In Defense of a Wild Garden

Every so often, the staff of MOSI Outside receives a complaint about our gardens. "It's awfully weedy and overgrown out there," people will say. "Can't you clean it up and make it more tidy like [Insert Theme Park Here]?"

We could give you a lengthy list of reasons why it's not feasible to expect the gardens of MOSI Outside to be perfectly cultivated and tidy at all times, including the challenges that any not-for-profit organization faces: not enough staff, not enough time, not enough money. Some blame certainly falls on the excessive heat of a Florida summer that only really makes it possible to work outside a few hours each morning before risking heat stroke. But ultimately, there's one major reason that our gardens are a little more on the wild side. We garden for wildlife, and we're proud of it.

I've visited dozens of butterfly gardens in a variety of places, both in the U.S. and abroad, and it's always the same: The butterfly gardens with the most butterflies, both in variety and number, are the ones that are a little bit messy, a little bit overgrown, a little bit wild. These gardens are the ones providing all the things butterflies and other wildlife need to thrive, because nectar flowers planted in tidy rows just aren't enough to literally bring a space to life.

A good wildlife garden provides:

• FOOD, for both adults and young. In the case of butterflies, that means including plenty of host plants for caterpillars to chomp on. And lots of those host plants are actually what many think of as "weeds". They usually look a little worse for wear, too, since caterpillars have been chewing away on them. But those are the signs that a wildlife garden is working.

• WATER that's clean and safe for wildlife. Butterflies and other insects get much of the liquid they need from their food, but that's not always the case. Many butterflies will "puddle" on a muddy patch of ground. It's also vital that the water be clean and not contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, or overuse of fertilizer. Our gardens use all three of those only minimally, which means that weeds and pests generally have to be removed by hand - a slow and laborious process at best.

• SHELTER, both short-term and long-term. Some of the best ways to provide shelter for all kinds of wildlife are shrubs, grasses, and even dead trees. Those who are too quick to clear away dying foliage or fallen limbs may be depriving the wildlife in their gardens of much-needed places to rest, whether for the night or for the winter. The MOSI Outside gardens often look a little overgrown, but those spaces are also likely to be full of insects, birds, and other wildlife. We strive to keep our pathways clear, and do regular trimming of trees and bushes, but we also don't want to remove the shelter spaces our creatures need to survive.

Most people consider Florida Tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii)  a weed and remove it from their lawns.
But butterflies love it, so we're not too quick to get rid of it at MOSI Outside.

At MOSI Outside, we try to live MOSI's core ideology of "making science real for people of all ages and backgrounds" by demonstrating and modeling responsible gardening and landscaping for Central Florida and beyond. We provide brochures to help visitors recreate these garden settings at home, and are always pleased to hear back from guests who followed our advice and found themselves with a garden full of butterflies and more. We focus on native and Florida-Friendly flora, and try to present them in an attractive setting that still leaves plenty of room for Florida's fauna to thrive.

So, our gardens won't ever look like [Insert Theme Park Here] at MOSI Outside - nor should they. Our staff and volunteers work hard to further public interest, knowledge, and understanding of the environmental and biological sciences, and create a new generation of people who understand that a little wildness in the garden can be a very good thing.