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[gentle music]

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- Melissa Apland: Hi!
- Audience: Hi!

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- Melissa: Hi, everyone.

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My name is Melissa Apland.

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Welcome, I'm the owner
of Bee Balm Wildscapes.

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I have a native plant
gardening business in Madison.

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I design, maintain, and
install native plant gardens.

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Welcome to my presentation,

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"Native Plants
for Shady Spaces

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and Lessons
Learned From My Own Yard."

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So, a little bit about me.

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I actually grew up
in Washington state,

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out in the Pacific Northwest,

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and I grew up
in a little neighborhood

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surrounded by trees,

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surrounded by native plants,
right?

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We were in the forest--

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not actually the forest
that's on the screen--

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but the native plants were
what were around us.

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When you looked out your window,
you saw native plants.

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Native plants were
what I played on.

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Native plants were
what I played with.

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Native plants were
what marked the seasons.

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They were the fabric
of my childhood,

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and they gave this place
that I grew up

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this really beautiful sense
of place

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because you didn't have
a community of plants like that

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anywhere else in the world.

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So, it-- You knew that you were
home when you saw the plants.

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I loved living
in the Pacific Northwest,

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but I was tired of it,

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so I came to Wisconsin
for college.

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I have a degree in geology
from Beloit College.

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I met my husband in college,
and we moved to Madison,

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and we rented for a while,

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and I got into veggie gardening,
and it was pretty good.

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And eventually, we decided
to buy a house.

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So, when we were
looking for a house,

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I was really excited for
somewhere where I could garden

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and I was really excited
to grow some vegetables.

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And the house we ended up
buying, unfortunately--

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not unfortunately--
was this house,

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which is completely surrounded

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by mature shade trees.
[audience laughs]

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So, my beautiful dreams
of vegetable gardening

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did not pan out, but I still
really wanted to garden.

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It had a lot of lawn.

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It had a lot of just,
like, whatever.

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And I said,
what else can I grow?

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Well, everybody talks about
native plants.

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So, I decided I'll put in
some native plants in my house.

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And the native plants that
I was going to be able to grow

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were not the beautiful full-sun
prairie plants that we are all,

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that we're,
that we all have seen

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and that maybe we have all tried

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and failed to grow
in our own yards.

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The native plants that
I was going to be able to grow

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were shade plants.

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So, since this is
a native plant presentation,

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I feel like
we should talk about

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why should we plant
native plants?

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And there's really
three big reasons.

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So, the big reason
that everybody has heard about

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is that native plants support
native pollinators.

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We like bees
and we like butterflies,

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and we should plant
native plants

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because they are what best
supports bees and butterflies.

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And I think that is a great
reason to plant native plants,

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but it's not the full picture.

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The other reason
we should plant native plants

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is because energy has to move
through the food chain

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if you want any part
of the food chain to survive.

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So, you have the Sun.

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And unless we're thinking about,
like, hydrothermal vents

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under the ocean floor,

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the Sun is the source
of all energy on the planet.

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Plants capture the sun's energy
and they grow leaves.

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And then, if you wanna have
higher orders of life,

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like birds, the energy
in the plant's leaves

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needs to be converted
to something that birds can eat.

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Birds generally
don't eat leaves,

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but a lot of birds
do eat insects,

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and insects are
phenomenally efficient

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at converting plant matter
to their beautiful,

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yummy, squishy,
protein-filled bodies.

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[audience laughs]

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So, compared to every other,
like, type of animal,

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insects are <i>it</i> for converting
the energy stored in plants

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to energy that is accessible
to the animals

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that we want to be around,
like birds.

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If you do not have a yard
that supports native insects,

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you don't have a yard
that supports native birds

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because a lot of native birds
feed-- they can eat--

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maybe they can eat seeds
as adults,

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but to rear a clutch of chicks,
they need to feed them insects.

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Insects, when you're a bird

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and you're rearing
a clutch of chicks,

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you need those things out of
the nest as quickly as possible,

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and you need to feed them the
most concentrated food possible.

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So, you need
to feed them insects.

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Insects can eat plants, right?

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We have plants in our yard.

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You saw the picture of my yard.

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There's plants in it.

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Unfortunately, the insects
in Wisconsin

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evolved to eat the specific
plants that are in Wisconsin.

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So, there, when you have
a yard that is full of plants

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that are not from Wisconsin,
that are not native here,

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the insects that are
in the environment

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do not recognize those
as food.

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Most insects
are actually specialists.

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They can eat a few species
of plants,

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a few related genre, maybe,
like, a bigger collection,

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but they can't go so far,
often,

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as to eat a plant from Asia
or from Europe.

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So, even the lushest urban
jungle yard

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that is full of plants,

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if all of the plants
aren't native,

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the insects cannot eat
the plants there.

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And this is all paraphrased
from this book.

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A lot of you have
probably heard of Doug Tallamy.

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He is the,
he's the guy, right?

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He's the guy about why
you should plant native plants.

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This is a fantastic book.

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This is <i>Bringing Nature Home</i>
by Doug Tallamy.

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If you are interested in
the why,

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it is critical
to plant native plants

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to preserve the entire movement
of energy

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through the food chain,
this is the book for it.

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And you might say, well,

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if these native plants are
so important to the food chain,

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can't the animals just go to
where the native plants are?

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And they can,

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but there's less space
with native plants in it

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than you might expect.

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This is a land use map
of Dane County.

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You can see in the map--

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So, the brown
is cultivated crops.

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The red is cities.

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The green is forests.

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And I wanna put a note
on forests,

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which is that, yes, forests are
full of native plants,

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but forests and wild areas

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are also
under extraordinary pressure

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from nonnative plants
and overgrazing

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and the suppression
of natural forces like fire,

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so they might
not be supporting as much life

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as they would have
before European settlement.

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So, what happens
if you're a bird

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and all of the land
that you used to live in

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gets converted to these uses
that aren't sustaining you,

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they're not providing you
with food?

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You die.

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You just can't live there.

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You can't raise a clutch,
you can't find food to eat.

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You die.

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And the good news,

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'cause this is a little bit
of a bleak picture, right?

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We've converted most of our land
to human use.

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Most of this
is an ecological dead zone

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if we're thinking about energy
moving through the environment.

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The good news is that a lot
of these species

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are actually really adaptable

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if we only give them space
to live.

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If we only provide
the conditions they need,

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they can move
into our urban environments

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and they can live
in our backyards.

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What do they need?

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They need the native plants

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that the native insects evolved
to eat.

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Okay, so those are
the two ecological reasons

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that I think you should plant
native plants.

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The third reason is that I think

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that a lot of people today
are very lonely.

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I think that a lot of people
today are very lonely,

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and they're very disconnected
from things that are important,

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like the changes
of the seasons

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and feeling like a part
of nature.

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You know, we live in our houses,

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we go to our jobs
in these office buildings,

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and then we come home
to our houses,

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and you just don't
kind of have a sense of place.

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You don't have a sense
of belonging to the Midwest,

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which is a truly fantastic place
to live.

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Mid-- Wisconsin is
absolutely incredible.

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The geology here is fantastic.

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The plants are amazing.

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The native insects
are fascinating.

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The birds are beautiful.

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We don't get any of that

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when we look out at our yard
with our Norway maple

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and our bluegrass
and our hostas.

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So, I think
that there's something

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really, really important

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to trying
to grow something native,

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even if it doesn't work
that well.

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I think that there's
something important to trying

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and to paying attention
to the plants

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and to paying attention to the
rhythms of the natural world

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and what your plants are doing

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and what the insects
in your yard are doing.

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I think there's something
really good for the soul there.

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And that's enough
on why you should do it.

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Okay.
[laughs]

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Why should you plant
a shade garden?

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Well, you should
probably plant a shade garden

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'cause if you have shade,
it's your only choice.

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Other gardens
aren't gonna work.

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[audience laughs]

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The other reason-- okay,
it adds life to an empty space.

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Maybe, what do you have
in your shade garden right now?

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I know that before I planted
native plants in it,

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I had a lot of dirt.

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Shade gardens are cool

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'cause they flower earlier in
the season than prairie gardens.

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So, prairie gardens
are used to having a lot of sun

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available to them all the time.

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A shade garden
is used to having a lot of sun

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available to it in April
before the trees leaf out.

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So, a lot of the plants

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that you're gonna plant
in a shade garden

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have evolved to take advantage
of this period

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before the trees leaf out,

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and so they do their growing
and their reproducing in April,

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in May, when there is
light available to them.

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There is less weed competition
in a shade garden

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because your site's constraints
are actually its strengths.

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We think of a site
that doesn't get enough sun

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as being a negative,

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but really,
I'm gonna say that

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if your site is limited by sun,
that is awesome,

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because that means

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that every single
full-sun weed cannot grow there.

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The only weeds that can grow
there are adapted to shade.

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So, if you find plants

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that do really well
within your site's constraints,

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you're gonna have
a really robust garden.

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And the other great thing
about a shade garden,

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I don't know about you guys,

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but the first time
I was looking at native plants,

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I looked at the long list
of native plants

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and I said, "Oh, my gosh,
there are a lot of these things.

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I don't know
which ones to plant."

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Most of those plants
are full-sun plants.

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So, if you're only
looking at plants

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that can survive
in a shade garden,

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you're gonna have
a much shorter list,

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and it's gonna be
way easier to choose.

249
00:10:44,578 --> 00:10:46,513
[audience laughs]

250
00:10:48,315 --> 00:10:50,918
So, what--
"Oh, my goodness.

251
00:10:50,984 --> 00:10:52,452
"Oh, goodness,
oh, goodness.

252
00:10:52,519 --> 00:10:54,454
"I have only ever bought
my plants at Home Depot.

253
00:10:54,521 --> 00:10:55,923
What is a native plant?"

254
00:10:55,989 --> 00:10:57,658
[all laugh]

255
00:10:58,792 --> 00:11:00,127
A native plant is a species

256
00:11:00,194 --> 00:11:02,196
that was present
before European settlement.

257
00:11:02,262 --> 00:11:03,363
That's all.

258
00:11:03,430 --> 00:11:04,765
And the cool thing
about these plants,

259
00:11:04,831 --> 00:11:06,166
like I said, is that they have

260
00:11:06,233 --> 00:11:07,801
these specialized relationships
with insects.

261
00:11:07,868 --> 00:11:09,403
The insects here
have evolved to eat them.

262
00:11:09,469 --> 00:11:11,038
And they-- anyway.

263
00:11:11,104 --> 00:11:13,640
So, how do you figure out
which plants are native?

264
00:11:13,707 --> 00:11:17,678
My favorite resource
for information about plants

265
00:11:17,744 --> 00:11:19,079
is prairiemoon.com.

266
00:11:19,146 --> 00:11:21,315
Prairie Moon is here
at the Garden Expo.

267
00:11:21,381 --> 00:11:22,482
They have a booth,

268
00:11:22,549 --> 00:11:23,884
but they also have
a fantastic website

269
00:11:23,951 --> 00:11:25,252
that you can always access.

270
00:11:25,319 --> 00:11:28,055
And they list--
they have range maps.

271
00:11:28,121 --> 00:11:29,356
So, if you go somewhere,

272
00:11:29,423 --> 00:11:31,024
let's say you go
to the farmer's market

273
00:11:31,091 --> 00:11:33,227
and you're walking around
and you see a booth with plants

274
00:11:33,293 --> 00:11:34,828
and you say, "My goodness,
I love plants.

275
00:11:34,895 --> 00:11:36,530
"I would love some
of these plants,

276
00:11:36,597 --> 00:11:38,732
but I know that I would like
to plant native plants."

277
00:11:38,799 --> 00:11:41,134
And you asked the person at
the booth at the farmer's market

278
00:11:41,201 --> 00:11:42,369
"Which of these plants
are native

279
00:11:42,436 --> 00:11:43,770
and which
of these plants like shade?"

280
00:11:43,837 --> 00:11:45,772
and they say, "This plant,"

281
00:11:45,839 --> 00:11:48,842
there's a lot of reasons why
the information that they have

282
00:11:48,909 --> 00:11:50,978
that they are telling you
might not be right.

283
00:11:51,044 --> 00:11:55,816
And so, it's important to check
that a plant is actually native.

284
00:11:55,883 --> 00:11:58,886
And what you can do is
you can whip out your phone

285
00:11:58,952 --> 00:12:01,455
and look the plant up
on Prairie Moon's website.

286
00:12:01,522 --> 00:12:03,056
And if it doesn't show up
on there,

287
00:12:03,123 --> 00:12:04,458
because every single
native plant

288
00:12:04,525 --> 00:12:06,093
that you are going to find
in cultivation

289
00:12:06,159 --> 00:12:07,995
is on Prairie Moon's website,

290
00:12:08,061 --> 00:12:09,997
you can know
that it's not native.

291
00:12:10,063 --> 00:12:11,198
And if it does show up,

292
00:12:11,265 --> 00:12:12,900
you can actually
look at the range map

293
00:12:12,966 --> 00:12:16,503
and make sure
that it is native to Wisconsin.

294
00:12:16,570 --> 00:12:20,140
Even a "native plant sale,"
there are a lot of reasons why

295
00:12:20,207 --> 00:12:23,443
nonnative plants might show up
at a native plant sale.

