2020 Winter RVC Insights - Flipbook - Page 10
beautiful tree in the spring, but
doesn’t support anything either. The
cottonwood, black cherry, and some
of the willows are right up there.”
Kathy admits that not everything
she’s tried has thrived or survived.
When she plants something from a
small container or pot, she typically
babies it the first year by watering it
when it’s dry and in the second year if
it’s not looking very happy, she might
baby it again, but at that point, “it’s
the survival of the fittest.”
“It’s all just a big experiment and it’s
fun to see the wildlife,” said Kathy.
“There have been deer along with
raccoons and possums, voles and
moles.” When she’s in the prairie,
Kathy enjoys writing down the different varieties of birds she sees, stating
there were 28 different varieties this
year. Kathy’s favorite species have
been the bluebirds, which took her
five years to get, and the Baltimore
orioles, who she learned like Welch’s
grape jelly better than generic.
Kathy’s latest project on the prairie
is building an agricultural living buffer. She added some young spruce
trees, white pines, and native shrubs
on one side of the prairie to protect it
from the adjacent farm field.
One day, while walking along the
eastern white pines, Kathy became
concerned when she noticed at least
a hundred little black caterpillars on
one of the tiny little trees. Later that
afternoon she realized that she had
forgotten to go back to check on the
tree. When she got there, four hours
later, there was not one single caterpillar on it. “The birds had eaten
them, the whole ecosystem was
working”, she exclaimed!
Even with a creek running through
the prairie, Kathy said mosquitoes
aren’t an issue. She explained the
barn swallows and tree swallows eat a
ton of mosquitoes, as do the damselflies and dragonflies. “The whole
system just kind of takes care of itself
and it’s really amazing how it all works
together.”
Kathy has taken a keen interest
in pollinators, providing food and
shelter for them. She said issues,
such as colony collapse, are partially
attributed to the loss of habitat and
food. “Everybody can do something
to help with this. Everybody. Even if
it’s taking a little four by four corner
of your yard, just make sure you’re
planting native plants. Even people
living in an apartment can do their
part by putting a native plant in a
flowerpot outside. It helps the whole
ecological system and provides some
food and nourishment for pollinators
migrating through. They have to have
fuel along the way, just like our cars
do,” explained Kathy.
“A lot of this is just a matter of
changing our aesthetic view of what
is beautiful. We like our manicured
lawns, I have one too, but they are a
desert to all pollinators,” said Kathy.
“It has no value whatsoever and it’s
a lot of work for us. We have it in
our minds that everything has to be
mowed in order to be beautiful, I
thought that as well, but I’m learning
that it doesn’t have to be that way.
It’s just a matter of changing our perception.” Kathy did go on to say that
you can still plant cultivars among the
native plants and they’ll all coexist
together. “It’s a win-win, you can have
a shared ecosystem.”
“Everybody can do something
to help with this. Everybody.”
-Kathy Huffman
Kathy Huffman hosts a garden club at Rest-A-Bit.
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Close up of the bee hotel.