Episode 3306

- [Narrator] Residents of Montgomery County who want a yard that has ecological value are finding support and encouragement from Healthy Yards, Clarksville. This initiative promotes the use of native plants, shrubs, and trees that support pollinators and birds. Annette Shrader tours one such healthy yard that's seen remarkable success in just three years, and Marty DeHart showcases native ground covers that are thriving in this mature residential landscape. She considers each one to be worthy of a spot in your garden. Join us. Choosing a variety of native plants for the landscape means less care and maintenance for you and healthy habitat for wildlife.

- [Annette] Our information in the world of gardening healthy, clean yards for our pollinators and for us is expanding all the time. I'm here today with Michelle Rogers and homeowner Philip Short. Tell us what is happening for Clarksville and Healthy Yards.

- Well, a couple of years ago, the Sustainability Board of Clarksville was looking for a project they could do to make the environment better for people and for nature, and of course you make it better for nature, it's better for people, so what we started was the program called Healthy Yards and now it's a collaboration between the city and the county and the Center of Excellence for Field Biology where I teach at Austin Peay, and we all work together to try to get people to join up, to say, "I'm gonna plant some native plants. I'm gonna try to avoid pesticides and herbicides that harm our pollinators. I'm gonna make habitat." So if you've got a yard, you've got a space that you can care for that you're in charge of and you can make decisions for it. So you can either make it a place that doesn't have ecological value or you can make it a home for nature. And that's really important, really beneficial, and it's really fun. And so I wanted you to come today to Phil Short's yard because he's been gardening and not really for so very long, and you won't believe what's already there.

- Well, welcome to our home. My wife Donna and I moved here late 2021, September, October of 2021, and when we moved here, there was not a tree, not a shrub, not a flower on the lot. Some nice European grasses cut about three inches high across the whole area, so I promptly started getting rid of that and replacing it with native plants, and putting some trees in and some shrubs. Michelle and I have worked together for a while, since about 2016, and she came up with a wonderful idea of Healthy Yards, and it's been growing I think, pretty rapidly.

- [Michelle] We've got about 500 members.

- [Philip] About 500 members already.

- [Annette] That's phenomenal.

- [Philip] And it's interesting, when people know what they can do better, they tend to do that, and I love the natives because I'm not really, I don't consider myself a gardener. I consider myself someone who selectively allows native plants to grow and they end up doing better than the non-natives, and I don't have to do much. I don't have to water, I don't have to fertilize. I maybe prune here and there, but.

- So you're just a little caretaker, aren't you?

- I'm a little caretaker, and I always figure nature is very resilient if you only give it half a chance, so Donna and I are trying to give it half a chance. I wanna leave you in the trusted hands of Michelle who knows a lot about plants and and native gardening, and I'm going to go do some other tasks, but I hope you enjoy our property here.

- [Annette] Who says you can't have beauty at curbside with the use of natives and pollinators? Introduce us to all of this.

- Well this one's a really interesting one because it has leaves that look a lot like a yucca, so it's actually, it's species name is yuccifolium, but it's rattlesnake master. Very interesting flowers that are about to open up here. Pollinators like those a lot.

- [Annette] I see a pollinator right here.

- [Michelle] Right now. Multiple insects on there. They love it. And then this actually very decorative thing is a native grass of the prairies, and we would have some prairies here, small prairie remnants, but this is little bluestem, so short, very attractive, grows in these compact bunches like this. But instead of having something decorative and non-native, this is an option for anybody.

- [Annette] I love this grass just swaying in the breeze. A breeze we need today. Now I believe this is switchgrass. Give us what it's beneficial for.

- Well all of the native grasses are part of our natural ecosystems, and there are insects and other animals that need them both for food and habitat, right? They're essential for that. So they're not for pollinators specifically, but they're for insects, and insects are the base of the food chain for most of the animals that live here. So only deer, only a few animals eat the plants directly. Mostly it's insects eat the plants, and then other things up the food chain eat them. This is why we have baby birds. This is why we have, there they go right now, the birds, all of the wildlife that we do. But Tennessee is a huge biodiversity hotspot. But without the native plants, you don't have any of that.

