>>We have the saying "Right plant, right place."

It's important to look around your site and see not only the sunlight, but also wind exposure, wetness, 'cause different plants like different things.

>>We're looking for snakeweed, which is a plant that was used to extract poison from the body.

We're also using organic tobacco, which was used for lots of things.

So we're happy to be able to bring those things back: persimmons and wild chestnuts, which we call chinkapins.

>>I'm Peggy Singlemann, and in the first half of our show, we'll be visiting a garden where the traditions of indigenous peoples influence the crop choices and horticulture practices while bringing the community together.

>>And I'm Keith Nevison.

In the second half of the show, we'll be visiting the home of a master gardener to discuss native plants and look at an astounding array of wildlife.

As always, we welcome your questions via Facebook and email.

Stay tuned for another episode of "Virginia Homegrown".

>>Production funding for "Virginia Homegrown" is made possible by.

(upbeat music) >>Hi, I'm Peggy Singlemannn welcome to Virginia Home Grown.

August has been either too dry or too wet, so let's put this hot month behind us as we look forward to September.

Today we're talking about one of my favorite subjects native plants, and the many benefits they provide to the ecosystem and to us.

Remember to send in your questions through Facebook or email, to ask our guests about the plant questions you might have on your mind or other gardening items where you could use some help.

In the second half of the show my cohost Keith Nevison will tour the garden of a master naturalist and master gardener, to learn about the diverse examples of native flora on display.

But first let's take a look at my visit to community roots garden in North Side Richmond, where I met with Amyrose Foll to talk about the importance of the vegetable garden to indigenous peoples and how traditional growing practices and crop varieties are useful today.

>>Bringing the indigenous practices back in this time period and sharing them with people who really need those is really fantastic.

We're a cyclical people and so there were certain times that we lived certain places, that we did certain things, that were in balance with the earth.

We lived here for thousands and thousands of years on those practices, so it will be good for people to know those practices.

(Amyrose speaking in foreign language) >>Welcome to the garden!

So this is Community Roots Garden in Richmond Virginia, North Side.

And it was started by my elder, Vanessa Bolin, from the Richmond Indigenous Society.

And we have a lot of different cultivars that you wouldn't normally see.

And we do that purposely to be able to teach people in this area about what we do and growing methods that might not be so common in the average American garden.

>>Absolutely.

And a question I have is your corn, you've got this wonderful combination, A, it's so tall, but, B, the way it's growing is so uncommon to our typical row gardening.

So tell me about that.

>>Yes.

So these are Eastern, Three Sisters garden mounds.

We've got corn acting as the trellis for the beans, the pole beans, and we've got cucumbers and squash kinda shading out the weeds.

And it works really well.

The beans fix the nitrogen for the corn, they all work in concert with each other.

So it's a great low input gardening method.

>>I don't think people realize how much nitrogen corn requires to really grow well.

>>Yes, and it's so important for us to be able to use natural methods as well.

There's enough things in the environment that we don't need.

So this is great.

And it's great for children to be around because it's safe; there's no chemicals sprayed in here.

>>There's so many vegetables here that are common, but so many of our Native American Indians grew these vegetables as well.

>>Yes.

>>We don't think about that.

>>Green beans, that we all love on our Thanksgiving table, are native to North America and didn't enter the European diet until the 1500s.

>>Wow, that's interesting.

And as well as corn.

>>Yeah.

>>Well, I think we're taught that in school.

(Amyrose laughs) >>75% of our plate actually is native to North and South America, for an average American diet.

>>Yes, 'cause people don't realize where tomatoes come from.

>>Or potatoes aren't Irish.

>>Yes.

(laughs) >>We love a good mashed potato though.

>>Yum.

(laughs) But I'm able to take this produce, and you you share it?

>>Yes, everything is given freely to the neighborhood.

We're in North Side.

We've got several community gardens all over Richmond and some satellite farms farther flung around the state that we provide all of their plants and seeds, free of charge, to anyone that wants to grow for mutual aid or for self-sufficiency.

>>Do they kind of look at you when you bring up a unique squash and you're showing them a green and yellow squash and they kind of go, "Hmm, this is nice.

What is it"?

>>I've ran into that a lot, especially with... We feed a lot of different groups, like some of our Central American families.

They're very, very creative and will cook with just about anything.

And then some of our Caucasian families get a little bit worried about, say something that doesn't look like when it comes out in the grocery store.

So we've been trying to work towards making little recipe cards for heirloom vegetables.

One of my favorite things to grow is Blauer Speck Kohlrabi, but no one ever has any idea what to do with it.

I love it, it's delicious, and that makes me sad because there's a huge bounty of cultivars that are not common to our grocery stores that we have been deprived of, that our grandparents proudly preserved for us.

>>Yes, yes.

And has gone back for generations doing so.

>>Yes, no matter where we come from, none of us have to go back that many generations to find a farmer in the family, really.

>>Truly, truly.

Horticulturally, what are your practices?

Are you using just compost?

Are you bringing in fertilizers?

How are you keeping this sustainable all season long?

>>Everything is tailored to wherever we're growing.

Some gardens are actually just raised beds in little community plots or parks.

This started with cardboard to keep the weeds out after the kudzu was eradicated, which was a feat in and of itself.

And then it just kind of evolves and grows.

The garden knows what it needs to do.

>>Yes.

(chuckles) And so you're able to follow the seasonality by planting your spring crop into your summer crop and into the fall crop?

>>Yes, right now we're saving seeds, or sorting and cleaning seeds from last year.

And they will be distributed and planted in all of our gardens.

I don't like to plant in July.

August is when I start putting in a little bit here and there for the winter garden.

So we'll have this completely covered in different crops in a few months.

>>That's great.

