Yellow-vented Bulbul visited Ichi's garden - Photographed by RDZ
Do you agree that the activity of gardening would support the wildlife?🤔 Personally, for me, gardening is not only planting flowers and plants but the gardening activities have impacted the wildlife and our environment as well. All of those are connected by the fact that each element needs each other to support the circle of life.
I have an unforgettable memory of when I was a child. At that time in my hometown, we had no electricity. One night my father took me and my brother to walk outside the house and brought a flashlight. My father pointed out something directly to the bushy medium trees that had been growing only 1,5 meters from our side right house. These trees had fruit that we could use for cooking. The leaves themselves, I think it was edible. The trees were only 2 meters with lots of small branches; that is why looked bushy. What I saw was 3 tiny owl perched on one of the branches of that particular tree. I do not know whether they were baby owls or small owls. I can't forget that moment until these days. Besides becoming a sanctuary for owl, my father's yards was also home to varieties of wildlife; from nectarine bird, insect bird, dragonfly, butterfly, lizard, bats, termites, et cetera even snake! The last one (snake) was the most wildlife that I do not like. Inspired by my father, I filled a small pond (1-meter x 50 cm, less than 50 cm deep) with apple snails that I picked for free from the irrigation nearby. And the result was the frog made this pond their home too. One thing that I have always admired about my father was that although he was a busy career man at that time yet he made a contribution to preserving nature. He designed the garden landscape by himself, planting flowers, plants, and fruit trees, at the weekend or when took a leave. He had worked on this (gardening) for years to create dense vegetation around our house that become a shelter for many living things.
A male Olive-backed Sunbird at Ichi's garden - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
How did my father's gardening activity affect our life? Of course, we enjoyed fruits, birds chirping every day without keeping them in the cage, our home cool because of the shade from the trees, earthworms made the soil healthy since we kept the fallen leaves on one small section of my father's garden, and we did not suffer much during the dry season. Our well was the last one dry among villagers. It was almost rain season come when the water dissipated from our well. The trees around my father's house helped us to keep the water a little longer during the dry season. Some people wondered why, but I knew the answer as I had learned this in the science subject in primary school. Besides all those benefits we got, I think is that by looking at the greeny view, reduced the stressful life. Leaving home at 5.30 AM and arriving at home at almost 6 PM sometimes 8PM or 10 PM on the weekday, that was my father's routine when he dedicated his knowledge for a big company. To release the pressure at work, I think he picked gardening since he loved pretty flowers.
By reading the 2 paragraphs above, you get the hint of why I do love gardening. Yeah, it is because I have been familiar with gardening since I was a child. I have found out that gardening is fascinating and fun as well. As I mentioned in my previous article the pollinator such as little bees had been attracted by my Hibiscus that I grew recently. The caterpillar is also attracting Yellow-vented Bulbul and as the result, I offer them bananas and papaya to keep the caterpillar at bay. Recently, a Dove comes to my "garden." Maybe checking up for the nesting site or perhaps looking for a snack as I have abundant tiny snails on my potting soil surface. Furthermore, I have been working on the project Sunbird since March 2021. Yeah, this is my project with my own effort and I have done this just because I want to preserve the Hibiscus flower and Sunbird. That's it!🤗
A dove visited Ichi's garden - Photographed by RDZ
For me, gardening has lots of meaning in my life. The first is to keep my father's alive in my life (my grandma as well). The second is to support the wildlife just like what my father did in the past. Gardening is not collecting pricey plants like some people do, in my opinion, gardening is to support wild living things from small creatures such as earthworms, bees, birds, butterflies, and...by the end of the day it affects humans too as we would get a healthy environment. Everything is connected because we need each other.
Doing gardening even at the small place as I have done, would give support to wildlife, especially small birds. We can create a little habitat and make them coexist side by side with us, humans. The advantages of doing soo are that we can hear their chirping regularly without keeping them in the cage, keeping the caterpillar in check, reducing my stress level, and making our home fresh because of the greeny view. Therefore, let's start to preserve nature by doing gardening at home!👊🌞😊
Note:
- Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti and RDZ
- Do not copy this article without permission
- Do not reuse these photographs anywhere else without permission
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