INTERPRETING NATURE: Making Connections Between Birding and Food Gardening

August 4, 2020 Susan Castor

This is the Loquat tree in my garden that many birds and pollinators visit.

By Ingrid Carrillo, Restoration & Education Staff Member

Published by Los Angeles Audubon Society in the Western Tanager, Vol. 86 No. 6 July–August 2020.

A Need for Connection

When I first started to garden, I began to see more wildlife visit my home. I began to see more birds, butterflies, and bees. I saw many birds use my fruit trees to eat, worms come up after a heavy rain, and hundreds of bees that swarmed my lime tree when it was flowering. I didn’t make the connections at first, but after working in the environmental field, I started to see how all this was connected. I began making the connection that if one thing wasn’t there, neither would the other one. I had the impression that not all animals were good to have in your garden, but I struggled with the thought of excluding any wildlife that made its way to my garden. I gardened to grow my own food, to see more animals in my yard, and lastly, I realized that I met more of my neighbors that way. People who passed my home on their walks frequently knocked on my gate and asked if they could try a pomegranate or guava that had fallen from the tree. I always said yes. I knew then that food gardens not only had an impact on wildlife but also on people in my community who wanted to see my plants and try a bite of them. Having a garden, whether native or edible, is a nurturing ground for education, community, and conservation.

My avocado tree that we planted on the sidewalk that used to grow five avocados per year and now grows up to thirty!

Now, I have both native and a food garden because I think it’s important to dedicate a space for wildlife and grow my own food. My favorite part about having a garden like this is that I get to see how wildlife interacts with all the plants that are present. I live in Los Angeles in an urban neighborhood, so you would think seeing wildlife would be infrequent. By having a garden it’s not! I’ve seen Cooper’s hawks, red-tailed hawks, hooded orioles, and black phoebes all come by looking for a treat. This is why I believe that the start of making an impact in the world begins in our backyard. As humans, we must conserve wildlife because it's been threatened due to our economic growth. Wildlife serves an important role in every ecosystem, so why not welcome it in your garden?

California mugwort is a native plant that holds many medicinal properties that can help relieve pain and treat rashes. Right beside it are cilantro plants beginning to sprout!

Food gardeners and birders both help play a role in helping the environment. Some birders dedicate their gardens to serve as habitat for the native birds, while other birders both create habitat for birds and grow their own food. Sometimes these groups overlap. Both are significant when it comes to helping their local environment, but they do not often work alongside each other to reach that goal. That time must come.

Why Los Angeles Audubon Must Engage with Food Gardeners

Food gardeners are key environmentalists. They help their local environment by minimizing their carbon footprint, create habitat for wildlife, and decrease the effects of food deserts. They take part in an important movement where people are beginning to realize the significance of growing their food. The guerilla gardener Ron Finley said, “growing your own food is like printing your own money.” Gardeners are in charge of what goes into their food, unlike store-bought produce that is not always organic, has GMOs, or contain pesticide residue that’s harmful to the body. Food gardeners might not have a conservation garden, but they are still participating in environmental conservation by protecting greenspace that’s potential habitat to wildlife species. Food gardeners have earned the right to engage with environmental activism, including bird and nature walks with Los Angeles Audubon Society.

Food gardeners notice when new critters come along, especially if they’re eating their precious produce; however, this relationship between animals and food is normal, and harsh measures shouldn’t be taken to stop this. Some view insects, birds, and small mammals as pests, and therefore do not want them in their gardens. That leads to practices that are harmful to wildlife, like setting traps with rat poison, installing needle plates so birds don’t land on their home, or using insecticides on insects so they don’t eat the plants. Instead, the aim is to encourage more species and a greater species diversity to ensure natural sustainability for all life forms. This can be done by installing bird feeders, birdbaths, and planting natives, which welcomes more species in a garden. If food gardeners do these simple changes, the biodiversity in gardens will increase thus increasing the health and productivity of the garden itself.

Birders and gardeners have much in common. They appreciate wildlife, require patience, must have some understanding of the wildlife surrounding them, and like to spend time outdoors. By connecting the two groups, the amount of knowledge that can be exchanged can be very helpful. Food gardeners can benefit greatly from understanding how important pollinators are, what plants birds use, or what insects are attracted to which plants. Birders are commonly aware of birds’ conservation statuses. This is what motivates them to install seed bird feeders and hummingbird feeders and to plant natives that help their feathery friends. Those who have food gardens do not always have recognition of the species that visit their gardens. This is why this connection is so important. Gardeners and birders can exchange valuable information with one another, and in the end they both strive for the same goal: a backyard full of a healthy life!