I think so many people get to July and into August and they just throw up their hands and say I've had enough- >>Yes!

>>What they need to realize it's the beginning of the next chapter, the fall garden.

>>Yes.

>>Embrace it!

And a lot of our Native Americans did that without just having to be told.

>>Yeah, so we have a millennia of experience on this continent and...

If you really know how to read the land, she'll provide for you all year round.

I'm regularly picking turnips and lettuce in December and January.

And then come January, I have a woodlot I manage and we turn that into a forest garden and tap: maple trees, hickory nut, and walnut trees to make syrup.

>>But speaking of delicious things, there's more down at the other end, you wanna go take a look?

>>Let's go!

>>All right.

>>And at this end of the garden, we have our pepper plant and some melons.

There's some marigolds for pest control.

>>Excellent, but I also see along the way, you picked up some very interesting fruit and what I would consider a weed.

So what do we have here?

>>This is a Hmong cucumber, and it hails from Vietnam.

And they're absolutely delicious and really great for making pickles.

>>But what about that weed in your hand there?

>>So, this is actually goosefoot.

And this was a staple of our diet for millennia throughout most of native North America before colonization.

It's absolutely delicious.

>>What parts of it do you eat?

>>You can eat the whole plant.

How adventurous are you?

>>Oh very, very.

>>Tastes a little bit like asparagus in the stem.

You can make greens out of it.

>>Hmm, this is tasty.

>>You can dry the leaves to make kale chips, or cook them down like greens.

>>You're making me hungry.

(laughs) All of this here is very, very impressive, knowing that what's behind me is how it started with all of this kudzu in this brush back here.

So it must have taken the community?

>>The community reclaimed this land themselves.

And it was the work of a lot of determined people to really bring this to be tamed.

>>But this has become a labor of love.

>>It has, yeah.

>>And I can see where the community is benefiting in so many ways.

So please share with me how this garden has knitted the community together.

>>So we have volunteer days here and there are people from all walks of life, all colors, creeds, and all ages together as well.

And I think that intergenerational gardening and learning together is really, really important.

>>Oh, it's so important.

>>And all of the food here is donated free of charge within the community to whoever needs it.

We stock the community fridges, and a lot of it is distributed to the elders in this neighborhood.

>>That's fantastic.

Amy, earlier you shared with me an analogy about the garden and its progression through the seasons.

Can you share it with us?

>>Yes, I can't speak for every native community because we all have different cultures and customs and stories.

But it's said that in the springtime, the earth is pregnant and to tread lightly on her.

In the late spring and early summer, the garden is an infant that we need to take care of and nurture.

And then in the summer, harvest, and fall, the garden is our grandmother that provides for us and feeds us and gives us everything we need.

>>Thank you for sharing it with us.

>>Thank you.

We really enjoyed having you at Community Roots.

>>She's doing a garden for us at the Rappahannock Tribe.

It's an opportunity to pass on these traditions to the young people.

And so now we're taking our children back to those traditional ways and teaching them about their medicinals and their food sources that are healthy for them, so that they can pass it on for the generations to come.

Thanks to chief Anne Richardson for joining us on a hot morning to share how the Rappahannock Tribe is participating in this garden revival project.

Now Amyrose is here again with me to demonstrate how to save seeds and talk more about her work to re-establish some traditional crop varieties.

But before we get started, remember to send in your gardening questions via Facebook or email.

Well Amyrose, you brought in quite an array of vegetables here, and I'm very familiar with what they are but I'm not familiar with all the different cultivars such as that beautiful corn in front of you.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

>>So this is glass gem it rose to fame in Major Media I would say probably about 10 years ago.

This came from Carl Barnes before he passed away in 2016 and I've been working with it for about the last 10 years to try to consistently get about five years per stock of corn.

>>And so what you do as you've been, as you harvest you kind of save the seeds from the five-years the five years corn stocks?

>>So we let them, we sort them into different categories of how good the quality of the seed is, how uniform the seeds are, the number of cobs on the stalks and then we let them dry completely on the stalk.

So this will be brown not green like the grocery store corn that you're used to.

And that's what we save.

>>Interesting, but you've got some beautiful like blush corn here, this kind of with a red pink tint to it I've never seen that before.

>>This is Abenaki Rose Corn, and it is a white flower corn with a rose halo thus Abenaki Rose Corn.

>>Yes beautiful.

>>And those are all short season variety that was cultivated for the last few thousand years in New England and Maritime Canada.

>>Interesting, what section, well first I wanna finish this cause this corn is dented and usually here in present day dented core is feed corn, but here's this beautiful blue dented corn here, so.

>>So that's a dent corn you can tell by the dents on the top of each one of those kernels, and that's traditionally feed corn now in modern America, but it can be roasted and it can be parched and used for a lot of different things.

You can actually grind that and make grits and harmony and moss out of it as well.

>>Yeah, so how, what part of the cob are you saving for the seed?

>>So what we do is we take the best plants and we dry them, then once they're dry we would take and use your hands to save the middle part of each one of these corncobs, and that's called the corn mother, just like the child comes from the mother's middle- >>Right.

>>The corn that we plant from year to year is gonna come from the best kernels in the center of the cob.

>>Interesting, how interesting.

Once you have dried them on the corn stalk and you've harvested them and then you've harvested the seed, how do you store them?

>>So we actually freeze all of our corn, >>Okay, >>And it's completely dry you wanna take it down to about three to 5% humidity and then it's frozen and it stays frozen until I use it when it's ready.

We catalog everything so I know the growing conditions that that corn developed under the year that it was harvested and all sorts of things like that.

The average the gardener doesn't really do.

>>Wonderful record keeping.

People who wanna journal this is it.

