The Native Neighbors
Steve Morgan & Fiona Reid, March 2008
You are standing still, framed in the doorway leading to your backyard. A brightly colored hummingbird catches your eye. It hovers close to a bright red penstemon while several butterflies flitter from flower to flower, landing gently on each as they sip the sweet nectar. Not so long ago you had a need for the neatness and order of your old garden, one dominated by carefully raked rosy gravel and a manicured green lawn. Hedges, trimmed shrubs, and block walls were the order of the day, and nary a natural sound broke the quiet of every morning. But next door something else was going on. The beautiful chaos of the early bird chorus brought life to every morning as the garden gave them all they needed for a home -- green colorful vines, dense canopied trees, water melodiously spilling over the rocks of the simple water feature, and plenty of seeds and insects to fill the mouths of their hungry young.
The next door garden was not a lonely one, but one filled with the joy of native neighbors -- those plants that live right here in this special part of the world, and the wildlife they attract. It took only one visit to that garden to convert you, to convince you that there was a better way, and that you too could create a sharing place where you and the natives could live and thrive together.
Soon the gutters that once carried rainwater away from your yard to who knows where, fill two storage tanks that provide all the water you need for your native plants. Soon you begin to see some new native neighbor in your garden every day -- even the occasional garter snake winding through the wet rocks and sometimes damselflies. The hummingbirds come to bathe and drink. The flowers are frequently covered with butterflies and other native insects. You'd never noticed before how really beautiful these creatures were, but now you find yourself watching them closely as they busily search for nectar, unsuspectingly helping to pollinate the flowers.
Long gone are the days of weeding the "gravel", instead you find yourself puttering, doing a little rearranging, even transplanting native seedlings to new areas, or giving away your own harvested seeds! No more the quiet life but instead one of constant interest and pleasure as life comes to your new garden, and as your new garden comes to life.
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