Ep 100. Antics of Meadow Wildlife

We celebrate the 100th Episode with my birder buddy Dennis Briede's meadow in Blairstown, NJ, leading to learning about how meadows wish to be forests and the antics of meadow wildlife you'll enjoy.

Thank you, kind listeners and fellow lovers of all things green, for joining me each week and being part of our community, helping to nurture nature and our garden of life. 

Related Stories 

Antics of Meadow Wildlife - Blog Post

Gift of Meadows & Mountain Mint - Blog Post

Beyond Nutty Mast Year – how Mother Nature manages wildlife populations. 

 Native Plants, especially Oaks, are Essential. 

 Moths are Beautiful Too, and crucial pollinators! 

    ***

I'd love to hear about your garden and nature stories. And your thoughts about topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com. Thanks so much for tuning in :^)

You can Follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook and Instagram #MaryElaineStone

Episode web page —Garden Dilemmas Podcast Page

Thank you for sharing the garden of life,

Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer
AskMaryStone.com

More about the Podcast and Column:

Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
Direct Link to Podcast Page

Transcript

Ep 100 Antics of Meadow Wildlife

Fri, Mar 17, 2023 8:21PM • 10:23

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

meadow, garden, plants, snake, black rat snake, red maples, edward abbey, butterflies, porch, field, summer, pollinators, fascinating, grow, hafiz, dilemmas, mary stone, garden, nature, inspiration

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone

Mary Stone  00:00

Hello fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens, it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone  00:26

Hello there, it's Mary Stone on the screen porch. It's bright and sunny and the sky is blue and it’s warmed up considerably from a very chilly start. Spring is soon to be here. And it's exciting to think of the new year of growth ahead. Thanks to those that reach back about the Wonders of Witch hazel. It seems many of us love how they lighten up the winter escape, and they're so easy to grow. 

Mary Stone  00:52

Can you believe this is our 100th Episode? 100 episodes was the goal I set for myself figuring if this podcast was meant to be by now folks would find us. Well, they have thanks to you. And our community is growing. I appreciate so much that you're a part of it. Thank you, kind listeners and fellow lovers of all things, green. 

Mary Stone  01:15

While walking Jolee a few days back, Dennis Briede stopped to greet us and we chatted about the unusual winter, how warm it was and so forth. You may recall we spoke about his fascinating meadow in Episode 68 Gifts of Meadows and Mountain Mint. Well, late last summer I revisited and transcribed our chat that turned into a column topic I look forward to sharing with you and it starts like this. 

Mary Stone  01:41

Hello fellow listeners and readers. Over the almost 11 years of our column chats I've often accessed the wisdom of Dennis Briede from Blairstown, New Jersey, who I refer to as my birder buddy. Although he's also knowledgeable (I'd say expert, but he never boasts) on plants and wildlife and serves as a Stewardship Manager for the Land Conservancy in New Jersey. I ran into him on a road walk with Jolee. Of course, we talked about nature in our gardens. 

Mary Stone  02:10

"Not many plants have berries this winter, so we haven't had as many birds,"  Dennis said. And acorns and shagbark hickory nuts were scarce this year for our furry critters, which is what I noticed here in my own yard. It's a fascinating cycle how Mother Nature controls populations by managing the food supply. I enjoyed visiting his meadow in all its glory late last summer, which puzzled me given our dry summer that we had. Dennis explain that May through June had plentiful rain setting the stage for the flowers and fruits to come. And his is a well-established wet meadow as evidenced by the native cedar trees and red maples that populate the field. 

Mary Stone  02:50

"While some shallow rooted plants showed signs of a struggle, after an evening, the morning dew helps plants rebound," Dennis said. Plus, native plants can handle the ups and downs of weather better than most non-native plants. However, he does have non-native species there. As long as they're not invasive and can lure pollinators such as Caryopteris, also known as Blue Beard shrub. It’s in all its glory in late summer with bees bumbling around the iridescent violet blue spiky blooms. 

Mary Stone  03:21

One of the pearls of wisdom is that all meadows in this area wish to become forests. And so one of the management challenges to keep trees from rooting. I hadn't considered fields want to be forests if we didn't intervene, which brings a question of how much we should interfere with nature. Not at all or a little bit. I vote for a little bit as long as we are kind to nature. After all, we live here too.

Mary Stone  03:47

Dennis has volunteer red maples that sprout plentifully, which he removes to keep his meadow a meadow. However, he allows native shrubs such as Northern Spicebush to remain here and there. Per Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas in the north Spice Bush is thought of as the "forsythia of the wild" because it's early spring flowering gives a subtle yellow tinge to many lowland woods where it is common. And it makes a terrific tea with its aromatic leaves and twigs. 

