University Place

Organic Landscape Maintenance

– Thank you all for attending. It’s something that I’m extremely passionate about, and I’m pretty sure you’ll gather that as we work our way through the talk here. So without further ado, we’ll just get started. So why organic maintenance? We’re starting to find that many things are becoming polluted. Our waters are becoming polluted. There’s a lot more risk of cancer and things like that happening to our family members, and we’re really at a point where we need to start considering what things we need to start doing differently. I attended a talk last week, actually, that talked a lot about the soil erosion, and you wonder, “Well, how does soil erosion really impact this?” What’s happening is the soil erosion is then causing soil degradation. So the quality of our soil is actually reducing immensely, and that’s becoming a huge problem with, us being able to grow things. We have to had so many amendments. So we’re I’m going to talk a lot about today is really just different things we can do that are more organic-themed or more natural themed that will help you to be able to start improving at least what’s immediately around you.

This is a fun little slide that I thought I would input. My grandparents would eat one orange back in the day, and they would get a certain amount of nutrients from that orange. Well, today I would have to eat eight oranges to get that same amount of nutrients. So I think it’s really important that we start making changes in what we’re doing out there. So I’m going to start, basically I’m going to walk through lawns, what things we’re doing, things you can do, and then we’ll go to beds and then we’ll start talking about some other miscellaneous pieces. So when it comes to your lawn, that’s usually anywhere from 75% to 90% of our properties. Very few of us have large beds. Most of us have lawns. So this is our biggest impact to the soil. And a lot of things I like to recommend people are some other options.

Doing compost applications, recycling leaf mulch, aerating, overseeding, doing fertilizers but the organic ones that are more natural elements. And then we’ll talk a little bit about weed control, mowing, and then watering the cultural elements, as well. First thing that I started doing, I piloted this program about seven years ago. We started going through and doing compost applications. I buy a very high grade of compost from Purple Cow, and we apply this to the lawns. And after research, we have learned that this is actually improving the overall root depths of the lawns, which makes them better so they can tolerate drought. It improves the health of the roots, which then, you know, they can sustain drought better. And, also, we started noticing that there’s some significant difference in the amount of diseases that our lawns have, especially coming out of winter. So we have the pink snow mold, white snow mold. Those are things that we’re really starting to notice a significant difference.

Oh, I should also mention Purple Cow is a local company, so if you’re from the Madison area, they’re material is carried by a lot of local vendors so you can actually do this yourself. Leaf mulch, the contamination, the high nitrogen levels that are going into our lakes are polluting our lakes. So it’s really important that we start keeping those leaves. Those leaves are valuable, valuable nutrients that we can keep on our lawns rather than putting them on the curb and letting the city take them away. Also, aerating, another very practical cultural application that’s really important. It just improves the ability to have moisture infiltration and then also nutrient infiltration when you’re applying compost and other organic fertilizers. Another thing you can do is say, “Well, I have a lawn that’s a little on the thin side. ” Doing some aerating, some overseeding in the fall, I like to do this stuff all together at the same time so I’m not multi doing activities constantly. This is another great activity that you can do. I have a really strong opinion that I believe rather than trying to kill all the weeds, why don’t you improve what you have? Start working on your soil quality and working on the quality of your turf, and then, at that point in time, then you can start addressing the weed issues, but usually you get really good competition.

The other thing that important is our turf is very conditioned to need fertilizer. It needs food. So if you really look around, there’s a lot of really nice organic products that work very, very well. And I would encourage you to use those. The other thing is if you’re doing it with the overseeding programs, the organic fertilizers have phosphorus, which is actually necessary for seed germination. So it’s really an important part. I know that we’re no phosphorus here in Dane County, and for general fertilizers, that works fine, but the kind of phosphorus that the organics are putting down is a much better phosphorus than what’s in all these synthetic blends. Next we get to weed control. This is always my most commonly asked question, “How do you deal with this?” So that takes me back to let’s improve our soil, let’s get healthier turf, let’s get things going. But I’ll tell you some of the things we have learned and we have practiced.