- Wow, if I were a bee, I know where I would be. No pun on words. Michelle, this is beautifully fabulous and I can't wait to go into and look at what we're seeing this early morning.

- And remember this is only growing season three, year three for this opulent garden. So many species of bees. I mean we have 350 plus species of native bees in Tennessee.

- Really?

- [Michelle] No tellin' what you could find here. And of course they're on bee balm for one. We've got bee balm, we've got echinacea coneflower, we've got black-eyed susans.

- [Annette] And I love the yellow there with the pointed down.

- [Michelle] I think that is gray headed coneflower, which is actually in a totally different genus than the other coneflowers. Here's a lightning bug. Don't forget all of these plants are not just food but habitat, safe places to stay. And who doesn't love lightning bugs? This is one of the important lessons too. It's habitat for all the insects and when people spray pesticides, they spray for all the insects.

- [Annette] Hyssop, one of my favorite feeders of the bees in my yard and my butterflies. Tell us about this one.

- [Michelle] Well you've just said a lot of it, but I mean what's really important is that we are providing habitat and food for native bees. So honeybees, they usually have plenty of food and these guys needs particular plants, so we gotta have lots of diversity, including that anise hyssop.

- Yes, now in here there are lots of interesting plants, but I'm gonna walk around here. This is fleabane and most people don't even leave it in their garden. Tell us about its need.

- [Michelle] Well isn't it pretty though? And it's actually in a little tiny aster. You get lots of blooms, fills out the space between the other things and it does attract and feed lots of very tiny species of pollinators.

- [Annette] This is a local roadside favorite, isn't it?

- [Michelle] Iron weed, and it's gonna have the most beautiful bright purple bloom soon.

- [Annette] Yes, and you know I know that I've seen insects enjoying the leaves on this.

- [Michelle] Oh for sure, and that's a thing to remember too. Holes in the leaves, that's not a problem. That's a good thing. That means you have a plant that's part of a living ecosystem.

- [Annette] You also have some golden rod in here. That's a good pollinator isn't it?

- [Michelle] Golden rod is one of the most important plants, and if you wanna feed monarchs when they are on their way migrating, they gotta get all the way to Mexico in the fall, goldenrod's one of the best things you can plant.

- [Annette] Yes, there's so much variety in here and that's what makes everything work.

- [Michelle] Well one of the most important things too is we want plants that are host plants for different butterfly species. In the same way that monarchs have to have milkweed for their caterpillars to grow up on, zebra swallowtails have to have the pawpaw tree. So there are a bunch of different plants we need if we want to maintain the biodiversity that we have.

- [Annette] This is rather large. What did you say the dimension is?

- [Michelle] What'd they say, 25 yards by 25 yards? Huge.

- [Annette] If I were gonna do this, how would I prep?

- [Michelle] Oh that is actually super important, prepping, because the plants are, you know this, that all plants will have a hard time if they have to compete with other things. So what I especially recommend is the method where you lay down layers of cardboard and mulch, and summer is the right time to do this. You use the heat of summer to prep an area that you can plant in October.

- Sort of like lasagna gardening.

- Yes, and October is the easy time to plant natives. And there are plants that we call keystone plants in ecology that support the most biodiversity. Goldenrod, asters, sunflowers, and oak trees. Oak trees are actually the number one. They support over a hundred species of caterpillars.

- [Annette] Just any kind oak? All oaks.

- [Michelle] Yeah, any of the native oaks.

- [Annette] I did not know that. What's not to love about an aster?

- [Michelle] Yes, this is native New England aster, native also to Tennessee. Every garden should have asters because they are a keystone species, and they're the host plants for the most caterpillars.

- [Annette] So the milkweed, it has a shiny leaf, doesn't it?

- [Michelle] Kind of, this is the one though that you would expect to see caterpillars for monarch butterflies and others on, so important for monarchs.

- [Annette] So if they're eating on 'em, they're good?

- [Michelle] Yes.

