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| In natural areas, the soil ecosystem supports the plants, which support the insects, which in turn support the birds and other wildlife. |
Florida's default landscapes
Most yards in Florida
consist of highly maintained monoculture lawns, a few stand-alone trees, and a
fringe of foundation plants around the buildings. This is the opposite of
habitat gardening because typical Florida lawn care includes regular
landscape-wide applications of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other
poisons. Then since these pesticides are not good for the turfgrass, synthetic
fertilizer is applied to keep it green.
This treatment damages
the soil ecosystem (shown in the poster here), which plays an important role in
keeping the plants healthy, which then support the insects and the birds. In
addition, much of the lawn chemicals have rinsed through the soil or have been
carried away with erosion to pollute our waterways causing too much algae
growth and toxic dead zones.