Weeds tend to grow in the worst possible soil conditions. So if you think about where you get the most weeds, it’s along your sidewalks, along your driveways. It’s not out in the middle of your lawn. I mean, you’ll get one but not a whole flock of them. So, you know, improving that soil quality is probably number one. I have played around with the corn gluten meal, I’ve used the vinegar. It’s risky. Corn gluten meal I have found that it doesn’t, I don’t know if it doesn’t break down quick enough or what, but it is just not an effective fertilizer product. And I’ve found zero weed control with that. We have used vinegar.

Vinegar is very fun to use, but the problem with vinegar is it burns everything. So you damage everything when you make that application. So you have to be really mindful of that. Some of the newer products that are on the market now is Fiesta and HALO herbicides. So Fiesta is basically an iron-based herbicide, and what it does is it causes almost an explosion in the tissue. And it will eventually kill the plant. It’s a slow process but it does work probably about 50% of the time. This year I’m going to be using HALO. I’m going to do some experimenting with HALO, another OMRI approved product. This product now is totally different.

It’s a chicory oil, and so what it’s supposed to is, actually it’s a growth regulator. So it’s supposed to really affect the growth habits of the weeds. So I’m excited to try that one this year and see what happens. So next year I’ll have results on what we found happen with that one. Another thing, culturally, that a lot of people don’t take into mind is how they mow, how they care for their lawn. And I will tell you, I work with a lot of clients that I do my compost applications for, and I have found that many of them who are not getting the results they’re looking for, it’s because they’re mowing their lawn too short. I’ll tell you, minimum of three inches. If you can get it up to four inches, it’s even better. It’s beautiful. It protects itself.

It covers the ground so the weed invasion is less. It really is really, really important. And, let me see, so yes, and one thing too is when it is a little longer in the beginning of the season, you will have to mow a little bit more often just like if you were cutting it shorter. But once, I’ve found in my home lawn, I don’t have to mow it as often in the heat of the summer. It just stays green and it sits there and it’s quiet. My lawn rarely goes completely dormant. Another thing to bear in mind is watering. The type of bluegrass that we generally have in this area, you do not have to water it, even if we go into a really, a drought spell. You know, allow it to go dormant. It’s conditioned and programmed to be able to do that for us.

You know, many, many, it was in ’08, we had that year where it was really, really bad. You know, I had a handful of lawns that I did some overseeding in the fall just to kind of help because we did have some minimal turf loss, but it wasn’t too bad. So the most important thing if you’re going to water, you have to be consistent. And I would say if you’re going to water, you should get an irrigation system so that it’s not counting on you to be able to do it because once that turf becomes acclimated to getting the water, it has to have the water. And that’s when you start having problems with the health of the turf. Typically, I have found on the organic programs, consistently doing them for about three years is when I start seeing the real results. It takes time to, when you’re applying the compost, you’re adding a really good biology to the soil, and it’s like us at human beings. It’s something that has to grow and develop. So you have to allow it time to do that, and I’ve found about three seasons is about what it takes. You know, the study, the picture on the left there, you can see that root.

Typically, as tall as you allow your grass to grow, that’s your root depth. So it’s really important that you not mow it too short for that reason as well, to get your roots to grow a little bit deeper. The other thing I’ve found with that organic program is that the lawn becomes less fertilizer-dependent. This coming year will be the, I’m not going to fertilizer my yard at all this year and see what it does. And I do the compost program there. This is a property that I’ve been doing six years now, and you can see the lawn is lush, it’s thick. I always like to point out the picture on the right, you can kind of see how the lawn is a little bit thin along the sidewalk there. They salt so aggressively in the wintertime that normally they have about 18 inches of turf death due to salt applications. And this picture was taken in June. So it shows that we did have some minimal turf death, but it was not to the extent of what it had been in the past, which is really nice.

Another alternative is I don’t want grass, I don’t want to do all this other stuff, is looking at the no-mow fescues and utilizing them as your lawn. They don’t get any taller than about six to eight inches, and Madison will allow them. I have done several of those lawns as you’re driving through. And they’re quite beautiful if you naturalize some daffodils and maybe a few forbs in them. But the maintenance, you don’t have the mowing. It’s weeding the first three years, and beyond that it kind of holds its own and takes care of itself. This garden is actually at Olbrich. This is one of my clients that I did a couple years back. You can see there’s several different tactile approaches. I’ve done it both ways, where you go in and you apply a Roundup or a full herbicide killer to it, and then I’ve also done it where you went in and just burned the lawn down to as short as you can mow it, like one inch, and then broadcast the seed over it.

