Nature's Best Hope with Doug Tallamy Artwork

In the Weeds

In the weeds explores how culture shapes our relationship to the natural world through interviews with a wide range of guests, from scientists to artists to cultural critics and theologians.

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In the Weeds

Nature's Best Hope with Doug Tallamy

March 22, 2020 • Nicole Asquith • Episode 17

Gardening and observing the natural world may offer us solace during this time of worry and confinement. So I bring you my latest interview with entomologist Doug Tallamy, who has been teaching many of us about the need to garden with native plants in order to feed insects, especially pollinators, and preserve all of the "ecosystem services" that we humans, along with other animals, need to survive.

Tallamy's latest book, Nature's Best Hope, introduces the idea of a Homegrown National Park comprised of all of our gardens and private spaces stitched together to form corridors of wilderness all across the United States. It's a bold vision and a call to action in which all of us can take a part.

He also offers new tips and insights about how to make parks and gardens wilderness-friendly that may give you ideas of projects to take on while we keep a safe distance from other humans but are free to tune in to the lives of other creatures.