Opinion: What I Think
The anonymous letter appeared in my mail:
“YOUR VIRTUE SIGNALING LANDSCAPING IS AN EYESORE TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.”
I was confused, angry, and a little unsettled by the all-caps typed letter, and I knew I needed to respond one way or another. So, I’m writing back here.
When I moved into my lovely 99-year-old home two years ago, I went straight to work making it my own. That included digging out overgrown bushes planted too close to the house and removing the grass, mostly weeds. [See photo, right.] A farm kid and a long-time nature-lover who had recently retired, I finally had an opportunity to create a native garden of my design, but I would have to get dirty first.
I broke two shovels digging into the sod that had carpeted the dirt for half a century. I created berms and bark chip paths. A thick layer of wood chips smothered the old grass, beginning the process of enriching the soil by hosting beneficial microbes and fungi. I rolled in big nurse logs sprouting tiny ferns. I planted vine maple, mock orange, and birchleaf spirea in a native hedgerow. At native plant sales, I chose sunny meadow plants because I was tickled by their name: showy fleabane, Oregon sunshine, junegrass.
Currently, passersby see cut-up logs and bare sticks with tiny buds popping through the wood chips. I see tiny miracles sprouting from my little garden. When I look out at my little garden, I know that one day I’ll see goldfinches, monarchs, and nuthatches.
Dear neighbor, we love our little native garden and will keep growing it. Come over for coffee sometime.
Want to learn more about putting out a welcome mat for birds and butterflies? Check out these sites.
- backyardhabitats.org
- nwf.org?Native-Plant-Habitats/Join-the-Movement
- xerces.org
- extension.oregonstate.edu/collection/native-plant-gardening
Angela Greer is a retired elementary teacher who lives in Beaumont-Wilshire. She’s learning about native plants from experts and friends in the Backyard Habitat certification program. When not digging in the dirt, she plays in a polka band, practices Spanish at Portlandia, and travels with her husband, Scott.