Growing a Greener World

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- [Male Announcer] And the following: [gentle instrumental music] - [voice-over] I'm Joe Lamp'l.

When I created Growing a Greener World, I had one goal.

To tell stories of everyday people.

Innovators, entrepreneurs, forward-thinking leaders who are all, in ways both big and small, dedicated to organic gardening and farming, lightening our footprint, conserving vital resources, protecting natural habitats, making a tangible difference for us all.

They're real, they're passionate, they're all around us.

They're the game changers who are literally growing a greener world and inspiring the rest of us to do the same.

Growing a Greener World.

It's more than a movement, it's our mission.

[birds chirping] You hear that?

If you closed your eyes and just thought about nature, allow yourself to be surrounded by nature, you might imagine a place similar to this meadow, a vast unmanicured space full of tall grasses and all kinds of wildflower popping up with incredible color, and a lush home to all kinds of wildlife.

When you think about it, it's the ultimate low-maintenance, earth-friendly landscape.

And it's what Mother Nature creates when left to her own devices.

Well, for those of you looking to get back to nature and incorporate a little bit more of that into your own lives and gardens, a meadow might be the perfect solution for a number of reasons.

And you might be surprised just how easy it is to incorporate many of its benefits into any yard of any size.

American Meadows has been driving the wildflower train since before it was trendy or cool, and way before environmentally friendly was a genuine selling point.

The company was born in Vermont in 1981 and quickly became the source for gardeners looking to grow wildflowers.

Now over 15 000 gardeners visit their online store every single day, with interest in creating meadow habitats booming at an all time high.

Mike Lizotte is the managing partner of the company and author of the book "Mini Meadows".

And if you're around him for very long at all you'll find his love of wildflowers to be pretty contagious.

Well Mike, we are definitely in the middle of a meadow.

This is one of your clients, right?

- That is correct, Joe.

- Well, I love all the flowers, which is perfect for them because they are a very busy couple.

One of the things that keeps them so busy is they have a roadside flower stand to cater to all the cars going by right here on the road.

- [Mike] That's correct.

- So tell me about this property itself, because when they first bought this, they had a bit of an issue with the drainage and all the different things, but the meadow has helped remediate a lot of those challenges.

- That's exactly correct.

So when they moved in, behind us here there's a mountain, literally, and this was a flood plain.

So one of their first years in here, that spring, the entire area flooded.

And they're like, "Hey, this is gonna be very challenging."

And at the same time, it was turf grass, so we said, "We need to come up with some solutions."

So that's when the idea of creating meadows kinda came about.

So some of the first year color you're seeing here, we've got the plains coreopsis, which is the yellow-red.

We've got some of the cosmos bipinnatus, which is the taller, and you'll see some pinks, and some dark reds, and some whites.

We also have some of the bachelor button.

We've got some clarkia mixed in here, along with some cynoglossum.

So this again is first year annual color.

- And you know what I also like about this?

It's a carpet of green, and in this case, there's a lot of crabgrass down in here, which in a lawn setting, people look at that and go, "Oh, I don't want that in my fescue or my bermuda."

But in a meadow setting, it is totally fine, and it's just part of the total biodiversity of what makes this work so well.

- Right, and not only is it fine, you don't have to deal with it.

It's kind of hidden below everything, so you don't even notice it.

There's been kind of a resurgence of meadows in the awareness, and I do think it's been due to the environment and the environmental impact.

People wanting to do more to benefit and enhance their property, where I feel like a number of years ago, it was all about you have your house and you've got your lawn, and it's perfect.

You're gonna fertilize and you're gonna mow it once a week, and that's what you're gonna do.

Now with awareness of some of the drawbacks to that, and trying to create a solution on "Hey, what can I do "on my property to improve the environment?"

But also the benefits that come along with a meadow: the beautification, the benefits to pollinators, that kind of stuff.

So I feel like there's been a positive resurgence.

I think people are more in tune to that than ever before.

So we have seen resurgent of people asking, calling, "What is a meadow?

"Tell me about meadows.

"Tell me about meadow gardening."

And it's been great.