- [Annette] All right.

- [Michelle] This is a really pretty, because the foliage is pretty even before the flowering, but this is blazing star, liatris.

- [Annette] Yes, it has a long way to go. It starts blooming at the top and it goes down. I definitely see movement right here.

- [Michelle] Lots of activity on the native hydrangea. You know what else I like about the native hydrangea? Look, these leaves are not drooping. You have to water the non-natives so much, and this thing hasn't been watered. Looking great even in the heat. And here's a leaf with lots of holes in it. Nothing wrong with that.

- [Annette] We have standing here a-

- [Michelle] Red buckeye. This is gonna be an understory tree. So 15, 20 feet tall, beautiful red flowers. A lot of people aren't familiar with it here, and it's a native, great one to go in your yard.

- [Annette] And I see, what, you know, I was fortunate enough to get Buckeyes on mine. This was the bloom here, and there's a little something right there, and I found them last fall. I didn't know what it was, and I broke it open, and it was a buckeye,

- [Michelle] They look like chestnuts.

- [Annette] Yes! From an acorn, a mighty oak will grow. What is the potential for this?

- [Michelle] Obviously it's gonna be a huge tree eventually, but Phil short planted this one direct from an acorn into the ground. Anybody can do it, free, right? But this is going to be the number one keystone species producing the most caterpillars and the most life.

- [Annette] 'Cause we know what keystone is now. Exactly, That is anticipation to what it'll be.

- [Michelle] Plus for all the work that all the flowers are, you can actually make more impact with one oak tree, and you know, once you've gotten started, there's no work to it at all.

- [Annette] Yes. So we don't need a lawn service to get rid of this, do we? And we don't wanna mow it too low.

- [Michelle] Those clovers are super beneficial to bees., and the other thing that we have that is underappreciated is wild violets. We're past the bloom season now, but what we have is the common blue violet, whether it's the blue or the the white variety or blended, that is our native species, and super beneficial. That one is a host species for several caterpillars.

- You know what it is, it's once you learn something and understand its purpose, we're not as selective, are we? It's got a purpose and leave it there.

- Yeah, and, you know, you really see the results too. If you leave the clover in your yard, stop using weed and feed sort of products, you'll see the insects that appear.

- And animals.

- And the bees that use it. Yeah.

- Bunnies.

- It's rewarding.

- Yes. Standing here in what I consider a very healthy yard for the grower and those things that benefit in here. Give us a little wrap up of what you consider how many natives versus maybe non-native. Can you tell us?

- There are studies that show actually if you have 70% natives that all of your bird species can maintain their populations. That's a lot. But everybody, I think I would like to encourage them to get started somewhere, 'cause they're gonna see the benefits, and the other thing I'd like to encourage people to do is to find the community of people who are involved with native plants, organizations, local groups, the right nurseries because it's very localized knowledge and those people have lots of information to share to help you get started, and the other thing, when you get in the community of native plant people, they give away plants, right? It's the place to get your free plants and get started the easy way.

- Yes, well I think the most amazing thing is that we want a healthy yard first because we do not wanna use herbicides and pesticides, and then from that foundation come the results of all of the natives, the bees, the butterflies, and it's all a great ecosystem, isn't it?

- I love it. It's so rewarding to see it happen and I don't think we saw a lot of butterflies today, but they're definitely passing through. You see them and you see the caterpillars and you know you like there's a butterfly that's in the world because of something that I did.

- They may have already collected their pollen this morning or drank, you know, they may have been drinking out of a flower.

- And maybe it's too hot a day for the butterflies.

- But not us.

- No.

- Well I do thank you because it's obvious that you've done the research and you have a wealth of knowledge to share and we appreciate that you're willing.

- I'd be happy to help anybody who's interested maybe start a native or Healthy Yards kind of program in their own city.

- [Annette] And thank you to the city of Clarksville.

- I'm speaking to you right now and it's the middle of October and I'm gonna show you some really wonderful ground covers in this gorgeous garden of my friend Caroline Stevens here in Nashville. She has a mostly native garden, not entirely, she loves a lot of different plants, but she has a huge collection of terrific ground covers, all of which are native, all of which do great here, and most of them do in shade. She's got some huge trees and shady ground covers are often hard to come by. I'm really excited to be able to show you these. This is a particular favorite of mine. This is a little bitty hypericum. Often people will grow larger sorts and they're called St. John's Wart. This one is called St Andrew's Cross. The botanical name is hypericum stragulum. Stragulum means spreading. This grows in this area around Nashville naturally and earlier in the season, it was covered with little lemon, yellow cross shaped flowers. Really beautiful. It's a lovely spreading ground cover, dry shade, it loves all of that. As you can see, this is like a woodsy setting and this is a native geranium, geranium maculatum that's also spreading and growing in here. That's a clumper, whereas this is the main ground cover, this hypericum, the St. Andrews cross. Most everybody's growin' goldsterm, which is a kind of black-eyed susan slash orange cone flower and goldsterm is a really great plant, but there are other types of the same species that I actually like better and this is one of them. This is rudbeckia, this variety, subspecies is umbrosa. It's rudbeckia fulgida variety umbrosa. This is the species by the way, which is native to the Nashville area, most commonly found. It will take part shade, which is unusual for some of the cone flowers, and this one spreads by sending out little runners. It's also lower than goldsterm. You can see it wants to stay about 18 to 24 inches tall, and it blooms longer and later. It starts in August, and it's still going in October. This is a kind of phlox, another native. This is phlox glaberrima. This is a kind called Morris Berd. That's the man's name it was named after, and this is a really lovely spring blooming spreading phlox. You can see it sends out these little, little runners that gradually cover the ground and in spring it'll send up flowering heads, typical phlox. They're kind of a brilliant, brilliant pink that come up about this high, really beautiful. This does not entirely disappear over the winter. It tends to keep little rosettes low to the ground so you can always see it. It's always there and always looking good. It's a great plant. Once again, this will take sun. It'll also take shade. In sun, it wants steady water. It's not super drought tolerant. This area shows a really beautiful little combination of one ground cover working with another ground cover. The common name for chrysogonum is green and gold, and this particular variety is called eco lacquered spider, and I really like this one. It's available, you can find it. The reason I like this particular variety is it spreads faster than any other kind of chrysogonum that I know, and it grows quite densely. You can see how really nice and dense this is, and I love the way it's sort of intruding, and these two things are working together because this is not a grass, this is a sedge. This is Carex appalachica, which is Appalachian sedge, and it has this very fine bladed kind of deep kelly green color, which is lovely and it's a clumper. There's another sedge that looks a whole lot like this called Pennsylvania sedge, and the way you tell 'em apart is Appalachian clumps and Pennsylvanica spreads even more. It's thinner, it doesn't make as dense a clump, but it spreads via runners. So I love the way these are sort of intruding, and this chrysogonum has almost a little bit of a silvery tint to the leaves, so it's a very nice contrast. And over here, just over to my left, this taller clump is another native called blephilia ciliate, downy wood mint. It gets about, mm, 16 inches tall, blooms in late spring with pink blooms, really beautiful. It is a mint, it has fragrant foliage, and it grows extremely densely in this high shade. It's a nice job as a slightly taller ground cover. People think golden rod is just a weed out in the fields. What the thing is, there are tons of species of golden rod and a couple of them do great in shade or part shade, and this is one of them. This is a particular favorite of mine. This is called zigzag golden rod. The reason being that the stems like the twigs of a red butter slightly zigzaggy. If you look at 'em closely in between each leaf, it's a little angle. So the nodes are angled from each other and this has this beautiful arching habit. It obviously blooms in the fall because like I said, we're in mid-October and it's in its glory. This is a gradually spreading clump. It puts out little runners and the whole thing gets densely bigger over time. It's a rugged plant, super drought tolerant, and just gorgeous this time of year. Pollinators love it, and one of the great things about it is it has foliage even when it's not in bloom, the leaves are really unusual. In sunny spots, this is a great plant. This is aster oblongifolius, the commonly called aromatic aster, the reason being that if you crush a leaf, it smells kind of a little bit like vanilla, but it blooms obviously in the fall with these gorgeous lavender blue daisies that as they age, the center gets darker. This particular variety is a very commonly available one called Radon's favorite. This is about two feet tall and it'll get a little taller than that. I've seen it up to 30 inches and it spreads widely. An individual plant will spread four feet, so this is one plant, so you can see that in a sunny spot, you could plant several of these and really cover 'em and it's so dense and covers itself with so much bloom in the fall. It's really a spectacular looking plant. There is a shorter version if you want something that stays 12 to 18 inches tall. There is another variety, looks very similar, but just shorter that's called October skies, and that one's also a terrific ground cover. Just gets so dense, nothing else can grow under it. We're in zone 7A here, and this is a reliable perennial in this garden. This is a verbena called snowflurry. The taxonomists have been at work and our native hearty verbenas are now glandularia, but if you look for verbena snowflurry, you'll find this. It not only spreads as a ground cover, it gets maybe a foot tall, but it also reseeds itself, so it'll spread around and you can dig up little seedlings and put 'em wherever you want 'em. This is a really great plant. Another big virtue to this, and this is pretty unusual for perennials, is that this blooms all summer. It's like I said, mid-October, still blooming. It sort of blooms in cycles. It'll only have a few flowers for a while and then bust out in a bunch of bloom again about every four to six weeks, depending on how much water and how rough the summer is. This is our hearty one and they grow out in the Cedar Glades, so you know it's pretty rugged. Another ground cover that's hugely adaptable. As a matter of fact, Caroline has this seeding all over her place and pulls it out like a weed. This is asarum canadense. This is our native ginger. Now, unlike some of the Chinese gingers, this is not evergreen. It does die back to the ground, but it comes out with these gorgeous kidney shaped leaves every spring and spreads beautifully. You can see once again, we're at the end of the year, so it's looking a little singy, but that isn't bad. We had a pretty hot spell in the summer and a lot of stuff suffered, but this is in part shade here. I've seen it come up in deep shade. I've seen it come up in pretty much full sun. It's highly adaptable. It's just not super drought tolerant, so it's not a very dry shade plant. But other than that, it's an extremely reliable plant and it just nestles so beautifully here with this blue lobelia. This is tiarella cordifolia, commonly called foamflower. In the spring, it sends up little wands of airy white foamy looking flowers. It's very lovely, but it's beautiful not in bloom. You can see cordifolia means with leaves like a heart, and you can see that it's roughly heart shaped, little teeth on it, really beautiful. There's often an internal pattern in the leaf, darker veins, which adds to the beauty of this. It spreads via runners. You can see it coming around. I'll move my knee a little bit. You can see it coming around the edge of this in the ground bird bath here, and it's spreading lovely. This is a native woodsy plant, loves pumicey soil, wants shade to part shade, and gets extremely dense. You can see how dense this is. Nothing, there's not a weed that makes it through this. It's a really great ground cover once it gets established and it spreads fairly quickly. Caroline says, this has been one of the most successful ground covers she has ever put in. This is valerian, the native species. It's valeriana pauciflora and it blooms, sends up stalks of pale pink blooms in the spring. Gets about this tall, which is maybe a little over 12 inches above the ground. All season, it has these gorgeous, deep green, lovely leaves and it spreads via little runners to make a very dense carpet. She put in a plant in 2003, and this is what, 15 feet worth of ground cover? You can see how happy this is here. It's basically under big oaks, red, bur, and this little sty racks hanging over it, and it's really thriving here. And I hope you guys have enjoyed looking at these wonderful native ground covers in the autumn. You're not looking at them when they're in their juicy prime in the spring, which is when most people come and look at these sorts of things. This is a really good way to evaluate the worth of these plants in your garden over time and how they look when they're not supposedly at their best. I think they look wonderful. Highly worthy plants, every one of them.

- [Narrator] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website at volunteergardener.org and find us on these platforms.