296
00:12:23,510 --> 00:12:24,945
Even a native plant sale
may include

297
00:12:25,012 --> 00:12:27,147
nonnative plants,
so just check.

298
00:12:27,214 --> 00:12:28,949
It's up to you
to decide if a plant

299
00:12:29,016 --> 00:12:32,085
that's native to Illinois
is native enough for you.

300
00:12:32,152 --> 00:12:33,820
It's your garden.

301
00:12:34,388 --> 00:12:37,057
But it's good
to be informed.

302
00:12:37,124 --> 00:12:40,360
Be extra careful
at a large nursery.

303
00:12:40,427 --> 00:12:42,796
Anywhere where you
can actually go and walk around

304
00:12:42,863 --> 00:12:45,632
and look at the plants,
just be extra careful

305
00:12:45,699 --> 00:12:48,235
that you are actually getting
a native plant.

306
00:12:48,302 --> 00:12:50,737
Trust Latin names
over common names

307
00:12:50,804 --> 00:12:54,441
because a lot of plants might
share the same common name,

308
00:12:54,508 --> 00:12:58,111
but a Latin name
refers to one species.

309
00:12:58,178 --> 00:13:01,315
And if you are planting
a seed mix,

310
00:13:01,882 --> 00:13:05,652
if it says "wildflower"--
I cannot emphasize this enough.

311
00:13:05,719 --> 00:13:07,387
[all laugh]

312
00:13:07,654 --> 00:13:09,623
If you are planting a seed mix

313
00:13:09,690 --> 00:13:14,695
and it says "wildflower"
in the name, it is not native.

314
00:13:15,429 --> 00:13:18,899
It needs to say
"native wildflower."

315
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,536
So, just be careful
with seed mixes.

316
00:13:22,603 --> 00:13:25,339
Lessons learned
from my own yard.

317
00:13:25,405 --> 00:13:28,976
So, I started out
and I made this big yard,

318
00:13:29,042 --> 00:13:30,377
which we'll talk about later,

319
00:13:30,444 --> 00:13:32,946
and I looked at the big list
of plants that were available

320
00:13:33,013 --> 00:13:35,716
and I said, "Oh, my goodness,
this is overwhelming.

321
00:13:35,782 --> 00:13:39,286
So, I bought my plants from the
Plant Dane native plant sale

322
00:13:39,353 --> 00:13:41,421
the first time,
which is happening now

323
00:13:41,488 --> 00:13:43,290
if you are watching this
in person.

324
00:13:43,357 --> 00:13:44,625
It is February,

325
00:13:44,691 --> 00:13:47,294
and the Plant Dane native plant
sale is happening now.

326
00:13:47,361 --> 00:13:48,929
And it's a fantastic resource

327
00:13:48,996 --> 00:13:51,164
and you should absolutely
get plants from it.

328
00:13:51,231 --> 00:13:53,967
So, I--
They sell these premade kits.

329
00:13:54,034 --> 00:13:58,238
So, I got the shady, I don't
know, whatever it was called.

330
00:13:58,305 --> 00:14:00,274
"Shady woodland kit."

331
00:14:00,340 --> 00:14:03,877
And in the kit that I got
was this flower,

332
00:14:03,944 --> 00:14:06,113
which is, it says <i>Eupatorium.</i>

333
00:14:06,180 --> 00:14:07,281
It's actually in <i>Conoclinium.</i>

334
00:14:07,347 --> 00:14:11,451
This is <i>Conoclinium coelestinum,</i>
the mistflower.

335
00:14:11,518 --> 00:14:14,855
And so, last summer,
I was thinking about this plant

336
00:14:14,922 --> 00:14:16,456
and I wanted to know more
about it.

337
00:14:16,523 --> 00:14:18,258
And I looked it up
on Prairie Moon's website,

338
00:14:18,325 --> 00:14:23,764
and I saw the following range
map. [audience chuckles]

339
00:14:23,830 --> 00:14:25,966
I also wanna note, before
I talk about the range map,

340
00:14:26,033 --> 00:14:28,368
that when I looked this plant up
and when I researched it,

341
00:14:28,435 --> 00:14:30,370
like, when I heard about
this plant initially,

342
00:14:30,437 --> 00:14:32,072
I was told
that it is quite aggressive.

343
00:14:32,139 --> 00:14:34,908
So, in my yard, this has turned,
from six plants,

344
00:14:34,975 --> 00:14:36,076
this has turned into, like,

345
00:14:36,143 --> 00:14:37,811
a five-by-five patch
of mistflowers.

346
00:14:37,878 --> 00:14:40,614
So, anyway, I looked it up,
saw this range map.

347
00:14:40,681 --> 00:14:43,450
This is not a plant
that's native to Wisconsin.

348
00:14:43,517 --> 00:14:46,353
The light green means
that it's native to the county.

349
00:14:46,420 --> 00:14:49,223
The dark green means
that it is somewhere

350
00:14:49,289 --> 00:14:51,525
in the state, it exists.

351
00:14:51,925 --> 00:14:53,894
It could exist
in only one patch in the state,

352
00:14:53,961 --> 00:14:57,264
but the green is
kind of native to the state.

353
00:14:57,331 --> 00:14:59,666
The yellow is native
but rare in the county.

354
00:14:59,733 --> 00:15:01,535
And you can see the color
Wisconsin is,

355
00:15:01,602 --> 00:15:03,570
which is none of those,
it's brown,

356
00:15:03,637 --> 00:15:05,873
which means not native.

357
00:15:08,308 --> 00:15:10,244
And a note on the Plant Dane
native plant sale,

358
00:15:10,310 --> 00:15:11,411
which is fantastic.

359
00:15:11,478 --> 00:15:13,313
And I mean no disrespect to it,
it's awesome.

360
00:15:13,380 --> 00:15:14,882
You should absolutely buy plants
from it.

361
00:15:14,948 --> 00:15:18,318
You will not be able to find
native plants cheaper

362
00:15:18,385 --> 00:15:20,888
than at the Plant Dane
native plant sale.

363
00:15:20,954 --> 00:15:22,055
They have updated this kit

364
00:15:22,122 --> 00:15:23,790
so it doesn't include
this flower anymore.

365
00:15:23,857 --> 00:15:24,958
It's all native.

366
00:15:25,025 --> 00:15:27,961
It's a fantastic
little shade kit.

367
00:15:28,028 --> 00:15:30,364
The other thing
to watch out for are cultivars.

368
00:15:30,430 --> 00:15:33,000
This is what's gonna get you
at the big box nursery.

369
00:15:33,066 --> 00:15:36,336
So, I went to the big box
nursery around this same time.

370
00:15:36,403 --> 00:15:37,871
Actually got the plants
in the spring,

371
00:15:37,938 --> 00:15:39,039
and then, in the fall,

372
00:15:39,106 --> 00:15:41,575
the big box nursery
was having a 50% off sale

373
00:15:41,642 --> 00:15:42,743
on every single plant,

374
00:15:42,809 --> 00:15:45,345
and I said, "Oh, my gosh,
I got to get in on this."

375
00:15:45,412 --> 00:15:47,080
So, I went there,

376
00:15:47,648 --> 00:15:52,152
and I looked at all the plants,
and I saw cultivars.

377
00:15:52,219 --> 00:15:54,121
And a cultivar is a selection
of plants

378
00:15:54,188 --> 00:15:56,456
that changes a characteristic
of the plant.

379
00:15:56,523 --> 00:15:58,392
So, it might change,

380
00:15:58,458 --> 00:16:01,161
you know, it might put more
petals on the flower.

381
00:16:01,228 --> 00:16:04,031
It might change the foliage
from green to purple.

382
00:16:04,097 --> 00:16:06,600
It might make
the plant shorter overall.

383
00:16:06,667 --> 00:16:11,004
It might make the plant flower
for a longer period of time.

384
00:16:11,071 --> 00:16:12,172
Some of these changes,

385
00:16:12,239 --> 00:16:15,576
in particular,
changes to the flowers

386
00:16:15,642 --> 00:16:19,146
or the foliage color
will probably reduce

387
00:16:19,213 --> 00:16:22,683
how much the plant is used
by insects.

388
00:16:23,183 --> 00:16:26,253
Changes to the flower period
or the overall stature

389
00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:27,921
or the bloom density,

390
00:16:27,988 --> 00:16:31,091
those probably won't have
any effect on native insects,

391
00:16:31,158 --> 00:16:34,194
so I would feel
comfortable planting a cultivar

392
00:16:34,261 --> 00:16:37,064
that changes one of those
features in your yard.

393
00:16:37,130 --> 00:16:40,200
If it changes the flower,
I would avoid.

394
00:16:40,267 --> 00:16:42,569
The other thing
to watch out for with cultivars

395
00:16:42,636 --> 00:16:46,373
is that often they are
crossbreeds of two species

396
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,009
to create some sort of
new, interesting thing

397
00:16:49,076 --> 00:16:51,245
that can be marketed to you,
the garden consumer,

398
00:16:51,311 --> 00:16:55,482
and is not just, like, a seed
that anybody can plant.

399
00:16:55,549 --> 00:16:58,685
Or they might just be
a nonnative plant,

400
00:16:58,752 --> 00:17:00,721
and it might only have
a common name on it.

401
00:17:00,787 --> 00:17:04,258
So, I purchased this
truly wonderful

402
00:17:04,324 --> 00:17:08,395
and beautiful flower as it
was labeled as Jacob's ladder.

403
00:17:08,462 --> 00:17:10,364
Jacob's ladder,
<i>Polemonium reptans,</i>

404
00:17:10,430 --> 00:17:12,699
is a fantastic shade plant.

405
00:17:12,766 --> 00:17:14,735
It does great in a variety
of conditions.

406
00:17:14,801 --> 00:17:18,405
I think that everybody
should plant it in a shade yard.

407
00:17:18,472 --> 00:17:20,807
So, I saw that this was
a Jacob's ladder and I said,

408
00:17:20,874 --> 00:17:22,209
"Oh, okay,
I could do a cultivar.

409
00:17:22,276 --> 00:17:24,411
"For half off, I could do
a cultivar of Jacob's ladder,

410
00:17:24,478 --> 00:17:25,579
no problem."

411
00:17:25,646 --> 00:17:26,747
And I purchased this.

412
00:17:26,813 --> 00:17:28,949
And then, I was putting together
this talk

413
00:17:29,016 --> 00:17:30,751
and I was thinking
about cultivars,

414
00:17:30,817 --> 00:17:32,586
and I looked up this cultivar,

415
00:17:32,653 --> 00:17:34,788
and I found out
that what I have in my yard

416
00:17:34,855 --> 00:17:38,425
is not a cultivar
of <i>Polemonium reptans,</i>

417
00:17:38,492 --> 00:17:39,960
native to the Midwest.

418
00:17:40,027 --> 00:17:42,963
It is a cultivar
of <i>Polemonium caeruleum,</i>

419
00:17:43,030 --> 00:17:44,998
which is native to Europe.

420
00:17:45,065 --> 00:17:48,969
So, it's easy to be excited
and get fooled.

421
00:17:51,271 --> 00:17:52,606
It is gorgeous.

422
00:17:52,673 --> 00:17:53,941
It's fantastic.

423
00:17:54,007 --> 00:17:55,108
It isn't native.

424
00:17:55,175 --> 00:17:56,443
I'm probably gonna
pull this out.

425
00:17:56,510 --> 00:17:59,546
I'm not sure what I'm gonna do
about my mistflower, ugh.

426
00:17:59,613 --> 00:18:00,814
I'm probably gonna pull
this out

427
00:18:00,881 --> 00:18:03,183
'cause I have a lot
of Jacob's ladder in that bed,

428
00:18:03,250 --> 00:18:06,920
and the Jacob's ladder
is reseeding, which I love,

429
00:18:06,987 --> 00:18:09,022
and I don't want this
to reseed

430
00:18:09,089 --> 00:18:10,691
and I don't want this
to hybridize

431
00:18:10,757 --> 00:18:15,295
with my native Jacob's ladder,
so I think I got to take it out.

432
00:18:15,362 --> 00:18:17,931
So, you have a shade garden,

433
00:18:18,799 --> 00:18:23,604
and you wanna find plants
that are gonna work there.

434
00:18:24,705 --> 00:18:28,609
The traditional advice,
which I think is kind of useful,

435
00:18:28,675 --> 00:18:32,079
is that if your site gets
more than six hours of sun,

436
00:18:32,145 --> 00:18:34,281
you have a full-sun garden.

437
00:18:34,348 --> 00:18:37,217
And this is talking about sun
that hits the ground.

438
00:18:37,284 --> 00:18:41,154
This is not talking about,
like... [laughs]

439
00:18:41,221 --> 00:18:42,956
I do this really optimistic
thing in my yard

440
00:18:43,023 --> 00:18:44,858
where I look up at the sky...

441
00:18:44,925 --> 00:18:46,593
[all laugh]

442
00:18:47,594 --> 00:18:49,997
And I see the blue sky
and I say,

443
00:18:50,063 --> 00:18:53,267
"I probably see enough blue sky
here to grow a full-sun plant."

444
00:18:53,333 --> 00:18:55,869
And I forget that my house
is surrounded by tall trees

445
00:18:55,936 --> 00:18:58,005
and it is
on a north-facing slope,

446
00:18:58,071 --> 00:18:59,706
so the sun isn't coming
from up above.