(laughs) >>Yeah we take it very seriously especially because things like the Abenaki Rose Corn are very rare and you can't generally buy them commercially.

>>Well you're dealing with plants that you just can't go down to the local garden center and pick up.

>>It's our heritage we need to preserve it for future generations.

>>Speaking of there's one more unique corn in that basket there let's pul that up.

>>So this is, so this is a blue flower corn it is centaurea cyanus.

>>Can you take a little out in your hands so everybody can see it.

And so this is really great for making masa.

We would nixtamalize this which is to soak it in hardwood ashes.

And that removes the pericarp, which is the outer layer of that corn.

>>Flatten your hand a little bit, there we go thank you.

>>So that would slip off, it actually also adds calcium and vitamin B to it.

And that's what helped generations of people prevent pellagra because it unlocks the nutritional capacity of the corn when you do that.

And it allows you can actually redry it and it'll last for quite a long time.

So traditional Southern Harmony is also is just the whole corn after it's been nixtamalized.

>>Thank you, well we've gotta go from corn to beans cause we want so much to talk about.

So let's- >>Put that in there.

>>You've got some interesting beans not our usual you know garden beans, so let's please.

>>Yeah so we have another star of the three sisters, these right here these are very beautiful I'm gonna put them here on your board so that- >>Please do so that people can see.

>>So these are Seneca Bear Paw Beans, right here these beautiful purple and black beans.

>>They are lovely, yes.

>>And then these are true cranberry or Abenaki cranberry beans.

These are also from New England, this would be from the great lakes region.

>>Right.

>>And then we've got Potawatomi beans, which are I don't know, there's something about these colors, the Calico color on those lima beans, but it's just breathtaking to me.

>>Beautiful.

>>I love opening up these- >>Pods to discover what's inside.

>>Yes so we let them dry so that- >>On the plants?

>>Yeah we let them dry right on the plants, and then I send my sons around to collect them all into a bucket.

>>Look at those beans they are so beautiful.

>>There's something so magical about just finding out what's inside and how beautiful.

>>So these ones aren't as pretty as these ones right here.

>>Oh but those are pretty enough to have picture.

>>But they're pretty neat.

So we wouldn't save these ones, these would be eating beans.

>>Yes.

>>These would be saved for next year.

And what we really try to strive for is the best quality, the first producing the most uniform habit and form of every season.

>>And then you would dry of course those are dried, and so you would store them in a jar or?

>>So generally I put these in the jar and then they also go into the freezer as well.

So we have a lot of freezer space- >>I bet you do.

(laughs) >>Gets a little overwhelming to my husband sometimes.

>>You should see my refrigerator anyway.

(laughs) >>But I love them they're beautiful.

And we actually redistribute a lot of these seeds.

The seeds are saved to be given freely to anybody that wants to grow.

We send them to the Tuscarora Reservation in Lewistown in New York and all the way down to Puerto Rico and out to Oakland, California they go everywhere.

>>To other reservations, yes.

Speaking of I know we only have a minute or two, but the yellow, you know, we have all those squashes over there and one of them is a pumpkin there, people don't realize which one it's going to be.

But could you show us about how to harvest the squash seeds and the pumpkin seeds, yes?

>>Okay, so this is a Penobscot pumpkin.

>>Yeah put it over the board, thank you yes.

>>So generally we would cut it longitudinally.

We wait until they I'm actually I'm gonna turn this around, and you see how dry this is?

I wait until this sucks up every last little bit of sunlight that the garden has to offer and the vine start to dry.

So it's just about falling off of the vine when it's ready to go.

>>Okay.

>>So you would actually cut these out of the middle and just like the corn, the ones on the ends aren't quite so good.

>>Right.

>>So all of the good seeds would be coming from the middle and you can see how nice fat this one is.

>>Yes that's a healthy seed.

>>And so I actually run them through the colander, a very low-tech go through the colander spray them down with water, and then they go right onto a screen for drying.

And then every surface in my house becomes a seed storing nightmare.

(laughs) It's pretty great though, it's really beautiful and it's a great opportunity for children to learn, because it's something they can't really break and they get to learn a little bit of science.

>>And I think the joy of it is, growing something, harvesting the seed, preserving the seed, and then pulling it out and growing it again next year.

And then again preserving that seed.

>>And hopefully my children will do the same thing.

I save seeds that my grandmother had saved for when she was still gardening.

>>Oh that's wonderful- >>From her plants.

>>What a great legacy.

Well Amyrose I have to applaud you for the work you're doing and the effort you're making into preserving all of these wonderful vegetables that we don't consider as part of our mainstay diet from the grocery store, but have been around for more than just generations.

So thank you, thank you very much.

So, you know I do have to add that many think native American culture is a part of the past, but that is far from the truth, important contributions like passing along traditional growing methods to local gardeners and preserving unique vegetable seeds for the future are benefits to all cultures today.

This has been great information and I really truly appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

And now we're going to get ready to answer your questions.

But first we have a tip from Allison Hurst at Legacy Farm RVA about how to select plants for your garden and why natives are usually a good choice.

(upbeat music) >>In the world of growing, it can be so exciting to dream and envision your garden and all the different plants you'll have in it.

But likewise, it can often be very daunting, because there's a lot of plants, and there's a lot of factors for growing a healthy and wonderful garden.

And native plants are really a blessing when it comes to growing because they're just meant to be here.

When I'm thinking about the plants I want to put into my garden space, I consider history and function.

When I talk about history, I mean telling a story; a narrative about your garden space.

What's been occurring on the land before now?

What is growing and living here now, and would help it to thrive?

And then also, what kind of story do you want to keep telling with your gardens so that people can be inspired, and so that your area can be thriving and fruitful?

Another item I like to consider is function.

Is your plant going to sit well in full sun, if it's partially shaded?

