Rewilding My Lot

First, let me say that I had permission to do all of this!

I regularly volunteer in Seguin’s Park West to help maintain their pollinator garden and forest areas.

The forest at Park West has some lovely old oaks (some probably older than 100 years), and other native trees and plants. However, it is also infested with Ligustrum aka Privet, which is a fast-growing invasive species that overwhelms native plants by stealing light, nutrients, and space. So my plea to you is PLEASE DON’T PLANT PRIVET IN YOUR GARDEN (at least in Texas). Local nurseries still sell it, but I wish they didn’t.

Once the weather gets cooler, the forest team heads to the park weekly to remove invasive species and encourage the growth of native plants. If trees are cut down, or fall naturally, then where possible we leave the wood in the forest to decay.

This is how I came to encounter a piece of weathered wood (possibly mesquite) in the Park West forest that had probably been on the ground for years, and which very much was calling to me to come home to my garden. I found it horizontal, but it would also stand upright.

This thing is long and heavy (mesquite wood is hard and dense). It took some considerable strategizing and the help of friends and family to get it home. I would have taken more photos of that process, but most of the time I was holding one end of the log! Special kudos to Dan, who had the heavy end.

This may not be its final location, but for now it sits inside my swale so that it’s not on top of seeds that I’ve sown. In time, I hope to have a water source here, which should encourage more bird visitors to the garden. This log would be a lovely place for them to perch nearby, and occupied or not, I will enjoy looking at this graceful piece of wood myself.