That Time I Picked a Fight with Another Gardener...

[kimberlysteele]

 Somebody must have pissed in my cornflakes this morning because I went off in the comments section of this blogger who complains that "we" need to do something about the endangered status of monarch butterflies.

The article:

https://www.monarchgard.com/thedeepmiddle/no-we-dont-just-need-to-plant-more-milkweed

My comment:

 

Scolding gardeners and then bloviating about how much "they" need to do is nihilistic and counterproductive. I know you are trying to save butterflies with this article, but you're going about it all wrong. How about encouraging people to build upon what they are already doing instead of tearing them down for what they're not doing? Like "Hey, you've planted milkweed, so go ahead and put in that butterfly bush and monarda?" Instead, you've gone the Greta Von Doomsburg approach and screamed HOW DARE YOU. Newsflash: Nobody cares. Are you a vegan? Did you know that the pollution you help to create by eating animals and their secretions causes more damage to the Earth's ecosystems than all transportation combined according to the United Nations? Yeah, thought so. And even if you are a Land of Perfect fruit and seed only eating vegan, if you had a biological child, you've just screwed the pooch and you have a mammoth carbon footprint, so might as well forget about trying to do anything good at all. Black pills... so tedious. So unoriginal. For heaven's sake, look in the mirror once in a while and then sit down and think about the message you are putting out there. The real concern here is there may be some impressionable souls who don't automatically tune out when confronted with your "do as I say, not as I do" hysteria.

Being me, I most likely won't ever look at the male Greta Von Doomsburg's blog again, even if he tries to instigate a flame war. I'm good at ghosting people like that! Also, I have a life and a garden to tend to that's got quite a few butterflies. Pictures coming on next week's Open Post!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Monarchs have been classified a species at risk in Ontario, Canada for a number of years now. They are considered to be of special concern. This means they are not endangered or threatened, but may become so.

There is also a growing awareness of the importance of native bees, like squash bees. This had led to people acting as if only monarchs and pollinating insects are worth knowing and caring about. The Hungerford’s crawling water beetle is actually endangered here, but I suppose a beetle isn’t as marketable as a butterfly. Insects have many important roles, and pollinating is only one of them. They matter, too. Judging from social media, all these insects might as well be chopped liver at times. I wonder if pollinating insects get all the press because of of how important they are to humans?

I understand what this person is getting at, and where you are coming from as well. Bugs are wonderful! Gardens are great! Like you said, people build upon what they are already doing. Shaming people for not growing the correct plants (of all things to guilt trip people about!) doesn’t fix anything.

[kimberlysteele]

He sounds like a NIMBY (Not in my backyard) type. Meaning he drives a car, goes on jet vacations because "reasons", eats animals and their secretions, has one or more kids, yet thinks other people aren't doing enough to save the planet LOL. Because he has a beautiful yard with xeriscaping and a water feature, it makes it OK for him to create lots of carbon and generally be a damaging parasite on the planet. That's why I told him to look in the mirror. Earth's going to take care of herself, just not on his or any other human's schedule. He cannot control that either way. What he should do is to shut up and get to work instead of crying about what other people are not doing.

[methylethyl]

Hah! I've tried several times to plant milkweed, each time with zero success (you'd think anything with "weed" in the name might be less finicky!). And I'm not sure I've ever even seen a monarch in our area, so I'm not convinced we're even on their migration route. So now I've got a passionflower vine, which is the host plant for the Gulf fritillary butterfly... which actually *does* migrate through our area. I'm happy to plant host plants, but only when they're happy to grow where I live!

[kimberlysteele]

If you can grow passionflower, it's probably too warm for swamp milkweed! I think it likes to be killed off in the winter. Some plants are weird like that. I saw a red spotted purple at the nature preserve a week ago!