Maggie Reilly from Mohawk Valley Wild Ones discusses the importance of planting native plants to preserve healthy diverse ecosystems and create compassionate landscapes.
Reilly is an environmental engineer who works on nature-based stream and floodplain restoration projects that exclusively use native plants.
This February 2024 event is part of the Arboretum Saturday Speaker Series sponsored by Hamilton College. More information: https://bit.ly/33vsSLu
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Well good morning everybody um nice to see so many people here and welcome to those of you that are on Zoom uh I just want to thank Christa Campbell for inviting the Wild Ones to the speaker series this morning we’re really glad to be here also a thank you to our
President of the local Wild Ones chapter Jennifer Guyer for all the hard work that she does we we really do appreciate everything that Jennifer does um but a special thanks to my husband John for his most gorgeous photos but especially for his undying support and for taking this journey with me um
So just a little bit about myself a little bit of background I am um a lifelong Gardener I concentrate mainly on garden design and plants I’ve taken a lot of horiculture class classes at Morrisville College in just about any class um that I that I can take um this
Morning I’m going to talk to you uh about the power of compassionate landscape did I tell you who I am Maggie Riley um uh so I just a little bit a more background I grew up up north uh where I learned to love the land um our backyard
Was a huge vegetable garden and strawberry patch and just beyond that um were the banks of the racket river that were lined in a woodland forest where I spent many hours of my childhood um I remember my mother would say to me now mag this was in the spring don’t be
Going out there and picking those uh little pink and white flowers she was talking about the trilliums because she said if you do there’ll be no more of them so that was my first introduction to threaten and endangered species uh and from there I went to Clarkson
College um which was just up the road from us um and I studied environmental engineering and now I work on um channel uh and flood plane restoration uh projects where we use only native plants and I’ll talk about that a little bit later um so John and I
Live in New York Mills um where we are transitioning our extensive Gardens on our little uh Suburban lot over to native plants um but before I get started um I want to recognize that we are on the onid lands of the hodon um Confederacy here in Clinton New York so let’s get
Started so who are the Wild Ones um we are a National Organization that preser preserves biodiversity and how do we do that we do that through preservation restoration and the establishment of native plant communities the Mohawk Valley Chapter which is your local chapter we focus on education
Education having fun and a sense of community you’re going to hear me talk today about having a relationship with the land but we also have have relationships with each other um we gardeners and plant enthusiasts really um have a a deep relationship and we have a um a passion
That we share we’re in each other’s Gardens helping each other out working on something bigger than ourselves and those deep relationships are something that mean a great great deal to us um you know gardening and friendship ship you know are just good good food for the
Soul so and who at this stage of their life wouldn’t want to be in a group called The Wild one so you know so we picked that um uh picture right there photo um appropriately for this slide it’s wild Bergamo um that’s manardo filoso and that little Hummer
Coming in for a landing that’s a Hummer MTH coming in for a landing that is a beautiful plant but it is is also a pollinator magnet so just a summary of what I’m going to go over today um so if we’re talking about compassionate Landscapes then who takes care of it but the
Compassionate Gardener um we’re also talking about using native plants in our Suburban Lots um to create a a conservation Corridor um and then I say lawn’s gone wild or not so wild the nickname for our mohawk uh Valley Chapter is Lawns gone wild so but we want to break that myth that using
Native plants means that it’s messy so I talk about using traditional garden design techniques um but using native plants um and then I’ll take questions and hopefully have a few answers for you um so who is that compassionate Gardener a little bit of a hint there um stewards of the
Land so what does it mean to be compassionate you’re like my goodness didn’t we come to a gardening talk not a Sociology class but um compassion is that feeling that when you see someone or something suffering you want to alleviate it’s that action that feeling that makes you want to do something to
Alleviate that someone or something of their suffering um and and why do you want to do that because they matter to us whether you know them or not they matter to you um so that’s that’s what compassion is to me um and Thomas Merton said basically compassion is that
Interdependence of all living things and we are obviously a part of a big hole so so we’ll start off with compassion um and then to go on to the compassionate Gardener um compassionate gardeners feel that responsibility for protecting caring for and preserving what we call the land Aldo Leopold is one of the
First people to talk about a land ethic he also talked about how we harm the land um because Society has that Sovereign ownership of the land uh and so we need to stop abusing the land because we think we own it um and start belonging to a community
Um that we are part of ourselves that will love and respect the land um so we need to go back to to what the indigenous people did and do um but to go back to that community that we consider the land what is that Community
Granted yes it is the soil but it is also the water it’s the air we breathe it’s all the plants and all the animals so um when we talk about the land it is not just that soil so who is that compassionate Gardener the the inspiration for my talk
Today um came from a book I read by Benjamin vote a new Garden ethic and Benjamin vot is a leader um in this transforming Suburban Gard Suburban lots to Native Plant Gardens um and his book is way goes Way Beyond just a gardening book he talks about healing the land
Developing a relationship with the land and while you’re healing the land you’re also healing yourself that’s that defiant compassion you can see um that’s his front lawn right there and he definitely lives in Suburbia um but he has converted his whole lawn and his um business is monarch Gardens and he is a
A a leader in this um but let’s go back to who that compassionate Gardener is um they see all species equal and essential uh you’ve heard about Walk In Another Man’s Shoes well how about being in another species wings um we fight for those marginalized species that might be
Suffering and going extinct um and we stand up for those who can’t speak for themselves and that is the Flora and Fauna so for those of you who do know me know that I’m a climate activist so here we go we’re going to become ecological activists right along with it and does
Not that tie together very well um so so that compassionate Gardener develops a deep caring but a reciprocating relationship with nature and how do you develop a relationship like that if you had a relationship with a person like that you would need to to
