Finding time to play outdoors can be a struggle, so Katherine Martinko lists on treehugger.com some advice to get kids outside. "Start thinking of it as a necessity. If you start viewing daily outdoor play as being as important as a meal or a good night's sleep, you'll start to find more time for it. Think of it as nonnegotiable; no 'extra' things should happen until outdoor playtime has been checked off the list."* She suggests scheduling outdoor time the way you plan other extracurricular activities. "If you only have a few minutes, take advantage of that. Send kids outside for five or ten minutes to blow off steam, run around the block, wrestle in the snow, or dig a hole. It doesn't take much to make a big difference."* Plan family time time outdoors on weekends, whether far away, at local parks, or in your own backyard.
Leave the leaves in your lawn and plant beds as mulch for plants and shelter for pollinators.10/2/2021
As fall arrives, people spend a lot of time and money removing the inevitable piles of leaves. However, leaving the leaves in place is actually better for the health of our yards. This can be accomplished by raking leaves into plant beds and mulch-mowing leaves into the lawn.
Leaf litter is a vital resource for both plants and animals. Bird and insect populations are declining, in part due to habitat lost to development. Countless insects, including the larval and pupal stages of important pollinators, rely on leaf litter for protection over the winter. These same leaf piles consequently become important places to forage for food by birds. We can provide this habitat in our yards by placing leaves under the plants these animals frequent. The plants also benefit as the leaves break down and return essential nutrients to the soil. Decomposed leaves also add structure to the soil, which improves water retention and the soil’s ability to handle droughts and flooding events. When we remove leaves, we find that we need to add extra fertilizer and must purchase mulch for our plant beds. Leaf mulch also suppresses weeds, helps retain moisture, and protects plant beds during the winter. You can save time and money by using the leaves that are already in your yard. To create leaf mulch for your yard, rake leaves into plant beds and mulch mow leaves directly into the lawn. To help leaves decompose faster, use a mower, leaf shredder or chipper to break leaves into smaller pieces before adding them to plant beds. If you prefer the look of bark or other mulch in your landscaping, add a 3” layer of leaf mulch and cover that with a commercial mulch of your choice. Use a regular mower or attach special mulching blades to mulch leaves into the lawn. Many mowers are already designed to mulch cut grass and can be used to mulch mow leaves as well. Put the mower on its highest setting and run it over the leaves. This is best done when leaves are dry. Sometimes a second pass is needed to shred them to a small enough size. Use the resources that have already been deposited in your yard to benefit your plants and their pollinators. The gentle falling of leaves that comes with the arrival autumn is accompanied by the loud droning of leaf blowers. The high-decible noise from these machines raises the question of whether they are necessary. While they are a helpful tool for piling the leaves in our tree-rich neighborhoods, they have downsides as well. According to an EPA study, the inefficient two-stroke motor of gas-powered leaf blowers emit particulates and pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change. The practice of blowing leaves out of landscaping is detrimental to plant beds: the high-force winds produced by leaf blowers scour plants, compact the soil, and blow away nutrients with the topsoil. A study in the Environmental and Toxicology Studies Journal found that the low-frequency/high decibel sounds emitted by gas-powered leaf blowers travel long distances and through walls. These impacts are detrimental to health of both humans and wildlife.
Alternatives to gas-powered leaf blowers include using different tools or adopting a different approach to leaves. Use a rake on the lawn and a broom to clear the sidewalk or driveway. Electric blowers have no direct emissions and produce less noise. We can also question the value of applying a standard of “neatness” in the outdoors that can only be achieved by using these machines. In some areas of the yard, leaves don’t need to be removed at all: soil in plant beds is protected by leaf litter and gets nutrients as the leaves break down. Instead of blowing leaves away, consider gently raking the leaves from your lawn into your landscaping. “Scientists at the University of Minnesota research flowering bee lawns as a concrete way that public land managers and homeowners can support bees. Many bee pollinator populations are in decline due to several factors, including a lack of bee-friendly flowers, exposure to pesticides, as well as diseases and parasites. Turfgrass lawns are ubiquitous in urban and suburban areas, covering more than 2% of the land area of the continental U.S., but don’t provide nectar or pollen for bees. Flowering bee lawns incorporate low-growing, perennial flowers into turfgrass lawns. The selected flowers are rich sources of nectar and pollen for bees and can withstand mowing and moderate foot traffic. This means flowering lawns can support bees while preserving the open sightlines and many of the recreational uses provided by traditional lawns…. Flowering lawns increase the diversity and abundance of flowers, helping support both honey bees and nativebees. So far, we have found 56 species of bees feeding on Dutch white clover alone. That represents roughly 15% of all known bee species in the entire state of Minnesota.”
In depth guide Researchers at the University of Minnesota recommend overseeding flower seeds into the lawn in the late fall when the seeds are dormant, setting them up to germinate in the spring. In Pennsylvania, flowers such as clover, buckwheat, violets, and burdock will support the bees in our area. The US Forest Service recommends only cutting your lawn every two to three weeks to allow flowers such as clover to bloom and be visited by bees. Spiders are vital part of our ecosystem, including the ones in your own yard. While some may feel they have a frightening look about them, there is nothing to fear, unless you are an insect. Spiders eat many of the insects that we consider pests. Even their web is useful – hummingbirds use it to strengthen their nests (to the chagrin of the spiders they steal from)! Unless you are allergic, most spider bites cause little or not reaction. Only two species of spiders found in Pennsylvania, black widow and brown recluse, are highly toxic to humans and both are rare here. Therefore, resist the temptation to spray toxic chemicals to rid your house and the area outside of spiders. Not only are you removing an ally in pest control, but the chemicals have far reaching harmful effects on many more critters. Get to know some spiders; learn how cool they are, and you will find yourself welcoming them into your yard!