447
00:18:59,773 --> 00:19:01,508
It's actually blocked.

448
00:19:01,575 --> 00:19:04,444
What you need to do
is look down at the ground

449
00:19:04,511 --> 00:19:07,281
and look and see
how many hours you have of sun

450
00:19:07,347 --> 00:19:09,416
actually hitting the ground.

451
00:19:09,483 --> 00:19:11,218
If you have more than six hours
of sun,

452
00:19:11,285 --> 00:19:12,419
you can plant
the full-sun plants.

453
00:19:12,486 --> 00:19:14,655
If you have four to six hours
of sun,

454
00:19:14,721 --> 00:19:17,524
you can plant plants
labeled part-sun.

455
00:19:17,591 --> 00:19:20,494
And if you have four hours
of sun

456
00:19:21,562 --> 00:19:25,532
and in particular, if your site
gets a lot of sun,

457
00:19:25,599 --> 00:19:29,736
say it gets three hours of
really intense afternoon sun,

458
00:19:29,803 --> 00:19:33,607
you're probably a little closer
to that part-sun category

459
00:19:33,674 --> 00:19:36,977
than to, like,
a full deep-shade category.

460
00:19:37,044 --> 00:19:41,381
But, anyway, under four hours,
you have shade.

461
00:19:42,382 --> 00:19:43,717
Plants don't think like this.

462
00:19:43,784 --> 00:19:45,919
This is a really great-- This
is a really great shorthand,

463
00:19:45,986 --> 00:19:47,921
and I really wish I had,
like, a super-good answer

464
00:19:47,988 --> 00:19:50,424
of how to figure out exactly
which plants will succeed

465
00:19:50,490 --> 00:19:51,859
in your site, and I don't.

466
00:19:51,925 --> 00:19:53,360
Plants don't think like this.

467
00:19:53,427 --> 00:19:55,529
Sometimes, this will work
really well for you.

468
00:19:55,596 --> 00:19:57,898
Sometimes, you'll pick out
a plant,

469
00:19:57,965 --> 00:20:00,100
I'm gonna call
out Canada ginger,

470
00:20:00,167 --> 00:20:04,571
fantastic native shade plant,
and you plant it in your garden

471
00:20:04,638 --> 00:20:06,373
that gets
three hours of afternoon sun,

472
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:08,509
so it's solidly a shady garden,
right,

473
00:20:08,575 --> 00:20:11,745
it's under four hours, and the
Canada ginger gets too hot,

474
00:20:11,812 --> 00:20:13,714
it gets too much sun,
and it dies.

475
00:20:13,780 --> 00:20:19,152
So, a slightly more complicated
rating system exists

476
00:20:19,219 --> 00:20:22,456
and is harder to find
and requires more research.

477
00:20:22,523 --> 00:20:26,059
The North Carolina
Botanical Garden

478
00:20:26,126 --> 00:20:29,129
has a list
of plants that you can search,

479
00:20:29,196 --> 00:20:32,332
and they list
the "heli-ophily,"

480
00:20:33,467 --> 00:20:36,737
"heliophile," "helio-phily"...
I don't know.

481
00:20:36,803 --> 00:20:38,739
I don't know how to pronounce
this word. [audience laughs]

482
00:20:38,805 --> 00:20:40,774
They list the rating
of how much sun it likes.

483
00:20:40,841 --> 00:20:42,509
[laughs]

484
00:20:42,809 --> 00:20:44,011
And this is like a gardening--

485
00:20:44,077 --> 00:20:45,312
This is a
Gardening 101 talk,

486
00:20:45,379 --> 00:20:47,080
and this is like
a Gardening 102 subject.

487
00:20:47,147 --> 00:20:49,416
But if you're looking
at your native plants

488
00:20:49,483 --> 00:20:53,020
and you have the Latin name,
it says <i>Asarum canadense,</i>

489
00:20:53,086 --> 00:20:54,755
which is the Canada ginger,

490
00:20:54,821 --> 00:20:57,024
you can put that
into this website here

491
00:20:57,090 --> 00:20:59,826
and it will tell you
<i>Asarum canadense</i>

492
00:20:59,893 --> 00:21:02,296
has a heliophily rating of 1.

493
00:21:02,362 --> 00:21:04,298
It likes dense shade.

494
00:21:04,364 --> 00:21:05,499
You might look up another plant.

495
00:21:05,566 --> 00:21:07,000
You might look up
zigzag goldenrod,

496
00:21:07,067 --> 00:21:08,468
another fantastic shade plant,

497
00:21:08,535 --> 00:21:10,470
or the aforementioned
Jacob's ladder,

498
00:21:10,537 --> 00:21:14,842
and you'll find that it has
a heliophily rating of 3 or 4,

499
00:21:14,908 --> 00:21:17,611
which means that it can
tolerate a little bit of sun,

500
00:21:17,678 --> 00:21:19,613
it wants a little bit
more light.

501
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:23,383
And then you look up something
like leadplant or prairie dock,

502
00:21:23,450 --> 00:21:26,420
and you find a heliophily rating
of 10.

503
00:21:26,486 --> 00:21:29,289
This is a plant
that only wants full sun

504
00:21:29,356 --> 00:21:30,891
and will not do well
in your garden.

505
00:21:30,958 --> 00:21:33,927
So, if you like having
a lot of information

506
00:21:33,994 --> 00:21:36,263
and you're feeling
a little bit more technical,

507
00:21:36,330 --> 00:21:38,665
you can use this tool
to look up the plants.

508
00:21:38,732 --> 00:21:40,067
If you have a super shady site,

509
00:21:40,133 --> 00:21:41,668
you're gonna want things
in the 1 category.

510
00:21:41,735 --> 00:21:43,070
If you have a little more sun,

511
00:21:43,136 --> 00:21:46,607
you're gonna want things
closer to a 5, et cetera.

512
00:21:46,673 --> 00:21:48,242
Also consider soil moisture.

513
00:21:48,308 --> 00:21:49,810
This is important to the plants.

514
00:21:49,877 --> 00:21:51,879
The shade plants
under cultivation

515
00:21:51,945 --> 00:21:54,781
are usually pretty, like,
they have a pretty broad range

516
00:21:54,848 --> 00:21:57,885
of soil moistures
that they thrive in.

517
00:21:57,951 --> 00:22:00,287
So, just think about this

518
00:22:00,821 --> 00:22:04,191
if you know that your site
is, like, super, super dry

519
00:22:04,258 --> 00:22:06,159
or super, super wet.

520
00:22:08,862 --> 00:22:10,898
How do you structure
your planting?

521
00:22:10,964 --> 00:22:12,399
Okay, you've got
your site picked out.

522
00:22:12,466 --> 00:22:13,667
You have your shady site,

523
00:22:13,734 --> 00:22:15,869
and you've kind of thought,
"This has a lot of shade,

524
00:22:15,936 --> 00:22:17,304
"this has a medium shade,

525
00:22:17,371 --> 00:22:19,506
"this is actually a little bit
sunnier than I was realizing.

526
00:22:19,573 --> 00:22:20,774
What do I put here?"

527
00:22:20,841 --> 00:22:22,976
First thing to think about,
do you wanna add a tree?

528
00:22:23,043 --> 00:22:25,312
Trees have fantastic
wildlife value.

529
00:22:25,379 --> 00:22:26,813
They're quite big,

530
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:29,283
so they have a lot of leaves
for insects to eat.

531
00:22:29,349 --> 00:22:31,285
Trees are fantastic.

532
00:22:31,351 --> 00:22:32,719
You probably have
enough trees, though,

533
00:22:32,786 --> 00:22:34,154
so maybe consider a shrub.

534
00:22:34,221 --> 00:22:37,157
Shrubs are also nice,
and they're big.

535
00:22:37,224 --> 00:22:40,494
And then include
flowers and grasses.

536
00:22:40,561 --> 00:22:44,164
I like to plant my gardens
one plant per square feet

537
00:22:44,231 --> 00:22:45,699
at a minimum.

538
00:22:45,766 --> 00:22:48,702
Sometimes, if I'm really
concerned about a garden

539
00:22:48,769 --> 00:22:51,672
doing well, I'll plant more
than one plant per square foot,

540
00:22:51,738 --> 00:22:54,107
because planting densely

541
00:22:54,174 --> 00:22:59,213
is the best thing you can do to
have your garden establish well.

542
00:22:59,279 --> 00:23:01,915
If you plant
really scantily,

543
00:23:01,982 --> 00:23:04,685
it's probably gonna take
a bit to fill in.

544
00:23:04,751 --> 00:23:07,254
Include a background
of grasses or sedges.

545
00:23:07,321 --> 00:23:09,489
In shade, you're probably
gonna include a sedge

546
00:23:09,556 --> 00:23:12,893
'cause they just do better
in shade.

547
00:23:15,462 --> 00:23:18,699
I like to do 50% background
plants, 50% sedges.

548
00:23:18,765 --> 00:23:20,968
They have tremendous wildlife
value and they look good,

549
00:23:21,034 --> 00:23:23,237
and they help
your planting look organized,

550
00:23:23,303 --> 00:23:26,206
and they help
your planting look, like, full

551
00:23:26,273 --> 00:23:27,941
when your flowers
aren't doing much.

552
00:23:28,008 --> 00:23:29,343
A shorter overall height.

553
00:23:29,409 --> 00:23:31,345
If you have a garden
in front of your house,

554
00:23:31,411 --> 00:23:34,114
a shorter overall height
is going to look more organized.

555
00:23:34,181 --> 00:23:36,316
If you have a garden
in the back of your house,

556
00:23:36,383 --> 00:23:37,484
up against your fence,

557
00:23:37,551 --> 00:23:39,620
or you wanna block
the view to your neighbor,

558
00:23:39,686 --> 00:23:41,822
you might wanna go
with taller plants.

559
00:23:41,889 --> 00:23:44,024
But just consider, I'm gonna
talk a lot about short plants

560
00:23:44,091 --> 00:23:45,692
just because people
often want a garden

561
00:23:45,759 --> 00:23:49,730
that looks a little bit more,
like, organized than not,

562
00:23:49,796 --> 00:23:52,065
so we're gonna
kind of focus on shorter plants.

563
00:23:52,132 --> 00:23:55,102
Try to get things that bloom
spring through fall.

564
00:23:55,169 --> 00:23:57,004
Spring blooms are gonna be
easy to find.

565
00:23:57,070 --> 00:23:59,573
Fall blooms are going
to be easy to find.

566
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,776
Summer blooms might be
a little bit more challenging.

567
00:24:02,843 --> 00:24:06,413
And you wanna include
one aster and one goldenrod.

568
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,149
These are keystone
pollinator plants.

569
00:24:09,216 --> 00:24:11,151
So, the life cycle of bumblebees
is that

570
00:24:11,218 --> 00:24:14,955
at the end of the season, the
bumblebee nest creates a queen.

571
00:24:15,022 --> 00:24:17,224
The queen goes out
into the environment

572
00:24:17,291 --> 00:24:18,692
and she looks for flowers.

573
00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:20,127
And the flowers
that she's gonna find

574
00:24:20,194 --> 00:24:22,462
are asters and goldenrods,
'cause they bloom in the fall,

575
00:24:22,529 --> 00:24:24,831
and she consumes, like,
pollen and nectar from them,

576
00:24:24,898 --> 00:24:27,568
and then she uses the fat stores
that she builds to hibernate.

577
00:24:27,634 --> 00:24:30,871
So, if she doesn't have those
late-season pollen resources,

578
00:24:30,938 --> 00:24:33,307
she's gonna have a harder time
surviving the winter.

579
00:24:33,373 --> 00:24:36,844
So, include an aster
and a goldenrod.

580
00:24:37,778 --> 00:24:39,580
"Okay, okay, okay.

581
00:24:40,113 --> 00:24:41,448
"Kind of wrapping my head
around this.

582
00:24:41,515 --> 00:24:43,483
Still a lot to handle."

583
00:24:45,152 --> 00:24:47,354
Your second tip to success,

584
00:24:47,421 --> 00:24:48,989
I cannot
emphasize this enough,

585
00:24:49,056 --> 00:24:51,525
is, one of the best things

586
00:24:51,592 --> 00:24:53,393
you can do to end up
with a garden

587
00:24:53,460 --> 00:24:55,262
that has native plants

588
00:24:55,329 --> 00:24:58,999
is to get them
from a specialist grower.

589
00:25:00,767 --> 00:25:03,170
There--
We are lucky in Madison.

590
00:25:03,237 --> 00:25:06,907
We have a dozen
within a 45-minute drive

591
00:25:09,576 --> 00:25:12,479
of small native plant growers.

592
00:25:13,213 --> 00:25:15,048
These are people
that grow only native plants,

593
00:25:15,115 --> 00:25:16,216
and they're small businesses,

594
00:25:16,283 --> 00:25:18,085
and they're often
woman-owned businesses.

595
00:25:18,151 --> 00:25:19,353
These are really,
really cool people.

596
00:25:19,419 --> 00:25:20,988
You should support them.

597
00:25:21,054 --> 00:25:22,523
In the back, on the table,

598
00:25:22,589 --> 00:25:24,958
I actually have
little 4x3 cards

599
00:25:25,025 --> 00:25:27,394
and they have my business info
on the front.

