Monarch Gardens
  • Home
  • About
    • What We Believe
    • Benjamin Vogt
    • Our Dream
    • Press
  • Design
    • Designing
    • Portfolio
    • Reviews
  • Classes
  • Speaking
  • Books
    • Articles
    • Books
  • Garden Guides
  • Workshop
  • Blog
  • community
  • Shirts
  • News
  • Contact

The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

No, We Don't Just Need to Plant More Milkweed

7/23/2022

74 Comments

 
The call to plant milkweed -- while easily sharable and actionable -- is greatly reductionist and oversimplified. Maybe even harmful in some ways. I don't see it as a baby step or gateway, I see it as a sleight of hand.

Telling folks to go get some milkweed for their small foundation bed is like telling folks to get some wheat bread crust for dinner. Monarchs need an entire native plant community -- host plants AND nectar plants. And they need other interactions that occur in a dense, layered native plant community; interactions involving other species, interactions in the soil, interactions among the plants. Health and life is more than one genus of plants. And besides, there are many insect species at greater risk than monarchs, but we aren't planting for them.

My concern is folks will rush to plant milkweed and, like so many other of their garden plants, maroon them in a sea of wood mulch with plants spaced far apart. Milkweed, like most plants, did not evolve to grow by itself. Monarchs and milkweed need a plant community to thrive -- especially over vast stretches of a landscape, well more than a city can provide.

Monarchs also, most importantly above all else, need an end to burning fossil fuels as well as big agriculture as it's implemented now. Monarchs need MASSIVE systemic change to our society and culture at breakneck speed, not a "plant more milkweed" panacea that makes us feel better for a moment, but doesn't really practically address issues that will make a lasting difference for monarchs and so much more. Climate change is increasing occurrences of drought along the Mississippi flyway that stretches from Mexico to Canada, and it’s decimating fir trees in the overwintering grounds of the oyamel forest of central Mexico while also creating a risk of exposure to freak storms that bring cold rains and snows. And then there's the illegal logging.

I recently drove from the arrowhead of Minnesota to Des Moines, along the so-called I-35 Monarch Highway. There was a lot of mowing going on. In mid summer. About peak larvae action time. If we can't manage those small strips for wildlife rearing, what hope do we have in the monoculture fields beyond them?

Speaking of Iowa, it's at the center of monarch reproduction in summer (estimates are that around 38% of eastern U.S. monarchs come from the northern Midwest, the so-called corn belt and the largest slice of the pie). For those who don't know, over 99% of the tallgrass prairie is gone in Iowa and it's nearly as dire in neighboring states. Without those plant communities -- and the milkweed found within them -- what hope should we have?

This post is not to douse the flames of people rushing to spread the good news about milkweed -- most of us here already know the benefits of milkweed and native plants. But it is the idolatry over one charismatic butterfly species, and the subsequent narrow perspective on what the "solution" to "helping" them is, that becomes highly problematic if we're not willing or able to address the underlying or fundamental issues at play here. (And don't get me started on folks killing tussock moth larvae or milkweed beetles so there's more milkweed for monarchs to eat.)

No, you by yourself can't go convert 25% of Iowa from corn to prairie or get the U.S. to transition away from oil and coal. Yes, putting in more milkweed and a native plant garden in your suburban landscape is much more actionable and will get people talking / thinking (even though that can already feel like a mountain to climb for many -- what's native, what will work, what about the HOA, etc, all stuff we try to cover here and at the website as best we can).

What monarchs need is a revolution of compassion that draws a line against human privilege and supremacy, that says no more to this culture of waste and greed and violent colonization that's as suicidal as it is genocidal. And make no mistake, monarchs won’t vanish even if the two great migrations in North and Central America do (migration distances that many other butterfly species make around the world).

Don't just plant more milkweed. Call us all out on why we need more milkweed, more goldenrod, more aster, more bluestem, more coneflower, more prairie clover, more sedge. Call out our lawns. Call out our parking lots. Call out our farm fields. Call out our coal trains. Call out special interests that have taken over our system of government. Do what you can where you can -- a pot on an apartment deck, a front yard lawn, a YouTube channel, a farmer's market, a city council meeting, your close personal friend Bill Gates.

And don't just talk milkweed -- folks can handle the complexities, we're a highly-evolved species with immense hearts and immense brains. None of this is easy. It takes as much physical action as it does some complex personal, emotional reflection (and book reading) as we work for a healthier future. What are you going to risk in your life today to rewild your community?

[This post will surely evolve over time -- it's full of raw thoughts and emotions that will probably become a larger essay some day. Please keep comments civil and constructive without hyperbole.]

Picture
74 Comments

Most Garden Problems Can Be Solved With More Plants

7/22/2022

9 Comments

 
Many issues in a landscape bed can be addressed by increasing the number of plants in that bed. I see it time and again -- a native plant garden filled with wood mulch and plants spaced far apart, like in a bed that mow and blow landscapers install. Or like sculptures in a museum.
I think we treat our plants with too much reverence. We need to let them get tangled up, struggle, and compete. And even fade away. This is how nature works, and we do the plants -- and our goals of creating a sustainable ecosystem -- a disservice when we space plants far apart and without layers. This is something I hammer home in several of my lectures, especially "Fundamentals of Garden Layers."

So what are the benefits of greater plant density and layering? Here is a highlight list:

1) Mimizing herbivore damage. When we use bodyguard plants (grasses, sedges) around plants we know herbivores think are candy (Dalea purpurea, asters, etc), we can reduce our frustrations. One method of design, called matrix planting, is totally suited to bodyguard plants. Employing a matrix or base layer or ground cover of sedge or bunchgrasses placed every 12 inches provides a host of benefits synonymous with every bullet point on this list.

2) Increased habitat. Shelter, food sources, nesting sources, etc.

3) Reduced erosion. More plants intercept more rainfall which they hold on their leaves and stems (big trees are good at this, especially). More plants means more roots, which are also good at holding soil in place.

4) Increased soil moisture. As plants shade the soil surface they help slow evaporation. As plant roots amend soil naturally they help the soil hold more water.

5) Dense plantings compete much better against weeds. Nature abhors a vaccum and wants to fill in the space -- will you let it fill in with crabgrass or would you rather have some pretty flowers with foliage butterfly larvae eat? How much weeding do you want to do year after year after year?

So stop thinking about plants as little sculptures, even in a native plant garden created for wildlife. Wildlife don't want big gaps of wood mulch -- they want plants. Plants want plants. You want more plants. Your plant addiction wants more plants. Choose plants that self sow or run around a little to fill in gaps for free (but choose wisely based on research of the plant in your region, and matching it to your soil and other plants in your bed).

If you need help thinking this all through, there are 13 hours of video content to guide you step by step -- and fall is the BEST time to get planting.
9 Comments

    About

    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

    Picture
    Online Classes  |  200 Articles

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017


    Original Archives

    1,257 posts from

    July 2007 - May 2017


    Garden Timelapse


    Subscribe

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    In a time of climate change and mass extinction how & for whom we garden matters more than ever.

    "This book is about so much more than gardening."
Picture
M O N A R C H   G A R D E N S   LLC

prairie inspired  design

Lincoln & Omaha, Nebraska

Monarch Gardens is a prairie-inspired design firm. We specialize in lawn to meadow conversions as well as urban shade gardens.

Employing 95% native plants, our designs are climate resilient, adaptable, and provide numerous ecological benefits while artistically reflecting wilder landscapes.
Sign up for our newsletter!
Join Now