Mimicking Nature A New Series

A new weekly deep dive into how nature teaches us to live on our planet

This series came to me this summer. I was deep in running a brand new business and did not have enough childcare to keep a balance in life. So I tabled the idea and sometimes that’s how things need to be. Instead, I sat and dreamt about topics while I drove kids to my parents’ house every week and spent hours on job sites and site visits dreaming about landscapes and bringing them to life.

Maybe this topic doesn’t feel totally new for me because it really isn’t, but what is new is we will digging into specific bits of nature around us each week to see what they do, what they teach us, and how we can bring this into living more holistically.

One of the classes I have had to take for my certificate in Permaculture Design is on biomimicry. When I heard this term it clicked for me how I had been paying attention and studying nature over my lifetime to observe and mimic the knowledge of nature in my own life. I always felt nature held the truths of how to live as a human we just needed to be able to see it properly. I also realize our busy lives make it hard to see, hear, and know these things. Since I spend my life and career now doing these things, I figured maybe my knowledge could be simplified and paired into tidbits that will be digestible to those of us who maybe don’t have the time, or are living in urban settings who cannot regularly commune with the natural world in the way my life and career allow me to.

I strongly believe that nature is the antidote or at least a tool to our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Nature holds subtle but clear lessons and gifts to help us be part of the world we live in.

This series will be a paid subscriber series every week. I will offer our regular Friday newsletters to free subscribers. So if you are interested in this, I would suggest upping your subscription, which will also get you access to the member space where I seasonally upload our seasonal guides.

Below you will find the first of these emails. This one will be offered free today, so you can see a sample, but these emails will be gated moving forward.

I am excited to dig into this series and bring you into my world of observing the world.

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Common Milkweed

I wanted to begin this series with a plant that tells time for me. One that feels it is also a hot topic or one I get asked about a lot. Common Milkweed is a native plant in much of the United States. It is robust, poisonous, a giver of life, and possibly one of the most fascinating plants I have ever worked with. It drives a deep and thick root that prefers not to be transplanted, which makes it tricky for some gardeners to learn how to grow the plant. I know the time of year by the look and feel of the plant. It tells me so much so we will dive into some important details today.

Key traits:

• Milkweed is sown by seed in fields in fall. It is not a cultivated plant. It grows best if not disturbed once it has set its roots. They don’t transplant well.

• The broad rough textured leaves keep deer away and other animals that consume plant material. The leaves also act as protection for housing the eggs of many key pollinators such as the monarch. They make wonderful havens for a chrysalis and offer many important bugs a place to live and thrive.

• The flowers they produce are dense, balled, and act like the perfect texture for the monarch to land and feed from before laying eggs.

• They enjoy growing in wildflower fields and open unprotected land with plenty of sunlight.

• The plant will grow in groups in order to draw in pollinators and protect those that grow amongst its branches and leaves.

• The plant’s name comes from the fact it more or less bleeds a sticky white substance that is white like milk. For many (humans included) this plant is poisonous. The milky substance though is what some pollinators need to survive. This acts as a protective barrier to give the least of us (bugs) a fighting chance and a haven in a world where they need it most to grow and develop so they can do their very important job.

• Growing milkweed in your garden can actually deter pests like rodents, rabbits, and deer because it is inedible and grows well as a companion with many plants. Birds also stay away from it as well because of the flower and the poisonous of the milkweed sap.

How it grows:

Milkweed is one of those beautiful plants that requires so little of us as humans. In fact, we have done a lot in the world to make it less exciting of a place for it to thrive. It wants us to be observers in the process. Spreading seeds in wild places is how they prefer to grow. I have seen milkweed rise through the pavement at our home. I have seen it desire the harshest and worst treatment and still thrive nonetheless. What we have done though is remove it from our wild spaces because of creating lawns. Because it likes to grow in its own wild ways it needs not to be controlled. Once you have milkweed around it will be everywhere. I let it go wild as much as possible in our garden and other spaces. I try hard to let it coexist with my tamed rows because I have witnessed its benefits. It drives a deep taproot which allows it to bring key minerals and nutrients to the surface to other plants.

Typically milkweed begins to rise after they spend all winter and spring setting roots. Usually after a week of 70+ degree weather the leaves pop up and then from there they will unfurl and grow up to 3 feet tall or more. I have had them nearly 5 ft in my garden which has plenty of compost to help it grow. In our fields, depending on the year, it usually is only 3 ft. The flowers usually bloom soon after they reach their mature height and then they form seed pods that eventually when dried the seeds inside look like fish scales. The seeds themselves though are brown with a furry fluff that catches the win easily. Just like a hang glider, the seeds are carried wildly in the wind of fall and land where they will then become more milkweed the next year.