600
00:25:27,461 --> 00:25:29,196
And then, on the back,
they have a list

601
00:25:29,263 --> 00:25:30,797
of all of the little local...

602
00:25:30,864 --> 00:25:33,467
Yep, all of the local
native plant nurseries.

603
00:25:33,534 --> 00:25:34,968
So, this is
really helpful information

604
00:25:35,035 --> 00:25:36,770
if you're in this room
with me right now.

605
00:25:36,837 --> 00:25:41,074
And if you're not, DNR maintains
a list of native plant growers.

606
00:25:41,141 --> 00:25:42,476
So, you can also go here

607
00:25:42,543 --> 00:25:47,080
and see who's growing
native plants in your area.

608
00:25:47,147 --> 00:25:49,082
One reason to go
with native plant growers

609
00:25:49,149 --> 00:25:50,751
is they're awesome
and you should support them.

610
00:25:50,817 --> 00:25:55,556
The other reason is that you
want to get your plants small.

611
00:25:55,622 --> 00:25:59,960
You want the 2.5 by 2.5-inch
plug-size plants.

612
00:26:00,994 --> 00:26:03,497
You go to the big box nursery--
if you can get 'em.

613
00:26:03,564 --> 00:26:04,898
You go to the big box nursery,

614
00:26:04,965 --> 00:26:07,401
and they sell the plants
in the quarts and the gallons,

615
00:26:07,467 --> 00:26:09,403
and you pay a decent amount
of money for them,

616
00:26:09,469 --> 00:26:11,171
and then I'm up here
telling you,

617
00:26:11,238 --> 00:26:12,840
"Plant one plant
per square foot,"

618
00:26:12,906 --> 00:26:15,409
and you say,
"Those things are $15 each.

619
00:26:15,475 --> 00:26:18,145
What are you talking about?"

620
00:26:18,545 --> 00:26:21,215
But if you go to the
specialist native grower,

621
00:26:21,281 --> 00:26:23,417
you're gonna find
the plug-size plants,

622
00:26:23,483 --> 00:26:25,652
which are 2.5 by 2.5 inches,

623
00:26:25,719 --> 00:26:29,756
and you're gonna pay, like, $3,
$4, $5, $6 each for them,

624
00:26:29,823 --> 00:26:31,358
and your entire planting
is going to be

625
00:26:31,425 --> 00:26:32,559
so much more affordable.

626
00:26:32,626 --> 00:26:34,328
And I...

627
00:26:34,394 --> 00:26:36,763
In two years, you're not gonna
know the difference.

628
00:26:36,830 --> 00:26:39,666
Honestly, in one year, you
might not know the difference.

629
00:26:39,733 --> 00:26:41,535
I only plant with these.

630
00:26:41,602 --> 00:26:43,804
The exception being there
are some shade plants

631
00:26:43,871 --> 00:26:45,472
that you cannot get
in this size.

632
00:26:45,539 --> 00:26:48,208
Because there are two broad
categories of shade plants.

633
00:26:48,275 --> 00:26:50,344
There are shade plants
that are easy to grow,

634
00:26:50,410 --> 00:26:52,746
and these are gonna be
easy to find in the plug size.

635
00:26:52,813 --> 00:26:53,914
And there are shade plants

636
00:26:53,981 --> 00:26:56,149
that have
more complicated requirements

637
00:26:56,216 --> 00:26:58,352
to germinate the seeds,

638
00:26:58,418 --> 00:27:01,321
and these are gonna be
hard to find in the plug size.

639
00:27:01,388 --> 00:27:04,992
So, if you have a plant
that you really want

640
00:27:05,058 --> 00:27:07,628
and the plant is
Canada ginger or mayapples

641
00:27:07,694 --> 00:27:11,465
or bloodroot
or <i>Podophyllum peltatum,</i>

642
00:27:11,532 --> 00:27:13,600
the one
that goes like this.

643
00:27:13,667 --> 00:27:15,335
Oh, my gosh,
um...

644
00:27:16,003 --> 00:27:17,204
- [people speaking indistinctly]
- Yeah.

645
00:27:17,271 --> 00:27:20,207
Not bellwort, the one
with the leaves on the side.

646
00:27:20,274 --> 00:27:21,608
- Attendee 1: Solomon's seal?

647
00:27:21,675 --> 00:27:24,411
This is the worst plant for me
to not think of the name of.

648
00:27:24,478 --> 00:27:25,779
- Attendee 2: Solomon's seal?

649
00:27:25,846 --> 00:27:28,182
- Melissa: Solomon's seal!

650
00:27:28,248 --> 00:27:29,850
Goodness gracious.

651
00:27:29,917 --> 00:27:31,919
- Attendee 3: Trout lily.
- Melissa: Trout lilies.

652
00:27:31,985 --> 00:27:33,253
Trout lilies are the other one.

653
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:34,922
Everybody, everybody randomly--
don't actually do this.

654
00:27:34,988 --> 00:27:36,323
Everybody shout the name
of a plant

655
00:27:36,390 --> 00:27:38,725
that you cannot find
for the life of you.

656
00:27:38,792 --> 00:27:40,727
These plants are gonna be
a lot harder to find.

657
00:27:40,794 --> 00:27:42,529
You're not gonna find them
at the smaller growers

658
00:27:42,596 --> 00:27:43,797
'cause they're too hard
to find,

659
00:27:43,864 --> 00:27:45,999
but you are gonna find them
at the big box nursery

660
00:27:46,066 --> 00:27:47,801
that I just told you
not to go to.

661
00:27:47,868 --> 00:27:49,870
So, if you want these
more complicated plants,

662
00:27:49,937 --> 00:27:51,071
check out the big box nursery.

663
00:27:51,138 --> 00:27:54,241
You can also order them
bare root in the spring.

664
00:27:54,308 --> 00:27:57,644
In the early spring,
you literally just pay $4

665
00:27:57,711 --> 00:27:59,446
and they mail you a chunk
of the root,

666
00:27:59,513 --> 00:28:02,049
and you plant that in the ground
and it turns into a plant.

667
00:28:02,115 --> 00:28:04,518
Fantastic way to get these
harder to germinate plants.

668
00:28:04,585 --> 00:28:09,189
And again, much cheaper
than $8 to $25 for a gallon.

669
00:28:11,291 --> 00:28:13,527
Two resources
I wanna call out specifically,

670
00:28:13,594 --> 00:28:15,395
Agrecol is a large,

671
00:28:16,129 --> 00:28:19,600
like, industrial-sized
native plant grower in Edgerton.

672
00:28:19,666 --> 00:28:22,769
So, if you have a big garden
and you need to purchase,

673
00:28:22,836 --> 00:28:25,339
let's say, 1,000 square feet
worth of plants,

674
00:28:25,405 --> 00:28:28,141
which might be 1,000 plants,

675
00:28:28,208 --> 00:28:30,410
the local nurseries,
who are growing 4,000

676
00:28:30,477 --> 00:28:32,646
or 5,000 or 6,000 plants a year

677
00:28:32,713 --> 00:28:34,515
might not be able to handle
that request.

678
00:28:34,581 --> 00:28:36,917
Edgerton grows millions
of plants a year,

679
00:28:36,984 --> 00:28:42,456
and they are the place to go if
you want to get a <i>lot</i> of plants.

680
00:28:43,557 --> 00:28:46,493
Johnson's Nursery
in Milwaukee.

681
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:49,062
If you would like
to put in a shrub

682
00:28:49,129 --> 00:28:51,798
and you would like
to put in an actual native shrub

683
00:28:51,865 --> 00:28:53,467
and not a cultivar,

684
00:28:53,534 --> 00:28:56,069
which is what you often find
at the big-box nursery,

685
00:28:56,136 --> 00:28:57,804
Johnson's Nursery is the place
to grow.

686
00:28:57,871 --> 00:29:00,874
They grow actual
straight species,

687
00:29:00,941 --> 00:29:03,410
native shrubs, and trees.

688
00:29:03,477 --> 00:29:05,479
Fantastic resource.

689
00:29:06,046 --> 00:29:09,049
How do you choose your plants?

690
00:29:09,116 --> 00:29:10,784
This is really hard.

691
00:29:10,851 --> 00:29:12,252
The nice thing about
shade gardens,

692
00:29:12,319 --> 00:29:16,290
like I said, is that your
choices are going to be limited.

693
00:29:16,356 --> 00:29:19,826
A premade kit is
a great place to start.

694
00:29:19,893 --> 00:29:21,228
Despite the fact that
I ended up

695
00:29:21,295 --> 00:29:23,030
with a nonnative plant
out of one, these are--

696
00:29:23,096 --> 00:29:26,466
If you're overwhelmed
by choosing plants,

697
00:29:26,533 --> 00:29:28,335
you can either
look at premade kits

698
00:29:28,402 --> 00:29:30,904
that are available nationally

699
00:29:30,971 --> 00:29:33,173
and then buy those plants
from a local grower,

700
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,510
or some of the local growers
have premade kits,

701
00:29:36,577 --> 00:29:37,711
and you can purchase those.

702
00:29:37,778 --> 00:29:39,379
You can add plants to them.

703
00:29:39,446 --> 00:29:40,981
You can play with them
a little bit.

704
00:29:41,048 --> 00:29:42,149
You can say, you know,

705
00:29:42,216 --> 00:29:43,750
"I really want, like,
six species in here

706
00:29:43,817 --> 00:29:45,953
instead of the four,"
so you can pop in another two.

707
00:29:46,019 --> 00:29:47,354
But they're a fantastic place
to start

708
00:29:47,421 --> 00:29:49,089
or to get inspiration from.

709
00:29:49,156 --> 00:29:51,758
Prairie Moon's website
is a great resource,

710
00:29:51,825 --> 00:29:55,996
with the caveat that this is
quite an extensive resource.

711
00:29:56,063 --> 00:29:59,600
If you're the kind of person
who wants a lot of information,

712
00:29:59,666 --> 00:30:01,134
you can go
to Prairie Moon's website

713
00:30:01,201 --> 00:30:02,736
and you can put in your filters.

714
00:30:02,803 --> 00:30:04,872
You can say, "I want something
that's native to Wisconsin,

715
00:30:04,938 --> 00:30:07,074
"and it likes medium moisture
and it likes shade,

716
00:30:07,140 --> 00:30:10,644
and it blooms in May,"
and whatever,

717
00:30:10,711 --> 00:30:12,246
and they'll give you
a list of plants.

718
00:30:12,312 --> 00:30:15,082
But they're gonna give
you a list of, like, 30 plants,

719
00:30:15,148 --> 00:30:17,384
and then you're gonna go
to your fantastic,

720
00:30:17,451 --> 00:30:19,319
local, small-scale
native plant nursery,

721
00:30:19,386 --> 00:30:21,522
and you're gonna be
able to find, like, two of them,

722
00:30:21,588 --> 00:30:23,123
just because Prairie Moon
has every single plant.

723
00:30:23,190 --> 00:30:26,326
So, it might be
too much information.

724
00:30:26,393 --> 00:30:28,328
If you're just looking up
a specific plant

725
00:30:28,395 --> 00:30:31,398
to understand more about it,
it's a fantastic resource.

726
00:30:31,465 --> 00:30:33,267
My favorite book is this one.

727
00:30:33,333 --> 00:30:36,870
This is <i>Native Plants of the</i>
<i>Midwest</i> by Alan Branhagen.

728
00:30:36,937 --> 00:30:38,839
This is a great book.

729
00:30:40,107 --> 00:30:41,909
So, if you wanna look
in a book,

730
00:30:41,975 --> 00:30:44,311
you wanna just page through it
and look at the pretty plants,

731
00:30:44,378 --> 00:30:45,679
I would highly recommend this.

732
00:30:45,746 --> 00:30:46,880
A lot of native plant books

733
00:30:46,947 --> 00:30:49,183
are really focused
on prairie species,

734
00:30:49,249 --> 00:30:50,918
and they--
you look through them,

735
00:30:50,984 --> 00:30:53,153
hoping to find out
what to plant in your yard,

736
00:30:53,220 --> 00:30:55,989
and you find
zero shade plants.

737
00:30:56,056 --> 00:30:58,091
This book has a section
on trees.

738
00:30:58,158 --> 00:30:59,560
it has sections on shrubs,

739
00:30:59,626 --> 00:31:01,028
it has sections
on prairie plants,

740
00:31:01,094 --> 00:31:04,431
and it has sections on woodland
plants and ground covers.

741
00:31:04,498 --> 00:31:07,301
This has the information
that you are going to need.

742
00:31:07,367 --> 00:31:09,803
This is a great resource.

743
00:31:09,870 --> 00:31:11,538
Local nurseries.

744
00:31:12,072 --> 00:31:14,775
They're run by awesome,
super friendly,

745
00:31:14,842 --> 00:31:16,944
super knowledgeable people.

746
00:31:17,010 --> 00:31:18,779
You can just reach out to them.

747
00:31:18,846 --> 00:31:21,515
You can say, "Hey,
I have a shady site.

748
00:31:21,582 --> 00:31:26,453
I need 150 plants," or 20 plants
or whatever your number is.

749
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:27,621
"What do you have?"

