Habitat gardening is more than a hobby — it’s vitally important for maintaining biodiversity and preserving a healthy planet.
Although it’s “OUR” habitat garden, Janet has been primarily involved in its design, planting, and maintenance (though John has done the heavy lifting for paths and the ponds).
John works on our edible garden, described in Our Edible Garden.
Other habitat gardening activities
Below are some of the ways we’re involved in this effort beyond the borders of our own yard.
HGCNY
Janet is President and co-founder of the local Wild Ones chapter Habitat Gardening in Central New York (HGCNY). She is a past member of the Wild Ones Board of Directors. John is involved in many of our HGCNY activities, including organizing our plant sales.
HGCNY’s work was recognized by the Syracuse Post-Standard in 2014.
Need a speaker for your CNY organization?
Everyone likes to learn more about landscaping their yards! Janet Allen of HGCNY earned a Toastmasters Advanced Communicator Gold certificate and has presentations on the topics below for groups or organizations in the Central NY area.
Contact Janet for fees and availability.
Our presentation topics
Caring for our yards is the most direct way we care for the earth. By planting native plants, we can provide habitat for even the smallest creatures, and by using earth-friendly landscaping practices, we can create a healthy yard for our family and a healthy planet for future generations. Just as important, we can reconnect with the natural world as we enjoy our own piece of the earth every day. Become a habitat gardener and watch your yard come to life!
Caring for our yards is the most direct way we care for the earth. By planting native plants, we provide habitat for even the smallest creatures. By using earth-friendly landscaping practices, we can create a healthy yard for our family and a healthy planet for future generations. And by observing some basic design principles, we can make it beautiful, too!
Do you enjoy watching birds in your yard? Learn some interesting facts about some favorite backyard birds and how to provide food, water, cover, and places for them to raise their young. Learn about the vital role of native plants in providing for their needs. Finally, learn how you can help birds beyond your own yard. Create a bird-friendly landscape and enjoy the daily companionship of birds right at home!
People know pollinators are important, especially since we depend on them for much of our food, but bees and other pollinators have a larger role in the world beyond our farms. And we’re now finding alarming declines in the kinds and sheer numbers of not just pollinators but of all insects, the foundation of the food web. Learn how you can support these “little things that run the world” in your own yard — and why it matters.
Are you seeing fewer butterflies than in the past? The populations of many species of butterflies and moths are in decline, but you can help reverse this trend by creating butterfly-friendly habitat in your own yard. Learn some simple things you can do so your landscape benefits not only butterflies, but other insects and people, too!
Articles
Janet has published articles on various aspects of habitat gardening.
Interviewed by other magazines etc.
The Summer 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens’ special interest publication Nature’s Gardens (which apparently is now defunct) featured our habitat garden. Our Habitat Garden is the “Streetside Buffet” in the article’s title!
The May/June 2016 issue of The American Gardener featured an article on Habitat Hedgerows, and my habitat hedgerow was included!
Miscellaneous
- Featured FeederWatcher for Project FeederWatch
- Featured Participant in Bird Phenology Project newsletter Jan. 2015
- Featured Site in YardMap
Photography
Janet is an aspiring photographer. She has won two awards, exhibited in the New York State Fair, and has even sold one photo to the Associated Press.
Newspaper contest: Honorable Mention
Her photo of a fritillary butterfly won an Honorable Mention in the 2008 Post-Standard photo contest.
2010 Wild Ones Photo Contest 3rd place
Having taken a photography course at the local community college (people over 60 can take courses at state schools for free!), this is the first time she had an inkling of knowing what she was doing. This photograph of wild senna won third place in the 2010 Wild Ones photo contest.
Hummingbird in snow
Janet actually sold this one to the AP, and it appeared in numerous newspapers around the country!
She admits that this was not because it was excellent photography, but just because we happened to have a hummingbird in our yard long past the time he should have traveled south.
New York State Fair
This photo didn’t win an award, but it was rewarding to have it accepted for display at the NY State Fair, hopefully inspiring people to appreciate the beauty of a lowly caterpillar.
Other information about Janet
- SUNY Binghamton: B.A. in Science and Math
- Syracuse University: B.S. in Computer Science
- Syracuse University: M.S. in Education
- Syracuse University: M.S. in Computer Engineering
- Syracuse University: Ph.D. in Education
- Co-founder and past president of New York Interfaith Power and Light
- Co-founder and president of Wild Ones Habitat Gardening in Central New York chapter
Other information about John
- Williams College: B.A. in Biology
- Syracuse University: M.S. in Science Education
- Syracuse University Law School: J.D.
Reflections
“I will be a hummingbird“ (a 2-min. video)
~ Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Kenyan environmentalist
One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.
~ Edward Abbey
Find your place on the planet, dig in, and take responsibility from there.
~ Gary Snyder
I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
~ Mary Oliver
At the individual level, we face two significant psychological barriers.
First, we find it difficult to fully grasp the enormity of living at a time when we are destroying the natural systems on which all life (and the global economy) depends. Somehow that reality does not seem real.
Second, we are not able to respond to threats that are remote in time and space.
For example, I might believe that future generations are threatened as certainly as a child on a railroad track in front of a speeding train. For that child, I might risk my life. For future generations, I find it difficult to even forgo comforts.
~ Dick Roy, founder of Northwest Earth Institute (now known as EcoChallenge.org)
In response to the question “What are the primary obstacles to making these changes?” (He was referring specifically to climate change, but the concept applies to changing our lawn-dominated conventional landscaping practices, too.)