growing & crawling: new life from old plants

Growing & Crawling

new life from old plants

January can be a cruel and bitterly cold month that has us looking at our yards and gardens with longing for warmer times. Days when life was springing forth from the ground and our pollinator bffs were flitting around busily. But now when we look at our gardens, we can sometimes see only the skeletons of past plants and not an insect in sight. It is during these cold months that many of us decide to tidy up our gardens so they are a blank canvas, ready for spring shoots to make their mark.

What we sometimes don't realize is that those old flower stalks and dried sticks that were once vegetable plants are already doing their job to help out this coming season. Many of our favorite pollinators and beneficial insects have gone dormant or laid their eggs inside these dry and hollow stems. The piles of leaves that have accumulated are home to many necessary insects that spend their winters burrowed and protected in these mounds.

Being a good gardener means supporting and maintaining the ecosystem, not just on a large scale, but even our very own home ecosystem that we spend so many warm days nurturing and protecting.

This winter I encourage you to be like the bug, hunker down and take a load off, removing those old plants now can only do harm. They'll still be there in the spring and the inhabitants inside will thank you.

By janet douberly

Janet Douberly is Program Coordinator at Downtown Greens. learn more about things growing & crawling in Fxbg, check out our Facebook & Instagram.