Get Wild in Your Garden

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“Don’t make it so complicated,” Beltz says. “I keep a half-barrel filled with water as a frog habitat, and I hang a wind chime above it so that the tail drags in the water. That’s just enough movement to discourage mosquito eggs.”

The only things left are places to raise young. Once again, I’m fresh out of caves, wetlands, thickets, and ponds. But I do have host plants for caterpillars—a native milkweed that monarchs feed on—and a nesting box. I’m not sure you could call my front yard of tall grasses and asters a true meadow, but it’s close enough.

In the end, I didn’t change much. I planted a couple of shrubs, installed a frog house, and added a water source. And while the certificate is nice, the real seal of approval comes on warm nights when the delirious chorus of crickets drifts into my home office from the yard, drowning out the clatter of my keyboard and luring me to come outside.

One night I walked down the street to see how far their song extended. I didn’t even make it to the end of the block before I realized that every other yard was silent. My garden had become a cricket amphitheater for the entire neighborhood. The crickets sang as if they intended to remind us that we are never far from wildlife, even at home.

Excerpted from OnEarth(Winter 2008). Subscriptions: $15/yr. (4 issues), including Natural Resources Defense Council membership, from 40 W. 20th St., New York, NY 10011; www.onearth.org.

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