11 Easy Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in the Garden
For Earth Day this year, let’s celebrate the Earth by nurturing biodiverse ecosystems and nourishing the living things that inhabit our green spaces. Join beekeeper and pollinator enthusiast Melissa Strauss for some ways to make your garden a more inviting place for all its inhabitants!
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On April 22, 1970, the United States celebrated the first Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson, former Governor of Wisconsin, founded the holiday to promote awareness of environmental issues nationwide. An estimated 20 million Americans participated in the demonstration on that day, which led to President Richard Nixon’s creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) later that same year.
The creation of the holiday was a largely bipartisan effort, and it played a role in supporting additional legislation, prompting the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and many others that followed. 1990 saw Earth Day spread around the globe, with the collective participation reaching as many as 200 million people in separate countries—141 countries.
35 years later, we continue to face many of the same environmental issues. As individuals, we can’t single-handedly stop deforestation of rainforests or remove all the plastic from the ocean. However, there are small ways we can make a difference, even if it is only in our own backyards. Here are some things I’m planning to do this year, as well as some other ways you can celebrate Earth Day in your garden.
Observe
One of the most important things we can do to make our space a more inviting and biodiverse environment is to simply observe. There are so many things to observe with our senses that can give us information to help point us in the right direction.
But it’s so hard to slow down and take a break! I know; I completely empathize. The bustle of daily life can make it difficult to spend the time we need doing the physical work of the garden. But in preparation for Earth Day, I invite you to spend one of these last cool spring days listening to, looking at, smelling, and feeling what’s going on in the small places and how they form the collective garden.
Pour yourself a cup of coffee (or tea… a mimosa if you please) and spend a little time just enjoying your space. Observe animals and insects, or the lack thereof, as this can tell us a lot about the presence of chemicals. Look for signs of disease and pest damage, and see if you can identify any potential future issues.
Just take a little time to listen to what your space is telling you. Sometimes, the most helpful thing you can do is just observe and let the garden do the talking. If you give it some time, it will tell you what it needs most.
Plant Native Pollinator Plants
Pollinators are the unsung heroes of the garden, and in recent years, we have seen an alarming decline in many populations. The Monarch butterfly is one of the most significantly affected. Millions were observed in the 1980s, while this past year, a scant 9,119 showed up at their overwintering grounds in California. In the East, the numbers aren’t quite as alarming, but it’s clear that the situation is dire.
The same applies to several species of bumblebees and native bees, and there is a severe crisis in the loss of honeybee colonies. While honeybees are not native to the United States, they are responsible for pollinating a significant amount of our food and flower crops. The projections for 2025 are bleak, with a possible collapse of 70% of colonies.
These numbers are a cause for concern for many reasons, not the least of which is our food supply. This affects the agricultural community the most, but in reality, unless you grow all of your own food, it affects the rest of us as well.
No one can single-handedly save pollinators. It may seem like a losing battle on a global level, but if enough of us create spaces for them to live and reproduce, we can keep these creatures from becoming extinct.
Pollinators will return to places where they can collect the greatest amount of nectar while expending the least amount of energy. Plants that are native to your region are adapted to thrive in that specific environment. This is where they will require the least maintenance, additional watering, and soil amendment.
Native plants are also the best thing for pollinators at the specific point in their lifecycle where they exist in that space. This is especially true of migratory species. For an Earth Day project, research which native plants in your region produce ample amounts of nectar and pollen, and add one or five of them to your garden. I think you will find the results quite pleasing.
Add Butterfly Hosts
Hand in hand with adding native pollinator plants is the need to bring in butterfly host plants. Every species of butterfly has at least one host plant. This is where they lay their eggs, and the sole food source for their larval stage. Without these, you may see a few come through your yard to have a snack, but they won’t be able to stick around for long.
Milkweed is the sole larval food for the Monarch butterfly. While there are more than 60 species native to the United States, for some reason, the tropical, non-native species seem to show up most in the gardening section of large hardware store chains. This creates an issue, as it is not the proper food source for the butterflies at this stage in their lives.
Topical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) also carries a parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (try saying that three times, fast). The larvae ingest the OE, which proliferates in their digestive tract. It can cause weak butterflies with deformed wings and shortened lifespans.
If you have this in your yard, consider replacing it with a native species. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) are native to most of the Eastern and Midwestern states, while showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) is a good choice for the Western states.
Monarchs are only one of about 750 species of butterflies in the United States, and they all have hosts. For Earth Day, find out what species are native to your area and add their host plants to your garden.
Plant an Endangered Species
Sometimes, one small plant can make a big impact. So, if you don’t have a ton of time or a huge budget, consider planting just one threatened or endangered native plant. If you have a good local nursery that specializes in native plants, ask them what they have that is rare or endangered. Most will have at least one in stock.
This year, I’m on the hunt for Gentian Pinkroot (Spigelia gentianoides) to add to my garden. This critically endangered, long-lived perennial is native to Florida and Alabama. We only know of five places where natural populations still exist.
Check out the NatureServe Explorer site or the USDA Forest Service’s Rare Plant Information Resources to see what you can plant to help keep one of these threatened or endangered species alive. Then, when you can, propagate and share with friends for the next Earth Day!