Be with them so we need to get back to Nature we need to stop Conquering the land and becoming that respecting member so that we respect and love the land as um a as the indigenous people did I really like this this photo or or um picture and this quote because it does
Remind me of when I was up on the racket River for the forest said nothing it just let her breathe so so here’s where we need to get back to Nature um another one of John’s gorgeous photos um and so we need that reciprocating relationship with the land
We need to get back to it so we can develop that relationship my mother used to say mag take only what you need and give back a little bit more than you take so that’s that’s going to be our theme for compassionate gardening so another Aldo Leopold quote
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins as in art with the pretty it expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language you’re going to hear some of these Native Garden native plant people talk about going Beyond pretty and reink pretty um and I think
This is the reason why John and I are transitioning our Gardens to native plants because we want our Gardens to have value we want them yes to be beautiful but we want them to be able to support life of future generations of all species and another one of John’s
Most gorgeous photos um so so that’s why we’re transitioning our Gardens to native plants and so if we were to have a garden talk we would have that’s about Native Plant we would have to talk about Douglas talami because he is the The Guiding Light and the leader of this
Native plant movement and I really do think it is a movement um he said as gardeners and stewards of our land we have never been so empowered and the ecological Stakes have never been so high he wrote a book called bringing nature home and that is exactly what
We’re going to do we’re going to create conservation corridors and we are going to bring nature home he also wrote a book of Nature’s Best hope and Greta tumberg a young climate activist said once we start to act hope is everywhere so instead of looking for Hope look for
Action then and only then hope will come and I really do have hope but hope without action is just a wish so what are we going to do as compassionate gardeners we are going to turn our Suburban uh little Lots into conservation corridors we’re going to plant native
Plants and every single native plant every single Native Garden no matter how small it is matters and it makes a difference so just to go over a few definitions before I start here’s the teacher in me um uh I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about but just so
That we we’re all on the same page what is an ecosystem an ecosystem is an interacting community of living organisms in a certain physical environment it functions as a unit but it is also in a given place like well that’s a lot to remember um and Doug talami says that operative word is
Interacting it could be a bog it could be a forest it could be our Pine Barons maybe a wet metal um but it is that interacting community in a certain environment and at a certain place um and that spider web gets me into the next definition of biodiversity you see all the little
Pieces all the different species if we lose one or two or three which I wouldn’t want to be the one or two or three but we will if we lose too many then you’re going to get what people refer to as an ecosystem collapse so let’s go to biodiversity basically what’s
Biodiversity it’s the variety of life on Earth from a genetic level all the way to the ecosystem level but I really want to talk about a little bit about that genetic diversity you can have genetic diversity even within a species and the reason that is so beneficial with these
Native plants is it makes it so that they can adapt um you’ll hear us talk about well I’ll get that in a minute um so biodiversity if you look at that photo that is our backyard um some of you have spent time there um we have removed a lot of our non-native plants
At that location and replace them with native plants so it’s biologically beneficial um I do still have some non-natives you can see that broad leafed um hosta there but some gardening techniques I’ve used a lot of different textures the fine texture of that Iris with the hasta many different textures
Through there layering a lot of different layers there’s a lot of um different colors different forms so while while it’s got a lot of biodiversity I think it’s also aesthetically pleasing so what is a native species a native species we’re going to talk mainly about plants but they have
Evolved in a given place place over a period of time so that it has developed a complex and essential relationship with the other organisms in that physical environment um so we’re we’re going to talk mainly about Native species you’re gonna I I can’t go over all different
Terms but you’re going to hear sometimes what a cult ofart is what a cult ofar is is it’s been introduced by humans um so it is not native um but um when I talked about that genetic diversity in a species with the native plants cultivars are like clones
They are they are all identical they cannot adapt so you’ll hear me say that I want to to go with straight species so I’m talking about straight species of the native plants um that one right there is a smooth hydrangea and it it likes shade but if it gets a little bit
More sun um it’ll bloom more the leaves will turn a little limey the other three that I have are in the shade um but still thriving if that was a cultivar next to so I will be putting all the Latin names and the common names you
Might see well you would see in a cultivar in parentheses another name so that’s when you know you’ve got a cultivar so another type of native plant or a different category of native plant are what we call Keystone plants and they are very critical to the food web
They’re necessary for a species to go through the completion of their life cycle So to that pollinator these Keystone plants are extremely critical without them butterflies Birds um wouldn’t Thrive um as I say here 96% of terrestrial Birds rely on insect support orted by those Keystone plants and this
Keystone plant the service Berry is one of my favorites um the reason I like it is I like its habit it’s multi- stemmed it’s Airy you can see through it if you prune it you can walk under it um it blooms in the spring it’s got gorgeous
Color in the fall it’s got berries for the for the Wildlife um really nice plant this is a nice design they’ve repeated the service berries as you can see but I would just add more plants of course um and what I might do from a design standpoint is where you see all
That mulch I might put in a dark green sge like maybe a Pennsylvania sge where you see the green grass I might put two or three species at the most Maybe Two Ferns and maybe um a white wood Aster but a very nice design um but I might add some more plants of
Course so um another discussion on Keystone plants a couple different types you hear you’ll hear people talk about host plants um they basically feed the young um caterpillars of about 90% of our butterflies in moths which we call the lepidopterous um the other type of Keystone plant is plants that feed the
