Neat, pretty gardens starve birds....

When I was in 3rd grade, my teacher had the class raise Monarch Butterflies from caterpillars.  My teacher found out that I had lots of milkweed on our street, so I became the designated milkweed provider for her until I graduated 5th grade.  The milkweeds grew between the oleander bushes along with grassy weeds along our driveway, and every summer my parents had my brother and I weed.   The weeds became fewer year after year, but by the time I graduated from high school, so did the Monarchs.

When people think of butterflies, they think of the bucolic scene of this dainty insect fluttering from flower to flower, not weeds growing between your nicely planted ornamentals.  But it is the weeds which keep their life cycle going and humans are attached to nice neat gardens. 

Heidi, our garden teacher,  keeps the garden a bit on the wild side for a reason, and because of that and its diversity, we have lots of butterflies & bugs & birds.  The article below talks about this. 

To Feed The Birds, First Feed The Bugs

Almost all North American birds other than seabirds — 96 percent — feed their young with insects, which contain more protein than beef... Even a lowly fly maggot, which lives inside the hard round galls often seen on the stems of goldenrod, has an important place in the ecosystem. “Fly maggots are really high in proteins and fats, and chickadees love them,” Mr. Tallamy said. “We give chickadees seeds, but when they get one of those maggots, they can really make it through the cold winter night.”  So if you cut down the goldenrod, the wild black cherry, the milkweed and other natives, you eliminate the larvae, and starve the birds.

 So hey gardeners..., leave those weeds alone!