Waxwing customers are every day eco-stewards. They tend to their own mini-nature preserves with the greatest care and persistence. This Spring, the residents who participated in Waxwing’s collaborative hands-on ecological gardening program worked tirelessly to site prep, install, and water (lots of it this year!) and very quickly reaped the benefits of their labor with dancing Monarch butterflies and Swallowtails, green winged Luna Moths, and mountain mint loving, iridescent-winged Digger Wasps. In gratitude of their hard work (and excitement in continually sharing photos with me this Summer of all their winged wildlife), this blog post features a little peek into a handful of these ecological gardening projects, showcasing the residents’ pollinator photography. We all agree that simply, “If you build it (and sustain it!), they will come”, and at times, much sooner than expected.
Featured Eco-Stewards:
Linda Strauss | Millersville, PA
MiLana Wright | York, PA
Jim and Kristina Schroeder | Strasburg, PA
Jose Diaz and Dorothy Vertti | Lancaster, PA
Linda Strauss | Millersville, PA
Linda Strauss and I worked alongside each other (masked up in the intense heat!) tirelessly plugging away over 750 native plants in a lovely lawn conversion project at her woodland edge in Millersville, PA. She envisions herself as a “facilitator”, managing this space not out of an act of ownership, but as if it is the most honorable responsibility to steward this small piece of a collective ecosystem. Her soulful motivation to get out in the heat and manage this habitat pays in great reward. Chirping in the trees are a blue indigo bunting, woodpeckers, and the occasional territorial Carolina wren zooming by our heads, investigating the planting as if they knew we were setting up a caterpillar buffet (just for them of course ;)). And as anticipated, the butterflies soon paid their visit- a Yellow Swallowtail sipping on the summersweet shrub (Clethra alnifolia) and later and two Silvery Checkerspots took a rest on the blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum).
Yellow Swallowtail on Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) Photo Credit: Linda Strauss | Millersville, PA
Silvery Checkerspots on Blue Mistflower (Conocllnium coelestinum) Photo Credit: Linda Strauss | Millersville, PA
MiLana Wright | York, PA
MiLana Wright sees the full potential of her space being just as species-rich as the beloved Shenk’s Ferry Nature Preserve. She is already well on her way! As I arrive on planting day, bluebirds comfortably sit at the heated bird feeder, as if they’ve done this a thousand times before, gently reminding me I am the visitor, not them. Even amidst a sea of neighboring lawns, it only propels her to plant more, no matter how difficult the site conditions. We worked collaboratively on site-prepping with a volunteering neighbor in the early Spring, when jackets were still a thing (hard to imagine right now, I know!) in a very lean soil site with competing tree roots and shade. Determined to spring life in this marginal micro-habitat, we got to work planting 5 trays of species known to thrive in these conditions. Inspired by the written work of Douglas Tallamy, the more she plants, the more wildlife she sees.
Tiger Swallowtail on Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) Photo Credit: MiLana Wright | York, PA
Luna Moth on Backyard Tree Photo Credit: MiLana Wright | York, PA
Tiger Swallowtail on Short-toothed Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) Photo Credit: MiLana Wright | York, PA
Jim and Kristina Schroeder | Strasburg, PA
Newlyweds, Jim and Kristina are native plant enthusiasts. They delight in the collective experience of transforming their new home, that was once entirely a mud yard, into an ecological oasis for all to enjoy. On a mission to create corridors for wildlife in their community, they welcome neighbors, friends, and family to their new planting, allowing for self-guided tours with their DIY plant tags and rustic, flagstone pavers to navigate through their garden. Instead of grass seeding the front yard of their newly built home, they were on a mission to make their front space an educational native habitat for passersby, by planting nearly 20 species, consisting of over 750 native landscape plugs. The Serviceberry tree is the grounding element to their front habitat with milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) thriving alongside the roadway and driveway. In under two months, Spicebush and Monarch butterflies laid their eggs on their host plants. This is the benefit of consciously choosing to invest in building a wildlife nursery; certainly inspiring many others to invest less in mowing & weed killer and more into luscious native plants that support a vibrant food web!
Spicebush caterpillar on Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) Photo Credit: Jim and Kristina Schroeder | Strasburg, PA
Monarch caterpillar on Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) Photo Credit: Jim and Kristina Schroeder | Strasburg, PA
Digger Wasp on Short-tooted Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) Photo Credit: Jim and Kristina Schroeder | Strasburg, PA
Jose Diaz and Dorothy Vertti | Lancaster, PA
As volunteer coordinators of the Lancaster Native Plant and Wildlife Festival, Jose and Dorothy are an inspiration to a large network within the community. As I arrive on planting day in May, neighbors inquire about the dozen of native plant trays I unload from my car, as kids ride by on their bicycles. Next door neighbors and family stop by to witness the unfolding of the ecological gardening project and request for a site visit, so they too can have a a habitat of their own to enjoy. It is clear this space will be highly educational- a wonderful reminder that our small actions snowball to make profound, meaningful changes. After several days drenching in sweat from the heat and humidity site prepping with the mighty 7-tine broadfork and planting over 800 plugs, a habitat with continual blooms and host plants was collectively built. Another inspirational piece of their ecological gardening story, is that in the process of managing their newly planted garden, they discovered hundreds of little milkweed seeds that emerged between the landscape plugs. In order not to crowd out the new plantings, they delicately removed the inch-high plants and replanted them in the empty landscape trays from their project. Two months later, look at their thriving DIY swamp milkweed landscape plugs! These plants will be used to plug in a mini-meadow this Fall in their backyard, which is well-deserving of its title “Monarch Mecca”.
Newly formed Monarch butterfly chrysalis Photo Credit: Jose Diaz | Lancaster, PA
Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) Photo Credit: Dorothy Vertti | Lancaster, PA
DIY landscape plugs of Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) Photo Credit: Jose Diaz | Lancaster, PA
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