A lesson from bluebirds, berries, and a rewilded garden.

Honestly when I first started planting for pollinators and making a little rewilded garden I was thinking that having the plants in the dirt was enough and I was doing good. I knew they required less watering (or none at all, once established) and I knew they were a better pick because they attracted more pollinators. But that is about where my knowledge stopped ten years ago. I didn’t know there was so much more to the story.

I quickly realized, it’s not about the plants alone….it’s about the whole ecosystem they support.

For far too long we have gardened for ourselves. But here’s the truth, we are supposed to be gardening for wildlife. And it’s not that we don’t like the dirt under our nails, it’s that we forgot what we are doing. We have forgotten who we are gardening for.

Everything is connected and how every seed head, leaf, and berry became part of a much larger story. Now I can’t not notice what’s happening. Yesterday, was one of those tiny, full-circle moments—the kind that makes you realize gardening for wildlife changes the way you see everything.

Yesterday I saw some Eastern bluebirds flying around in their usual mode. Perch, hunt, land, fly back to perch. Over and over. But yesterday was different. Instead of my usual thoughts to myself of what’s on the menu, or what did they just eat, I could see exactly where they were getting the goods. It was from a vine that we planted. FOR BIRDS. The Virginia creeper vine is poison ivy’s un-evil twin. They are often mistaken for one other. And like poison ivy it too produces berries. Dark purple berries…that is what this small group of Eastern bluebirds was going after. I was too slow to get a picture of them. But here is a photo that i was able to get of the berries. That are on the vine, that are growing up the snag that we partially cut down with the the intention of it being a habitat tree. Well, now it is also the food and habitat tree. Perfect. And now I know exactly why my deck stairs were splattered in dark purple paint a few days ago.

I used to think the story ended with the plants. But it turns out, the plants were only the beginning.