Where the Wild Things Are

When I go walking in my town, I look at the yard plants. I like to see what's growing and whether the deer have been at them. I look at what attracts butterflies and bees, what comes back year after year and what is uprooted in the fall. Many homes don't plant flowers or only buy pots of mums in gross in the fall they can throw out by Christmas. Many have the same types of shrubs.

Virginia creeper with berries (Margo D. Beller)

There is a sort of mania among some suburbanites. They must have neatly mowed grass, they must blow off even one leaf or twig that falls on it no matter the season, they must have layers of colored mulch put down around their shrubs and trees, they must put down (or have their lawn services put down) pounds of weed killer and insecticide on the grass. They want their property to look "natural" without the mess or the fuss.

I always get a chuckle out of seeing their weedy or burnt-over lawns in late summer, especially after a soggy spring. The orange mushrooms make for a nice contrast.

In my wanderings I've seen the more interesting plants in so-called "waste areas," those areas where neither homeowner nor town mow or use insecticides. Some of these areas may be designated "natural areas" and  planted with wildflowers such as milkweed and brown-eyed susans to draw those butterflies and bees. Most, however, are just weedy fields.

Inkweed (Margo D. Beller)

But weeds can also be interesting. While they may not look particularly pretty, these fields are like giant truck stops when they are going to seed in the fall for migrating and wintering or local birds.

Ragweed, for instance, the bane of allergy sufferers like me. At this time of year it is loaded with seed. So are the more benign goldenrod, joe-pye weed, coneflowers and thistle. The goldfinches and assorted sparrows really go for the seed.

Walking by one particular field I found a forest of inkweed, thick with purple berries favored by mockingbirds, catbirds, robins and other fruit eaters. There were pale purple asters drawing bees and vines of reddening Virginia creeper covered with black berries. Even my old nemesis the poison ivy was offering berries for the birds, which they will eat and spread.

To many, these "waste" areas are good for nothing except paving over. In Jersey City, where I once worked, at this time of year I'd see migrating northern parula, winter wrens, various types of sparrows and goldfinches in the weedy fields, chowing down for the next leg of their trip south (or north, in spring). I'd even find one of their predators, the endangered American kestrel. Then the light rail was built and those fields became apartment developments. The birds left and the people proliferated.

Snakeroot (Margo D. Beller)

That has not happened in my town, at least not much. These areas I visit are town or county property and not commercial. But in other areas I have seen buildings pulled down, weed fields spring up and then be paved over. Streets get clogged with more cars as more people move into "luxury" townhouse developments that spring up like weeds without the benefits to birds and insects.

My yard isn't particularly neat. MH does the lawn when it needs a cut, about every two weeks. In the backyard there are bits of wild daisy, aster, goldenrod and a nice white flower with the ugly name of snakeroot. There are also vines I try to keep under some kind of control and fruiting shrubs that seem to draw more squirrels than birds. No one will ever confuse my yard with those areas Mother Nature "developed" long before we were here. But I try. It's no waste of my time.