No, if it likes partial shade, it wants to be in an area that probably has a canopy.

So what kind of infrastructure do you have in place, or what is around you in your setting, that is going to support the plants you want to see?

Are there pollinators, or bugs, or insects, or other animals, birds, hummingbirds, you'd like to see in your garden?

Maybe there's a plant like Echinacea, Purple Coneflower, that would be great for inviting some of those animals and insects into your garden.

Or a plant like Common Yarrow that's colorful, balmy, and also medicinal, another great pick for your garden.

I want to think about maybe shade in another spot, maybe I'll choose a vine like Passiflora incarnata.

Whatever the case, you want to think about what's gonna work for you, and what you want to create, but also what kind of relationship and support you want to give to the ground where you're growing.

When in doubt, do some research.

Where are you living?

What kind of light are you experiencing?

How much rain does your plant need?

I think that you'll find, when you ask these questions, you're going to have a great growing experience.

Good luck with telling your story, and I hope that your garden thrives.

Thank you Allison, like I always say, right plant right place.

And native plants don't have to adapt, they're knitted into our environment from the beginning, you know, and that's why they're native.

On Facebook right now cohost Keith Nevison and the team are answering your questions, so please send them in via Facebook or email, we always enjoy hearing from you.

Well Amyrose, we've got a bunch of questions here and some are for you and some are for me and jump in when you feel comfortable to do so, but there's quite a few here for you so let's get started.

First one is it's from Patrick and was wondering what was the vegetable crop that native Americans grew the most in early America?

>>So of course corn, corn is the most important thing.

We even have a green corn ceremony or green corn dance that's pretty common to most tribes.

But actually native plums that can be found throughout Virginia are one of the most important food sources.

>>Really?

>>Yup.

>>Interesting.

>>Yeah.

>>What was the I'll say the plant that native Americans grew that we really don't associate with them that it's misinterpreted?

>>I would say tomatoes because everyone thinks of tomatoes as an Italian thing with pizza and pasta.

But what would Italian cooking be without that?

But it actually originated in the Americas.

>>Interesting, well it's more the South America's cause nice and warm, so but thank you.

We have another question here from Mary.

What are the nutritional benefits of the beans that you shared?

>>So beans are very high in protein and in fiber, everyone knows that wonderful childhood rhyme about beans, but a lot of those beans are actually I think the nutrition is good for my soul because I love the way it looks the colors of it.

But I don't know whether that could be necessarily nutrition but there's value in that.

>>There is, it's nice to have pretty beans on your plate.

>>It is, and they're great source of protein.

>>They are very good sources of protein.

Anybody who's gone to a vegetarian or vegan diet has started to eat a lot of beans, so but thank you.

Another one we have is when is the best time to plant garlic?

Sally would like to know when, and then when should it be harvested?

>>I always plant garlic in the fall, that's those are giving me the best results.

Sometimes I'll actually inter plant them with some ride, keep weeds down in between the garlic, and then I like to harvest green garlic when they're putting those scapes out in the summertime or in the spring time to cook with, and then I don't harvest it until the early summer late spring.

>>So you put it in now and then you wait till late spring, early summer to harvest.

>>Yes yeah, but in between you get those great garlic scapes and some of those greens.

>>Yes.

>>They're fantastic to cook with.

>>They are, we think of garlic chives you can just get garlic and cut off the greens and use those as well.

So some flowers seeds we have, oh Vicky in Charlottesville thank you Vicky.

I saw that a lot of sunflowers here in Charlottesville and most of these grow to be about 14 to 15 feet tall.

They attracted lots of bees, butterflies and birds, how can I best store, these seeds for next year's plantings and bird feedings?

Pick them out of the heads and keep them in paper bags, plastic baggies, leave them in the head until next spring?

>>So I draw the head's hole and then I put them in paper bags never plastic once they're completely dry.

And then I actually freeze those as well.

I know I sound like a big proponent of freezers, I am not working for Whirlpool, but I do enjoy freezing the seeds because then I have the option if I'm not gonna use them right away, I can store them for the season afterwards too.

>>How long will they store for how many years?

>>Well I can tell you all seeds are different.

Orthodox seeds generally stay in the freezer for quite a long time.

The tomatoes I grew this year were from seeds that I saved in 2001.

>>But they were in that freezer.

>>They put no, they they're in the ground this year, and they put out hundreds of pounds of fruit to give away.

>>Fantastic, fantastic.

Well it's nice to know that we can put seeds in our freezer and kind of forget about them for a few years find them and they will grow.

>>It's a good insurance policy.

>>You know, I think it's also kind of fun to discover what's in the bottom of that freezer.

That's why we put them in freezers and refrigerators.

So another question is, do you know of a local source for milkweed, joe pye weed, et cetera?

>>I got my milkweed from Seed Savers Exchange, which I believe is an Iowa, southern exposure might have some though.

>>You never know.

It's best to go on the internet and just kinda check things out.

>>There's also fields you might be able to find a farmer that might be willing to oblige if you ask permission.

>>Yes, and you do have to ask permission first.

>>Definitely.

>>It's kinda crazy.

Well I do have to ask a question too, is when we were talking, you know, about pumpkins earlier, people don't realize that the one that you cut open was a pumpkin.

>>Yes it was not a squash.

>>No that was not.

So where did that come from that pumpkin?

So that's a Penobscot pumpkin, >>It's a squash Amy.

(laughs) >>So they're very closely related, but that is a maxima.

So it is a Penobscot pumpkin, that came from Indian Island Maine and you can't usually generally buy them on the internet, they are tribal the varieties are generally kept and passed from native seed keeper to native seed keeper.

>>Wonderful, what's the flavor?

