Gardening and Hardscaping Public Programs

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I taught these three programs at the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center in Nashville, TN in  the spring and summer of 2011. Water Wonderland focuses on the benefits of ponds and how to install and stock them, Eco-friendly Hardscaping is about installing walkways and patios that allow water to seep into the soil, and nashville Natives is about the benefits and importance of using native plants in your landscaping and avoiding invasive species. While these classes were given in Nashville, the information applies no matter where you are, including the one on plants. 

Water Wonderland: Ponds for your yard and patio

"Having aquatic habitat in your yard offers many benefits to you and your local wildlife. Come find out how to build ponds of any size; from small container ponds on your patio to much larger pongs in your garden. Learn how to choose plants that allow you to attract beautiful song birds while greatly reducing the amount of work it takes to keep your pond beautiful."

Here you will find information on building water features, as well as how to prevent mosquitoes with fish, and how to protect those fish from predators. For more information on goldfish and koi, click here. 

Program Handouts

Eco-friendly Hardscaping: Patios & Walkways

"In Nashville patios, walkways, and many other permanent structures can greatly increase your living space. Learning to design them in an ecologically friendly way offers many benefits to you and the environment. By creating hardscapes that allow water to permeate into the soil you can prevent erosion, decrease drainage problems, and help reduce the amount of pollution entering
our waterways. Ecological designs can also mean less maintenance for you and a more soothing appearance that blends beautifully with your garden."

Program Handout and Additional Information
Other ways to help your hardscaping be eco-friendly:

Use recycled material whenever possible
  • reuse pavers - even broken ones can be used as fill behind walls or under walkways
  • use stones you dig up from your garden beds
  • use composite decking that includes recycled material (it also lasts longer and requires less maintenance than most wood)
  • make sure wood used is harvested sustainably (some places replant forests after trees are harvested, but not all)
Avoid using toxic herbicides to remove weeds, instead
  • you can pull them manually
  • use desired plants to crowd them out so there are fewer weeds to begin with
  • burn them with specialized garden scorchers (do NOT burn poison ivy/sumac/oak)
Avoid using toxic pesticides, instead
  • there are many plants, insects, and even soaps that repel pests safely (ladybugs control aphids, birds eat grubs, bats eat mosquitoes, cedar mulch repels ticks, citronella repels mosquitoes, marigolds repel many herbivores, soap repels deer, water + chili spices sprayed on plants repels deer and rabbits)

Nashville Natives: Choosing the right plants for your yard

The plant selections are aimed at Nashville's climate, but many of them are well suited for most of the US. The reasons to plant natives, use limited non-natives, and avoid invasives in your garden apply to all gardeners no matter where you live.
"Using native plants instead of exotic and invasive plants is better for the environment, and better for you. Not only does it help keep invasives from getting into the local parks, but it means less maintenance for you! Native plants are better adapted to Nashville's soil and weather, which means less watering and replanting. Choosing the right plants also allows you to attract beautiful song birds, hummingbirds, and butterflies to your yard. You can find more information  and ways to help on the National Wildlife Federation's website here, http://www.nwf.org/how-to-help/garden-for-wildlife.aspx. Below my presentation and handout I have provided a list of books with more information and plant list, many more can be found online, including those compiled by AB Native Plants.

Program handouts and Additional Information

If you are interested in more information on invasive species you can start with this piece written by National Geographic.

"The state of Florida spends 50 million dollars every year controlling invasive plants. New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and the federal government have spent 175 million dollars battling the tree-killing Asian long-horned beetle. The 2001 hoof-and-mouth disease outbreak in England cost businesses there nearly four billion dollars. In all, experts estimate, invasives cost the U.S. alone more than 140 billion dollars yearly.

The less quantifiable effects are no less terrible. The ecologist E. O. Wilson ranks invasive species second only to habitat destruction in the magnitude of the threat they pose. In removing natural barriers to species movements, Wilson says, we're changing the very nature of wild places, replacing unique animal and plant communities with a generic, impoverished hodgepodge world of hardy generalists: a world not of Sumatran rhinos, golden turtles, Blackburnian warblers, and giant saguaro but merely one of cats, rats, crows, and West Nile virus."
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/attack-alien-invaders/
100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants for American Gardeners in Temperate Zones
by Lorraine Johnson 
Published by: Firefly Books. 
A guide to 100 beautiful and low-maintenance northern native plants, including botanical name, height, sun/shade preference, soil requirements, moisture needed, habitat, description, propagation, companions, related species, and photographs.
Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens 
by Allan M. Armitage 
Published by: Timber Press. 
The popularity of native North American plants has soared in recent years, for many good reasons. Whatever draws you to native plants, you'll find no better or more authoritative guide than Allan Armitage. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's foremost horticulturists, Armitage describes more than 630 species and cultivars of perennials, biennials, and annuals that are native to the United States, bringing to each plant a wealth of practical knowledge and the full weight of his experience and expertise.
Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens by Douglas W. Tallamy 
Published by: Timber Press. 
As development and subsequent habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. But there is an important and simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity.
Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening and Conservation
by Donald J. Leopold 
Published by: Timber Press. 
If you've always wanted to garden with native plants, this book is for you. With entries for nearly 700 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers from the northeastern quarter of the U.S. and eastern Canada, its comprehensive horticultural coverage is unsurpassed by any other single volume.