Specialist bees that means that specialist be needs that Keystone plant to survive um and if a keystone plant is feeding the specialist bees they’re also feeding the generalist bees and you can see here the northern red oak Doug talmy’s most favorite plant the oak um
John and I actually just and they do um sport a lot of caterpillars John and I just planted one of these because we lost one of our large trees the reason I picked it was this plant is native from Quebec all the way down to Florida and
So I figured um with climate change coming or here um this would be a great plan also um that goes back to that that diversity of of the genetics um it’s an oak from Quebec all the way to Florida but the one in South Carolina isn’t
Probably the one I’m going to plant here so um so that that is what our Keystone plants are doing oh our invasive plants so so these are the oh I hear some moans and groans out there um so so these are the non-native plants that have not established that deep relationship with
Organisms in that in that um ecosystem and because of that they have no Predators here and that that allows them to become very invasive they out compete our natives this one that you see right here the Japanese naweed um our stream projects this is a really tough one
Because the seeds get into the stream float Downstream our banks are usually eroded those seeds take hold and pH we’ve got that Japanese knotweed everywhere and what happens is it is it is so invasive it creates a monoculture I’m sure in the fall if you’ve driven
Across the stream and you go oh that’s beautiful when us native gardeners look at it we’re like oh that is not beautiful because it is a monoculture it’s altered the ecosystem and basically uh your biodiversity is gone so that is um Japanese not we if you do have um
Invasives at home like John’s favorite the the bishop weed um I would not allow it to flower if you can’t get it all out I would not allow it to flower cut it off don’t let it go to seed because that’s that’s how it will spread so everybody know that native
Plants provide for the native pollinators um they provide 15 to 35 times the caterpillar biomass basically they’re they’re bird food they support support many Native bee species um and of course if we’re going to increase the amount of native plants we’re going to increase the number of pollinators that
We need um the next one is very important they do provide nectar and pollen for the parent and young but what a native plant does that that a non-native plant does not do is they provide the pollen and that is what the parents need to feed their young so
That’s very important and of course if we plant a lot of native plants we’re going to increase the habitat and that is going to give an a uh area for the pollinators to Nest to M and to have shelter so I picked this photo uh the
Butterfly weed it is in the family of the milk weed I picked it because it has that monarch caterpillar on there where we have had a lot of monarch caterpillars on our on our butterfly weed in the last few years there’s also a bee on the right hand side there um
Right on the orange flower uh but I also picked it because it has the pods that have all those um aphids on there um and so one day I went out they had all the aphids on there and then the next day I went out and they were gone um so
Remember that ecosystem that interacting living organisms don’t worry about that we need insects we need bugs so um your ecosystem if it’s healthy will take care of itself so who’s the real deal here who’s who’s the plant that is actually supplying the pollen and I’m sure the
Gardeners in the room are like oh I know that I do have to confess that I have both of those plants in the garden which means I have a non-native um the red cardinal flower on the left is with uh our obedient plant and the one on the
Left on the right the Lucifer Lily who is enticing that ruby-throated hummingbird that I sat for hours to get that picture um and we have had a lot of hummingbirds in the last couple years um so who’s the real deal I’m sure you
Know see if I can get this to work um it is the co-evolved h co-evolved uh hummingbird along with that cardinal plant and if you look at his head and on his forehead the male reproductive organ is putting pollen as he sticks his bill in there on his forehead and then when
He goes to the female part of the plant and sticks his head in there he is actually pollinating that plant so majorly cool isn’t it um yeah this is I’m chattering I think Isn’t that cool so the bird’s head’s touching the flower and put the pollen on it there
You okay sorry I can’t stay okay so so native pollinators provide for all without it we wouldn’t have a habit a habitable Earth so um they Supply support on which we all depend but sometimes you’re going to hear humans say well yes of course because we need it for our food um but
We need it for more than just our food we need it for the food for all animals so on the right there you’re going to see a shrubby St John’s wart again another one of my favorite plants um it is about 3 to four feet in diameter and
3 to four feet high um it is one of those tidier native plants so you might want to use it in your front yard um it stays with those little yellow flowers for an extremely long period of time once it blooms and it is covered in bees so another really nice plant it’s
Biologically um beneficial but also it’s aesthetically very very pleasing so anything else we wanted to say about that okay so now the engineer is gonna come out of me and talk about how uh native plants are more resilient um and why are they more resilient because they have such deep root systems
That’s why we use them on our our stream projects and what they do is they slow the storm water run off down they allow it to infiltrate into the ground and the other thing they do those roots are so deep they stabilize a slope up land on a
Slope and they don’t allow for any erosion so how does that help Downstream in your Watershed because if we keep that water on site will have less water um less erosion uh and it will be going slower just what all Engineers want um and so native plants also sequester
Carbon um so we’re fighting climate change on a larger scale uh the next one I’m going to talk about is is right now you got to think those it’s that co-evolved relationship so um our native bloomers and our native pollinators come out at the same time they’re in sync I
Say for now um and so that’s all all you know they’ve adapted to our regional climate I’ll talk about climate change in a minute um the other really big thing why native plants are more resilient they do not require pesticides or fertilizers no native Gardener uses pesticides Native Nurseries do not use
Pesticides if you go to what I call a traditional um Nursery you need to ask if they use pesticides um because that’s extremely important you use pesticides they will get into it systemically and those pollinators are gone um native plants require less water maybe in the
First few years to get those Deep Roots established they’ll need some watering um but once they are established you really don’t need to water them two of my very favorite plants um Mountain mint is that gray one up on the leftand corner there um that one I have right on
A walkway I have it all over the place but I have it on a walkway and the bees there’s this blue hornet that goes on it that’s gorgeous uh you could stick your hand in that and they will not come after you a they don’t all sting and B
