Meet Douglas Tallamy: Saving the Planet by Giving Our Yards a Purpose
We have recently decided to retire from university teaching and research after more than 35 years. We’ve moved back to our home state, Kansas, to be closer to family and friends, and also to places and spaces and atmosphere familiar to us: farms, rivers and streams, the big blue sky, the sunrise and sunset and stars, the monarch butterflies, and so much more. As we write this we’re sitting on our patio watching bluebirds drink from our birdbath and monarchs dart around the garden (read about the University of Kansas Monarch Watch). And we thought it might interesting to introduce you to our backyard and to Trish Remley (from Grassland Gardens) who helped us begin to craft a garden attuned to the world around us. Trish introduced us to the work of Douglas Tallamy and our garden is now her creation. Douglas Tallamy helped us understand how to give our yard a significant purpose and Trish has promised to move us closer and closer and closer to realizing that purpose. Where governments have failed to protect us and the environment, Tallamy argues that we must begin in our backyards. We must take control by engaging our immediate environments: the spaces we live, our yards and gardens.
First, let’s hear from Tallamy and then in a forthcoming blog you’ll hear from Trish as describes the plants in our garden.
Douglas Tallamy