So I started in the seed industry when I was 13 years old.

At the time, the founders of our company, Raymond and Charlotte Allen, they had a large seed shipment that was due in, and they didn't have a loading dock at the facility.

So my friend had been working for them as well, and called me up and said, "Hey, we need "an extra hand here unloading the truck."

- [Joe] A weekend job packing seeds turned into a high school job in the retail store.

Then managing the store as a college student.

And when the founders retired from the business in 2009, Mike and a business partner took over as owners.

- We specialize now, sell over 250 different individual species of flowers, and then we sell over 50 different types of wildflower blends: different regional blends, different themes to 'em, pollinators, et cetera.

I could put 100 varieties of seed on the table, and I could identify every single variety; but had no idea what it would look like in flower form.

So I kinda learned the reverse.

And so when my shift was over, I'd go out to our trial gardens and I would just go around, "Oh, that's what a poppy looks like, and oh, "that's what a lupin looks like in bloom."

I knew what the seed looked like, had no idea what the flower looked like; so almost the reverse of how people learn, where they'll go out into a meadow, and they'll have their ID book, and they're looking at the different varieties.

I learned it from seed first, and then the flower secondly.

So when someone thinks of a meadow, I think their first reaction is, "I need a lot of land, big vast areas."

And the reality is how I would interpret a meadow is totally up to you.

It can be two acres; it could be 20 square feet, and I think that's the beauty, where sure, you've got the Webster's definition of what a meadow is, but I kinda throw that out of the book.

The perception of a meadow and how you define it is totally up to the customer.

It could be seed, it could be plants, it could be plugs, in my opinion I'm not biased; of course I am biased towards seed, but no, depending on the situation and the circumstance, hey, you may introduce plugs or plants, but again, I think it's the beautification process, taking an area that you may not otherwise have done anything, or it's just grass or something boring, and turning it into something that can be beneficial and impacts the environment in a positive way.

- So I think it would be safe to assume the guy that wrote the book on installing a mini-meadow in your yard would have a mini-meadow in his yard.

And that's certainly the case with Mike Lizotte.

This is his mini-meadow garden.

We're gonna learn more about that.

But while we're here, we're also gonna make this garden bigger, because Mike wants to increase the size.

So I'm here to help every step of the way to make that happen.

Okay, so what Mike's gonna do right now is he's gonna draw out these bed lines.

He's using some contractor paint which is basically designed for landscapers to draw out that line on the bed.

But you have other options.

Now this is readily available, this paint, but you could use a garden hose, or you could use play sand and do the same thing.

All you're trying to do is get a rough idea of that line that you're trying to follow with the tiller, and then you just make it happen.

But you don't need fancy paint for that.

So what you're looking at is it's coming in here and it's going back out, right?

- [Mike] Yup.

- So you're just following that line, okay?

And it's coming out and now it's making the turn.

And you're going like this.

And what you're gonna do is you're gonna look to come back and meet up over here, and you've got the kidney.

There you go.

While creating a meadow of your own isn't difficult, it is more than just deciding to stop mowing your lawn and hoping that some wildflowers pop up.

But the good news is whatever part of your property you're thinking about for a meadow, it will probably work as long as you meet some basic requirements.

- Number one, sunlight.

You don't need 12 hours of sun from eight o'clock in the morning 'til eight o'clock at night, as long as you're getting about four or five hours of sun.

And what's important is it can be morning sun or afternoon sun; it doesn't matter.

You'll probably have a good spot for a meadow.

Number two, soil.

Look around.

What's growing in the area?

If you've got your common grass and weeds growing there, your soil conditions are probably perfectly fine for establishing wildflowers.

You don't need to go out and bring in the great topsoil or whatever if you've already got growth there.

Now if you are seeing some bare spots there, if you look around, maybe you've tried to plant stuff in the past and haven't had good results, yeah, that might be where you may get a soil test.

Which can be important, 'cause it'll tell you exactly number one what's wrong, but also how to remedy it.

So that's important, but in most cases, if you've got existing growth there, you soil's perfectly fine.

And then number three, expect to do a little work here.