They’re getting exactly what they want and need off that mountain mint so um that is a really nice plant if you’re a starter would start with that one too and then blue Miss flower that’s a wild adum that gets teeny little blue flowers all over it and you could actually use
That as a ground cover to very nice biologically um beneficial but very nice um uh native plants so I really like this slide um look at the roots on that you know it’s great above but great below as well those roots Ro are deep um for some of
You we could get into you know the sociology of of plants more you know and what those roots are doing beneath the ground but if that if that land were on a slope um those roots would hold that that land on a slope no erosion uh the
Ones above slow it down let it infiltrate and look at that little puny turf grass over on the left and that thing is puny it has no roots so that’s not going to stabilize any soil it has nothing above it so it doesn’t slow any water down and you pulverize it with
Pesticides and fertilizers so if you were on a slope um it would wash all that fertilizer and pesticides wash Downstream go into your Watershed pollute it pollute your drinking water so we’re going to replace all that that turf grass so why are we doing all this because our native pollinators are are
In Decline and why are they in decline because we have lost Andor fragmented the habitat in which they need to live to thrive and survive um also uh we have so many native plants and invasive plants um we have less pollinators again that pesticide use uh neonix we do not
Want them make sure you ask your nurseries if they use any pesticides at all um climate change these plants can’t adapt to climate change because it’s happening so fast that means if that pollinator needs that plant and it’s not there then it is not
It is going to go extinct um and you can go on to the iucn website and see the status of the health of the world’s biodiversity and who would we use as a poster child for pollinator decline but the monarch butterfly um right there they’re feeding on either our Joe pie
Weed or our milkweed um and and we’ve had a lot more monarchs than than normal these past few years we see them feeding on on our plants you know eye level but we also see them up in the top of our River Birch which is so majorly cool um
So I talk about uh Native Gardens being more resilient to climate change climate change is happening at such a rapid Pace it is very unpredictable um some people talk about plant migration I am not going to recommend anything like that until I see the science behind it um so
What am I going to do as a compassionate native Gardener I’m gonna plant I’m going to plant I’m G to plant a lot and I’m GNA plant densely so that we have successive Blooms from early spring all the way to late fall um and we want to
Plant native corridor doors so that we can have those pollinator Pathways the other thing I want to mention um as a tree lover and as as a engineer and as a a person doing these native plants wanting to keep our pollinators you need to preserve your forests um plant a tree
If you do nothing else on your suburban lot plant an oak plant a maple plant a birch that understory service Berry we need trees so plant a tree today for tomorrow um the reason I use that common witch hazel is because it is an early uh Bloomer for the pollinators in early
Spring so plant a native tree she must really she’s on this tree thing so deforestation isn’t happening just in the Amazon it is happening here in Onida County it’s probably happening right here in the town in which you live um we need to do something about that and then
We need to also plant our native trees on May 15th of this past year one and a half million Birds a migratory birds flew over Onida County granted that’s the peak day but think of that they can’t go forever they need a forest and they need to be able to land on
Something rest get food we need to preserve our forest I think I I think I covered that plan planetry so um I talked about why are we doing this and I think that is extremely important sometimes maybe more important than the how um but now I’ll go on to
That Controlled Chaos um Nancy Lawson calls using native plants in our garden um Controlled Chaos so I’ll get into traditional garden design a bit so that’s what we see now as the American lawn just waiting to be planted with native plants we have millions of Acres
Of that in the United States so just think if we could convert that over to native plants the conservation Corridor that we would have we would have less pesticides less fertilizer less pollution uh we would have obviously more space for our native plants more carbon being sequestered um less
Maintenance because you don’t you don’t have to water um and we would have improved habitat biodiversity ecosystem land was meant to have plants on it it was not meant to have that on it um and so what are we going to do we are going to restore the habitat we’re
Going to restore that relationship with the land we’re going to heal the land heal ourselves we’re going to give back what we’ve taken we’re going to create and regenerate habitat uh we’re going to give the pollinators the food the water the cover and a place for them to raise
Their young so what we’re going to do is we’re going to replace all that lifeless lawn with native plants and when we do that we’re going to use the native plants to our Eco region um we are Eco region 883 that is the great lakes and lower
Huts and lowlands um and you’re like well I don’t know what native plants are in that Eco region don’t worry you’re going to have more websites given to you you can go on to the New York plant Atlas it’s wonderful um Jennifer has resources for you you’re also just going
To check on your phone there’s a couple really nice websites but what we’re going to do if you look at that photo that is a photo from Adam Woodruff he’s got some gorgeous designs using all native plants he has turned his front yard there into a um a conservation Corridor and we’re
Going to do the same thing as compassionate gardeners and we are going to bring nature home so for those of you who have been to our home that is our backyard um and what we want to do a little Controlled Chaos um but what we
Want to do is we want to change the mindset we want to tell people that native Gard are not overgrown that American lawn as Nancy Lawson says is undergrown it is lifeless native plants are not weeds um insects and bees they are our friends not our foes and don’t
Do your fall cleanup like you do Spring Cleanup in the house leave your leaves leave your leaves um but what we want to do to get that Controlled Chaos is we want to have an intentional design we we want it so that your neighbors do accept
It because as much as all of all of us are going to create those um Native Gardens in our Suburban lot we need them to do the same thing so we need to kind of try and entice the neighbors to do the same thing that we are doing because
The more we have the better the conservation Flor door and I do believe that it a a aesthetic ecological Garden does not have to look messy or weedy um so that right there we have taken out a lot of non-natives right there um some of you have my non-natives like my