750
00:31:27,688 --> 00:31:29,523
And they can help you out.

751
00:31:29,590 --> 00:31:30,691
I also, through my business--

752
00:31:30,757 --> 00:31:32,125
Of course,
I have to include this.

753
00:31:32,192 --> 00:31:34,228
I provide consultations
for homeowners.

754
00:31:34,294 --> 00:31:37,631
I both do projects and
I help people who wanna DIY.

755
00:31:37,698 --> 00:31:39,867
So, I'm always happy
to come out to somebody's yard

756
00:31:39,933 --> 00:31:41,835
and provide you
with recommendations of plants

757
00:31:41,902 --> 00:31:44,805
that would do well in your yard.

758
00:31:45,372 --> 00:31:47,508
How do you organize
the planting?

759
00:31:47,574 --> 00:31:48,775
Plant a lot of plants.

760
00:31:48,842 --> 00:31:50,377
I like to do
one per square foot.

761
00:31:50,444 --> 00:31:54,348
Spread your grasses and your
sedges throughout your planting.

762
00:31:54,414 --> 00:31:56,116
Put your tall plants
in the back.

763
00:31:56,183 --> 00:31:58,685
Put your short plants
in the front.

764
00:31:58,752 --> 00:32:01,421
Choose a palette of species,

765
00:32:02,089 --> 00:32:04,358
and then plant those
in clumps together.

766
00:32:04,424 --> 00:32:06,860
Don't choose-- It is better
if you have a small site

767
00:32:06,927 --> 00:32:08,529
and you need a hundred plants

768
00:32:08,595 --> 00:32:11,999
to choose, like, I don't know,
ten plants of ten species

769
00:32:12,065 --> 00:32:16,603
or 15 plants of fewer species
than to choose 40 plants.

770
00:32:16,670 --> 00:32:18,272
Two plants of forty species,

771
00:32:18,338 --> 00:32:19,873
two and a half plants
of forty species,

772
00:32:19,940 --> 00:32:22,309
you get where I'm going
with this.

773
00:32:22,376 --> 00:32:23,477
Keeping your--

774
00:32:23,544 --> 00:32:25,212
Keep your plant list
a little bit restrained

775
00:32:25,279 --> 00:32:28,382
and go with more individuals
of each species.

776
00:32:28,448 --> 00:32:31,718
Okay, oh, my goodness,
so many text slides.

777
00:32:31,785 --> 00:32:33,453
[laughs]

778
00:32:33,854 --> 00:32:35,289
Now, we're gonna talk about

779
00:32:35,355 --> 00:32:37,224
what your shade garden
might look like,

780
00:32:37,291 --> 00:32:38,825
because we've seen a lot
of shade gardens

781
00:32:38,892 --> 00:32:41,795
that have a lot of mulch
in them, a lot of wood mulch.

782
00:32:41,862 --> 00:32:44,598
I think we should get rid of the
wood mulch in a shade garden,

783
00:32:44,665 --> 00:32:47,467
and we should create a place
where the plants fill in

784
00:32:47,534 --> 00:32:50,637
and intermingle
and work together

785
00:32:50,704 --> 00:32:53,473
so that when one plant looks
good, it has the spotlight,

786
00:32:53,540 --> 00:32:54,675
and then when it fades back,

787
00:32:54,741 --> 00:32:56,610
another plant comes in
and takes the spotlight,

788
00:32:56,677 --> 00:33:01,381
and if this one gets really
tall, then this one is shorter.

789
00:33:01,448 --> 00:33:03,884
Here are some
of my favorite yards.

790
00:33:03,951 --> 00:33:05,652
This is just somebody's
shade garden.

791
00:33:05,719 --> 00:33:07,254
The other thing
I wanna note about these,

792
00:33:07,321 --> 00:33:10,524
which we'll talk about too,
is that these are all old yards.

793
00:33:10,591 --> 00:33:12,726
Native plant gardens take
a long time to establish.

794
00:33:12,793 --> 00:33:14,962
This is not a two-year-old yard.

795
00:33:15,028 --> 00:33:16,763
This is a yard
that has been growing here

796
00:33:16,830 --> 00:33:19,967
for probably, like,
five to fifteen years.

797
00:33:20,033 --> 00:33:21,335
That's why it looks so good.

798
00:33:21,401 --> 00:33:24,771
So, here you have a lot
of wild geranium blooming.

799
00:33:24,838 --> 00:33:26,306
Another fantastic plant.

800
00:33:26,373 --> 00:33:29,610
Wild geranium can look
a little thin and sparse,

801
00:33:29,676 --> 00:33:32,145
so this has a lot
of Canada ginger filling in

802
00:33:32,212 --> 00:33:34,448
and providing coverage
of the ground.

803
00:33:34,515 --> 00:33:38,018
Especially later in the season
when your,

804
00:33:38,085 --> 00:33:40,120
when your other plants
might not be looking so good,

805
00:33:40,187 --> 00:33:43,490
the Canada ginger is
gonna stay strong.

806
00:33:43,557 --> 00:33:47,461
This is a nice mixed,
full, healthy planting.

807
00:33:47,528 --> 00:33:49,863
You're also not gonna get
a lot of weeds germinating here

808
00:33:49,930 --> 00:33:53,634
'cause there's just
not any bare ground.

809
00:33:53,700 --> 00:33:55,369
These two pictures are
from Olbrich Gardens.

810
00:33:55,435 --> 00:33:57,538
Of course, Olbrich Gardens is
a fantastic inspiration

811
00:33:57,604 --> 00:33:59,940
for us all, and you should go
there as much as possible

812
00:34:00,007 --> 00:34:01,208
and support them
'cause they're great.

813
00:34:01,275 --> 00:34:02,943
[all laugh]

814
00:34:03,010 --> 00:34:04,611
Here's an example
of the sedges

815
00:34:04,678 --> 00:34:05,846
acting as a background plant.

816
00:34:05,913 --> 00:34:08,048
You can see 'em kind of
tumbling out in the front.

817
00:34:08,115 --> 00:34:09,917
They have that beautiful,
flowing texture.

818
00:34:09,983 --> 00:34:13,554
And then, you have this
blooming big-leaf aster

819
00:34:13,620 --> 00:34:17,524
that is, like, popping above it
and providing floral interest.

820
00:34:17,591 --> 00:34:19,526
The cool thing here
is that you have two plants

821
00:34:19,593 --> 00:34:20,694
that are looking really good,

822
00:34:20,761 --> 00:34:22,095
which is your sedges
and your asters,

823
00:34:22,162 --> 00:34:24,364
and then you don't even notice
that in the background

824
00:34:24,431 --> 00:34:27,768
is some columbine
that finished blooming in May.

825
00:34:27,835 --> 00:34:30,671
When you plant a lot of plants
and you plant them densely,

826
00:34:30,737 --> 00:34:33,574
you can appreciate each plant
as it's at its best.

827
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:35,175
And then, when it fades
to the back,

828
00:34:35,242 --> 00:34:36,610
you're not just
looking at nothing

829
00:34:36,677 --> 00:34:39,646
but that plant
in a sea of mulch.

830
00:34:39,713 --> 00:34:41,415
This is a really amazing garden
at Olbrich.

831
00:34:41,481 --> 00:34:43,016
I had absolutely nothing
to do with this.

832
00:34:43,083 --> 00:34:48,021
But again, our theory about
short plants and filling in

833
00:34:48,088 --> 00:34:49,556
and a background
is being borne out.

834
00:34:49,623 --> 00:34:51,725
They have
a dense planting here.

835
00:34:51,792 --> 00:34:53,927
They have
some fantastic sedges or grasses

836
00:34:53,994 --> 00:34:57,364
providing that
nice, cool background.

837
00:34:57,431 --> 00:35:00,968
And then, we have
beautiful flowers intermingling,

838
00:35:01,034 --> 00:35:02,569
finding their way through it,

839
00:35:02,636 --> 00:35:05,439
reseeding and spreading
as they want to,

840
00:35:05,506 --> 00:35:07,307
taking center stage
when they're in bloom,

841
00:35:07,374 --> 00:35:08,709
and then fading
to the background

842
00:35:08,775 --> 00:35:12,112
and letting the sedges do
the hard work when they're not.

843
00:35:12,179 --> 00:35:13,480
This is a fantastic garden.

844
00:35:13,547 --> 00:35:16,617
You should all go to Olbrich
this year.

845
00:35:16,683 --> 00:35:18,619
Which leads us to my garden.

846
00:35:18,685 --> 00:35:20,354
[drums hands]

847
00:35:21,388 --> 00:35:25,125
Ah, so the other thing I wanna
note is that, in my business,

848
00:35:25,192 --> 00:35:28,195
I work really hard
to do a good job

849
00:35:28,762 --> 00:35:33,066
and I try to make choices that
I know are going to work well.

850
00:35:33,133 --> 00:35:36,570
And the way that I learn
what choices might work well

851
00:35:36,637 --> 00:35:40,040
is I try things in my garden
and I see if they work or not.

852
00:35:40,107 --> 00:35:42,709
So, it's more valuable for me
as a native plant gardener

853
00:35:42,776 --> 00:35:46,146
to have this garden
that teaches me things

854
00:35:46,213 --> 00:35:49,183
than to have a garden
that looks good.

855
00:35:49,249 --> 00:35:50,384
So...

856
00:35:50,450 --> 00:35:52,119
[all laugh]

857
00:35:54,888 --> 00:35:56,156
This is the first garden.

858
00:35:56,223 --> 00:35:58,492
We bought this house,
we bought this house.

859
00:35:58,559 --> 00:36:00,494
I said, "Oh, boy,
there's a lot of shade here."

860
00:36:00,561 --> 00:36:02,696
And I said, "The grass doesn't
even grow in this corner.

861
00:36:02,763 --> 00:36:04,498
And you can see
that the grass doesn't grow

862
00:36:04,565 --> 00:36:05,699
because in my
adjacent neighbor's yard--

863
00:36:05,766 --> 00:36:07,100
you might not be able to see

864
00:36:07,167 --> 00:36:10,137
'cause the slide's kind of
dark-- the grass isn't growing.

865
00:36:10,204 --> 00:36:11,405
He has some bare dirt there.

866
00:36:11,471 --> 00:36:13,974
So, I got an arborist
to give me a bunch of chips,

867
00:36:14,041 --> 00:36:16,176
and I got a bunch of cardboard
from my husband's job,

868
00:36:16,243 --> 00:36:20,581
and I laboriously tore
every single piece of tape

869
00:36:20,647 --> 00:36:21,815
off of the cardboard,

870
00:36:21,882 --> 00:36:24,351
and, boy, is there a lot of tape
on that cardboard.

871
00:36:24,418 --> 00:36:26,153
And then, I spread the seeds--
the mulch.

872
00:36:26,220 --> 00:36:27,588
And then, in the spring,

873
00:36:27,654 --> 00:36:30,057
from the beautiful and wonderful
Plant Dane native-plant sale,

874
00:36:30,123 --> 00:36:32,626
I purchased these plants.

875
00:36:32,693 --> 00:36:34,595
And the first thing
we're gonna notice

876
00:36:34,661 --> 00:36:37,331
is this is a really big space,

877
00:36:38,999 --> 00:36:41,201
and this isn't actually
that many plants.

878
00:36:41,268 --> 00:36:42,870
[audience laughs]

879
00:36:42,936 --> 00:36:46,640
So, I took these plants
and I walked in my backyard

880
00:36:46,707 --> 00:36:48,942
and I said,
"I got to put these somewhere."

881
00:36:49,009 --> 00:36:52,045
And for some inexplicable
and baffling reason,

882
00:36:52,112 --> 00:36:53,847
'cause I had no idea
what I was doing,

883
00:36:53,914 --> 00:36:56,250
I took my sedges and I
planted them by my Norway maple,

884
00:36:56,316 --> 00:36:59,152
and then I took my forbs and
I planted them somewhere else.

885
00:36:59,219 --> 00:37:01,989
I planted, in this little
corner garden that you can see,

886
00:37:02,055 --> 00:37:05,058
I planted 24 sedges
of 3 species.

887
00:37:06,593 --> 00:37:08,262
This is May 2022.

888
00:37:08,962 --> 00:37:10,597
August 2022.

889
00:37:10,664 --> 00:37:13,400
Here's what to expect from a
first-year native plant garden.

890
00:37:13,467 --> 00:37:14,568
Nothing!

891
00:37:14,635 --> 00:37:16,470
They didn't do anything.
[audience laughs]

892
00:37:16,537 --> 00:37:18,305
They didn't grow.

893
00:37:18,372 --> 00:37:19,606
May 2023.

894
00:37:19,673 --> 00:37:22,242
Okay, they're already getting
a bit bigger.

895
00:37:22,309 --> 00:37:23,911
That's nice.

896
00:37:23,977 --> 00:37:25,312
It's looking a little,
I don't know,

897
00:37:25,379 --> 00:37:27,414
there's a lot of,
there's a lot of sedges here.

898
00:37:27,481 --> 00:37:29,183
[laughs]

899
00:37:29,249 --> 00:37:31,618
July 2023,
still growing a little bit.

900
00:37:31,685 --> 00:37:32,786
That's great.

901
00:37:32,853 --> 00:37:33,954
July 2024.