I’ve had some success both ways. So, the biggest thing is just getting that turf out of there so that you can get the lawn starting to establish. So you’ll see the picture in the middle is about three weeks after establishment. The picture on the left is probably about six weeks, and then the picture on the right is actually a fully finished, I believe that was the following season. So you can see it takes time but it does come. So we’ll talk a little bit about the planting beds. You know, there’s a lot of different things. Sometimes some things there are no options. We have to just do what we have to do. But when you’re working on the beds, you know, the one thing I always tell people is if you have plants that are struggling, it’s probably not the right plant.

And do your research and have a good understanding of exactly what is your environment. Understanding you have a little microclimate that– You can choose something that maybe can tolerate heat longer because it’s a reflection off the building and things like that. So it’s really important that you do your research and understand the right plant in the right place. The other part of is just a little bit in the design aspect. You want to throw, you know, some different varying heights and different plants. And the other thing that I like to really tell people is get things that will thicken and fill the space and get it a point where it’s like a ground cover where it’s completely full. That will reduce your weeding maintenance long-term as well. Just some beautiful pictures of some nice plants that has multicultural seasonal interest. All different levels, heights. And, you know, don’t be bashful to mix things up.

The tall doesn’t always have to be in the back. You can kind of put it in the middle, a little towards the front and it’s just more interesting to look at. Don’t be afraid of that kind of stuff. Some of the other things is how can we keep our plants as healthy as possible. One of the main things is planting them properly. When you’re planting trees, especially, you know, when you get a tree from a nursery, they use plows to keep the weeds down. And it pushes all that soil up on the crown of that tree, and we’re seeing so many trees that break off mysteriously in a storm. This explains why. It’s because they’re mulched too high, their moisture, so what happens is as you add moisture, they start sending these fine artillery roots. Well, the lower roots aren’t getting the oxygen and the moisture that they need, so they start to deteriorate and these fine artillery roots are the things that are not going to hold that tree upright in the long-term.

So making sure we always remove our baskets from our trees. We want our tree to last a lifetime. And we know it’s been proven that the baskets do not breakdown by the time the tree dies, honestly. I mean, we’ve had large, large trees that we’ve found remnants of baskets. You know, trees that are 20-25 years old. So, the basket, can I say that the basket concretely decreases the life of the tree? Not necessarily, but I can tell you that it probably doesn’t help. So, important to get them baskets off. And then, also, don’t bring in a whole bunch of new soil because you have clay soil. We all have clay soil. It’s what we have to live with.

You can amend it with compost and things like that. But you really want to utilize the native soils that you have there. And the other part is just watering it. Making sure you give it a good water at initial install. I love to talk a little bit about mulch. Mulch is kind of a fun thing to talk about, how important it is for weed suppression, moisture, to help keep it as moist as long as possible. Do I have a strong opinion? I tell you I love hardwood mulches. Nah, I don’t love dyed mulches only because of the unnatural color. But, truthfully, they’re still very effective in what they do. The other thing is think about mulching with leaves or mulching with compost.

Those are another resource to able to utilize those things that you have. And you never want to go deeper than two inches. Two inches per season is the absolute max. That can breakdown in a season, and then you can add another two inches. And even truthfully, if you do a mulching every single year, you really want to put back like an inch-and-a-half, not quite the two inches. If you’re doing a solid two inches, probably after about 10 years you’re going to have to pull a little bit off and just keep it off the crown of that tree. Yeah? – What do you think about the gravel mulch? – She was asking about gravel mulches. And, honestly a lot of plants don’t do well in them. So I’m not completely opposed to gravel mulches, though, because quite frankly they do have their applications. But, you know, as far as, I think that goes back to having the right plants that can survive and live and thrive in that acidity from the gravel and then also from just the dry, the heat, all the things that the gravel mulch attracts.