Hostas that you’re using for deer bait or you’re planning yourself I know who’s there um I have taken those out and put those white uh blooming clora right there I’ve used annuals for color um taken out a a lot of the non- natives I’ve got pagota dog Woods red twig dog
Woods silky dog Woods gray dog Woods um three service berries in there low gr sumac Bush honeysuckle tried to use um Garden techniques with different color texture uh form um so a little Controlled Chaos John even said get those things out of the walkway they’re not even native so those are gone a
Little more controlled so um biologically beneficial but hopefully aesthetically pleasing so you’re going to hear cues to care what does that mean to have cues to care a little more intentional design um it’s it’s going to the humans to make sure they see that oh yeah this is a
Place for us too you’ll have seats you’ll have bird bath pots sculptures um those are cued care to show you know it’s for us too um if you’re going to entice your neighbors try to have that front y front lawn welcoming a little more enticing maybe a little more neat and tidy um
I’ll say that some people say keep your plants at three feet I have not followed that rule but I think it’s still welcoming um I would still have flowering native um flowers and shrubs maybe that uh shrubby St John’s wart um um but maybe a little more well behaved
In the front lawn um Wildlife is still going to use native plants even if it is designed in a traditional fashion so so Rachel this is your front lawn right here in Clinton New York one of our members of the Wild Ones um and so
What do we have to do to get started obviously we have to reduce that turf grass the way we do it is we um put newspaper or cardboard down we then put mulch or organic material on top of it um I like to preserve a lot of people
Like get that grass out of there but I like to preserve that top layer because it has a lot of nutrients in it um I do not use chemicals and I don’t own a rototiller um and then obviously we have to re remove our invasive plants I do
Also want to mention that Native Garden designers are really needed because traditional landscapers don’t use native plants so we really need some Native Garden designers right Jennifer so this is Rachel’s beautiful butterfly garden uh and what did she do to start we had to do a site analysis
You have to see do you have sun do you have shade is your your uh clay soil sandy soil do you have any environmental um problems drainage um she had to decide how do you want to use your space and what kind of style do you like um
Obviously she wanted a butterfly garden she has a little more cottagey Garden feel here um you need to take an inventory of your existing plants some some of them can stay some of them are are native and some have to go maybe you want to add something extra like a water
Feature Rachel used some cues to care here she used that beautiful Arbor she also has put some window boxes that match on her house uh she’s got her signs there very nice welld designed um ecologically beneficial but also aesthetically very beautiful so when you’re doing this let your design Juices
Flow enjoy yourself um don’t don’t worry too much as long as you’ve you’ve taken everything into account so relationship of plant to place again one thing you’re going to need to do is you’re going to need to research research research your native plants I don’t know the native plants as
Well as I know my traditional plants um so you need to know what size they’re going to get to be what shape they are how do they spread but the one thing I want to um really bring home is you need to choose your plant for your site I’ve
Heard a lot of people say I want that plant I’m like you can’t have that plant because it won’t live on your site so you just have to accept where you are and what you’ve got and if you um do combinations in nature uh nature-based combinations they’re battle tested the
More success you’ll have so start with Native Plant communities this is another atam woodrift design he’s on a walkway here he’s kept things lower he’s also got beautiful color um and I’ll talk a little bit more of his design but a really beautiful and um biologically beneficial design there
So I keep talking about a plant Community what is a plant Community it’s basically plants that get along with each other um they have to survive in the same environmental condition so if you’ve got a wet condition they all have to survive in a wet condition
Um they also have to get along from a competitive standpoint you can’t have one plant that’s really competitive and one that gives in otherwise that competitive plant will take over the whole site um this one in our backyard these are Jo pie weed iron weed
Milked um I’ve got a comb flour in there they all pretty much p and tug they get along with each other nobody’s over more competitive than the other um and they all like the site that they’re at so that’s basically plant Community but don’t forget choose your plant don’t change your
Sight okay lots of reasons to take a walk in in the woods Get Back To Nature but also if you take a walk in the woods you can see how nature actually designs their landscape and that’s what you want to do is basically do what nature does
Plant in layers we are really big about planting in layers it is going to make you feel like you’re in a bigger place than you actually are gives Dimension um so start with the I always talk about the bones of your design start with those large canopy trees sequestering
Carbon making it cooler your understory trees provide the food then the larger shrubs that are going to give wildli habitat then you’re going to do the herbaceous flowers that give you your color and texture all year even though I know that’s where you want to start um
And then you’re G to use plugs maybe for ground cover and that’s your green mulch so John no more truckloads of of mulch um that’s where I want to concentrate this year is using Ground Covers to cover that ground granted we need to leave some open space for seeds and the
Bees but um need to use a ground cover also don’t forget your vines that trumpet Honeys Su no not trumpet the honeysuckle vine the orange one is native um they add height and they add interest that is actually a picture from the New York Highline so really like this slide too
The art of layering both above and below again you’re going to plant a dive verse dense landscape you’re going to have color texture focal points can be plants that vary in the season you’re going to have blooms all year from that seasonal theme layer and you’re going to have
Vertical layering um structural layer the bigger plants seasonal those blooming herbaceous and then that ground cover that is that large biomass on the on the bottom there so design with intention you’re going to repeat color you repeat shape form texture and as you can see in this
Front yard design of Adam wood dffs it really makes your eye flow um we like to plant flowers in drifts and in masses by odd numbers three five um and the reason we do that isn’t just for the human eye but also the pollinators they need a
Large area to light um so if you have larger drifts they can light their stay get that pollen they need and they’re not flitting around using up all their energy um bloom in succession like I said early spring to late fall you can have a focal point he has a most elegant
