After someone destroyed wildflowers on the Secret Sidewalk, I didn’t know what to do. The flowers are wild, the property is Metro’s, and I have no idea if the destruction is a neighbor’s idea of “weeding,” or if a kid blithely snapped stalks for fun, or WHAT.
I care because this little bit of sidewalk is the richest native habitat around, and the Frostweed was in full, fabulous, and functional bloom.
So today, I made a “Welcome to the Secret Sidewalk Pollinator Garden” sign.
“Meet your neighbors,” I wrote, and listed some wildflower names. The QR code links to today’s earlier SidewalkNature post with photos of the plants and a few details that will (hopefully) show the significance of this “accidental” garden.
Every smidge of native habitat helps.
But then, when I walked back to the Secret Sidewalk to install the sign, MORE FLOWERS were gone. Snapped and thrown.
Hoping the sign helps.
More #SidewalkNature:
My Instagram posts are 100% nature, and most of it the Sidewalk kind.
I’m not fond of facebook, but some people aren’t on Instagram, so I post nature things there from time to time.
Bio:
Joanna Brichetto is a naturalist in Nashville, the hackberry-tree capital of the world.
She writes about everyday natural wonders amid every habitat loss, and her essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Fourth Genre, Hippocampus, The Hopper, Flyway, The Common, City Creatures, The Fourth River and other journals.
Sidewalk Nature 
I am so sorry.
i love your signs! hope they help — do you think someone was making a bouquet?
No, they left the snapped upper half of each flower at the scene of the crime. Nothing was taken away. So weird.
Feh. As Jerry Seinfeld (the character) says, “People — they’re the worst.” As neither Jerry Seinfeld (the character) nor Jerry Seinfeld (the actor who plays the character) says, “People — they’re the best.” If only they’d known you….
Aw, thanks, Mr. Bill. You are the best People for sure.