Okay? The next piece, really important, is mulching properly. You can see on the left side there, we always add our two inches of mulch, and then what we do is we scrap out around that tree so that mulch is not sitting on the trunk of the tree. Most important part. It can be a little tiny one-inch, two-inch well. You just don’t want that mulch sitting up on the tree. On the right, you can see the mulch volcanoes commonly seen. You know, people think that more is better type of scenario. And this, these are the trees that will deteriorate. That tree, actually, by looking at it, you can see how it looks kind of lumpy on the trunk and things. It’s been mulched very high for a number of years and probably has already went down in a storm.

I took it somewhere downtown. I don’t remember where I took that picture, but, that tree is probably no longer with us if I had to guess because they don’t last very long once the bark starts becoming really lumpy and uneven like that. Another big question: what about the weeds? You know, honestly, mulch, key. Mulch every year. It’s really good. But the next thing is just getting down there and hand-weeding and not allowing your weeds to go to seed is really important. So my crews actually, I’ve kind of let them figure out kind of what works best for them, and they love this tool. It’s called a Hori. So it’s kind of a fun tool, and it has that razor edge so you can cut like little tree saplings out really easily. And if you can get down there about three, four inches, it works fantastic because they don’t come back because you’re deep enough down in the ground.

So unfortunately this is the biggest part of the elbow grease if you ask me is maintaining the weeding. When you get into watering, again, our perennials, shrubs, things of that nature, our trees, you know, once they get past about two to three seasons after installation, you really shouldn’t have to water them anymore. They have established, hopefully fully developed their root systems, and they’re reaching to the depths in being able to get the amount of moisture that they need. And, you know, considering that whole thing, again it goes back to choosing the right plants. You know, if you have the east side of your house, you don’t want to put hostas on the east side. You want to put, and even though it’s shady, hostas, it’s going to make it a drier environment because it’s not going to get the moisture. It’s just proven, the way our storms come in and whatnot. So the best thing is really thinking about the location and what plants can tolerate each environment, even though, as you work your way around the house. The other thing is I actually, the last couple years, have been installing a lot of rain gardens. So if you have moisture issues around your house, this is a way to kind of funnel but keep that moisture in your property still rather than just pushing it off to the neighbor or whatnot.

Keeping it on your property just helps keep your moisture level in your area up as well. And then I use rain barrels as well. I think they’re quite effective on those little special things that you do need to water here and there. Rain garden we did a few years ago. We had it excavated by a contractor, and then we filled it with an engineered soil mix. A 50/40/10 mix. So 50% compost, 40% sand, 10% topsoil. And that’s the sweet mix when it comes to rain gardens. But the biggest thing when you’re building a rain garden is to excavate it to the depth that you need to get it so it will perk, meaning that it will naturally drain the water out of it. I think that is the key.

If you cannot prove that that garden is perking, you could have problems because you’ll go through all this work and it’s holding water and you’re going to end up killing your plants. And it’s not going to keep your water. It’s going to eventually spill over. Some of the other things, this garden is actually one we did, and it’s quite beautiful and it’s large. It’s on a commercial property, but it’s one of those that has basically solved all their water problems because we funneled every lick of extra water to that spot on the property. So this one has been quite effective and works really well. It’s quite pretty. This is spring a couple seasons ago. So I have to get there, every year I get there and I always get there past the peak of the bloom and I’m like, ah! So this next year I’m committed to doing that. Also, we did some gardens at Shorewood.

We custom designed them because there’s several of these gardens, but each garden location is very, very different. So the plant blend that we had to use was customized for every location. And you can see the guys installing them on the left, the picture in the middle is about a month later, and then the picture on the far right is in the fall. And then this was the next season. So they really came along. It was all about making sure the plants were sited correctly and it was the right plant for that location. I would highly encourage rain gardens. They don’t draw mosquitoes. They don’t cause those problems if built properly. They’re pretty fantastic and I’ve been very impressed.

Another option that you can have is if you’re considering getting a paver patio of some sort installed rather than doing the concrete. You know, think about doing a permeable paver. Something that’s meant to absorb that water and keep it on your property as well. So another big piece that’s really important is integrated pest management. When your, you know, your plants are going to have problems. We have so many different weather cycles and different things that we’re dealing with, that different plants are brought in. I would challenge and encourage you to think outside the box a little bit. So for integrated pest management it’s really just understanding or knowing what you have and identifying it, and then looking at all the variables and the factors and deciding is it worthy of justifying something to do something or do you have enough predators to let it be? Step number one is identifying the problem, and here, especially in Dane County, we have some pretty fantastic resources. The entomology lab– You can go see Brian at the Plant Diagnostic Lab. Even OJ Noer, the turf studies, are pretty– These guys want to be helpful.