Make Your Garden Frog-Friendly
Frogs are another unsung hero of the garden ecosystem. They play an important role in the food web, feasting on nuisance insects and feeding larger animals like bats and snakes. My chickens will fight each other over a tree frog. They fill an important spot in that food web, and their absence can make pest control a larger issue.
Frogs might be my favorite creatures to find in my yard. Their thin skin makes them vulnerable to chemicals and pollutants. Their presence indicates that your garden is free of these harmful elements, making it a more hospitable place for other animals, insects, and humans.
To lure amphibians to your space, give them a permanent water source where they can lay their eggs. Avoid using chemicals and give them plenty of cool, moist hiding places where they can escape predators. Throw out your pesticides as well; frogs hang out where they can find food, and insects are what they prefer.
Remove Something Invasive
Removing an invasive species is something you can do that will make a difference and won’t cost a penny. Invasive plants are non-native and aggressively out-compete other important native plant life.
Identifying these might be as easy as determining which non-native plants are crowding out the desirable ones in your yard. If you’re not sure or just want to confirm, you can check the interactive map in the USDA National Invasive Species Information Center.
Find out how the plant reproduces so that you can remove as much as possible. Some aggressive plants spread by underground rhizomes, and others re-seed freely. You may have to work at it on more than one occasion to get rid of it. If it spreads by self-seeding, make sure to cut off any flowers so that it doesn’t produce more seeds for next year.
Start Composting
If your household doesn’t already compost food waste, there is no time like the present to get started. When we place our food scraps in plastic trash bags, they sit in landfills for a minimum of 20 years, just taking up space. By using them to make nutrient-rich soil, you not only reduce the amount of trash produced, but you nourish your garden with your leftovers.
Compost is free fertilizer and organic, so it’s not harmful to the ecosystem. There are many effective methods of composting, some more involved than others. If you produce a significant amount of material to compost, you might want to invest in a tumbler or system of bins to help get the job done.
You can compost even if you’re an urban gardener. Some compost bins fit nicely in the kitchen, where you can toss everything in directly. Some of them do the entire job, sitting right there in your kitchen, providing nutrient-rich soil for repotting your precious houseplants.
Switch to Organic Fertilizer
Speaking of organic fertilizer, if you’re not using it, this is a great time to make the switch. Organic fertilizers come from natural, renewable sources like bone meal, manure, and compost. They have many advantages over chemical fertilizers, and making the switch will do wonders for your biodiverse environment.
Organic fertilizers improve the structure and water-retaining abilities of your soil, which means less erosion and a better support system for plant roots. They also feed microorganisms that help cycle nutrients through the soil, making them more available to your plants.
In terms of their fertilizing ability, organic matter breaks down slowly, which means a steady release of nutrients over a longer period than you can expect from chemical fertilizers. There is no concern about polluting the groundwater supply with these, as well.
Choose a Space to Quit Mowing
You may already know about No Mow March—when we hold off on mowing the lawn until April. If you’re in a cooler climate, you may call it No Mow May. Whichever one suits your environment, these are fantastic ideas. What I’m about to propose is along the same lines but involves a more long-term approach.
If you don’t mind a bit of disorder in your yard for Earth Day this year, why not designate a no-mow section of your property? It doesn’t have to be expansive—rewilding a couple of square yards is still going to do good.
By not mowing, you allow native plants (some might call them weeds) to move in. This little wild space will provide shelter for wildlife and food for pollinators. Birds will find nesting materials here, and also find food like seeds and insects, more available in this spot.
If you really want to go all out, you can allow a large portion of land to become wild. It will be more drought-tolerant than a traditional turf grass lawn and require far less maintenance.
Create an Outdoor Living Space
As important as it is to create this thriving space for wildlife and plant life, you are important as well. People are part of the Earth’s grand ecosystem, and for all the work and effort you invest in your garden, you should have a space to relax and enjoy it.
If you feel the need, pair this with one of the other actions that improve the biodiversity in your space. Just make sure to leave some room for yourself and your loved ones to enjoy and experience all that goes along with it.
It can be as simple as a garden bench or a couple of lounge chairs to sit and chat and observe the beauty of nature. You created this beautiful space, and you belong in it as much as anything else!
Nourish Yourself
Finally, nature is designed to produce a good deal of what we need to not only survive but thrive. Much of our most nourishing food grows from the Earth. Sadly, the commercial food industry doesn’t always provide the cleanest, most nutrient-rich products for us to eat and feed to our families.
It makes sense that if you have created a thriving, healthy, chemical-free habitat, you should grow the things that keep you healthy, too. A vegetable garden or fruit tree is a perfect Earth Day project.
Grow beautiful, seasonal fruits and vegetables in your garden that you can eat while they are as fresh as possible. There is no time for them to degrade or lose nutrients in transit and storage.
It’s going to take a lot of work to make the Earth a more sustainable and healthy place. We need to make sure that when an opportunity arises to pitch in, we have the strength and energy to make our contribution to the planet that we call home.