Um focal point right there but it could be plants um year-long interest if you notice he’s only using maybe like three different colors there um of Bloom that is kind of like a little guidance um the texture he’s used he’s got the grasses in there along with the other plump like
Form um so he’s definitely designed to scale he framed his view with the tree and the structure that is a very elegant design and very ecologically beneficial so so this is this is the on the left hand side there is a summary of all the things that I’ve kind of gone over
Morning so make sure you actually enjoy yourself doing this um but on the right there I want to tell a story about how Jennifer has created habitat she has regenerated and restored an ecosystem and she has created and regenerated biodiversity in her little Suburban uh yard uh in Rome New York
Jennifer lives right in the city and uh we were somewhere and Jennifer says I gotta go I go oh where are you going because I gotta go pick up a truck a U-Haul I said oh is someone moving no I’m going to the plantsman to pick up some native plants that is a
Nursery near Ithaca and I’m like this woman is picking up plants in a U-Haul truck that’s who I want to hang around with um so I said well what do you why do you need so many plants Jennifer so Jennifer has in the back of her yard um
I think it’s like 70 by 80 feet it was a a I’ll call it a a wooded area that was infested with invasives but Jennifer had a lot of determination and she had a vision she said the first thing she needs to do is remove those invasive plants Jennifer removed seven Norway Maples
Mature Norway Maples she also removed Honeysuckle and garlic mustard and vavine and Bishop weed uh so that was in May of 2020 just as the pandemic was starting that Jennifer removed the invasives so this is a story about an Ever evolving compassionate Garden Jennifer created a woodland in her backyard
So I asked her can I come and look at this she had in September of 2020 planted small native plants and that’s what we want to do because we want to allow those roots to develop they don’t get stunted when they’re small a lot of
People want to buy a big tree and put it in but that tree takes a lot that gets stunted and and that’s harder on the tree so Jennifer said to me I said can I come over she said sure So I went went over in late 2020 and she goes how do
You like it I’m like it’s beautiful you’ve designed it wonderfully she goes yes and it’s going to be so Lush next spring and I thought oh my God this poor woman thinks this stick Garden is going to turn into this Lush beautiful garden in no time well I went back in June of
2021 and look it really is a lush beautiful garden that did not take long to take off those roots got established she’s got on the leftand side there um a flowering dogwood she’s done planted all of those plants she’s got two paths going in she’s got two archways that have um flowering native
Vines on them and the stick Garden is definitely gone so here is Jennifer’s Woodland Garden on the left is October of 2022 and you can definitely take a walk in the woods you go on a hot summer day standing outside of this in the Suburban lot you know hot you walk in underneath
That Arbor and it’s like you have been transported to a whole different place on such a small lot Jennifer has created a welcoming Woodland the temperature is lower you look around and you think you are in this huge Forest she has densely planted she has planted in layers she has picked
Perfect plants for the perfect perfect place um it is it is a wonderful Woodland Garden um and on the right hand side you can see she’s added more Stone to to outline that Garden your eye flows she’s got layers she’s got different colors um used different textures I have
To say that this is uh a truly compassionate Woodland garden and Jennifer is an inspiring compassionate Gardener it is it is a wonderful walking woods so you are going to do the same thing you’re going to research research research those plants youve got tons of
Books you can use uh sites you can go to try and go to as many Native Nurseries as many Native Gardens as you possibly can pen um we just want to show you a few more native plants I could go on forever we would actually like to to um
Form a native plant group that we just talk about plants because you know I had 40 some years to do this traditional stuff I don’t have 40 more to learn these native plants so we need to be sharing what we can these are these are just a few of these native plants um
This is our garden we we have a ton of native pollin ators you got that hummer coming in we’ve got butterflies that’s that Monarda filoso on the left there that’s the five-footer that’s in the sun I’ve got a three-footer that’s not in as much sun that is a beautiful plant
That’s that hummingbird moth that finally came in for a landing John and I have tons of pollinators and native plants we have seen more um swallow Tails than ever braries bees all sorts of butterflies um there’s that hummer sitting on my pagot that’s a blue Azure
In the leftand lower corner it’s on the anah pretty sure New Jersey te is its host plant which is just below it um and that’s on the right hand side that’s that St John’s shrubby St John’s W um it would take me another whole hour just to
Cover all the plants that all of us have so far so you are all welcome to come to New York Mills and visit our Gardens they are gardened For All Seasons and I’m going to leave you with this quote from Robin wal Kimmer when we see
The world as a web of relationships our ethics change we begin to treat all beings with respect and gratitude not just the beings we deem valuable or useful thank you I hope you become a compassionate Gardener and I hope you plant a compassionate landscape and join the Wild Ones
So I think Christa what do we do next take questions or what would you like me to do I was thinking we could um go ahead and draw in case people want to leave and then have time for questions we do have a raffle we have a gift
Certificate for um Wild Ginger Farms which is in West Windfield am I right yeah and then we also have a native shrub book The this is from wild seed project um they have I’ve got three of their books this is the native shrub they have the ground cover and they also
Have the trees I think they’re out there they’re they’re just wonderful you need something to carry along with look everybody put their name in here no anybody want to put it’s okay sure okay here we go this will be for the book Vicky Ward picky and this is a gift certificate to
A native Nursery she’s new she just started Wild Ginger Farm she’s in West Winfield she um has beautiful plants all Native um and let’s see who gets that gift certificate John John Gman okay so anybody have any questions that was a lot of stuff in a short period of
Time we would also be very um happy to do presentations or just talks on um a specific topic to do with native plants if you have a specific topic you need because that would got a question I do is there any way for me to find Bayberry shrub Bay Berry shrub so if
You’re going to be looking for native plants like that um and sometimes it’s hard to find in the nurseries whether they’re female or male so a lot of the nurseries like plantsman Nursery um and one Nursery I don’t know if I’m supposed to plug anybody here um but yeah that’s