This isn't magic where you're just gonna throw seed out, and boom, you're gonna have this beautiful garden.

There is some work to do, but again, when you get into it, you're gonna find the work is not as hard as you think, but there is some required.

So setting that expectation upfront, that "Hey, I've gotta do some work."

But ultimately, the benefits you're gonna reap, both in the short term and in the long term, are gonna really be impactful.

- Once you start looking for them, you'll probably find there are a lot more meadows all around you than you ever realized: along the highway, a patch of wildflowers in a park, or maybe even in your own subdivision.

Well Susan, you live in a beautiful neighborhood, but you're also dealing with that issue that a lot of people refer to as the hell strip, that space between the sidewalk and the street that nobody quite knows what to do with.

But you've got a great solution for that, and you've planted all these beautiful flowers.

Rumor on the street is this was your husband's idea.

- It was.

He was volunteering to help mow this area along with the neighbors' on each side, and it just was a lot of work to mow in between the trees.

And you don't want to fertilize and everything out here.

It's just a common area.

- So bright.

We thought it would be best to try to plant some wildflowers.

- So you've got a parade of color through here.

- Yes, so we had color by the fourth of June this year, when the daisies came up.

And then the sweet Williams joined the daisies, and the bird's-foot trefoil, and it was a totally different look.

- Exactly, and then you have an area just ahead of us here that looks like you've just seeded this, as well.

So now are you expanding this strip to do more of the same?

- We're expanding it because the lady who mows, that lives right here, was still mowing this one strip between the trees, and she had to deal with the branches of the trees, and so she said, "Sue, can we just plant another strip?"

And so we did, took out the sod, and we put this in the week before last.

- And it's already coming up.

- And it's coming up.

- So you're gonna have more beautiful flowers along the way.

Who knows where this'll end when it's all said and done?

- [Susan] [chuckling] I know.

[soft gentle music] - Some of the challenges you may find when planting with an HOA association, for instance, may be getting the approval of the board to not only plant, but then setting the expectation on what is the planting going to look like, and getting approval and everybody on board, setting that expectation upfront.

It's not the formal structure that people may be familiar with, where you're gonna be planting this flower here, and this flower there.

Because again, that kinda creates work, and we're not looking to create work.

The meadow, the look is this mix, and we're gonna formulate mixes based on heights and colors and flower types, but it's more informal.

Because again, we're not looking to create that work.

We want a more simple solution to this.

We want to beautify, but again, not to that formal degree of the real structured plantings that you may see with the marigolds, and the mums, and that kinda stuff.

The meadow can still provide the beautification, all the benefits, but more of an informal look.

And that's usually the way we're gonna pitch the concept.

- Back in Mike's yard, we're cutting out the existing sod.

For a large meadow, consider renting a sod cutter or a walk-behind tiller.

But for a manageable area, hand tools and elbow grease work just fine.

We're 90% done here getting all the sod removed, and that's the name of the game at this stage.

So now it's just a matter of getting in there with your hands and your fingers and getting out the remaining clumps, and there is nothing wrong with a little soil between those fingernails.

With the grass gone, it's time to prep the bed for seed.

One of my favorite tools is the grading rake.

You've probably seen professional landscapers use it, and for good reason.

The wide head levels dirt quickly and smoothly, and the aluminum construction makes it lightweight to handle.

And to really define the bed edges, I like a long-handled steel edger.

It slices down through the sod, makes a clean cut and leaves your planting bed with a nice sharp outline.

Now one more tool I have to tell you about before we finish this part of the grading job, and it's this one.

Now most of you have this.

It's called a bow rake, and it is a great tool for getting out the roots, and the rocks, and the clumps of the grass that are still in this part of the bed.

And so I'm using it for that, but when you do that, look what happens.

You're bringing up this big mound of soil, and now you've just kind of undone all the final grading, right?

So the thing that most people don't know about this tool, one of my favorite applications for it, is when you flip it over, and you use it as a grading tool, also.

Because you can just pull back with a light touch, and you're just getting out the rough stuff, and the rest is still there.

So it's really kind of a finishing tool to get that grade just like you like it.

Plus it's small and it's easy to work with.