Misconceptions about Milkweed:
Milkweed is believed to be the key to monarch population decline all on its own. The truth is that Common milkweed is an important host plant for the monarch, but we need it grown in a robust ecosystem of various wildflowers to be its most productive self in the ecosystem. It needs to not just be milkweed and grasses. We need LOTS of wildflowers with it to get the butterflies and pollinators to lay eggs on the milkweed and attract them. Common milkweed on its own will not solve the monarch butterfly number decline. It takes a robust ecosystem without pesticides, insecticides, and tilling.

Why is it important:
On that note, Milkweed is the most important host plant for Monarch butterfly caterpillars. Once the flowers are gone, the milkweed serves nothing to the butterfly besides a safe place to lay eggs where the caterpillar will have what it needs to grow into a butterfly. They also host parasitic wasps which control many insect pest populations. When we till fields, use herbicides, and things like Roundup we eliminate the chance for milkweed to come into an ecosystem where we need to offer places for food, protection, and hosts for the monarch. Milkweed is a key part of the ecosystem and it holds together many structures we need to grow food and soil properly. It is one of those keystones in the structure of the web. This is why without it we lose the pollinators it hosts. Cultivating it wildly is extremely important and embracing the wild nature it brings to the garden.

What it tells us in the rhythm of the year:
Milkweed for me has always been like a clock in the seasonal rhythm. I could tell you the exact season by how the milkweed looks. So let’s break down how it tells time a bit:

• Winter: The seed that fell in fall is pushed to the soil by the water and snow of thaws and cold. Many fall-seeded things need the cold to activate them in rooting. That is what happens here with milkweed. It needs the snow, cold, and thawing to bring it down to the soil from where it was left in the fall.

• Spring: Once the seed is closer to the soil, it begins to drive a very deep and thick taproot first. When the taproot is set properly at the end of spring you will see tender bright green look tulip-like plants emerging from the brown matted layers. This is the early milkweed. It quickly rises by the first day of summer to a near 2 feet or so before opening its flower.

• Summer: This is when we see the quick and rapid changes of the season most in the milkweed. First, we will see the flower form. It will open usually within a week or so after the Lilacs. It smells similar but the flowers have their own distinct look that is extremely fractal and structured which contrasts to the round shape they bloom in. They then will attract monarchs which then will lay eggs the first week of July through August. These monarchs will the be ones that will migrate back to Mexico at the end of the season. Through the summer the transformation of the flower into a pod that will hold seeds. The more it swells the more we know we are inching closer to the end of summer and into fall.

• Fall: Early in the season when the tomatoes still hang on the plants in our garden, the milkweed pod is thick, green, and spikey, and the seeds are nearly formed. By the end of October and beginning of November, the pods have dried and the shell opens as the moisture disappears and the plant goes dormant. The opening of the pod releases their seed and it lays like snow on the fields as they fall from the air. It is the first vision of the snow we receive in fall before the snow does eventually arrive.
  

What we can learn from this plant:
What I love about plants is all the wisdom they hold. There are many things to take away from milkweed.

1. The structural design of their parachute fluff carries their seed through fields. The soft fibers also end up in mice beds for winter which also helps them drive root systems. I think every plant has unique engineering we can learn from. A milkweed’s plant fiber structures it makes are a beautiful vision of plant-based fibers for us to create and use similarly to humans.

2. We do best in communities. Since milkweed works in groups best it requires even further diversity, it shows us the importance of expanding our worlds to see things that maybe we wouldn’t see otherwise. Working together further’s the greater good of the world.

3. Winter is necessary. As hard as winter can be when we watch Milkweed, you will see that winter is necessary in the process for the plant. It needs the cold and snow for many reasons but one of them is to reach the soil so it can grow.

4. Drive deep roots into a place brings things to the surface we can offer to others. This is one about legacy I think. When we commit to a place and a vision for that community and we drive a root deeply it also brings things to the surface for new plants entering the community around the milkweed. This is something we can learn from as humans. A sense of place is essential in life.

5. Being wild doesn’t mean we are difficult. I think when we think of something being wild or hard to tame it may mean it is difficult to handle or work with, but milkweed is actually very easy to grow but it just requires letting it simply be wild. I think there is something to learn from that.

6. Designing safe spaces for those who need them is important. Milkweed cares for so many important and vulnerable insects. It has designed itself to be a haven for these little beings in our ecosystem and it amazes me the entire world that can exist on one plant. I feel there is something beautiful to see and hear in that.

I would love to hear some things you have noticed about milkweed or the lessons it has taught you over the years.

I also plan to bring in more graphics to this series, but this week has leant to my mind in other places as you can imagine. Hope you enjoy this snippet into Common Milkweed. Feel free to leave thoughts and questions below!