Well hello everyone, welcome to my first blog! My name is John I am owner and founder of Backyard Habitats. Thought I would take a moment, introduce myself and what Backyard Habitats is about. First let me start with what I am not. I am not a writer, biologist, botanist or entomologist, I carry no degrees in science. Simply put I love gardening and have over 15 years experience. I am very big on scientifically proven facts. My idea of fun includes researching plants, exciting I know! What I would like to do here is share some of that research with you!

So I grew up in Toledo, Ohio and have lived here in Northwest Ohio for most of my life. I grew up thinking this place was boring and geographically didn’t have much to offer. I mean look around the lands flat, mostly farm fields (outside of Toledo) and where the hell are the lions, tigers, elephants or monkeys? All we have are birds, squirrels, bugs and deer, boring.

Then a few years back I was doing some genealogy work and learned more about what this land use to be over a 100 years ago. The Great Black Swamp, a glacially fed wetland in northwest Ohio extending to northeast Indiana, that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19th century. This was an important discovery for a gardener trying to crack the code, trying to trick vegetables that don’t grow here into bountiful harvests. This would help me understand how to work with the soil, which is one of the first steps in successful gardening.

I learned how the glacier cut through the land leaving high and low spots. These would later become prairies, streams but primarily swamps and marshes. The land was covered mostly in giant trees like oak, elm, hickory, maple, sycamore, cottonwood and ash, blanketing the sky during summer months. Mostly under water in all except the driest months of the year.

So why all the water? Well basically the glaciation created mostly clay (and sand). Clay is made up of very fine soil particles that compact together and make it harder for water to travels through. This is valuable to me because i don’t even have to dig to know what I’m dealing with when it comes to gardening.

Here in Ohio its pretty common knowledge that our soil is primarily made up of clay. But I personally like to know the why and see the bigger picture. This is what Backyard Habitats is all about, the BIG PICTURE! Successful gardening is about wisdom passed down from previous generations and that has been lost recently.

As the decline in wild life is becoming more of a problem throughout the world (I’ll save that for another blog). I believe the only way to truly fix this problem, bring back biodiversity, is to start on a small scale. Bringing native plants with the insects they have evolved with for century’s, in all the unique little ecosystems we call our backyard.

I also hope to help teach people how to grow their own food. Ive heard for years how people fail and quit right away. Again gardening is about knowledge, not plant in ground then sun and water. Every plant comes with its own background of evolution, why it is what it is. I want to provide that summarized knowledge and empower those interested in practicing self sufficiency.

The beauty is all this comes together. By bringing back the native plants we attract the invertebrates that eat them, which attracts birds and others that eat the insects. Creating a more balanced environment in our yards. This balance also helps tremendously with our herb and vegetable garden. Attracting beneficial insects that eat the pests that feast upon our veggies. Also the native flowers are attracting all the pollinators including the specialists that are not supported by non native flowers (again another blog).

So a quick summary, Backyard Habitats is here to help bring nature back. To empower people with wisdom and scientific facts. Encouraging a balance of native plants back into our yards. Download a plant app and go look how many non-native species live in your yard. I identified 26 plant species and only 6 were native plants to this region. The rest are just taking up space, light and water, not giving much of any value to the wildlife that depends on plants. LETS BRING BACK NATURE TOGETHER!