>>Natives in the past have been thought of as just like the messy floppy.

You say goldenrod and people go, "Oh!"

You know, like- >>Yes.

>>"Oh, I see that in the field.

I don't want it in my garden."

Not knowing that there's dozens of species of goldenrod that are very garden worthy and very tidy.

>>Yes.

>>And very beautiful.

So, that's what we sort of walked into this saying, "How can we create some structure?

How can we use appropriate all native shrubs?

How can we pair that with some good layering and some perennials?"

And for us, I use a lot of sedges.

>>Yes.

>>Which are grass-like, evergreen grass-like plants.

And so what we said is, "We're gonna use a lot of grasses and sedges here that sort of give you that layer under and around your shrubs in addition to having a lot of blooming."

So, we did a lot more blooming in the back of the house, which is where their back porches and their pool- >>And that's where they hang out.

>>And that's where they hang out.

>>So, they wanna have the flowers around them.

>>We had a little bit of flower here in the front to sort of welcome people with a little bit of color, but nothing too, you know, very simple palette, nothing too wild, and a lot of really nice backdrop of everything here.

>>Mm-hmm.

Yes.

>>And so, that's where we went and just leapt off and did it all.

And everything that we have here is under two years old at this point.

>>So, you were telling me earlier that it's about the layers and it's about the spacing.

You're putting the plants so that they're touching- >>Right.

>>So, that your maintenance is reduced so that they're shading the ground and you're not needing to mulch all the time.

But you're also, rather than thinking of color combinations, you're thinking of the layers of what you're applying.

So, you're putting in the tree, you're putting in the shrubs, but then what are the other layers, you know?

>>Right.

So, when I talk to clients or when I do design, I always say, "We want diversity in the garden."

That's sort of just, oh, that just means a lot of things to a lot of people.

>>Yes.

>>But we approach that and say, "There's three kinds of diversity that I'm really trying to bring into a garden."

And I encourage a homeowner, they can do this at home.

So, you wanna think about altitude or height diversity.

You might have a tree.

Well, you can then bring some shrubs down to that.

And then you step that altitude down a little more.

Maybe some ground cover or some sedges or grasses or some low growing perennials.

Or you create a garden off that and you've got something bigger.

Then you have what we think of as temporal or time diversity.

How can I have something blooming or happening at different times of the year?

So, I might think about what's gonna be my spring interest and what can give me some summer interest and what's gonna have berries- >>In the winter.

>>Or something else that gives us winter interest.

>>Yes.

>>So, you've got time diversity.

And then we think about species diversity, which is what we all think of.

Just lots of different things.

>>Yep.

>>Because there's lots of different insects, bees, wasps, butterflies.

But they're all looking for different kinds of flowers oftentimes.

There are short tongue bees, long tongue bees.

Of course, butterflies have a long proboscis that they're going to nectar on.

So, you need different types of flowers.

So that's part of- >>Different shapes, different colors, different sizes.

>>Right.

>>For a traditional landscape, how would you recommend a homeowner to start infusing native plants into that landscape?

>>Right, because it's a lot easier when you had a clean palette.

>>Yes, exactly.

(chuckles) >>You just walk in and do this.

So, a lot of times when I'm helping people or I'm lecturing or talking to people about that, I'll say, "Well, look at what you have."

And the first thing is you don't wanna do any harm.

So, if you have something that shouldn't be there, it's an invasive, and you've talked about that a lot.

>>Yeah.

>>Maybe those are the things you wanna take out or something that's overgrown.

>>Yes.

>>Something that's been there a long time and you're like- >>Too big.

>>Yeah.

I've prune that all the time.

I'm like, well, maybe that's the thing we wanna immediately just take off.

So, can you replace, that's a place to start.

And then say what native would be great to work in the same space.

Whether it's shades, sun, is it wet, is it dry?

>>Yes.

>>How big do I need that to be?

What can I pair with it that's gonna look good?

Maybe at the front door or wherever you are.

And the other thing I often encourage people to do is connect the dots.

I was at a client yesterday, they had a tree and then a little bit of, you know, shrub with some stuff and then another one and another one.

And I said, "You wanna reduce that lawn and have natives.

You could just connect that into one nice long bed.

And they just went, eureka.

You know?

>>Yeah.

>>And that's, anybody can do that.

>>And you said a key word there, shrubs.

You know, shrubs take up a lot of space.

>>Right.

>>They take up a lot of ground.

>>Right.

>>And most of them do grow up, but the ones that grow out will reduce the maintenance.

'cause people go, >>Absolutely.

>>"Oh my gosh, the maintenance, I don't have time to weed."

>>Absolutely.

>>And it's back to choosing the plants that will cover the ground.

>>Right.

Right.

>>So, that you don't have to weed.

>>So, there's some things like low grow sumac, which is Rhus aromatica.

>>Yes.

>>It's very prostrate, very growing.

>>Yes.

>>So, you can sort of use that as we use that as a ground cover.

>>St.