902
00:37:34,021 --> 00:37:36,823
Ooh, we actually have jumped
one year here.

903
00:37:36,890 --> 00:37:37,991
We'll come back to this.

904
00:37:38,058 --> 00:37:39,393
I had a baby in this year,

905
00:37:39,459 --> 00:37:41,395
which is another thing
I would recommend you <i>not</i> do

906
00:37:41,461 --> 00:37:45,265
if you care about gardening.
[all laugh]

907
00:37:46,433 --> 00:37:48,001
July 2023.

908
00:37:48,068 --> 00:37:50,971
Jump forward a year,
July 2024.

909
00:37:51,738 --> 00:37:52,840
My sedges are bigger.

910
00:37:52,906 --> 00:37:54,341
These are now third-year plants.

911
00:37:54,408 --> 00:37:56,009
There's that--
Everybody's heard it.

912
00:37:56,076 --> 00:38:00,514
Leap, sleep, sleep, sleep--
sleep, creep, leap.

913
00:38:00,581 --> 00:38:02,916
- Attendee 4: Sleep, creep.

914
00:38:02,983 --> 00:38:04,518
- Melissa: Or just sleep
all the time.

915
00:38:04,585 --> 00:38:07,421
July 2024,
my plants have leapt.

916
00:38:07,487 --> 00:38:10,023
August 2025,
my sedges are even bigger.

917
00:38:10,090 --> 00:38:12,759
Some of my sedges
of those three sedge species--

918
00:38:12,826 --> 00:38:15,629
Actually, one of them
is a full-sun sedge.

919
00:38:15,696 --> 00:38:17,197
It is <i>Carex vulpinoidea.</i>

920
00:38:17,264 --> 00:38:18,899
And it has faded
to the background

921
00:38:18,966 --> 00:38:21,301
because it is quite unhappy
with the dense shade

922
00:38:21,368 --> 00:38:23,036
under my Norway maple.

923
00:38:23,103 --> 00:38:26,640
But two fantastic sedges that
I planted here,

924
00:38:26,707 --> 00:38:29,910
<i>Carex sprengelii,</i>
the long-beaked sedge,

925
00:38:29,977 --> 00:38:32,246
and <i>Carex brevior,</i>
the plains oval sedge,

926
00:38:32,312 --> 00:38:34,248
less ornamental,
less recommended,

927
00:38:34,314 --> 00:38:36,517
still a decent sedge for shade.

928
00:38:36,583 --> 00:38:38,085
They're not unhappy.

929
00:38:38,151 --> 00:38:39,720
Unfortunately, this garden
still doesn't look good

930
00:38:39,786 --> 00:38:43,757
because all I planted here were
sedges. [audience laughs]

931
00:38:43,824 --> 00:38:45,492
Which brings me
to my lessons learned.

932
00:38:45,559 --> 00:38:48,462
Plant flowers too.
[all laugh]

933
00:38:52,466 --> 00:38:53,567
Plant flowers.

934
00:38:53,634 --> 00:38:55,702
If I had taken
all of those 80 plants

935
00:38:55,769 --> 00:38:59,673
and I had put all of them
by this tree in this spot,

936
00:38:59,740 --> 00:39:02,075
yeah, I would have had
a lot of mulch in other places,

937
00:39:02,142 --> 00:39:04,711
but this spot would
have looked really good.

938
00:39:04,778 --> 00:39:07,447
This spot, the plants would
have, like, grown

939
00:39:07,514 --> 00:39:10,350
and established
and started intertwining.

940
00:39:10,417 --> 00:39:11,518
I didn't do that.

941
00:39:11,585 --> 00:39:14,221
I'll probably--
Maybe I'll do that this year.

942
00:39:14,288 --> 00:39:16,623
The other lesson learned
is that I prepped this site

943
00:39:16,690 --> 00:39:17,791
with cardboard and mulch.

944
00:39:17,858 --> 00:39:19,393
You have to do something
with your site

945
00:39:19,459 --> 00:39:21,261
unless it is bare dirt.

946
00:39:21,328 --> 00:39:24,131
And what you have to do
depends on what's growing there.

947
00:39:24,198 --> 00:39:27,701
So, if you have a site
and you have grass,

948
00:39:27,768 --> 00:39:28,902
you have a pretty benign mix.

949
00:39:28,969 --> 00:39:30,704
If you have a site
and you have goutweed,

950
00:39:30,771 --> 00:39:32,105
this is like a
really complicated topic,

951
00:39:32,172 --> 00:39:33,907
but, like, you have to know
what's growing there

952
00:39:33,974 --> 00:39:35,709
and you have to know
how to mitigate it.

953
00:39:35,776 --> 00:39:37,811
So, first identify what you have

954
00:39:37,878 --> 00:39:39,680
and then figure out
what to do with it

955
00:39:39,746 --> 00:39:41,682
'cause some plants are
harder to deal with than others.

956
00:39:41,748 --> 00:39:42,883
But if you have simple plants,

957
00:39:42,950 --> 00:39:45,519
cardboard and mulch
is a great site prep method.

958
00:39:45,586 --> 00:39:49,489
Unfortunately, it does stop
your plants from reseeding

959
00:39:49,556 --> 00:39:53,961
because mulch--
Seeds can't germinate in mulch.

960
00:39:54,027 --> 00:39:55,829
They can only germinate in dirt.

961
00:39:55,896 --> 00:39:58,031
Or it's a lot harder
for them to germinate in mulch.

962
00:39:58,098 --> 00:40:02,336
So, I like this site prep method
because it was cheap,

963
00:40:02,402 --> 00:40:05,806
it was easy, the materials were
uncomplicated.

964
00:40:05,873 --> 00:40:07,374
I just had to move them.

965
00:40:07,441 --> 00:40:09,076
I didn't have to disturb
the soil.

966
00:40:09,142 --> 00:40:10,677
I didn't add any chemicals
to the soil.

967
00:40:10,744 --> 00:40:11,845
That was awesome.

968
00:40:11,912 --> 00:40:14,481
The downside is
it has kept my sedges

969
00:40:14,548 --> 00:40:16,683
from turning into more sedges,

970
00:40:16,750 --> 00:40:18,519
which I do really want them
to do.

971
00:40:18,585 --> 00:40:20,020
It's also more labor intensive.

972
00:40:20,087 --> 00:40:22,289
If you have any sort of, like,
mobility issue,

973
00:40:22,356 --> 00:40:24,558
moving wheelbarrows
full of mulch

974
00:40:24,625 --> 00:40:26,560
to your backyard
might be off the table,

975
00:40:26,627 --> 00:40:29,763
and you might not want
to use this.

976
00:40:30,397 --> 00:40:32,466
You also have to plant
pregrown plants.

977
00:40:32,533 --> 00:40:35,369
So far, we've talked
only about pregrown plants

978
00:40:35,435 --> 00:40:38,272
because that's the simplest way

979
00:40:38,338 --> 00:40:42,476
to establish a shade garden,
unfortunately.

980
00:40:42,543 --> 00:40:43,744
So, with mulch,

981
00:40:43,810 --> 00:40:45,746
because seeds don't germinate
in mulch,

982
00:40:45,812 --> 00:40:48,182
you have to start
with these pregrown plants.

983
00:40:48,248 --> 00:40:49,583
The downside to pregrown plants

984
00:40:49,650 --> 00:40:52,686
is that they are
kind of expensive.

985
00:40:52,753 --> 00:40:56,223
So, I, instead of going
to that garden

986
00:40:56,890 --> 00:41:00,394
and then making it look good
by putting more plants in,

987
00:41:00,460 --> 00:41:03,564
I started a new project
in the front of my house.

988
00:41:03,630 --> 00:41:04,998
This is May 2023.

989
00:41:05,065 --> 00:41:06,800
I once again went with the
cardboard and mulch

990
00:41:06,867 --> 00:41:10,003
because it's easy
and the materials are available

991
00:41:10,070 --> 00:41:12,072
and it feels like
a really safe choice.

992
00:41:12,139 --> 00:41:14,074
Spread a lot of cardboard,
spread a lot of mulch.

993
00:41:14,141 --> 00:41:15,242
And I planted some plants.

994
00:41:15,309 --> 00:41:17,778
I actually planted this in July.

995
00:41:17,845 --> 00:41:22,115
So, [laughs] this May 2023 slide
that you see,

996
00:41:22,182 --> 00:41:24,718
this is like a quarter
of the plants that I planted.

997
00:41:24,785 --> 00:41:27,721
Here, in September 2023,
I've planted a lot more plants.

998
00:41:27,788 --> 00:41:29,089
And you can plant
native plants--

999
00:41:29,156 --> 00:41:30,858
These things are so hardy,

1000
00:41:30,924 --> 00:41:33,126
you can plant them
at any time of the year.

1001
00:41:33,193 --> 00:41:35,529
You can plant them in July,
you can plant them in August.

1002
00:41:35,596 --> 00:41:37,865
You just have to water them.

1003
00:41:37,931 --> 00:41:40,100
Water them, you don't
have to water 'em a ton.

1004
00:41:40,167 --> 00:41:41,768
I have really clay-heavy soil,

1005
00:41:41,835 --> 00:41:44,404
and the mulch kind of
keeps the plants damp.

1006
00:41:44,471 --> 00:41:46,540
So, I water, like,
once per week.

1007
00:41:46,607 --> 00:41:47,975
If you have a drier site,

1008
00:41:48,041 --> 00:41:50,677
if you're noticing that the soil
is getting drier really quickly,

1009
00:41:50,744 --> 00:41:53,080
I would water more often.

1010
00:41:53,146 --> 00:41:55,082
The year that I had
my second baby,

1011
00:41:55,148 --> 00:41:59,119
the plants received often
no water after I planted them.

1012
00:41:59,186 --> 00:42:01,688
And I'm not saying
that I would recommend

1013
00:42:01,755 --> 00:42:03,557
the "plant and then hope"
approach,

1014
00:42:03,624 --> 00:42:05,559
the "plant and then comfort
your crying child" approach,

1015
00:42:05,626 --> 00:42:09,630
but I did have, like,
80% survival on the plants

1016
00:42:09,696 --> 00:42:13,133
that I planted and then
only watered zero to one times.

1017
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:15,035
[audience laughs]

1018
00:42:15,102 --> 00:42:18,405
Not professional advice.
[laughs]

1019
00:42:18,472 --> 00:42:21,375
May 2024,
back to the slides.

1020
00:42:21,441 --> 00:42:23,177
Hey, it didn't do much
in the first year,

1021
00:42:23,243 --> 00:42:25,379
but in the second year, you
can see it's doing something.

1022
00:42:25,445 --> 00:42:28,482
My sedges are getting bigger,
my other plants are coming in.

1023
00:42:28,549 --> 00:42:30,884
June 2024, I have some flowers.

1024
00:42:30,951 --> 00:42:32,653
This is <i>Penstemon digitalis.</i>

1025
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:34,154
Everybody's gonna recommend
this plant

1026
00:42:34,221 --> 00:42:36,490
'cause it's a great plant.

1027
00:42:36,557 --> 00:42:40,127
It's a heliophily of 7,
so I don't know.

1028
00:42:40,794 --> 00:42:42,296
I don't really understand
anything about plants.

1029
00:42:42,362 --> 00:42:43,697
It does okay
in my shade gardens.

1030
00:42:43,764 --> 00:42:45,899
As long as it's not too shady,
the Penstemon,

1031
00:42:45,966 --> 00:42:48,068
the <i>Penstemon digitalis</i>
does okay.

1032
00:42:48,135 --> 00:42:51,305
So, here's <i>Penstemon digitalis</i>
blooming in the front.

1033
00:42:51,371 --> 00:42:53,040
The nonnative
Jacob's ladder is blooming.

1034
00:42:53,106 --> 00:42:55,175
Just pretend that's not there.
[audience laughs]

1035
00:42:55,242 --> 00:42:56,677
July 2024.

1036
00:42:56,743 --> 00:42:58,312
Again, it's bigger
than the first year.

1037
00:42:58,378 --> 00:43:00,480
It's not looking fantastic,
but it's bigger.

1038
00:43:00,547 --> 00:43:04,017
And you can see here,
I included a lot more sedges,

1039
00:43:04,084 --> 00:43:06,820
so I have more
of a background going on.

1040
00:43:06,887 --> 00:43:11,358
I probably planted one plant
per square foot in this.

1041
00:43:11,425 --> 00:43:13,227
August 2024, okay.

1042
00:43:15,028 --> 00:43:16,697
May 2025.

1043
00:43:17,564 --> 00:43:19,566
Already the plants
in this May are bigger

1044
00:43:19,633 --> 00:43:20,934
than they were last May,

1045
00:43:21,001 --> 00:43:24,404
so just expect your plants
to take a long time to establish

1046
00:43:24,471 --> 00:43:27,040
and to really, like,
show their true selves.

1047
00:43:27,107 --> 00:43:28,809
My Jacob's ladder is blooming,

1048
00:43:28,876 --> 00:43:30,544
if you can see
those little blue blooms.

1049
00:43:30,611 --> 00:43:32,179
Fantastic plant.

1050
00:43:32,246 --> 00:43:33,947
My other plants
are looking good.

1051
00:43:34,014 --> 00:43:36,383
May is a month
that this looks really good.

