Native Plant Gardening Presentation at the Forest Park Public Library, Thursday, July 24, 6:30 pm

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I'll be giving this talk: Letting nature in: gardening with native plants  Thursday, July 24 at 6:30 pm, Forest Park Public Library, 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park, IL    Learn how and why native plants offer benefits to nearly every garden, and the many ways you can use them, whether starting from scratch, or adding to your mature landscape. Topics will include right-sizing your pollinator garden, planting in shade, and enhancing your garden right now.  You’ll hear practical tips and tricks for good management and all about "cues to care."    Native plants will be on sale from Empowering Gardens.    Open to the public, admission is free, registration is encouraged. Register here.   This presentation is in conjunction with the West Cook Wild Ones Native Plant Garden Tour on Saturday, July 26, 1-5 pm. Featuring Gardens in Forest Park and River Forest. For more info, please visit West Cook Wild Ones.org.  
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Ecological Gardening

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At one time all gardening was ecological, based on organic inputs and using mostly native plants. During the twentieth century, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, and the standardized use of exotic plants, changed gardening practice to the extent that gardening could be very harmful to the ecosystem. Ecological gardening encompasses philosophy and practice that reverts to the old idea that a garden should be part of and work with nature to create beauty and grow food, using modern ecological knowledge and organic methods.

An ecological garden can be a 20,000-acre prairie restoration, a 100-acre organic farm, a 1/4-acre suburban yard, or a 25x125-foot city lot. Goals and methods may differ, but the central philosophy of managing the land while contributing to the health of the biotic community, or ecosystem, remains the same.

Some attributes of ecological gardens:
  • They are beautiful
  • They conserve, restore and repeat (echo) the local landscape
  • They are true to place and ecosystem
  • They use mostly or all native plants (except in agriculture)
  • They are sensitive to the needs of and provide habitat for other species
  • They build soil health
  • They use organic inputs and sequester carbon
  • They help manage water