Nature Speaks Column Writer is a Contributing Artist at SummerSet Arts Festival

Article and Photos by Jennifer Rotermund

Seven years ago, my partner and I moved into our lovely little Shoreline home, in the Echo Lake Neighborhood. Like nomads, we had previously lived in apartments from Bothell to Belltown, so we were thrilled to be settling into a true neighborhood and own a yard. Much to our delight, since we wanted to get to know our neighbors, we found a house without a fence around it. I've spent the past seven years transforming the entire property from lawn on all sides into a certified wildlife habitat and urban farm. 

But recently, I found myself feeling a little over-exposed to the public (complete strangers walking by have begun to let their dogs off leash specifically to run around our yard and chase the wildlife, as if our yard was a public park, and doing damage in the process), so I began looking for ways to further protect the visiting wildlife while simultaneously expanding our existing habitat. Stubbornly, I also still refused to pay great sums of money to permanently wall off my entire property, but another idea began to hatch in my mind. 

Mother Nature, to me, is the best and greatest designer. From the swirl of a snail shell to the precise pattern of bifurcations of a tree branch, everything in nature seems to fall perfectly and beautifully into place. One day, I envisioned a natural fence meandering gracefully through my backyard similar to the old rock walls running along property lines in the New England, where I grew up, but made of sticks and branches and brush instead of stone.

I began pulling together branches and twigs from my garden and then setting them up, teepee style, in a naturally curved line along my back property line. I’d save dried herbs and perennial flowers, bundled to add interest, and some occasional conifer cones. Sometimes I’d even add in some natural yarn or wool for bird nesting material. To my delight, the moment I began this crazy construction, the birds and squirrels followed right behind me, busily exploring this new terrain. At the end of the day, I had a crazy, whimsical and wonderful privacy barrier that would stand up to the elements, slowly decompose in place improving the soil, and attract a greater variety of birds than I had ever seen in my yard.

As a professional wildlife habitat gardener, I've shared this idea with my clients and currently have several requests for others to be built.

In the meantime, I'm excited to announce that I'll be displaying a version of one of these walls in this year's SummerSet Arts Festival at Ronald Bog on September 6th from noon to 5pm. The theme of this year's festival is "The Journey Home," so in honor of that theme, and because this is a topic that is close to my heart, I'm building a four-part Wildlife Wall (as I call it) to stand in each of the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, and West) with natural items representing the spiritual symbolism of that direction from a variety of ancient belief systems incorporated into each section. This Earthen Sculpture will be fully interactive, and the center will represent the journey "inward" for each of us, or in other words, a type of "Journey Home."

The SummerSet Arts Festival is a gem of our city and a beautiful event that honors the original cultural traditions of the land where Shoreline now sits, and it showcases the beautiful and creative talents from our city. It's a fun, expressive festival that magically brings people together.  I hope to see you there. Please introduce yourself to me, especially if you've read this article and came to see this new creation: a Wildlife Wall!

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming and wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat/ sacred sanctuary located in Shoreline). She is a Permaculture Designer, is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and serves as a Docent at the Kruckeberg Garden. She is also an ordained minister with a particular focus on earth-based forms of spirituality.