1052
00:43:36,450 --> 00:43:39,419
June is a month that this garden
actually looks decent too.

1053
00:43:39,486 --> 00:43:41,088
It's growing in,
there's some bare spots.

1054
00:43:41,154 --> 00:43:42,356
There's definitely places

1055
00:43:42,422 --> 00:43:45,592
where I need to put in more
plants or more sedges.

1056
00:43:45,659 --> 00:43:47,060
But overall, not bad.

1057
00:43:47,127 --> 00:43:48,862
We have a kind of a,
at this point,

1058
00:43:48,929 --> 00:43:50,063
nice overall height.

1059
00:43:50,130 --> 00:43:51,265
Stuff hasn't grown
really tall yet.

1060
00:43:51,331 --> 00:43:54,434
My sedges are there,
they're looking good.

1061
00:43:54,501 --> 00:43:55,602
Ooh.

1062
00:43:55,669 --> 00:43:57,271
And then we get
to September 2025.

1063
00:43:57,337 --> 00:43:59,706
And one thing that I did here
was I--

1064
00:43:59,773 --> 00:44:02,209
I had plants
that I grew from seed,

1065
00:44:02,276 --> 00:44:04,144
and I planted them
in this yard

1066
00:44:04,211 --> 00:44:05,546
knowing that
they weren't a good choice.

1067
00:44:05,612 --> 00:44:08,916
And the plants that I planted
were <i>Monarda fistulosa,</i>

1068
00:44:08,982 --> 00:44:12,653
the common bee balm,
and Virginia anemone,

1069
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:14,454
which was a bit more
of an experiment.

1070
00:44:14,521 --> 00:44:18,892
And both of these plants grow
tall when they're flowering.

1071
00:44:18,959 --> 00:44:20,694
They get to be, like, this tall.

1072
00:44:20,761 --> 00:44:23,297
And instead of being a plant
that gets to be, like, this tall

1073
00:44:23,363 --> 00:44:24,464
and is, like, this wide,

1074
00:44:24,531 --> 00:44:26,266
they're plants
that get to be about this tall,

1075
00:44:26,333 --> 00:44:27,568
and they're also
about this wide.

1076
00:44:27,634 --> 00:44:31,471
So, the single flower stalks
of my <i>Monarda fistulosa</i>

1077
00:44:31,538 --> 00:44:34,708
and my <i>Anemone virginiana</i>
look terrible in this garden,

1078
00:44:34,775 --> 00:44:37,211
and I actually have cut back
most of them in this picture

1079
00:44:37,277 --> 00:44:41,315
because it looked so bad
to have a relatively narrow--

1080
00:44:41,381 --> 00:44:44,518
This is like, I don't know,
12 feet at its widest point,

1081
00:44:44,585 --> 00:44:46,320
which is in the opposite side
of the picture.

1082
00:44:46,386 --> 00:44:48,322
It's probably, like, eight feet
wide here, six feet wide.

1083
00:44:48,388 --> 00:44:50,023
It's not that wide.

1084
00:44:50,090 --> 00:44:53,126
If you have
a narrow, small bed,

1085
00:44:53,193 --> 00:44:58,832
keeping the height constrained
is going to look better.

1086
00:44:58,899 --> 00:45:01,368
Other lessons learned
from this.

1087
00:45:01,435 --> 00:45:03,170
Hey, it has a lot of sedges
in it.

1088
00:45:03,237 --> 00:45:04,538
That's a positive.

1089
00:45:04,605 --> 00:45:06,640
It also has a lot
of bare spots

1090
00:45:06,707 --> 00:45:08,108
where I was too optimistic

1091
00:45:08,175 --> 00:45:10,444
with the sun requirements
of my plants,

1092
00:45:10,511 --> 00:45:13,747
and the plants didn't--
They died.

1093
00:45:14,982 --> 00:45:18,652
So, be realistic
about your sun requirements.

1094
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:21,655
I also went into this garden
with a plan.

1095
00:45:21,722 --> 00:45:25,425
I had a curated plant list,
and I planted that.

1096
00:45:25,492 --> 00:45:26,593
And then, the next spring,

1097
00:45:26,660 --> 00:45:28,195
I would have a couple plants
left over

1098
00:45:28,262 --> 00:45:30,197
from a client project,
and I would put 'em in,

1099
00:45:30,264 --> 00:45:32,599
and I'd have a couple plants
left over from a client project,

1100
00:45:32,666 --> 00:45:35,002
and I'd put 'em in, and
then I'd order a couple plants

1101
00:45:35,068 --> 00:45:36,803
'cause they looked interesting,
and I'd put 'em in.

1102
00:45:36,870 --> 00:45:39,406
So, I kind of ended up throwing
the kitchen sink at this garden

1103
00:45:39,473 --> 00:45:41,542
instead of sticking
with my initial plan.

1104
00:45:41,608 --> 00:45:43,644
And it has ended up looking like
a garden

1105
00:45:43,710 --> 00:45:45,479
that somebody has thrown the
kitchen sink at,

1106
00:45:45,546 --> 00:45:47,047
unfortunately.
[audience laughs]

1107
00:45:47,114 --> 00:45:52,019
This is-- which brings me
to a really important point

1108
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:54,855
about native plant gardens
that I've kind of touched on,

1109
00:45:54,922 --> 00:45:57,424
which is that
they are disappointing.

1110
00:45:57,491 --> 00:46:01,261
They are just fundamentally--
Someone very wise told me this,

1111
00:46:01,328 --> 00:46:05,465
and they are
fundamentally disappointing.

1112
00:46:06,166 --> 00:46:07,835
They just, you want them to--

1113
00:46:07,901 --> 00:46:10,304
I always want them to do more
than they're doing.

1114
00:46:10,370 --> 00:46:11,972
I want my plants
to establish faster.

1115
00:46:12,039 --> 00:46:13,140
I want more flowers.

1116
00:46:13,207 --> 00:46:14,942
I wanna be able to plant
more stuff here.

1117
00:46:15,008 --> 00:46:16,343
I want this plant to do better.

1118
00:46:16,410 --> 00:46:17,544
I wanna see more bees.

1119
00:46:17,611 --> 00:46:19,646
I want it to become
this, like, wild and chaotic

1120
00:46:19,713 --> 00:46:21,081
and beautiful life-filled space,

1121
00:46:21,148 --> 00:46:24,017
and instead, it kind of
just does its thing.

1122
00:46:24,084 --> 00:46:28,755
So, just be ready to be
continually disappointed.

1123
00:46:29,456 --> 00:46:31,525
[audience laughs]
And...

1124
00:46:31,592 --> 00:46:33,427
Which sounds bad!

1125
00:46:33,493 --> 00:46:35,429
It sounds bad
as the native plant person.

1126
00:46:35,495 --> 00:46:40,434
But the reality is, is that
I love this garden so much.

1127
00:46:40,501 --> 00:46:42,269
My kids play outside
all the time

1128
00:46:42,336 --> 00:46:44,137
and this garden is right
where they play,

1129
00:46:44,204 --> 00:46:47,241
and I spend so much time
looking at this garden.

1130
00:46:47,307 --> 00:46:49,910
I love to look in the mulch
and see if anything sprouted.

1131
00:46:49,977 --> 00:46:53,113
I like to see how my
wild strawberry is spreading.

1132
00:46:53,180 --> 00:46:56,517
I love to see-- I had
giant pollinating wasps.

1133
00:46:56,583 --> 00:46:58,485
They're super peaceful,
they're really cool.

1134
00:46:58,552 --> 00:47:00,220
I had those
coming to the flowers

1135
00:47:00,287 --> 00:47:01,588
for part of this garden--

1136
00:47:01,655 --> 00:47:03,524
in this garden
for part of the year.

1137
00:47:03,590 --> 00:47:06,126
I was constantly delighted
with something

1138
00:47:06,193 --> 00:47:07,628
that was happening
in this garden,

1139
00:47:07,694 --> 00:47:11,198
and this garden is ugly
and it is in front of my house,

1140
00:47:11,265 --> 00:47:13,233
and it's really disappointing.

1141
00:47:13,300 --> 00:47:15,302
Okay, so...
[laughs]

1142
00:47:16,904 --> 00:47:18,138
September 2023.

1143
00:47:18,205 --> 00:47:20,707
I had another plan, and here,
I took all of my lessons

1144
00:47:20,774 --> 00:47:23,977
learned from that, and I spread
more cardboard and mulch,

1145
00:47:24,044 --> 00:47:25,712
and I-- ooh.

1146
00:47:26,313 --> 00:47:28,115
[audience laughs]

1147
00:47:28,682 --> 00:47:30,083
Don't have a--
Don't plan

1148
00:47:30,150 --> 00:47:31,485
a really ambitious
garden project

1149
00:47:31,552 --> 00:47:33,854
and then have a baby in March.

1150
00:47:33,921 --> 00:47:36,557
So, I managed
to get all my plants planted.

1151
00:47:36,623 --> 00:47:39,560
This is probably 400 square feet
or so.

1152
00:47:39,626 --> 00:47:43,197
And I planted probably,
like, 360 plants in here.

1153
00:47:43,263 --> 00:47:45,933
So, I planted a lot of plants.

1154
00:47:46,767 --> 00:47:49,136
And in July 2024,
it's starting to establish.

1155
00:47:49,203 --> 00:47:50,737
Again,
it's not really doing much.

1156
00:47:50,804 --> 00:47:52,072
This is the first year,

1157
00:47:52,139 --> 00:47:55,075
but, like, my plants are there
and they're growing.

1158
00:47:55,142 --> 00:47:59,146
August 2024,
things have grown a little.

1159
00:47:59,213 --> 00:48:00,814
April 2025.

1160
00:48:00,881 --> 00:48:03,016
Stuff is looking about as good
as it did in July,

1161
00:48:03,083 --> 00:48:05,619
which is actually pretty good
for April.

1162
00:48:05,686 --> 00:48:06,887
May 2025.

1163
00:48:06,954 --> 00:48:09,523
There's that baby crawling
on a fence.

1164
00:48:09,590 --> 00:48:10,924
He's walking around now.

1165
00:48:10,991 --> 00:48:13,126
And you can see, again,

1166
00:48:13,193 --> 00:48:14,728
I have a nice background
of sedges.

1167
00:48:14,795 --> 00:48:15,896
They're well-distributed.

1168
00:48:15,963 --> 00:48:17,898
I have my forbs that are--
My forbs, sorry,

1169
00:48:17,965 --> 00:48:20,400
my flowers that I am
hoping will kind of intersperse

1170
00:48:20,467 --> 00:48:23,437
and provide interest
and stick up above.

1171
00:48:23,504 --> 00:48:24,838
June 2025.

1172
00:48:24,905 --> 00:48:28,308
The vision's kind of, like,
we're kind of coming together.

1173
00:48:28,375 --> 00:48:32,513
I kept this planting
really restrained specieswise.

1174
00:48:32,579 --> 00:48:34,248
So, July 2025.

1175
00:48:34,882 --> 00:48:36,550
This is only
a second-year garden,

1176
00:48:36,617 --> 00:48:39,219
but you can see, there's
my background of sedges.

1177
00:48:39,286 --> 00:48:43,724
There's my hairy wood mint
poking above the other plants.

1178
00:48:43,790 --> 00:48:46,460
There's asters and goldenrods
in this garden,

1179
00:48:46,527 --> 00:48:47,861
ready to kind of take over

1180
00:48:47,928 --> 00:48:51,965
when the hairy wood mint fades
to the back,

1181
00:48:52,032 --> 00:48:53,734
which you can't see in this,

1182
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:55,569
because another lesson
learned from this garden

1183
00:48:55,636 --> 00:48:58,272
is that if you have asters,
which you should,

1184
00:48:58,338 --> 00:49:00,541
you <i>have</i> to protect them
from rabbits

1185
00:49:00,607 --> 00:49:03,443
because rabbits <i>love</i>
to eat asters.

1186
00:49:03,510 --> 00:49:04,845
So, you can put up a fence.

1187
00:49:04,912 --> 00:49:07,581
I do, like, a one-foot
chicken wire fence.

1188
00:49:07,648 --> 00:49:10,350
You can experiment with those,
like, rabbit-repelling granules,

1189
00:49:10,417 --> 00:49:13,187
which I haven't done 'cause
I think they're probably a scam,

1190
00:49:13,253 --> 00:49:15,589
but, like,
maybe they actually work.

1191
00:49:15,656 --> 00:49:18,759
I don't know,
is it worth $40 to find out?

1192
00:49:18,825 --> 00:49:22,629
You can plant your sedge--
your rabbit--

1193
00:49:23,764 --> 00:49:26,967
your delicious plants surrounded
by sedges or other plants

1194
00:49:27,034 --> 00:49:29,770
that the rabbits won't eat.

1195
00:49:29,837 --> 00:49:31,839
So, the asters in here

1196
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:35,042
that are surrounded by sedges
are actually doing okay.

1197
00:49:35,108 --> 00:49:36,910
The asters in here
that are on their own

1198
00:49:36,977 --> 00:49:39,413
have gotten continually eaten
by the rabbits,

1199
00:49:39,479 --> 00:49:41,715
and they've stayed
really small.

