Winter won’t last forever, and soon homeowners will be turning their attention away from shoveling snow and onto sprucing up their yards for spring. Environmental superhero and real-life rescue dog TurfMutt and his smarty-pants sidekick Professor Botany encourage families to learn about their climate zone and plant living landscapes to feed and house special pollinator and wildlife friends this spring.

TurfMutt is on a mission to teach kids, parents and teachers about backyard science, including how to take better care of the green spaces in their communities and the importance of living landscapes. Professor Botany is the bushy-tailed brains of the Outdoor Powers, TurfMutt’s band of superhero friends who help him fight environmental villains like Carbon Creep, Heat Freak, Dust Demon and Dr. Runoff.

Professor Botany busies herself on the back end of the Outdoor Powers’ missions. She maps out the “greening” plans for the Outdoor Powers, and teaches kids about plants from the comfort of her lofty tree nest.

Urban environments need both native and adaptive plants for biodiversity, and they help increase habit for birds, insects and other animals. This spring, TurfMutt has enlisted Professor Botany’s help to teach families the importance of living landscapes for pollinators and wildlife, such as butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

Nature starts in your backyard.

Yards, parks, schoolyards and other community green space are vital to the world’s ecosystem.

Pollinators & wildlife rely on living landscapes.

Grass, trees, shrubs and other plant life provide food and habitat for birds and small mammals. Insects, spiders and worms live among the grass blades and below the surface in the turf.

Lack of living landscapes = lack of biodiversity.
Replacing living landscapes with rocks, mulch, plastic grass and hardscapes forces birds, squirrels and other animals to forage for food elsewhere. By eliminating living landscapes from urban and suburban life, birds, pollinators and wildlife lose their home habitat.
So, what can families do to help insects and other important backyard critters? Professor Botany has some tips.

Know your climate zone and add more plants that do well in the environment, which will make our communities nicer places to live for families, pets and wildlife.

Seek a good balance of climate-appropriate, drought friendly grasses, plants trees and shrubs. This will benefit not only the local wildlife and the environment overall.

Add some pollinator plants to your yard to attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinating wildlife.