John's wort, St. John's are very popular one.

>>Yes.

Yes.

>>It gives you some flowers.

Very pretty.

>>And we use sedges a lot of, you know, they're in the grass family, if you will.

And they're mostly evergreen and small, very fine textured.

We've got some over here underneath our inkberry.

>>Yep.

>>Which is a native shrub that we use instead of boxwood.

>>Yes.

>>It sort of gives you that little bit of formal look.

It gives you an evergreen.

And we've surround it.

>>It's very tight and tidy.

>>Tidy.

And so, you can use those very effectively in places you need to be very structured.

Even if you had a townhouse garden.

>>Yeah.

So, there's plants you can use to even substitute these non-native plants.

>>Right, so that's another one.

>>It'll give you the exact same look that you're seeking.

>>Exactly.

>>And do not have the disease or insect pressure problems.

>>Right.

Right.

And what they are bringing into your garden are insects that you wanna see.

>>Yes.

>>Like butterflies, for example.

Or they are host plants for a lot of really interesting bees or wasps.

And before people get afraid of that, almost all of our native bees and wasps, which are not honeybees, those are European, those are mostly solitary.

They're not protecting a brood.

They're not gonna sting you.

In fact, my daughter who's now 19 studying ecology, when she grew up she was like the bee charmer, you know, petting things.

Because if they're happy, they don't really care that you're there.

>>They're so docile.

Yes.

>>Right.

>>Yes.

>>So, they're gonna come to you.

So, that's all things that when you bring in the natives, you get to enjoy that garden in a whole different way.

>>You know, and people need to realize that just because a plant has a few holes in it, it's okay.

>>Yeah.

That plant's a host plant.

>>Yes.

>>The whole point of having natives is that we're bringing insects in and giving 'em a place to live, something to eat.

>>Yes.

>>Place over winter, reproduce, whatever it is.

So, when you look at it up close, yeah, you might see a leaf that's got holes in it.

'cause you're walked up almost with a magnifying glass and you're looking at it.

But if you look at it from here, we're 10, 15 feet away, it's beautiful and it's full of berries.

>>Exactly.

>>You don't see any of that.

>>That viburnum is just as pretty as it could be.

>>I know.

I love that.

Viburnum nudum, brandywine.

>>It's a lovely plant.

>>Beautiful one.

Yeah.

>>Speaking of beautiful plants though, name some of your favorite combinations that you like to put in a garden.

>>Well, one of my favorites is right behind us.

And I have to say it's sort of the coup de grace here 'cause this is their entryway.

And the homeowner, she loves it.

She sends me pictures year round of this practically.

>>Oh.

>>And so, we have red chokeberry, which is Aronia arbutifolia.

It's the straight species.

It's not one of the cultivars.

And underneath it is the pink muhly grass, Muhlenbergia capillaris.

Again, a straight species.

So, I really like to take shrubs.

I like to take thread-leaf sedges or thread-leaf things like Amsonia, blue star.

>>I love Amsonia, blue star.

Yes.

>>Or Threadleaf Coreopsis, tickseed.

Those things are very fine and that sets off the broadleaf- >>Soften, they soften things.

>>They soften things.

You could soften a corner, you can soften a stone wall.

You can soften the big texture of a broadleaf plant that way.

And whether that's a perennial or a shrub with broad leaves, you can then soften that with these other things >>Because the flowers come and go.

>>Right.

>>But the structure of the plant is there all the time.

>>Right.

And the other interesting I thing about flowers coming and going, I wanna say this.

So, we tell everybody how important it is to leave the seed heads.

>>Yes.

>>Those are landing pads for even small birds that over winter, for dragonflies or butterflies later in the year.

Let those stand until you get well into spring.

And then when you cut them off, try to leave somewhere between eight and 16 inches.

Because a lot of those stalks are hollow.

>>Yeah.

>>And a lot of our over wintering insects are pupa or they're some other stage, not the adult.

And they've laid that egg or that pupa has formed in that hollow stem.

And if we cut that off at the ground and run it over here to our compost pile, we've just destroyed next year's insects- >>Yes.

>>That we need.

Those are part of our pollinators.

>>Yes, so we have to understand it's ecosystems.

It's not- >>Right.

>>You know, an ecosystems cross state lines.

(laughs) >>Yes.

Right.

'cause we have a lot of folks becoming very concerned about whether that native is a Virginia native.

And I honor that people define native differently, but we like to remember that insects, birds, all these other creatures that we're building our gardens for, if you will, are not really obeying necessarily those same lines.

So I try to encourage people to think about it in that sort of broader term and think about eco regions.

We like to really broaden that out.

>>I like to say, add more life to our garden.

>>Yes.

And you will.

>>You will.

>>This is how you do it.

For sure.

>>Yes, for sure.

Well, Janet, thank you so much.

I love your enthusiasm.

>>Thank you.

>>And your knowledge.

And I thank you for finding the time to share it with us.

>>Absolutely.

Thanks for inviting me.