They want to teach you. They want to educate you. So I know I have them in my back pocket all the time when I have things that I can’t figure out what’s going on. First and foremost, identify what your issue is and then decide what your treatment is. So some of the more natural applications that I’ve had really good luck with, Japanese beetles have been really prevalent in our market the last couple of years. I did milky spore application on about three different properties, and I actually found there was almost a halo effect around those properties. I’m just not seeing, I’m seeing minimal feeding, but what happens is these spores live down in the soil, so when the grubs go down, the grubs then– The spores attack the grub larvae and it kills them. So it’s quite effective and it just helps. But, the one thing you almost have to preplan this. This is something you have to put down and you just have to, patiently wait for it to happen.

But it’s effective. I’m seeing some very nice results with it. And the owner actually did it up by her gardens as well. Another thing is if you have something that you, you know, spider mites or something that you’re not seeing any natural predators around, the neem oil is quite effective. It’s a very broad spectrum of insects that you can treat. It’s natural. I’ve had a lot of people tell me it works great on roses for black spot. And if you think about it, roses are probably one of our worst plants because they constantly are having issues, health issues. So neem oil, get some of that on your shelf. A super-duper product.

I always want to bring up the pheromone traps. A lot of people really like these. I don’t. Let me justify why, though, because the one thing is remember it’s a pheromone so it’s actually drawing all the insects to your property. Now, if you live somewhere where you can put her out on the back 40 or put her on the neighbors that you don’t like, fine, but don’t put it on your own property. I had a client who actually hung it in the crab tree in front of his house and then said, “Something’s eating my crab tree. ” And I’m like, send me a picture. And he sent me a picture and the trap was hanging right in the tree. So just remember, you’re drawing populations when you’re utilizing these. So, if you want to use them, just remember as far away from your valued plants as possible.

A little bit about ponds. This is our pond out at Avant. And we started using barley straw a few years ago. It’s actually a really, really nice product. It helps with the algae growth in your pond, and it’s a fine balance in figuring out how much you actually need to put in there. But we put it in our filter system, and it helps to reduce the amount of algae we’ve had. It’s working very well. So another way to not be blasting and putting the chemicals in every week when you do your treatments. This will help tremendously. Insecticidal soaps, I’m sure many of you are familiar with those.

Again, another broad spectrum. It helps with a lot of your soft-bodied insects. So these guys are great on the aphids and things that you just need the quick kill on and very, very safe. Just be very mindful of your application when you’re applying this because you can burn leaves and things like that. So follow the recommended rates on the bottles. Diatomaceous Earth, now this is an interesting product. I don’t know how many of you are aware of what kind of product this is, but basically it’s little shards of almost like glass-like substance that is sprinkled on the ground so when your insects are crawling through this, they get this, it pokes them, it causes them injury, and then they die. This is a product I’m really going to be watching. It’s not something I use a lot of, to be honest, but I have to wonder with the jumping worms coming about if this might not be a valued resource or something to kind of help with that. I have not talked to Bernie about it, but I’m very curious to see what her thoughts are on this, but it’s been something that’s been looming in my mind.

Another resource for caterpillars. So if you have the spring, you know, the tent worms or anything like that, the Bt is great for that kind of stuff. This is another one that’s very specific to the caterpillars but another very, very safe product to use. Some other things to bear in mind, we’ve kind of passed through the products that can kind of help and be resources to you, is just looking at some of the things you can do personally. Making sure that you’re practicing proper pruning. Does that branch need to be cut out? Is it dead? Is it broken? Why are you cutting it out? Is this the right time of year to be pruning that tree? Generally, except for evergreens, you cannot go wrong for wintertime pruning. That is the time of year that is almost always guaranteed a safe time of year. So, you know, something to think about. We all have those that we have to knock down in front of our front window in the summer because of the amount of growth they have, but making those really good choices and learning how to prune properly. The other thing is that we’ve noticed a vast spread of diseases very quickly through, like, pagoda dogwoods and some viburnums and things like that.

