Weekly Garden Tour Native Borders

[@TerryNaranjo]

Love that I get great garden content AND a local weather forecast!

[@BrieThePlantLady]

Ha ha that’s true!!! I’m a bit weather obsessed. We didn’t get a killing frost but that’s coming next week. I saw 27 next Friday!

[@MiladyMeowMeow-bf7nk]

Yes, please collect the native seeds! I will come and buy them!! 🤩

[@sunitashastry5270]

The garden looks great. You have brought up a topic that is one of my concerns too. Re native plants, what I keep pointing out is that our gardens are not going to revert to how the place was before western civilization settled here. Firstly, climate has changed, rivers are on a different course, etc. But more importantly once you have disturbed the ground by having a house placed there and having humans trampling around, it’s not native soil anymore. Our purpose is to support the flora and fauna that were here. As a gardener, I know I cannot manage my garden if I allow all the natives to only do their thing. So I clear, cut back etc strategically. You should definitely collect and make native seeds available if you have the capacity to do so,They are definitely needed. For myself, I allow some stalks and seeds to survive among the native plants, and cut back some in certain parts of the garden.

[@pattyellison2647]

Yes, please save and sell or share your native seeds. The birds will eat a lot of the seed.

[@paragraph_meadow]

Hey Brie thanks for being so candid about your native garden. Not talking about /focusing on management is a big blindspot for all the "naturalistic" gardens I think. I've learned the hard way that it's not as easy as some people make it look, and there's still a lot of trial and error involved. Asters are usually the only plants that tend to self-seed too much for me up here in Johnson City (and it's never the species I want😅). I learned that if I can plant densely & fill the gaps with runners like achillea or pycnanthemum, I don't usually get any self-seeding.

[@BrieThePlantLady]

That’s great know! Yeah I think itea and solidago may take over this bed!

[@teresabrown5286]

@paragraph_meadow I second this. Most newer beds, I plant densely, which helps keep the weeds down and makes maintenance easier. It's more plants and plugs up front, and may result in some plants not holding their own over time, but it's helped so much with weed suppression. So far, these areas have very few friends that create an abundance of seedlings.

[@teresabrown5286]

@BrieThePlantLady at least solidago is a keystone species, so its abundance will help so many species:) i have a bunch of solidago that blooms around the same time as my bergamot, and after 6 years of sprawl, it finally is making me want to dig some up and transplant to another area. I'll let you know how it goes! It's been so dry, I halted a lot of projects.

[@teresabrown5286]

Hi Brie! Thanks for continuing to talk openly about your native plant adventures. I feel you on not having tons of time to harvest seed heads. My biggest time saver has been just to label paper bags, cut seed heads off and leave 8-12 inches for native bees, and put seed heads upside down in the bag. Then I clean the rest when I have more time. There's a need for seed. I haven't had problems with my native gardens seeding out of control. Not at all. Echinacea, Eupatoriums like thoroughwort, and new England aster are the only ones that have self seeded in multiple locations. The majority of spread has been from species that spread by root and such. My soil is very dry and sandy with areas of amendment for food crops. For me, solidago canadensis has been a problem, since it sends out shoots, so I pull and cut back. Thanks again for the focus on natives! We need them. (NJ)

[@BrieThePlantLady]

Thank you for your tips!!!! I miss seeing you!!!

[@teresabrown5286]

@BrieThePlantLady same! I should do some walkabouts with my native plants and share my experiences. I love that you are managing such big native beds.

[@yogiberra808]

Sounds like you ought to call it a Nativar flower bed/border. Invite people to come and collect their own seeds if you don't have time.

[@28tv.]

Wowo Video ❤❤

[@upgrayeddnotsure9994]

Brie someone is using ur likeness and calls thselves grow lady on Facebook in one of the poppy groups

[@BrieThePlantLady]

🤦‍♀️ ha well that sucks.

[@upgrayeddnotsure9994]

@BrieThePlantLady I was like how many houses u own ? What's ur cats name.? Ect haha they are using broken English. Trying to scam people for poppy pods . I reported it.

[@niknik7470]

Brie the Garden lady? Is her Husband Brad the animal man 😂 Sorry. Must have been those plants i grew i the garden making me feel silly 😂

[@BrieThePlantLady]

I’m 😂