>>I love that, I think they're good in everything they're very sweet, I actually kind of stir fry them for breakfast.

>>Interesting, interesting.

>>So good, and it's so good for you.

>>If you were to share with people, but thank you I'd like to try one.

But if you were to share with people a vegetable that they should try to grow that is not in our typical present day gardens but it's more from the indigenous garden era I'll say, what would you suggest?

>>I would say be adventurous with corn.

I hear people constantly asking is all corn edible?

And you know what, it is.

And some of it's really delicious and it's kind of been lost to us over the ages with uniformity and the yellow corn that we have in the grocery store, that beautiful rainbow corn that is absolutely delicious, and it's got a really great nutty flavor.

>>Wonderful, wonderful.

And you're not just boiling it and eating it you're actually grinding it up and using it and cooking it in something.

>>You can boil it and eat it, you can roast it corn is very adaptable and very diverse.

>>Thank you, thank you very much.

Amy, it's been a joy to have you on the show and I thank you for sharing your knowledge and introducing us to some vegetables that we were familiar with, but not really familiar with, so thank you.

>>Thank you, >>And now let's join Keith Nevison to visit with Dr. Dorothy Tompkins, a master naturalist and master gardener and walk through her garden, which is bursting with native flora, to talk about how she makes her plant choices and why native plants are so important in the ecosystem.

(birds twittering) >>Hi, Dorothy, thanks so much for having us out to your garden.

It's so beautiful, full of color.

I'm seeing lots of pollinators.

I'm hearing lots of birds.

What kind of wildlife do you see in these days in your garden?

>>Well, we're seeing a lot of insects and several different kinds of butterflies, and of course, the birds.

The birds are attracted to the insects, but they're also attracted to things that are starting to make seed.

We have quite a variety of birds that actually nest right around the house here.

>>Oh, nice, are deer a challenge in your garden, as they are in most people's gardens?

>>Somewhat.

But by having just a large variety of plants and not having masses of one particular plant, the deer are really not that much of a problem.

We do have some problems with rabbits, but again, having just a huge variety of plants helps to alleviate the problem.

>>Nice, that's great.

I noticed you have a lot of native plants in your garden, but I'm also seeing some ornamentals peppered through.

What's your approach to gardening here?

>>Well, most of us have some non-native plants that we're rather fond of.

And it's what we call "sight adapted".

They fit right in.

Site adapted means they fit into the local ecosystem.

As the site adapted flowering plant, which most of them are, the insects are attracted to the flowers.

They may provide cover.

Like for instance, coneflowers, which there are a lot of around here.

Right now there are a lot of pollinators on them and then, in the winter, the seeds attract particularly goldfinches, but other other birds too.

>>So you're really gardening for four seasons, all four seasons, and seeing a lot of wildlife in your garden throughout that time.

>>Right.

>>Well, you've got a lot of showstopping plants right now that are really growing super well through this drought that we've been having.

So why don't we take a look at some of them now?

>>Okay, here's a verbena, which is a native, and it volunteers in the garden, which is fun.

And here we have Joe Pye weed.

>>It's beautiful.

I love the pink on the unopened flowers.

>>Right and butterflies, a large variety of butterflies, love that.

And of course here, the coneflowers.

>>Yeah, gorgeous as always.

And what is this really interesting grass you have here?

>>This is bottlebrush grass which likes some shade.

>>That's really nice native grass.

>>It is, it's very attractive.

And here's a blue mist, that's just getting ready to come out.

It's a very prevalent native plant.

>>That's a really nice, fall blooming, some great color in the fall garden.

>>Right, and the blue will be coming along.

>>Just about time, just about to start flowering.

That's gorgeous.

>>And here we have something that's just full of bees, Clethra or sweet pepperbush.

>>Wow, look at all the activity in this plant right now.

>>You can hear it.

>>Yeah.

So you've got a lot of shrubs actually in the garden.

I noticed some mix of natives and some ornamental shrubs.

>>Right, well, this is a rain garden, so the clethra does very well here.

Itea would also do well.

>>Nice, now you've got a beautiful oak tree in the foreground here, in your garden.

Can you tell us a little bit more about how...

I imagined this was already here and you kind of work your garden around it?

>>Right, yeah, it's a white oak, but it's also very tuff oak.

It has Virginia creeper growing up it, which we've left because Virginia creeper provides food for the pollinators in the spring and berries for the birds in the fall.

But also, those droops that hang down, the orioles like to nest in there.

So it's interesting that we can sit here on the porch and watch the orioles go in to feed their young.

>>Oh, that's so neat.

Of course oak are so valuable for supporting all sorts of different caterpillars, so they're really a key component to having a richness of pollinators in the garden.

>>Right.

>>I see you also have lots of ground covers as well in the garden.

>>Right.

>>What is this one that's kind of thriving right now in the dry conditions?

>>This is green-and-gold, and there's some more of it along here.

Also, there's some erigeron, or robin's plantain.

>>Now you also got...

This is also having a lot of pollinator activity, right.

This is anise hyssop?

>>Yes, yeah.

And the pollinators love it and the goldfinches love the seeds.

>>Oh, great.

Wonderful.

>>And the deer don't eat it.

>>(chuckles) That's key.

I noticed you've got a nice fennel plant here.

You're letting that grow, is that for pollinators as well?

>>Right, the caterpillars like this.

It's not a native, but it's not aggressive either, so it fits into the ecosystem.

>>And it's important for swallowtail caterpillars, right?

So I know you've got a lot of swallowtail butterflies as well in your garden.

>>Right, in fact, we have something for the swallowtails starting in the early spring because they'll come to those native azaleas that are down there.

They seem to really like the native azaleas.

>>Nice.

That's great.

>>And then we have some more verbena here.

And then we have milkweed.

