret! Technically I’m north of Glens Falls in Warrensburg, but since I work in Saratoga so much I like to seem like I live there. My husband and I are making inroads to move that way soon anyways. Get in touch when you are up next time! My phone number is always on my website. We could visit the demonstration rain gardens I designed at a wedding center in Lake George- http://jessecology.com/2012/08/lake-george-rain-gardens-progress/, it’s open to the public and should be pretty next year! How’s Florida this time of year, ok?