Spiders are Interesting Along with their eight legs, spiders are known to have eight eyes. But not all spiders have eight eyes; some have six or fewer. Spiders that hunt during the day can have great eyesight, but others rely more on touch to find their way around. A layer of cells behind their retina, the tapetum lucidum, helps them catch light better at night, but can also help you see them: hold a flashlight shining forward next to your head, and you will be able to see spider eyeshine at night! Baby spiders are also super cool: some disperse from their eggsac by ballooning: they spin a thread of silk that they use to catch the wind, Mary Poppins-style, to find a new home. Meet Some Local Spiders You are likely to encounter the small but long legged cellar spider in your cellar or garage. When threatened, they vibrate in their web, perhaps making them less visible to a potential predator. This harmless spider particularly likes to eat ants, another reason to encourage them in your house. Jumping spiders are small, furry, very cute, and the males have a complex courtship dance that involves raising his front legs and strutting back and forth in front of the female. Some display beautiful colors when their legs are raised. The yellow garden spider is an impressive spider with beautiful yellow and black patterns on its body. It builds a large orb web with an interesting zig-zagging white stripe in the center. No one knows what this is for. While these spiders are large, they only bite if you try to handle them, and the bite is no worse than a bee sting. Sources: https://extension.psu.edu/commonly-encountered-pennsylvania-spiders https://www.thoughtco.com/cellar-spiders-overview-1968551 https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/how-spiders-see-the-world/ Ants provide vital ecological services as seed dispersers, detritivores, and arthropod predators, and are amazingly successful animals. As much as I find them fascinating in their industriousness and organization, I do prefer not to have them in my kitchen. Toxic chemicals, however, are harmful to us inside our house and to the native and beneficial wildlife outside. Besides, we don’t want to annihilate ants, just let them do their thing outside.
Jorge Vamos has compiled a list of non-toxic options for repelling ants from inside your house. He suggests finding the ants’ point of entry into the house and placing lemon rinds, baby powder, chalk, peppermint oil, or coffee grounds at that point or around the base of the house to deter the ants from entering. Inside your house, treat the places where you see ant trails with lemon juice, cinnamon, black pepper, chili powder, or cloves. You can also try combinations of more than one of these remedies. See the full article here. Treehugger.com writer Elizabeth Waddington lists her recommended flowers to plant as companion plants in vegetable gardens. She emphasizes that "biodiverse ecosystems with plenty of beneficial interactions are far more resilient and stable than their mono-crop counterparts. . . For example, flowers in a vegetable garden can draw in pollinators, help with pests, and provide a range of environmental benefits."* For the full list of plants, see the original article on Treehuger.com.
*Elizabeth Waddington, March 12, 2021, "Flowers I Like to Companion Plant With Vegetables," Treehuger.com Treehugger.com writer Elizabeth Waddington lists vegetable seeds that she recommends for planting with kids. She points out that "sowing any seeds with your kids is a great thing to do. Whatever you grow together, the time you spend in your garden will be highly educational. It can help kids learn vital skills for the future, and feel more connected to the natural world. And it can be a lot of fun.
Sowing seeds with kids can also sow seeds for the future of humanity. It can be an important step in creating citizens who understand the importance of nature and take the necessary action to protect it."* For the full list of seeds, see the original article on treehugger.com. *Elizabeth Waddington, March 18, 2021, "My Top 10 Choices For Seeds to Sow With Kids," treehugger.com. According to Penn State Extension, economists at Penn State University have estimated that, if not contained, the invasive spotted lanternfly could cost Pennsylvania’s economy at least $324 million annually. Besides feeding on and destroying economically important plants (grapevines, maples and other trees), spotted lanternflies in great numbers can significantly reduce our enjoyment of the outdoors in summer. Now is the time to check for and remove egg masses from hard surfaces and to make a plan to combat lanternfly nymphs as they emerge, in April. The Penn State Extension website provides extensive guidance on Spotted Lanternfly Management for Residents, including practical tips for dealing with egg masses and nymphs. Runoff from rainstorms can overwhelm existing storm drains and washes pollutants into waterways. The increase in paved surfaces decreases the ability of the land to absorb rainwater before it becomes runoff. You can help make a difference in managing runoff and improving water quality by installing a rain garden on your property.
From Pennsylvania Resources Council web site: "Rain Gardens are shallow, planted depressions that absorb runoff from impervious surfaces and allow it to infiltrate into the soil. Rain gardens are designed to have a “bowl shape” or “dip” that retains rain water as it waits to be absorbed into the soil. Rain Gardens are planted with deep rooted, native plants. Native plants are beautiful, hardy, and once established require less maintenance than a conventional lawn. Native plants provide food and shelter for a host of native birds, butterflies and beneficial insects. Rain Gardens reduce the initial rush of water that enters a stream during rain storms by capturing and absorbing runoff from yards, roofs, and paved surfaces. Rain gardens can absorb 30% more water than a traditional lawn. Properly designed rain gardens drain in 24 – 48 hours, can filter many common pollutants found in runoff, and help to recharge the ground water supply."* *prc.org/learn-act/watersheds-rain-barrels-rain-gardens/ |
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