>>Oh, yes, look at that.

Done flowering, but look at those pods there, so striking.

>>I'm pretty tolerant of things just kind of popping up, as you can see.

I do pull out some because milkweed, even though it's native, can be a little aggressive.

It can come up pretty much anywhere.

But I did see a few monarchs earlier in the year, so I'm hoping as they start their migration, 'cause frequently we do see some in the fall as the migration starts.

>>Well, it's just so much fun that you're having out here in your garden.

>>It is.

>>And you know your garden so well.

Clearly, this was not an overnight work.

You really worked diligently over the years.

What kind of advice do you have for people who are just getting started who really have an interest in native plant gardening?

>>Right, well, there are a lot of people around who can be very, very helpful.

And at the extension office, actually the extension office itself might be helpful.

But particularly the Master Gardeners, the Master Gardeners have a help desk.

The Master Naturalists, of course, loves to talk about using baby plants.

And a lot of gardeners love to share their stories about how they got something to grow.

So in this area there are some more native shrubs, there's a shadbush or the Amelanchier, which in June the birds love the berries, and they have lovely foliage in the winter.

>>Quite delicious as well, right?

>>They are.

>>I've noticed you also have some other edibles in your garden.

>>I do.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah, it's hard to get some of them because the birds like them so much.

(Keith laughs) >>I saw some pawpaws over there and- >>Right and the elderberries, the elderberries just finished.

I made some elderberry jam.

The blueberries, generally the birds get them, but that's okay.

>>Sure.

(laughs) So over time, how did you really kind of think about this and create this?

Did you bring in like different media in order to amend the soil to create the right conditions or did you just work with what you had?

>>Well, I used some compost as I planted things.

The soil here is actually pretty sandy, which is very unusual for Albemarle County.

The advantage of that is it's well drained.

So there are a lot of plants that don't like to grow where they have, what we call "wet feet," wet and damp areas.

But as far as planning, what you're going to put in your garden, it's really important to look at a site before you start putting plants in.

And see, you know, does this get any afternoon shade?

Well, a lot of plants don't like our afternoons in July and August to have no shade at all.

>>That's right, just like us.

>>Right.

>>Well, Dorothy, thank you so much for having us out.

Your garden is an inspiration.

It's packed full of diversity.

You've got so much wildlife out here.

It's been wonderful to witness that and to really take that in, it's just... What a fun garden.

>>It is fun!

Thank you.

Keith, thank you for highlighting that beautiful garden, I'm jealous I did not get to visit it in person.

Shea Willis, the owner of Earth Goods is here with us now to talk about some interesting uses for the native plants in our landscapes.

Before we begin, I wanna remind you to send in your gardening questions via email or Facebook.

Well Shea, you've brought in a lot of interesting plants and I'm excited to see how we can use these that are on the table, so.

>>Everything here has a lot of uses they really do.

One of the first things that we've got here is staghorn sumac.

And we're going to actually while we're talking- >>Yes.

>>We're going to make a poultice with this real quick.

And I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna put it down into this water because a sumac actually what's beneficial about this is generally on the outside of the berries.

It's very high in malic acid, vitamin C things like that.

And while that's sitting there and resting for a couple of minutes, I'm actually going to move over here to where we've got some different types of plantain, plantain is- >>You've got English and native I see.

>>Yes we do.

And I'm just gonna cut some of this into some smaller pieces.

>>And you're cutting them up into smaller pieces.

>>Cutting them up into smaller pieces because I'm going to put some into this mortar and pestle, and we're going to bruise those just a little bit.

>>You're not gonna crush them, you're gonna bruise them I noticed that.

>>Yeah I'm gonna bruise them just a little bit.

And what that does is that actually releases some of those juices, there's beneficial juices that are in these plants.

>>Okay.

>>And then while that sits there for a moment, we're going to reach over here and grab jewelweed.

>>One of my favorite plants.

>>Jewelweed is one of my favorite plants in the world.

>>You know it's an impatiens.

>>Yes, and in fact just like with touch me not and things like that.

When these actually go to seed if you touch the seed pods, they will explode all over the place.

They're so much fun to play with, they really are.

So I'm gonna cut a couple of pieces of the stalk, which is very, very, I'll say filled with a lot of sap.

It's filled with a lot of sap, oh and a couple of ants too.

>>Those are extra bonus.

>>Yes extra bonuses.

So I'm gonna cut these into some smaller pieces.

Ooh lots of ants in there.

>>It liked that plant.

>>They like that.

And I'm gonna grind those up a little bit too.

>>Over the green.

>>Over top of the green grind them on the green.

And then I'm gonna take that and I'm gonna put it into a muslin bag.

>>Okay.

>>Aunts and all.

>>Ants and all.

>>So you've really bruised them you haven't crushed them I haven't been crushed them.

>>I haven't crushed them, I have just bruise them to where you can see how they're wet.

>>But they still look like leaves.

>>And they still look like leaves.

And so I'm gonna put those in there.

>>Okay.

And then I'm gonna move over here and I'm gonna take this sumac out of the water, because it's had a little time to sit there and you can tell that the water is beginning to change color just a little bit it's starting to get a pinkish hue to it.

>>And I'm just gonna dunk that in there for a second and get it- >>Good and wet.

>>Good and wet.

>>So that water is actually mixing with all the juices that were just released with the bruising.

>>That's right, now what we have here would be a traditional poultice.

>>Which we could apply to our skin.

>>Which we can apply to our skin, absolutely.

>>That was wonderful, that was so easy.

>>It's so easy, it is incredibly and it can be done just if you're out and you're gathering plants, we just we do this, you a can actually chew them and you can just put them on your skin while we're gathering.

>>But you have to know what you're doing.