Okay, Mike, you think we're there?

- We are definitely there.

This is looking like a very well-prepped bed, ready to receive some seed.

So we're gonna be sowing our Northeast Pollinator blend, which is a nice blend.

It's a blend of annuals and perennials.

So what that means, Joe, when we sow it, within say 50 days or so we're gonna start seeing that first color with those annuals in the first growing season.

And then you're gonna see the perennials in the second and successive growing seasons.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] Most of our mixes will have between 20 to 25 different flowers, which is really important for a number of reasons.

Number one, so you have color all year long.

Number two, understanding the life cycles of a good blend of annuals and perennials not only give you color in the first season, but perennials from the second and successive seasons.

A lot of the stuff you see over the counter in those stores, it's a lot of one-shot real-quick color, maybe eight or nine different varieties.

So again, quite a big difference between the two, but for me it's all about educating the consumer on those differences, and then ultimately you can decide where you wanna go.

But there is quite a big difference between what we sell and what you might find in some of those other retailers.

- I needed to see for myself where all the meadow magic starts, with a visit to American Meadows Headquarters.

Now this is a really cool space, my kind of place, so walk me around and show me what happens here.

- My pleasure, Joe.

So you are now surrounded by tons of different seeds.

- Literally.

- Exactly.

Grass seed, bulk wildflower seed.

We currently offer over 300 individual species, along with over 50 different blends, all proprietary-formulated by myself and our team here, that we ship all over the country.

Tens of thousands of orders every year, and in the springtime this place is hopping.

- So you'll take these bulk orders of seeds, and then put them down into individual packets, or I guess lot of the times, you're selling them by weight.

Half pound, quarter pound.

- That's exactly correct, Joe.

It's a unique aspect of our business, where everything we're selling here is offered in bulk; from as little as a quarter pound upwards of five, 10, 25, 50 plus bags of seed, which is really unique.

And an order may have as simple as one or two items on it to we have orders with 20-plus different items.

When you offer over 300 individual species, you got a lot to choose from, and it's not unusual that Nick might have an order of 20 different individual species.

Someone might be creating their own custom blend, or have a vast garden that they really want to put a lotta color into.

- Never a dull moment, right?

Keeping you on your toes, Nick?

- Always.

- All right, very cool.

Keep up the good work.

In this day and age of sophisticated technology and high speed, sometimes it's hard to improve on good old-fashioned design.

And that's certainly the case here at American Meadows, where they use these machines, established and developed in the late 1800's to early 1900's, to fulfill up to 50 million seed packets per year.

And I am so fascinated by how this works, I just had to show you.

And once the seed packets are safely sealed, [seeds shaking together] lots of good seeds in there, I hear it, it passes the shake test, it goes onto the box, onto the shelf, out the door, until that gardener puts them into the ground.

And now that's exactly what we're ready to do back at Mike's place.

So Mike, this looks like a lot of seed varieties here.

About how many varieties are in a pack of seeds like this?

There's about 20 different varieties in that Northeast Pollinator mix right there.

And again, it's a combination of annuals and perennials.

- Gotcha, but now what do we do?

We add the sand in there?

- That's exactly correct.

So we're gonna add some sand, and this is gonna help us get a nice even distribution.

So Joe, another advantage of using the play sand or the builders sand is you notice here it's kind of a light color.

So once you've mixed your seed and sand together, when you begin broadcasting onto a dark soil here, you can visually see exactly where that seed to sand is going.

- I love that.

- So again, really helps you confirm that hey, you've broadcasted this nice and evenly over the entire area.

- Very smart.

- So Joe, I've got Sadie here, my expert seed slinger.

And what she's going to do is she's gonna be broadcasting our seed for us.

And what you're gonna notice is Sadie's gonna end up going in three different directions.

And that's important, Joe, because ideally, again, we wanna get that nice even distribution.

- Well Sadie, that was an excellent job.

You're clearly a pro at this seed distribution.

You are welcome.

So now that the seed is down, the next step, obviously, is seed-to-soil contact, yeah?

- That is correct, Joe.

- You've got a few options.

