Member Garden: Kathy McDonald

Starting from scratch took on new meaning for Kathy McDonald when she downsized and moved to an older home five years ago.

This is an excerpt from the Wild Ones Journal
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“What appealed to me was the flat yard,” she explains about her new home. “Before, we had a big deck with a yard that had a very steep slope; it was impossible to plant and fuss around in.”

McDonald has been “fussing around” ever since, either adding plants or just moving them around her half-acre lot. “My goal is to have very little grass and to create little paths throughout my backyard.”

Co-founder of the Midwest Native Plant Society, McDonald says she constantly plays in her yard, and weather permitting, looks daily for caterpillars. In fact, she remembers her excitement the first time she found a tiger swallowtail caterpillar on her tulip trees (Liriodendrontulipifera), or luna moth caterpillars on her walnut trees (Juglansnigra). After learning that luna moth caterpillars usually spin their cocoons in the leaf litter at the base of trees, she stopped mowing and started sifting through leaf litter.

The yard was basically all grass when she moved in, McDonald recalls. “The first thing we did after moving was to put in a 5-foot by 7-foot pond,” she says. After that, she started replanting dozens of native plants she had brought along from her previous home, including American bladdernut (Staphyleatrifolia), small tulip trees, milkweed (Asclepias), and lots of perennial flowers. By the second year, the yard had already become a “Certified Wildlife Habitat” by the National Wildlife Federation.

Today, McDonald estimates that 75 percent of the plants in her yard are native to Ohio, while many others are native to the eastern states. Her goal is that one day, 85 percent of her plants will be native Buckeye State plants.

McDonald says host plants always take priority in her yard, and native shrubs are her favorite. “I love the pawpaw (Asiminatriloba). I’m thrilled to death to look at my prickly ash (Zanthoxylumamericanum) and find a giant swallowtail caterpillar. Spicebush (Linderabenzoin) attracts birds and butterflies and survives deer; it is really good to fill in under trees.”

She acknowledges that her pocket prairie in her backyard has soil so rich that it doesn’t really look like a prairie. “That’s why I am trying to restore as much woodland as I can, with canopy trees, and shrubs and flowers underneath.”

In fact, learning about local ecoregions has helped her realize that her yard should really be woodland. “I have some woodland poppy coming up all over the yard,” she says. “I want to fill in a lot under the trees with more shrubs and flowers. My goal is to have something manageable and not too labor intensive.”

About a year ago, McDonald started work on her front yard, adding in lots of native plants, as well as some nonnative plants such as coral bells (Heuchera) to give it that “suburban appeal.”

“I’ve gotten away from planting 100 percent native,” she says. “I think it scares people. I am not a purist anymore, but I stress that we need host plants for Lepidopteraand other insects.”

McDonald hired a designer to help redo her front yard, which now includes an L-shaped area with shrubs and small trees. “We wanted to create some privacy, so there would be little areas to sit and watch wildlife. By breaking the yard up, it makes it seem bigger and a little more interesting.”

A wildlife rehabilitator for a long time, McDonald says she first became interested in native landscaping when she realized the importance of habitat to birds. “If I’m trying to release a barred owl and there are no trees, then I have a problem,” she explains.

But her interest expanded to butterflies and other pollinators after reading Doug Tallamy’s book, “Bringing Nature Home.” “That opened up a whole new way of thinking for me,” McDonald says. “It made me realize that songbirds only feed their young insects, and planting native plants was a way to increase the number of insects in your yard.”

McDonald is hopeful that her yard is just part of the solution to the overall challenges facing birds, pollinators and plants. “With climate change, we’re seeing species disappear, and we’re not seeing the number of birds and butterflies that we did 30 years ago,” she says. “I’m hoping my yard will contribute to part of the answer, even if it’s just a little corner.”

While she has had people tell her that her yard is beautiful, McDonald says it is still a work-in-progress, and she doesn’t think neighbors understand the importance of her yard to birds and pollinators. “No one gets that we are gardening with a purpose,” she says. In time, hopefully they will.

About the Yard:

• The ½-acre yard is located in suburban Cincinnati in southwest Ohio.
• About 75 percent of the plants are native to Ohio, and many others are native to the eastern states.
• It includes a small prairie, a woodland garden, a rain garden and two ponds, with many bird feeders and birdhouses.
• A hedgerow of native shrubs includes pawpaw (Asimina triloba), host to the zebra swallowtail; wafer ash (Ptelea trifoliate) and prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), host plants to the giant swallowtail; Common spicebush (Lindera benzoin), host to the spicebush swallowtail, and others, and provides food and shelter for birds and pollinators.

Written by Barbara A. Schmitz. All photos by Kathy McDonald.