>>You have to know what you're doing, you do.

Yeah so this is so easy.

But you could actually use a rock to kind of bruise it.

>>You could use rocks to bruise this and in the summertime you can then store this, you know, in a plastic bag, put it in the refrigerator.

And it's really, really nice and cool.

>>I bet that would sooth any hot skin.

>>Any type of hot skin.

Yes in fact it will.

>>So yeah but back to our sumac which was a childhood favorite of mine.

>>Yes sumac is lovely.

>>So that could be another soothing poultice as well?

>>Absolutely the reason that we put this into the water and then we added the bag to the water is because this is so high in malic acid and in vitamin C, both are which of course are very beneficial for healthy skin.

So that's why we put that in there.

>>All right but we would not wanna drink that.

>>Actually we could.

>>We could?

>>We absolutely could.

This is a great plant for making tea, in fact there's something called sumac aid and it's actually, it's very tart and very lemony and very citrusy and it is delicious.

What you wouldn't want to do is actually to make like a hot tea out of this, you don't wanna boil this because the vitamin C is what's beneficial and of course that's broken down it's broken down in heat.

So actually you could gather these, you don't even have to pull the little droops off of them.

You just stick them in the water and let them sit for a couple of hours and you have an absolutely wonderful beverage.

Very, very refreshing on a hot summer day.

>>Wonderful, well speaking of refreshing too, there's a persimmon in here.

>>There is a persimmon in here.

I was so stoked to find this.

>>But it not not time to eat the persimmon.

>>You're welcome to give it a try if you like.

>>I 'll let you go first.

>>No I don't think so.

Yeah so I was really stoked to find this wild persimmons are not going to be as as large as what you would find in a grocery store, but you can see it starting to get some of that lovely persimmon color there.

And they really do require a good frost.

>>A very good frost.

>>Before you would be able to eat this without your drying, well yeah.

>>Those starches have to change to sugar.

>>Yes they do, but these are one of my favorite fall fruits they are so delicious and they're so good.

>>That is wonderful but we've got to move along.

So we've got some pawpaws there.

>>We do we have pawpaws here and I have one that's absolutely ripe.

And then I have another one that I plucked from the tree today.

And you can see the difference this is yellow, and this one is a little greener.

>>I can.

>>And show you my favorite thing to do with pawpaws.

If I'm actually out gathering them of course I don't have a knife.

>>Look at how ripe that one is.

>>I just pop them and then you actually just push them from the bottom.

>>Oh pawpaw pops.

>>It is pawpaw pops yeah absolutely, pawpaw pops.

>>And look at those seeds.

>>And it is so delicious, it's like natural custard.

They're absolutely wonderful.

>>Actually my mouth is watering looking at it.

>>Yeah it smells so good oh my goodness they're delicious.

>>We've gotta keep going.

>>Sorry yeah so also coming into season before too long are gonna be our wild grapes, which are wonderful.

>>Which actually saved the wine industry worldwide but we won't get into that.

No we're not gonna get into that, we're not gonna get into that.

And then I've got a couple of other things here I've got some spice bush berries these are really wonderful, ants are still crawling.

These are really wonderful for making teas, sauces and things like that.

And then I've got something else, these are autumn olive berries.

>>Oh yes.

>>I know the dreaded autumn olive, we've got an autumn bush here that I brought in and I realized this is the plant that everybody loves to hate.

>>Cause the berries are so prolific and the plant spread and they just spread every invasiveless But the berries are very new nutritious.

>>They are incredibly nutritious.

They are about four times higher in lycopene than tomatoes are.

They have a huge burst of vitamin C which is great for us.

This time of year we're going into fall, so the sumac and the even the spice bush berries and the autumn olives are incredibly good for you for that boost of vitamin C we're getting into cold and flu season.

So and grapes as well.

>>That's fantastic, Shea you've enlightened us and I'm going to add that it's so important for people to be able to identify these plants properly before they- >>Absolutely.

>>Take this under their advisement plan, and thank you for bringing this all in and sharing.

>>Thank you for having me.

And now we're going to get ready to answer your questions, but first we have a tip from Dr. Robin Puffenbarger from Bridgewater College, about how to replace the monoculture of turf grass with native plants.

(upbeat music) >>Welcome to downtown Harrisonburg, and my friends', Jennifer and David's, natural garden.

As you can see, there's very little lawn.

Remember, our lawns are fairly sterile ecosystems, and they don't really support a number of our insects and our birds.

So, for many of us, a lawn may seem like a time-saving way to manage our habitats.

But remember, we have to mow spring, summer and fall.

And there are weed, feed, and seeding things to keep that lawn green and growing.

And it just isn't a good choice in terms of insect and bird diversity.

So a number of homeowners are interested in creating a more diverse habitat by adding native plants.

The Virginia Native Plant Society is a great place to go for more information about adding natives to your yard.

Now you don't have to start by doing the whole lawn, as Jennifer and David have done.

Many of us may want to just take a small patch and convert the lawn to some natives.

Here's a great example, the Virginia native petunia, with its bright purple flowers.

Right now in August, it's a time where not a lot of other things are blooming, and I am surrounded by butterflies and bumblebees, which are very happily taking the nectar and pollen from this plant.

Things like echinacea will plant and stay where you put them, whereas something like the native Petunia, as you can see, is growing and taking a lot more space.

But that's where a little bit of pulling on your part can keep it in the place you want it.

Or maybe you just want to let it spread across area that you want in native plants.

Notice my friends did not necessarily remove every non-native.

Behind me there's a beautiful, mature Japanese maple, and a number of hostas in the deep shade.

One rule of thumb comes from Dr. Doug Tallamy, to think about 70% native plants and 30% non-native, so you can enjoy maybe some of your favorites, like the hostas, along with these plants that are going to support your native insects and bird life.