Mary Stone  04:17

"We don't know anything about nature, though, we think we know a lot," Dennis said. I've had experiences over the last 18 years that I just can't explain. Nature will talk to you but we don't always listen. He went on to share a funny story about saving a nest of blue birds from a black rat snake ready to feast. So this is so fun, because again, I transcribed our chat and so I'm going to try to put it in his voice. Although his voice is so much more fun. He's such a great storyteller.

Mary Stone  04:43

(Dennis's words as transcribed). One day I was in there eating dinner and the baby blue words and the blue box House over the garden. We're going crazy. I thought there must be a snake. We have a lot of black rat snakes here. So I look up and there's a black rat snake with his head in the hole. I have a heart for bluebirds because of my father. (A side note here, Dennis shared with me a while back how he came to love nature. And it was because his dad had bluebird boxes where they lived growing up.) So I yanked him out of there and I threw him into the meadow. You know, I shouldn't have done it because it's against nature. But I just love Bluebirds. The next night in the evening, I'm sitting in the living room. And this is the craziest thing. Something told me to turn my head and look up to the sliding door. I turn my head and the snake comes right up and looks at me. And the sliding doors, two flights up. No snake has ever been up there before. There's nothing up there for a snake. So, I'm thinking he went there because he's mad at me. I mean, why would he do that? Why did something tell me to turn and look at him? He came up because he felt the energy. And it was the same snake because he had a little white scar on the side of him just like the one, I pulled out of the birdhouse. It was just so crazy. 

Mary Stone  05:54

So when you pulled out the snake like that, why would he just come back? I asked. And this was so funny. He said, "Well, I threw him way out in the meadow, and you know, he had to recuperate and he had a long way back."

Mary Stone  06:04

" How big was he?" I asked. "He was six feet long. We sure have big ones around here."

Mary Stone  06:11

Dennis went on to share another story. One year a hummingbird hovered by a spot where one of the feeders is always posted. But it wasn't there yet so quickly Dennis went to set it up for the little fellow. As he walked out of the deck, the hummingbird perched himself on the feeder before he hung it. "They often hang on my pocket or belt loop," he said. Folks don't realize that hummingbird’s primary food is insects such as mosquitoes, gnats, flies and spiders. The sugar water we provide helps fatten them up for their long voyage. Dennis said they depart on September 23 is if they know when it's time to go. And I'm wondering, is it always September 23? That is indeed fascinating. 

Mary Stone  06:50

Sadly, there's been a notable decline in butterflies in recent years due to the use of pesticides, my conclusion and habitat reduction Dennis adds. During our hour long visit I saw five or six monarchs flitting about, along with several other favorable pollinators, leading to a discussion about moths: one of my recent fascinations. "Embrace moths, they are butterflies that like to party at night," Randi Eckel of Toadshade Wildflower farm said at a talk she gave at a Plant Symposium a while back. We talked about that in Episode 35, Leaf Therapy, Essential Oaks.  Dennis told the story of a naturalist who came there to do a moth count using a heavy-duty light. I think he said it was 1000 watts or something like that. And then he pulled out a big white sheet and they found 223 species of moths - more than any other in the state. Until maybe a month or so later, he did another count nearby whether it's just a few more. 

Mary Stone  07:49

While , my burger buddy's meadow is large and magnificent, Dennis exemplifies that we all can help preserve and nurture our environment. No yard is too small. Even garden pots can serve a purpose and supporting wildlife and helping nature and our Garden of Life. Garden dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone.com. 

Mary Stone  08:10

So as you would expect, I have some beautiful photographs of Dennis's meadow from that visit on the website and I'll put a link in the show notes. I want to add a few more things here. And that is Dennis always ends his emails with a quote by Edward Abbey. "The earth like the sun, like the air belongs to everyone. And to know one."  That certainly resonates and brings to mind another I adore by Persian poet Hafiz. "Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth. You owe me. Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky." Isn't that a beautiful poem, it just really hits me to my core. And I hope it inspires you too, to think about the fact that we don't owe anything to anybody. And nobody owes anything to us. We are here on this earth for a short time. And during that time, it's a privilege to be kind and respectful to each other, to make a difference in our world around us with that kindness and that love and to take good care of our families and our friends and our dear Earth. And in so doing, we leave our mark forevermore. 

Mary Stone  09:26

Thank you again for all these chats we've had on the screen porch, and I look forward to so many more. I can't thank you enough. It really means so much. And I would appreciate if you could take the time and leave a five-star review because for some magical reason when we have more five star ratings, we end up being seen by more folks and so more will find us and more will learn and grow in this garden of life. Thanks so much. See you next time. 

Mary Stone  09:53

You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden Dilemmas.com and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas, Delights and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch. And always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.