What we’re finding is that people are not treating or cleaning their tools in between cuts. So if you have a branch that has like a funny little growth on it or there’s something interesting on it, you really want to treat it with either like a Clorox wipe or a bleach solution which is very hard on metal, but if that’s what you have, you have, you just oil it real good afterward, to make sure you’re not spreading it throughout that tree or shrub that you’re pruning. Also keep them very sharp. Something else that I’ve been noticing is the frost damage. The last two years, and I don’t know what’s going on with the weather, but the frost seems to be hanging on and not burning off as quickly in the mornings and people are out there mowing their lawns. The damage is very significant, what it’s doing, because it breaks them off right at the crown, right at the ground level. So that has to regrow completely. As a matter of fact, I had to, they were doing some utility work in my neighborhood and they actually drove through my lawn, and this is what I had going into dormant season down here. So I am praying that I’m not going to have to come back and reseed that. A lot of times you don’t have to.

It’ll rejuvenate itself, but sometimes you may have to. So on a frosty morning just, you’re getting cut a little slack. You can go out a little later and work. And I’ll tell you, footprints will do the same damage as a vehicle. So really staying off, walk your beds if you’re going to be out there weeding in the morning or whatnot. This is something new that I’ve kind of brought in that I’ve been doing a lot of research on is the amount of salt that we’re applying in our communities. I don’t know how many of you know, but we have wells that are nearing full contamination here in Dane County, and we really, really need to be much smarter about how much salt we use. It’s very interesting to me because you take a one-cup measurement and studies will show you that if given the time it will clear 10 sidewalk spaces. That’s all you need. And I’m seeing people out there with bags of salt just dumping it everywhere.

And, I would ask everybody to just be more mindful about the amount of salt you use because that’s further contamination. The problem with salt, sodium, it never leaves our environment. Once it’s here, it’s here. So it’s not something like a lot of these other things that kind of break down or you can change it over time. Once it’s here, it only continues to magnify and get worse. So Wisconsin Salt Wise, I would ask you to go there and check out their website; it’s really interesting. A lot of good stuff on there and just think about how you’re applying your salt moving forward. So a little bit about what Avant does. I’ve been with Avant almost seven years. This organic has been really passionate of mine, and that’s why Avant has fit me so well.

We compost all our yard waste that come out of our properties. We turn it into this beautiful compost. Not the compost I apply on lawns but I do use this compost in beds, to create beds. It takes three years to get it to the point of when we pull it, take it off a property until we put it back on a property. So, composting, you can do this in your own backyard. It’s very simple. It’s a very easy, tactical approach and something you can do very easily. So I would encourage you to start doing that. It’s another means for keeping that yard waste on your property as well. We love our natural stone.

The cutting and the mining thing of it is not a huge thing, but how else are we going to get it? But the process of getting that is so much better for the environment than what it takes to process concrete pavers. So, the natural stone has its own beautiful points behind it, but that’s something I would ask you to consider as well. Integrated pest management, we have an entomologist on staff. So he’s always out there monitoring. We have a nursery, and he’s always out there looking. And it’s really fun to see him bring in all these different critters. And, oh, this is beneficial. This guy’s no good but we have lots of beneficials out there so let’s just let it ride and see what happens. So, again, it just kind of gets back to knowing what you have and then going from there. Stewardships, this is our property out there.

I always like to kind of show people we keep it kind of natural, native, not hardcore manicured but enough of the fun stuff to look at to really visualize it, how it would work in your yard as well. So the question is now, how do you get started? I think the biggest thing is if you have chemicals and products in your garage, go ahead and take them to Clean Sweep. As a resident of Dane County, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you anything. And they’ll take care of those products for you. It removes your temptation to use them as well, which is kind of nice. And then start thinking about the plants you have, learning how to care for them properly. Are you interested in trying to implement some sort of compost, compost heap program, things of that nature? And then, also, just getting all those resources, having that research upfront so you know how to get help when you need the help. I like to have a little bit of fun stuff, so of course the other flip side of this is bringing in the pollinators and all the plants that help improve all our, whether you’re growing a vegetable garden, perennials, trees, shrubs. So I like to talk a little bit about some of my favorites.

