Features: The Gardening Coach • Susan Harris

Photo:Susan Harris

A sleeping giant has awakened in Takoma, one that you’re going to be hearing a lot about in the coming months. It started with a comment on the “Takoma Hort” Yahoo group about the National Wildlife Federation’s fabulous program to help communities become corridors that attract more birds, butterflies, frogs and snails, and to educate residents about healthier, more sustainable gardening practices.

Then we learned that several communities in Virginia have already completed the multi-year process and are now certified as Wildlife Habitat Communities, while not a single town or county in Maryland has so much as begun the process. Which raises the question: If we’re so progressive, why are these Virginia towns leaving us in their dust? Forget the butterflies—what about our civic pride?

So whether motivated by bruised pride or by the benefits of the program itself, individuals and groups started signing on immediately and the first planning team was composed of the Takoma Horticulture Club, Friends of Sligo Creek, the Committee on the Environment, Azalea Quilters, and the Voice. We’re lucky to have Linda Keenan, National Wildlife Federation backyard habitat steward, as team leader for this initial planning stage.

It starts in your backyard.

You’ve all seen those attractive Certified Wildlife Habitat Backyard signs? Well, to be certified as a community, we need a certain number of certified backyards—150 if the City of Takoma Park is the boundary—and it’s easy. In order to have a backyard certified, homeowners must provide certain essentials for wildlife: food, a reliable source of water, cover (like a rock pile), and places to raise young (like large shrubs or a water garden). Homeowners must also follow healthy, sustainable gardening practices like mulching and reducing the use of chemicals. Just recently I went on line to see the application. Realizing that my backyard meets the requirements, I filled out the form, paid $15, and received a certificate in the mail. So my property was added to the 15 others within the City of Takoma Park as of May of this year.

Why you should certify your backyard • It’ll help Takoma become Maryland’s first Wildlife Habitat Community • You’ll see more birds, butterflies, frogs, and turtles • You and your whole family will learn more about gardening by reading the quarterly Habitats Newsletter you’ll receive • It’ll make you a member of the National Wildlife Federation for a year and you’ll receive its award-winning National Wildlife Magazine • It’ll show your support for creating a more nature-friendly world right here. • It’ll teach kids about nature and gardening in fun ways

Community certification
and how the Voice is helping

In addition to having a minimum number of certified individual backyards based on population, communities must earn points by certifying public places like schoolyards, churchyards and parks, and by holding events like native plant sales or stream clean-ups. We’ll also get points toward certification for having “regular articles in a local paper about the project.” so hey, you’re reading it. Yes, this very column and the regular updates I’ll be posting are part of our road to success. Points are also awarded for having a habitat website with news and lots of resources to help in the process. But because this is 2006 and we’re a hip town, instead of a boring, static website we’ll have a blog —“Wild, Wild, Takoma,” the Wildlife Community Habitat Blog, which you can visit at www.wildwildtakoma.blogspot.com. Everyone will have the opportunity to write about their own habitat projects and get comments from readers, perhaps about the best shrubs and trees for attracting certain birds or the best feeders for hummingbirds.

• Residents will meet like-minded neighbors who share their love of wildlife and nature
• It’ll improve our watershed through reduced toxic run-off
• It’ll help reduce carbon emissions related to climate change
• We’ll all learn more about living more lightly on Earth
• Nearby individual habitats can combine to create a wildlife corridor
• And last but not least, it’ll put Takoma on the map as the progressive community we like to think it is!

Contribute to takomagarden.net
The Takoma Horticulture Club has recently launched its new gardening information website and welcomes input from all readers of the Voice. Send your garden photographs or your favorite gardening books, mail order sources, or environmental links to me at harristakoma@erols.com, and I'll add them to the site.

Master Gardener Susan Harris writes about gardening for UDC's Cooperative Extension Service and teaches gardening privately; see - thegardeningcoach.com. She also blogs at gardenrant.com and takomagardener.typepad.com.

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