Where you might want to find it um plantsman is near itha um Wild Ginger Farm is in West Winfield um only even though it is a traditional um Nursery does have straight species there’s also the fery in Catskills um that that is one of our favorites um so
What I would say for finding a female you’re probably going to have to buy two or three of the plants um I would probably start at at the plantsman um and see you know if you can get a female out of that um sometimes you can tell
Because the berries are on it um but that’s that’s my my I’m not really following this I I don’t I I don’t think I have them so read question okay question here oh okay showed a slide with the red flowers and one was called Cardinal was the second word here we go let’s
See oh the Cardinal flower yeah yeah that’s in the um yeah yeah let me you want the um that one with the Hummer sticking his bill right in there there we go it’s lobilia cardinalis okay um does anybody else there’s nine in the chat so let me see I
Don’t know if I can get them not like that oh so sorry you do I’m actually using that over there okay I think the first one you can just like go okay H lilocks are apparently not native what would you do eliminate just not plant so
A lot of people say to me um do I have to get rid of every single plant I own no because you’re gonna do more harm than good you’re gonna you know expose your soil plus you know um Wildlife is using those plants as habitat um and if
They’re really special to you no what we try to say is use about 70 try and get your Gardens to 70% native and you’re like well how do I figure that out well um it’s more by mass it’s not by 70% of my plants well if you got that mass of
Oak but you you know that mass of Oak you know is is working in there as John and I John says mag you get a lot of points for that Oak don’t you I said I do I get a lot of points for the oak um
So uh you know would you cut down your lilacs now if you’re talking a whole lilac hedge I might take a few of them out and put in um you know some natives but if it’s just one lilac I I wouldn’t I wouldn’t cut it down if it’s that
Close to your heart if it is not that close to and you can you can put in you know like an arrow wood viburnum or some I guess I would it’s totally up to the person to replant our whole yard with Natives and that huge like section of honeysuckle along a
Creek with like Button Bush and elderberries yeah um what if to try to avoid using um herbici what’s the best way to get rid of that to just cut it down and then keep like back try to you can try and keep cutting it down um that’s going to take longer you can
Actually yank put a chain on that and yank them out depend you’re that close to the creek you know you don’t want get into the creek but um you can keep cutting it down um you know and do the best you can but um yeah I don’t use
Chemicals um so I would you know maybe rip try rip them actually out but if you’re G to do that I would plan immediately when you do that so that you know stabilize that soil there such things as native shrubs oh yes oh yeah where’ that book go oh
Yeah we got F the made in shrubs um yeah I mean like we have Winterberry and we having a look out that we had planted Winterberry when we first did our planting about 30 something years ago um they are native they’re good size and I
Like the idea of like I said put canopy trees under story trees those herbaceous I mean the the um shrubs you almost are creating a HED r or like bed and Border because I love beds and borders um but yeah there are a ton like um just
Mentioned A Button Bush there are tons of native shrubs um in all those books that you see you’re going to see a lot of a lot of native shrubs beautiful just great um this is may sound silly but do you have to check yourself for ticks every time you go go in the
House um because we’re besieged by JS yeah we have a lot of we have a lot of deer I live right in the Village of New York Mills but we have like nine deer that are just hanging out out back um I am so fair skinned that I cover myself
A lot because I can’t have the sun on me um but I I can’t say I’m good enough that I check all the time I check myself I’m not I’m not g to not go out in the garden because of the tips right but I
Do check myself a lot yeah it’s not it’s not a crazy question it’s you know when it first started I was like holy Lord out there a lot you know so it’s not a silly question um I’ve planted a lot of fooding bushes um and I need help with
Ground cover around them so we were fighting off this third acre where we were down the HED just try plant some natives fruit a lot of it I want it to feel us sure um so what are some recommendations for ground cover that’s relatively quick and inexpensive be it
Quicker coming from seed or you can do some from seed what I would do for ground cover is I would try to get plugs there was one other thing that I didn’t mention when I when someone asked where would you get stuff from um if you can I
Love to use local first so I would try and go to the local nurseries like I don’t know if you’re in sun or shade or what kind of soil you have it’s done um there’s all sorts of different Ground Covers there’s actually a ground cover
Book as well um but if you can’t find something local which I think at Ginger Farms you would be able to find at local I’m actually going to use um uh pea it’s um Jennifer help me with the ground yeah the gold ground swell it’s blooms yellow
Um that’s one you could use in the Sun but you know there’s sedes there’s all sorts of ground covers that you can use be and strawberry um depends you know on on your soil conditions there is a wild seed project has a nice ground cover book um that that’s really nice um but
Plugs would be good um because and you can’t plugs are you know when you see like it’s like wow look I can get all those plant um you see the little teeny um trays of like 72 or something um some nurseries will sell it by the plug some
Nurseries won’t they’re very small plant and you’re like oh small plant but you can plant a lot of them and their Roots take right off so um planning with plugs is really nice uh the one thing if you can’t get somebody locally that will will sell you plugs you can go on to
That Prairie Moon site um and Prairie they do sell by plugs but I’m G plug my local Nursery first and I really like to use the locals first um Alyssa at Ginger Farms just um started her business she might be um you know conducive to doing
Plugs um and you can always like you said can I start from seed of course you can yeah you know you save yourself money if you have time to do that and the patients to I don’t know a lot of what you’re talking thank you because you you uh you also have
Been a huge help in our Native Garden mov so thank you very much lot of what you’re talking about is converting Gardens converting Lawns is much bigger challenging and I I think your description of covering with cardboard and so forth is fine on small scale but if you’re dealing with large
Scale I don’t know how you can avoid tilling without trying to turn it to get the grass over you’ve got a lot of grass to start with they’re more challenges even though uh what I will in my own backyard is I’m trying to convert to a metal not just
A and yet to get rid of the grass takes well we did and we have about a quarter of an acre and we have no grass almost um and we did convert um maybe not as large as metal but but cloes we converted a large area on in the fall