So we have this Asclepias, which is commonly known as butterfly weed. There’s also some hybridized ones that get much smaller that are better in our urban environments. So the species is Asclepias will get about four to five feet tall, two to three feet wide, full sun. Again, making sure you site it correctly, this plant will perform beautifully for you. And it will draw the monarchs. A Liatris, again another plant that’s kind of gotten a bad rap because it is a little seedy and weedy. It does move around a bit through the garden, but boy does it draw the pollinators. So it’s really beneficial to get a good plant in there that brings, kind of brings life full circle, I guess. Physostegia, Miss Manners or obedient plant, many of you may know. I have found this to be really another great plant.

The nice thing about this plant, it can actually take some little bit wetter environments. So I use these a lot in rain gardens, which is really kind of a fun plant, a fun little addition. And it’s amazing how white pops in the landscape. It’s very pretty. Baptisia, another great, great plant, or false indigo, many of you may know it as that. These are great plants to use in rain gardens on the high edges. They love that moisture, but then they like to dry out as well. So it’s a great plant, plus it’ll tolerate some shade. Prefers full sun, but it’ll tolerate and still throw you some nice blooms. One of my favorite plants, cardinal flower.

This one is actually in that rain garden. I went out there and was taking some pictures of the cardinal flower because they were so beautiful out there. But those I put right in the belly of the rain gardens. They love it. They love it. They’re super happy in that environment, and they’re very prolific but not obnoxiously so. So it makes a really nice plant. Joe Pye weed, this is another great, great, and you’ll notice many of these plants are tall. There’s not a lot of the smaller plants that are as indicative to the pollinators. So what we’re looking for are plants that are longer seasoned.

And that’s, again, the Joe Pye weed is another great example of that. This one prefers sunny, dry soils though. They don’t like to get wet. So we can’t use them in our rain gardens. Phlox, another underutilized plant, and not the wild phlox. We’re talking the urban, friendly phlox. This one’s much, much better behaved and will tolerate most conditions except for full shade. So I’ve had them in all conditions, and they do really well, except for full shade. Allium, this is probably the most seasonal of all the plants that I’ve shown you and has the longest season, plus it goes well, well into the fall so it helps feed all the late wasps, bees. This is a huge food source for them.

And this guy is great along sidewalks. The worse conditions it does really well and blooms for a long time. So this is another really great plant. Henry Eilers Rudbeckia, this is a native Rudbeckia. This is another really great, great plant. Beautiful cupped leaves. The deer don’t seem to like them, which is kind of interesting. Normally they love coneflowers, Rudbeckia, anything of that family, but they don’t seem to bother these and we have a lot of deer out at our property. But they get big. They get really big.

So they sit really nicely as a backdrop. Asters, you got to throw a few asters in there. Again for the bees in the fall, this is another great food source of them as well. So two seasons ago we actually had, we’d been planting plants and trying to increase the monarchs out at our property, and this guy actually set in the frame of our door. We like barricaded the door. Don’t use the door! An amazing process. We were watching him out feeding on the natural milkweeds we have out in our gardens, and this little guy is beautiful. We watched him like two, three days, and then all the sudden he was gone and then all the sudden he appeared on our door frame and then he crystalized and we watched him open up and stuff. So, this is, in addition to ourselves personally, this is another reason why we do this stuff is to be able to admire and adore these beautiful, beautiful creatures. Last page is really just a lot about all the different resources we have here.

I’ll tell you, I don’t print my presentation, but I’m happy to send it to you. A couple things I didn’t touch on specifically in the presentation, ARBICO Organics, I don’t know if you guys have heard of that. It’s a great resource for organic methods of control no matter what your pest is. And they also have a lot of great fertilizers as well. So that’s a great– Get on their mailing list and then you have that content. That’s actually where I buy my milky spores, but I know some of the local garden centers do have them as well. Of course, the entomology lab, plant disease, the soil analysis. And then Purple Cow Organics, they have a list of their suppliers locally so you’re able to get their materials. So I like to leave you with, it doesn’t matter how you start, big or small, it’s that you’re doing something to continue to start improving and fostering our environment. All right, well, thank you, everybody.

I appreciate you attending. [applause]