The Infamous Critters You Thought You Didn’t Want to See in Your Garden

Connectivity in a garden is important. It’s easy to accept a hummingbird feeding on the nectar from bell-shaped flowers of the pomegranate tree. It’s not so easy to accept the relationship between the giant swallowtail caterpillar and a citrus tree: the way in which the swallowtail larvae mimics bird poop on the citrus leaves to avoid predators but also eats its leaves. Though the larvae are often viewed as pests, soon they will become butterflies that will then give back to the garden by pollinating the plants that produce fruit and vegetables. Rabbits are also hard to accept in a garden because they eat up all the flowers and vegetables. Many gardeners will do anything to keep them out, but rabbits are helpful in some ways: one being that rabbit droppings provide nutrients for the soil and can be used as fertilizer to give seeds a nitrogen boost! (ABC Project). Though, in large numbers they can be hurtful to a garden, a safe way to keep them from eating all the food is by installing cages made of chicken wire around the food which does the trick!

Grasshoppers also are contributors in providing nutrients to the soil with their excrement but hold a bad rep if seen in a garden. Grasshoppers can pose a threat to a food garden if they are present in large numbers, but a few can be a good sign of helpful diversity. Also don’t forget that they serve as food for birds, lizards, spiders, and other arthropods (The Spruce). Again, if they do seem to pose a threat to a garden there are natural solutions like installing mud nest plasters that attract barn swallows, which are insectivores. Another way is by planting horehound, a nonnative to California that is known as the “grasshopper repellent” and as a companion plant, which stimulates and aids fruiting in tomatoes and peppers (National Gardening Association). In addition, natural predators like ladybugs are beneficial to have because they eat crop-destroying aphids. There are many non-lethal “pest” management techniques that can be done if some critters are really not wanted in a garden. Some that have been mentioned are chicken wire, introducing repellent plants, and encouraging natural predators. The intention is to not view wildlife as pests, but rather welcome their company in a garden. If damage is done by any wildlife, there are many ways in which they can be dealt with without using harsh measures.

Plan of Action

One way to connect to food gardeners is by recognizing the birders and food gardeners who are already involved with L.A. Audubon, and then discover if they would be interested in dedicating nature walks to talk about the interrelation between both their gardens. This can inform others about how it is possible to grow food while helping conserve wildlife species. Another way is by connecting with garden managers to plan a visit to a local community garden. Once developing a relationship with garden managers, we could host a bioblitz to identify the many different species that inhabit the garden. During the survey, we could introduce iNaturalist as a tool to identify unknown species. This would welcome gardeners into partaking in community science in their own backyards.

Another idea to connect with gardeners is to have a cooking class where gardeners share knowledge of the health benefits of some foods they grow and creative ways to cook them. We could also have a class about cooking with native plants and how they’ve been used for years by indigenous people to make tools, medicine, and shelter. Lastly, we could host a birder and food gardener meetup at The Natural History Museum of LA. This place is an excellent example of how both a native and a food garden can grow and flourish in the same location. It’s an opportunity for food gardeners and naturalists to coincide and learn from one another, but most importantly encourage one another to welcome new critters in their gardens and implement new ideas for planting.

This is my pomegranate tree that many hummingbirds visit while it’s flowering.

Final Thoughts

It is often difficult to view all wildlife diversity as a good sign to see in a garden. Biodiversity in a garden is what food gardeners encounter daily and hopefully, over time, will encourage them to actively protect these creatures. Protecting them can look like introducing natives or simply not viewing wildlife as pests. Having a garden that's both native and edible helps a garden become high in species biodiversity and benefits the health of gardeners as well. An article published by The National Park Service (NPS) called “Benefits of Biodiversity in Human Health and Well-being,” explains how important biodiversity is to the health and sustainability of all species, including our own. Biodiversity isn’t only good for nature. The residents around these green areas experience greater mental health than those who live in areas with less green spaces (Alcock et al. 2017). The more native plants, the more pollinators, the healthier you and your garden are! Helping gardeners make that connection to the food they eat and link it to the pollinator that helped make that possible is the product of promoting engagement with food gardeners. By connecting with garden managers and speaking to the food gardeners involved with L.A. Audubon, there is a chance at beginning a new relationship that’s full of everlasting potential, one that can change the gardens of both food gardeners and birders, help wildlife species, and transform the way we look at growing food.

Helpful Resources:

Benefits of birding for permaculture:

http://tcpermaculture.com/site/2014/06/11/the-benefits-of-birding-for-permaculture/

Meet the “Gangsta Gardener” Changing South Central Los Angeles With Soil:

https://www.vogue.com/article/guerrilla-garden-ron-finley-los-angeles-south-central

Gardening for pollinators:

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/gardening.shtml

Benefits of attracting birds:

https://www.thespruce.com/benefits-of-attracting-birds-386399

The real case for saving species: We don’t need them but they need us:

https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-real-case-for-saving-species-we-dont-need-them-but-they-need-us

Benefits of biodiversity to human health and well-being: