RESTORING NATIVESIN SUBURBAN LANDSCAPES

PRESENTED BY

Sami AaronK-State Extension Master

Naturalist

Registered Yoga &

Meditation Teacher

Director of Training and Development and Certified Facilitator for The NatureProcess®

Nature-loving neighbor

Being Onto Something!!!

Sami Aaron Sami@BeingOntoSomething.org

THIS PRESENTATION IS AVAILABLE AT:

WWW.BEINGONTOSOMETHING.ORG

Click “Restoring Natives in Suburban Gardens” on the home page

Sample garden designs are in the handouts and

http://grownative.org/help-with-my-

garden/designing-with-natives-easy-landscape-plans/

INSECTS ARE A VITAL PART OF OUR FOOD CHAIN

Drawing: James Douglass

NEIGHBORHOOD MAP

Area WAS::

• Trees

• Plants

• Soil

Absorbed,

Filtered,

Slowed

Runoff

Area NOW:

• Cement

• Roofing Tile

• Fescue

STORMWATER

BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

$$$ MAY BE AVAILABLE FOR YOUR GARDEN!

First come, first served, varies by City!

$$$ per City to cost share: Design . Labor . Materials

Reimburse you for a % of cost for rain gardens, native plantings or rain barrels

Process:

• Inspections prior, during & after project is completed

• Maintained for a minimum number of years

• Application, projected schedule, map/diagram, receipts, photos

• Google your city’s Stormwater Management or Public Works

• What causes flooding?

• Proximity to nearby streamways and flow to the local rivers

• Rooftops, driveways, patios & streets

• Downspouts

• Fescue lawns

• Reduces pollution impacts on urban streams• Prevents erosion by stabilizing stream banks• Minimizes impacts of urban development• Minimizes risks of flash flooding

1. Slow the flow of water and prevent flooding

STORMWATER MANAGEMENT (BMP)

WHY PLANT NATIVES?

Source: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npstbx/files/KSMO_KnowYourRoots.pdf

Spirea / Daylily / Fountain Grass / Fescue Prairie Dropseed / Rudebeckia / Ninebark

2. Filter chemicals & toxins & slow the flow of water

59% OF OUR WATER USE IS FOR OUTDOORS!

Source: Bridging the Gap

3. Reduce: watering with city water, mowing time,

fertilizer, chemicals for weed control

REDUCE THE SIZE OF OUR LAWNS

WHO ELSE BENEFITS?

How to help?

• Restore insect breeding & feeding habitat with Milkweeds & Native Wildflowers

• Learn about decline in native bees (and honey bees) due to neonicotinoid insecticides in our local nursery plants

• 80% of flowering plants depend on pollinators; 30% of our food crops require it

Source: The Xerces Society

Monarch Butterflies Threatened:• 1990 – Estimate 1 Billion migrated to

Mexico – 45-60 acres• 2014 – Estimate of only 33 million remain

– a 90% reduction – indicator species –1.65 acres

• 2016 – Rebounded then deadly freeze in Mexico killed 1.5 million

4. Benefit declining populations of pollinators, birds &

other wildlife

REDUCE RUNOFF, RETAIN WATER

One inch of rain on the roof of a 1,000

sq. ft. building equals

• about 600 gallons of water

• add driveway and patio space =

over 1,000 gallons of water

Source: Bridging the Gap

RAIN BARRELS • Divert downspouts

• Use to water house plants

• Used to water outdoor potted plants

• Use to water gardens around house

• Lots of styles/colors/sizes

RAIN GARDENS / BIOSWALES

Depressed area holds

rainwater for 24-72

hours. Slows and

filters rainwater

before it reaches the

watershed.

NATIVE PLANTINGS IN BUFFER ZONE

Before

NATIVE PLANTINGS IN BUFFER ZONE

After

Support native bees; plant native plants

INCLUDE TREES AND SHRUBS!

THEY’RE IMPORTANT HOST PLANTS

FOR CATERPILLARS

Native Oak Trees support

534 species of butterflies,

moths, and skippers.

• Willow – 456

• Cherry, plum – 456

• Birch – 413

• Poplar, cottonwood –

368

• Crabapple – 311

• Blueberry, cranberry –

288

DON’T HAVE A YARD?

PLANT IN TALL POTS ON A

SUNNY PORCH!

This Butterfly Milkweed plant is

just about 2 months old – but

note the tangle of roots!

• Use really deep pots to allow

for root growth

• Water regularly throughout

the season

• Divide and share when the

roots start to overrun the pot

GETTING STARTED

Get Ready:

Design the site

border/hardscape

dimensions

plantings

water flow & overflow

HOA restrictions / approval

Project schedule including maintenance plan

Cost estimates & permits

Preparing the soil and hardscaping

Mixture of seeds and plants, perhaps cover crop – Seed Bombs!

Typically done in the fall or early spring

May need burning or tree removal

CREATE YOUR OWN

NATIVE GARDEN IN A

COUPLE OF HOURS!

WITH NO DIGGING!

Step 1 – Select a sunny location

Step 2 – Cover area with layers

of newspaper, cardboard, or

paper bags

Step 3 – Mound garden soil 1-3’

CREATE YOUR OWN

NATIVE GARDEN IN A

COUPLE OF HOURS!

WITH NO DIGGING!

Step 4 – Layout plants – taller in

the center

Step 6 – Add mulch 2-3”

Step 5 – Put plants in the

ground

CREATE YOUR OWN

NATIVE GARDEN IN A

COUPLE OF HOURS!

WITH NO DIGGING!

Step 7 – tuck under outside

edge of paper and cover with

mulch

Step 8 – add some critters and

water in well

Step 9 – keep moist the first

year; as needed thereafter

YOUR NEW POLLINATOR GARDEN!

THEN RECYCLE THE BAGS AT THE GROCERY STORE!

TREX COMPANY LOVES THEM!!!

NOW WHAT?

Maintenance:

Water weekly first year; regularly second year; during dry times only third year and after IF you want to

Mow or use weed-eater first year to keep weeds in check; after year two, mow/weed-eat once in late fall or winter only

Large area may need to be raked or cleaned up after mowing

Fencing and/or staking if desired

May need burning or tree removal – check with city

SELECTING GRASSES & WILDFLOWERS

FOR WILDLIFE

Plant for ALL SEASONS

Early – Spring - Golden Alexander, Rose Verbena

Mid-Summer – everything else!

Late - Autumn – Asters & Goldenrods

Winter – Habitat, seeds, groundcover

Plant for Multiple Reasons:

Mating

Nesting

Brood-rearing

Protection

Migration

Plant Lists and websites on hand-outs

WHO BENEFITS FROM NATIVE PLANTINGS?

Milk Snake

American Bull FrogWestern Rat Snake

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THESE

NEW NEIGHBORS?

Education, education, education

Learn about snakes and other “scary” wildlife

Kansas has had only one documented fatality from snake bite since 1950

Some snakebites can be painful but are easily healed with proper treatment

A little brown bat can consume 600 to 1,000 mosquitoes in a single hour.

Learn how to walk/move around them

Give them a wide swath with walkways or borders of shorter or mowed grasses

Take pictures and identify them at:

www.insectidentification.org

www.bugguide.net

Luna Moth

HOW DO YOU HANDLE YOUR

OLD NEIGHBORS?

When is a thistle welcome in

your garden? When it fills a

goldfinch’s belly! Clean edges, fencing, defined area,

educate & enlist your neighbors

WHY SHOULD YOU ENCOURAGE YOUR

NEIGHBORS TO ALSO PLANT NATIVES?

Re-planting habitat deserts

www.millionpollinatorgardens.org

www.xerces.org/bringbackthepollinators

www.monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/milkweed/free-milkweeds-for-restoration-projects

Building Pollinator Pathways for Migration• Hummingbirds

• Bats

• Monarchs and other Butterflies

Visit Pollinator Pathways

www.pollinatorpathway.comMonarch Watch (University of Kansas)

www.monarchwatch.org

HOW DO YOU KNOW A MONARCH HAS BEEN

TO YOUR MILKWEED PLANTS?

• You’ll see eggs or caterpillars.

• The leaves and seed pods are

chewed up – YAY!!!

• You may see a green chrysalis

FOR YOU & YOUR FAMILY!

A NEW Rain Garden every day …

FOR YOU & YOUR FAMILY!

A NEW Native Buffer Garden every day …

WE ARE NATURE …“… we are nature, literally, in every molecule and neuron. We

contain clay, minerals, and water; are powered by sunshine

through plant life and are intricately bound to all other species, from

fungi to marsupials to bacteria. In our lungs are oxygen molecules

breathed by every type of creature ever to have lived on earth…”

Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest:

How the Largest Movement in the World Came into being and Why No One Saw It Coming

April 2016

NATURE SUPPORTS OUR WELL-BEING

Nature-Deficit Disorder www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801808.html

Shinrin Yoku - Forest Bathing www.shinrin-yoku.org

Association of Nature and Forest Therapy www.natureandforesttherapy.org

SELECTING GRASSES & WILDFLOWERS Resources for selecting plants:

K-State Libraries www.kswildflower.org

Kansas Native Plant Society www.kansasnativeplantsociety.org

Missouri Wildflowers Nursery www.mowildflowers.net

Missouri Prairie Foundation www.grownative.org

Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries (AES) www.restorationnurseries.com

Xerces Society www.Xerces.org

Pollinator Partnership www.pollinator.org

Make sure plants have NOT been treated with neonicontinoidsCheck with nursery growers and ask what their source is for their plants and seedlings!

www.beingontosomething.org/no-neonics for a deeper understanding of how to talk

to nursery centers; with guidance from the Xerces Society.

January 2017

WATCH FOR SPRINGTIME NATIVE PLANT SALES

Missouri Prairie Foundation Plant Sales Overland Park Arboretum Missouri Department of Conservation Burroughs Audubon Society Marais des Cygnes Master Gardeners Monarch Watch Powell Gardens Bridging The Gap

January 2017

I WILL GIVE THIS PRESENTATION …ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, TO ANY GROUP!

Sami Aaron Sami@BeingOntoSomething.org

All images (except the Monarchs) are from

my own native restoration areas!

Tell Your Friends!