1200
00:49:41,782 --> 00:49:43,717
So, just remember that you're
gonna have to do something

1201
00:49:43,784 --> 00:49:47,254
to protect your asters
from rabbits.

1202
00:49:49,623 --> 00:49:51,725
What other lessons learned
from this garden?

1203
00:49:51,792 --> 00:49:53,393
I wish I'd planted more species.

1204
00:49:53,460 --> 00:49:55,596
I wish that I'd kind of
branched out a little bit.

1205
00:49:55,662 --> 00:49:58,866
I planted one aster
and I planted one goldenrod.

1206
00:49:58,932 --> 00:50:01,068
This is actually
a pretty big garden.

1207
00:50:01,134 --> 00:50:04,471
I kind of wish I'd planted two
aster species just so that,

1208
00:50:04,538 --> 00:50:06,573
you know, the asters
all bloom at different times.

1209
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,243
Some of them bloom in August,
some of them bloom in October.

1210
00:50:09,309 --> 00:50:10,444
If you plant more of them,

1211
00:50:10,511 --> 00:50:12,846
you get more flowers
for a wider period.

1212
00:50:12,913 --> 00:50:15,649
I wish I'd planted some
of those harder-to-grow plants.

1213
00:50:15,716 --> 00:50:18,352
I'll probably get
some bare-root plants this year

1214
00:50:18,418 --> 00:50:19,686
and put those in,

1215
00:50:19,753 --> 00:50:22,689
'cause those can provide
some really good interest

1216
00:50:22,756 --> 00:50:25,826
beyond the plants
that are easy to find.

1217
00:50:25,893 --> 00:50:27,861
What else on this garden?

1218
00:50:27,928 --> 00:50:30,864
Once again, the mulch is kind of
keeping my stuff from reseeding.

1219
00:50:30,931 --> 00:50:34,034
Ugh, I'm not obsessed with that,
but it is what it is.

1220
00:50:34,101 --> 00:50:36,069
And I wish I'd planted
two sedges

1221
00:50:36,136 --> 00:50:37,938
as my background matrix here.

1222
00:50:38,005 --> 00:50:39,873
I went with only
<i>Carex sprengelii,</i>

1223
00:50:39,940 --> 00:50:42,409
but like I said,
this is a big space

1224
00:50:42,476 --> 00:50:44,645
and it could have used
that variation in height

1225
00:50:44,711 --> 00:50:46,146
and the variation
in color and texture

1226
00:50:46,213 --> 00:50:48,248
that would have come
from multiple sedges.

1227
00:50:48,315 --> 00:50:50,817
So, if you have a big site,

1228
00:50:50,884 --> 00:50:52,819
if you have a tall element
in your site,

1229
00:50:52,886 --> 00:50:55,255
like a tree,
don't be afraid to, like,

1230
00:50:55,322 --> 00:50:57,257
maybe plant some taller stuff
by the tree

1231
00:50:57,324 --> 00:50:59,092
to introduce
a little more height variation

1232
00:50:59,159 --> 00:51:01,395
and break our rule
about low plants.

1233
00:51:01,461 --> 00:51:04,464
Maybe include
a few more species

1234
00:51:05,465 --> 00:51:08,168
just to, like, get a little bit
more excitement going in there.

1235
00:51:08,235 --> 00:51:11,705
But overall, I went into this
garden with a better plan,

1236
00:51:11,772 --> 00:51:14,274
I planted my plants
more densely,

1237
00:51:14,341 --> 00:51:16,276
and it's actually turning out
pretty good.

1238
00:51:16,343 --> 00:51:19,279
I'm really excited to see
how this goes this year.

1239
00:51:19,346 --> 00:51:23,317
The next adventure is we'll--
So, come back to this talk

1240
00:51:23,383 --> 00:51:26,286
in, like, five years, and we'll
give you an update on this.

1241
00:51:26,353 --> 00:51:27,754
[all laugh]

1242
00:51:27,821 --> 00:51:30,224
Always in search
of a crazy new thing to do.

1243
00:51:30,290 --> 00:51:32,759
I killed the grass
with herbicide in this patch.

1244
00:51:32,826 --> 00:51:35,429
I designed my
own custom shade seed mix,

1245
00:51:35,495 --> 00:51:39,032
and I have seeded all of this
with native shade species.

1246
00:51:39,099 --> 00:51:41,034
A note on starting from seed,
'cause like I said,

1247
00:51:41,101 --> 00:51:43,837
we have only talked
about planting pregrown plants.

1248
00:51:43,904 --> 00:51:46,440
I have not found
a shady seed mix

1249
00:51:46,507 --> 00:51:49,443
that I think meets
the aesthetic requirements

1250
00:51:49,510 --> 00:51:51,111
that a homeowner has.

1251
00:51:51,178 --> 00:51:53,747
There are shady seed mixes
that work really well

1252
00:51:53,814 --> 00:51:55,415
for ecological reconstruction,

1253
00:51:55,482 --> 00:51:57,551
where you don't care so much
how it looks,

1254
00:51:57,618 --> 00:52:01,154
you just want a robust community
of native plants.

1255
00:52:01,221 --> 00:52:03,390
I haven't found one
that only has species

1256
00:52:03,457 --> 00:52:04,925
that look good in the garden.

1257
00:52:04,992 --> 00:52:09,096
So, unfortunately,
if you find a shady seed mix

1258
00:52:09,162 --> 00:52:11,265
that you think looks
really good, you should try it.

1259
00:52:11,331 --> 00:52:14,635
Or if you're not super concerned
about, like, how it looks,

1260
00:52:14,701 --> 00:52:15,903
you could try it.

1261
00:52:15,969 --> 00:52:20,207
But I don't know that
I have a good shady seed mix

1262
00:52:20,274 --> 00:52:21,875
that I would recommend,
which is too bad,

1263
00:52:21,942 --> 00:52:23,710
'cause if you use herbicide
for your site prep

1264
00:52:23,777 --> 00:52:27,581
and you use a seed mix
for your plants,

1265
00:52:27,648 --> 00:52:29,650
you can establish
1,000 square feet

1266
00:52:29,716 --> 00:52:32,819
of native plant garden
for, like, $150.

1267
00:52:32,886 --> 00:52:36,823
It doesn't get cheaper than
that, if money is a concern.

1268
00:52:36,890 --> 00:52:38,992
Which brings us
to site prep herbicide.

1269
00:52:39,059 --> 00:52:40,527
Positives,
it's easy, it's cheap,

1270
00:52:40,594 --> 00:52:42,462
it's quick, it's effective.

1271
00:52:42,529 --> 00:52:46,166
You can seed into it,
or you can plant pregrown plugs.

1272
00:52:46,233 --> 00:52:48,168
You don't have to do
a lot of moving stuff.

1273
00:52:48,235 --> 00:52:50,771
So, if you have
a physical limitation,

1274
00:52:50,838 --> 00:52:53,006
it's just easier on your body.

1275
00:52:53,073 --> 00:52:55,642
I would recommend
look at the label.

1276
00:52:55,709 --> 00:52:57,444
The label is the law
on herbicide.

1277
00:52:57,511 --> 00:52:59,613
You have to follow
the label instructions

1278
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:01,448
when applying an herbicide.

1279
00:53:01,515 --> 00:53:04,117
And I would always wear
appropriate PPE.

1280
00:53:04,184 --> 00:53:06,887
Look for a product
that has one active ingredient

1281
00:53:06,954 --> 00:53:08,722
so that you can
better understand the risks.

1282
00:53:08,789 --> 00:53:12,192
I used glyphosate only,
not because I thought

1283
00:53:12,259 --> 00:53:14,761
that it was a completely safe
thing to apply,

1284
00:53:14,828 --> 00:53:16,663
but because I understood
the risks

1285
00:53:16,730 --> 00:53:18,565
and how it would break down
in the soil.

1286
00:53:18,632 --> 00:53:21,702
Once you have three ingredients
in your herbicide,

1287
00:53:21,768 --> 00:53:24,004
you need to understand
and be like,

1288
00:53:24,071 --> 00:53:26,006
feel good about each of those,

1289
00:53:26,073 --> 00:53:28,408
or feel, I don't know,
feel at least halfway okay.

1290
00:53:28,475 --> 00:53:32,913
So, downsides, concerns
about environmental toxicity.

1291
00:53:32,980 --> 00:53:34,548
I already talked about that.

1292
00:53:34,615 --> 00:53:37,017
The other site prep method
you can use is a sod cutter.

1293
00:53:37,084 --> 00:53:38,619
This is a fine way to do it.

1294
00:53:38,685 --> 00:53:41,455
There's manual and there's
gas-powered sod cutters.

1295
00:53:41,522 --> 00:53:42,623
I have used both.

1296
00:53:42,689 --> 00:53:45,325
I actually prefer
the manual sod cutter.

1297
00:53:45,392 --> 00:53:46,827
I'm not a super muscley person.

1298
00:53:46,894 --> 00:53:50,063
The gas-powered sod cutter
is quite heavy.

1299
00:53:50,130 --> 00:53:53,033
The manual sod cutter,
I thought, was easy to use.

1300
00:53:53,100 --> 00:53:54,868
I didn't find
it was hard on my body.

1301
00:53:54,935 --> 00:53:57,738
It did not make me sore at all.

1302
00:53:57,804 --> 00:54:00,174
So, feel free to experiment.

1303
00:54:00,240 --> 00:54:02,576
It also was easier to navigate
if you wanna do a curve,

1304
00:54:02,643 --> 00:54:04,578
'cause the gas-powered sod
cutter is just, like, choo,

1305
00:54:04,645 --> 00:54:07,347
and the manual one,
you can actually, like, move.

1306
00:54:07,414 --> 00:54:09,082
The downside...

1307
00:54:09,783 --> 00:54:11,952
The upside--
It's quick.

1308
00:54:12,019 --> 00:54:13,587
The manual one
was easier to use.

1309
00:54:13,654 --> 00:54:15,923
You can seed
into the exposed soil

1310
00:54:15,989 --> 00:54:17,524
and you're not putting
chemicals in the soil.

1311
00:54:17,591 --> 00:54:20,561
The downside is it removes
a lot of organic material.

1312
00:54:20,627 --> 00:54:23,764
You have to dispose
of the cut sod.

1313
00:54:24,298 --> 00:54:26,834
And if you have
1,000 square feet of sod

1314
00:54:26,900 --> 00:54:31,638
that you have cut, you actually
have a whole lot of sod,

1315
00:54:31,705 --> 00:54:35,642
and you have to laboriously
carry it somewhere.

1316
00:54:35,709 --> 00:54:38,078
And if you don't have
a good site on your property,

1317
00:54:38,145 --> 00:54:41,014
you have to take it
somewhere in your vehicle,

1318
00:54:41,081 --> 00:54:43,083
and you can't take it
to the composting sites

1319
00:54:43,150 --> 00:54:44,251
'cause they won't take it

1320
00:54:44,318 --> 00:54:46,386
because of concerns
about jumping worms.

1321
00:54:46,453 --> 00:54:50,657
So, the only place that I know
of to take it is the landfill.

1322
00:54:50,724 --> 00:54:52,626
[audience murmurs]

1323
00:54:53,493 --> 00:54:56,363
So, that's kind of the up
and down on the sod cutter.

1324
00:54:56,430 --> 00:54:59,032
Plastic sheeting is
another site prep method.

1325
00:54:59,099 --> 00:55:01,468
You put the plastic sheeting on,
you'll kills the stuff,

1326
00:55:01,535 --> 00:55:03,136
you take it off,
stuff germinates.

1327
00:55:03,203 --> 00:55:05,472
You put it on, kills stuff,
take it off, stuff germinates.

1328
00:55:05,539 --> 00:55:07,441
I haven't actually done this
personally.

1329
00:55:07,508 --> 00:55:08,909
It takes an entire summer,

1330
00:55:08,976 --> 00:55:13,847
so often, it just doesn't align
with my very impatient timeline.

1331
00:55:13,914 --> 00:55:15,382
The plastic might break down

1332
00:55:15,449 --> 00:55:17,184
and put microplastics
in the soil.

1333
00:55:17,251 --> 00:55:19,453
It also won't kill
the more aggressive plants

1334
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:20,754
you have in your garden.

1335
00:55:20,821 --> 00:55:24,458
If you have, like, goutweed,
something really nasty,

1336
00:55:24,525 --> 00:55:26,660
the goutweed might
just laugh at it.

1337
00:55:26,727 --> 00:55:28,695
It also might,
I'm not sure about this,

1338
00:55:28,762 --> 00:55:31,265
but if the heating up
of the plastic

1339
00:55:31,331 --> 00:55:36,570
and the heating up of the soil
is a key way that this works,

1340
00:55:37,404 --> 00:55:39,373
a shady site
might not work as well.

1341
00:55:39,439 --> 00:55:41,742
So, you can try plastic sheeting
if this appeals to you.

1342
00:55:41,808 --> 00:55:44,344
I would recommend that you do
more research into how to do it.

1343
00:55:44,411 --> 00:55:45,512
I am not an expert.

1344
00:55:45,579 --> 00:55:48,215
It is one of the tools
in our toolbox.

1345
00:55:48,282 --> 00:55:52,186
And that...
is the end of my presentation.

1346
00:55:53,253 --> 00:55:55,255
[audience applauds]