Put a double layer of newspaper put organic material in and mulch down and the next spring it was gone your grass will die fast don’t forget most grass is being fertilized needs fertilizer you know need water air Sun we killed ours in in um a very short period of time and
It was with newspaper and uh and mulch basically it was actually organic material um Jennifer wants to just want to add um for creating Meadows there are a number of books out on that table um that are good resources one of them is Garden Revolution I have
Some sources on our wild website about creating Meadows or turning grass if you are out somewhere in the country where it hasn’t been developed not necessarily tur grass if been planted you just want to go more native there’s a mowing reg you can use that will eventually turn
You back into primar needs um if you are in a suburban area you know there are variety methods you can do one is just do it incrementally and but even if you don’t want to do it incrementally there are various ways to do that Benjamin V
Maggie talked about he his book prair up talks about that as well so there are a number of resources some are more or less lab intensive depending on how fast does the metal get to the point where you don’t have to kind of treat it like a hfield and twice a year or
Yes so again depends on the condition we’re in the Northeast here everything basically so usually once you get to a point where you have the na want the uh idea is to mow once every years or every year mow a third so that get keeps the shrubs from coming in um if you’re
Mowing a third of it so but you’re also allowing two thirds of it over winter so insects over winter and that that I worked on a project um years ago and as part of the mitigation we had to address migratory birds and so we actually with
DEC um bought an area near a wildlife refuge that um was all grasslands and in order to keep it grassland so that like Jennifer said it was like 200 Acres um like Jennifer said um we had a maintenance um regime that I think it was every two or three years um more
Than likely they did what Jennifer said m a third of it at a time every year um but that was built in there so that for those migratory birds that stayed as a grassland So it’s talking about the same thing um keeping it as metal because if
You don’t you know brush starts and then then you won’t be able to to keep it under control I have not done a meadow I would like to do a meadow i’ like to do a whole For how do you know plans to get along is that just research or yeah um I was going to actually include a slide but it was like getting to be too lengthy and it was very complicated um Benjamin boat just had a a really good webinar on the
Sociability of plants and plants are actually rated for their competitiveness um how they’re formed are they clumped how do they spread um Grimes triangle some of my um some of my fine gardening magazines are out there it’s a traditional gardening magazine but they are starting to add stuff about
Um native plants because we’re getting to be so popular um in that movement but he talks about um how plants are competitive and and not comp but also what do you see out in nature that gets along with each other um and there are some you know we have some examples that
Like the one I showed you you know and you’ll also see sometimes I know you’re going to go thought she said she’s made a garden um for purple cone flow and um blackeyed Susan there is a native blackeyed Susan um and you some of the plants you see that are always together
Um are because one’s not taking over the other um so how many years back do they go when when they’re researching what plants are native and what plants grow I knew somebody was to of us live on property that’s very old right these are established like we
Live we have like woods around our houses you know right right and we have ground cover that you know I saw where it said vinka is not native but I mean and we have so much shade if you go in our backyard underneath all the trees there’s just you know it’s covered with
Beautiful baa with blue flowers like yeah I would you go about you know to me that seems like it would be native because it’s been there so it’s not native um it’s could be considered invasive it is a monoculture vinka is not a native plant um and that’s why when I said try
To go back into nature try to find yourself Forest lands that are still intact meaning um is not got the the forest cover in one plant you know it’s got an intact native plant but to people of AC me back what is a native plant how far
Do you go back in order to say that that thing’s native um I say that it has not been um human introduction humans did not introduce it it it did not come over um so it’s pre-colonization basically that’s what um Don Leopold from ESS I
Just listened to him and he was very EXA said there is no question about it no subjectivity here it is PR colonization not g to say that um so um you know if you’re like isn’t plant native is it not native again I would you know we’re in Eco region 83
Some people say you can go down even lower and do just your county um you know I’m kind of new at this I’m just going with my eco region 83 we’re also 83 us um and I will go off that list and use those the best I can sometimes s you
Know um I might use one that’s in the Northeast and I’d like to use straight species um I can’t say that I’m I’m so um you know stuck on the fact that I can’t use a plant that’s a little outside of of the county read din or
Whatever I don’t know if I answered your question but um I will say that thinka is not Jennifer did take vinka out of her yard and I have had take think out and it is a constant pull and remove and Pull and remove until it just gives in
Go ahead a comment kind of along what you’re talking about um because you’re looking for plants that are have developed that relationship with insects and Wildlife and other plants you’re looking at a time scale of thousands to tens of thousands of years for evolution to create those relationship not 100
Years it’s it might be a long time for us long time for them yeah they need they need that efficient sufficient time to develop an essential and a and a relationship that they’ve co-evolved together so that when this plant comes out this pollinator comes out I hope that makes some
Um I I just wanted to say really quickly on subject nonnative plants and ticks which were going out the door just raised um if any of you have a Japanese barbery in your yards which you might if it was traditionally landscaped sort of a favorite non-native shrub among traditional landscapers that plant
Specifically Harbor tanks so if you have it take it outes Japanese barbery it’s very popular and it’s everywhere landsape put it in everywhere and it’s like a habitat shelter yeah it’s that brown it’s got thorns on it um it’s that brown Roundy thing that they sck in all you know that
Stamped landscape that we see everybody has you know the plants don’t touch I remember my neighbor when he first started she the other neighbor goes maybe you think you can help the other neighbor goes yeah don’t let your plant touch supposed to well thank you very much this
Has hi I am a landscape designer who eventually come to the native plant decisions but I have to say the question I’m from Clinton yes I
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Great little master class to share with everyone!! Knowledge is power!! ❤