Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - 64

SINGING IN THE GARDEN

The Benefits of a
Soggy Bottom

We never know the worth
of water 'til the well is dry.
	-Unknown

Text and art by Ginny Neil

M

arch is a month of melting and mud. A
month of slop and suck. A month of rising and rooting. March is also nature's
starving time. As animals that hid for the
winter re-emerge and blink in the sunlight, they are hungry but there isn't much
growing, yet. Except in the wetlands.
That's where a bear heads first. Before she can eat, she
must get rid of the fecal plug her body made in the fall so
she wouldn't foul her den. A patch of eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) will solve her problem. A
meal of this natural bear laxative softens the plug so she
can push it out and open up her digestive system.
Skunk cabbage is also important to honeybees. The
flower, which is called a spadix, pokes up before the
leaves and often before the snow melts. It grows rapidly
inside a hooded spathe creating enough heat to melt the
snow at its base. For a honeybee, which needs a temperature of at least 50 degrees in order for its wing muscles

64

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

to work, this natural sauna/snack bar
provides a double
benefit on a chilly
morning.
Skunk cabbages
aren't the only early foods in the wetlands. Deer browse alder bushes growing along the soggy creek sides and bees will visit their
pollen-filled catkins to carry food back to the baby bees
until a better pollen source is available. In a week or two,
bears and white-tailed deer will graze the willow catkins,
dandelions and other emergent vegetation. At this time
of year, the tender young leaves and flowers are full of
protein which will give the animals enough energy to
start searching for better food sources.
Although I don't want bears and deer making a spring
visit to my yard, I do want to provide some early food
and habitat for other spring foragers. There's a perennially



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Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021

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