I know that you could just walk on this.

You're not gonna hurt the seed, right?

- That's correct.

- So in a really small application, that's easy to do, but if you want a little more efficiency, then this sheet of cardboard is, Sadie, that what you're gonna use?

Put that down on the bed, and that just provides you more coverage, and you step on that.

- Exactly, a little more surface area when you're doing it to speed up the process.

- And that's it, no raking it in like grass seed, and no mulch on top.

Either of those things will smother the seed and prevent germination.

So all that's left is a light hit of water.

- So Joe, we're fortunate in this situation, where we have moisture nearby.

So we're using that to kind of get the seed water.

But a great tip I'll give people is if you're dealing with an area where there isn't moisture available, is planning your planting around some moisture in the forecast.

So let's say I'm looking at the weekend forecast, and there's some rain coming in on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, ideally, I might plan my planting on that Friday afternoon, and take advantage of that moisture coming in from Mother Nature.

- Yeah, and another reason why that's important, a lot of people that are installing meadows, they're doing it in a place where they don't have access to that irrigation.

- That's exactly right.

- So all the more reason that timing is critical.

- Exactly.

- Excellent, Sadie, that's really getting wet.

Then it's up to Mother Nature.

And once she does her thing with the seeds, the results will be spectacular, with a meadow full of color and life.

The only downside of a meadow for many who try it out, not wanting to stop.

- So we moved in about seven years ago, and we have about eight acres of land.

We put this in three years ago.

So yeah, we put this in so we didn't have to mow as much.

- What about the other benefits, though, besides the mowing, certainly, you have other things that you love about having these meadows here.

- Oh, yeah, I mean the pollinators that come in, and the butterflies, the bees, we even see some hummingbirds, they're just all over the place.

- As I'm looking out over this, I see-- I don't know, a million black-eyed Susan, or something like that, that's crazy.

And I love it in the middle of the summer.

But what does it look like before this all comes into bloom, and then after this fades away, what are we looking at here?

- So this will last through fall, so the black-eyed Susans bloom for a really, really long time.

In the spring, we had a field of purple perennial lupin.

It was beautiful, and as soon as the lupin faded, it turned into this.

- This is just a sea of flowers right here, and you've got bikers and people that come by all the time.

Do people ever stop and like... - People have come into our driveway, and they stop, and they look at it, and if we're outside they'll tell us how beautiful they are, and they appreciate what we've done.

And they love just driving every day, up and down our road to see this stuff.

- Now are you gonna continue to add more of this?

This is a lot already, but are you gonna keep doing more of this?

- [Erin] I would love to.

- Whether you're attracted to the idea of a meadow garden because of its let-it-be low maintenance, its unparalleled explosion of color, or the world of good each one offers to a whole host of birds, bees, insects, and other pollinators, there's probably a way to bring at least a bit of meadow magic to a corner of your own garden.

- Again, that's the beauty of it.

It doesn't matter if you have the half acre, acre, or the planter box.

The benefits are endless, regardless of the size of the meadow.

When the concept of meadows comes up, I think the first reaction from people is sprawling acreage, and that's okay, but for me it's meadows can be defined any way you want to, any way the customer I'm speaking to wants to.

Whether it's two, three acre parcel, or whether it's a rooftop garden, to me the interpretation of meadows is anywhere that you could take a seed, or a seedling, or a plant, put it, and plant it and create beauty; and provide a habitat for pollinators, something beneficial, some beautification.

That is my interpretation of a meadow.

[soft piano music] - Well, I hope that today we inspired you to take a closer look at meadows, and stop and appreciate all they have to offer, from their beauty to the important role they play in healthy ecosystems.

And perhaps you'll install a meadow in your own landscape, or whatever property you have to work with.

And if you'd like to watch this show again, or learn more about meadows, we have that information for you on our website, under the show notes for this episode.

And the website address, that's the same as our show name.

It's GROWINGAGREENERWORLD.COM.

I'm Joe Lamp'l.

Thanks for watching us, everybody, and we'll see you back here next time for more Growing a Greener World.

- [Male Announcer] Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer]: so you can roam the Earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

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