So, take it a little bit at a time, add some new plants instead of some lawn, and create a diverse ecosystem in your yard.

Robin, thank you for that advice.

Imagine the difference it would make if everyone committed to replacing just a small percentage of their lawn with native plants.

Well Shea, we've got some questions here and some are for you and some are for me and feel free to jump in when you feel comfortable, okay.

The first one though I'm going to answer is from Nancy and unfortunately, oh Nancy was asked sorry switched questions pardon me.

But what is a good native plant that stays green year round, that would be good for a trellis.

Something that we can think about and something that we can answer in a few minutes so we can give Nancy an answer.

Another question we have is concerning native plants.

What are some options for a native ground cover that will establish well and replace a lawn on a hillside?

Ooh, that's a tough one.

>>That is tough.

>>Cause green and gold is a favorite of mine and it really spreads nicely.

>>Yes.

>>I have actually used some of the ferns to handle a hillside.

I've actually used some heucheras and I'm sorry, and coral bells that have actually covered a hillside very nicely.

These are plants that could handle some of the heat.

I'm wondering though, is it a full sun or a partial sun situation?

Cause lawn can grow in either or, do you have any thoughts on that?

>>I think the green and gold would be a good choice, cause it's pretty hardy.

>>It is.

It can go almost anywhere can tolerate most anything.

>>Exactly, plus rudbeckia, rudbeckia would work, meaning good old black-eyed susans.

>>Yeah and they're so pretty.

And they're so pretty and they run everywhere.

Yes they would really work well in holding that hillside very well.

>>Yes they would.

>>So well let's move on then, okay.

I'm going to jump into David in White Stone who has ended up with peaches as peachtree is loaded with peaches and it appears to have brown rot, and I am so sorry David.

Brown rot on peaches is a very common and with most of our stone fruits unfortunately the best way to treat it at this stage of the game is to get clippers and to cut the brown rot in the effected fruit off of, you cut the effected fruit off of the tree, but also remove the affected branch, and cleaning your clippers with isopropyl rubbing alcohol between each cut, and then remove all the leaf debris and everything from underneath the tree.

Come next spring though if you start to apply right at blossom time with a commercial fruit tree fungicide.

Following the directions on the label you will be able to control brown rot next year.

So I'm so, so sorry, whatever you cut off, bag it and get it off the property, alrighty very, very invasive.

We have another one here about okra, and why isn't there more okra grown here?

Is a question from Susan.

And Susan I'm gonna answer that to saying it's a plant that I think people misunderstand.

Have you grown okra Shea?

>>No.

>>Yes, some people love it some people don't.

>>Yeah I'm not a lover of okra.

But on the other hand you have to harvest it when it's only an inch to an inch and a half long.

This is not a plant to wait for those pods to fully form.

If you wanna use it ornamentally or to save the seed, yes.

But to use it in culinary practices, you have to harvest it very early, and I think most people don't realize that.

Another question is having great trouble with nutsedge weed.

Don't like using herbicides, is there a mechanical means of controlling nutsedge?

And I understand pulling the leaves is not the correct solution.

Yes the sulfur is damaging to the other plants, you've got to get the little nutlets that are in the roots.

So pulling is really not the answer, you can if you need to dig up an area and get all the soil to remove the nutsedge and dispose of it elsewhere, if you don't want to use any other practices other than that.

And then a question on tilling, do you till your garden beds Shea or do you wait?

>>No actually I don't know I have garden beds I use some straw bale gardening.

>>Oh straw bale gardening.

>>Because where we are is the soil is it's not soil it's clay.

It's truly just hard pack to clay.

>>So do you put the bales out in an arrangement or do you?

>>I sure do I actually it's almost like a labyrinth type of thing because it's fun you know, it's enjoyable to do.

And it's a perfect way to grow in places where there is poor soil, because the bales actually become a substitute for the soil and they're conditioned ahead of time, and the plants just grow like wild.

You get such big beautiful plants with that method.

>>So do you to start it, do you sort of separate the bale and put a little soil into start or just put the seed in?

>>Nope you get the bales and you condition them with water and some organ I use organic fertilizers natural fertilizers.

And you just let them kinda cook for about 10 days.

And then if you've got, if you're planting seedlings you can actually put little like little seed pellet types of things or a little mounds of dirt push it down in there.

But if you're planting actual plants not just seeds, you just kinda put your fist down in there and make a little hole and put it in there and just close it right back up.

>>Oh that's fascinating, yes.

>>No weeds, you don't break your back, you know, and it's not hard pack like the clay.

>>That's it, how about for watering when it gets very dry those must- >>Oh it holds the water holds the water in it.

It's actually a really responsible way to garden in drought conditions and things like that because it holds those bales hold the water so much better than traditional gardening methods do.

>>And then at the end of the season, you just open them and spread them on the soil surface.

>>You reuse them, yep I actually compost them or even just repackage them in plastic bins retie them use them the next year.

>>That's fantastic.

>>Yeah it's cool stuff.

>>That is cool stuff I'm very, very impressed, so.

Well Shea, I wanna thank you for being with us today and sharing so many things.

>>Absolutely.

>>Some unique gardening methods as well as use of native plants.

>>Thank you for having me.

>>Its has been wonderful information.

So I wanna encourage you to check out our Facebook page for timely information from the team and also look for Pat's Plant Pick after the show.

This month, he's talking about water hyacinth.

So if you wanna take a little break from natives, check that out.

Coming up, Plant Virginia Natives is hosting the series Landscaping with Natives from September 1st to November 9th.

I'll be speaking about native shrubs.

You sign up for the series at PlantVirginiaNatives.org and Louis Ginter Botanical Garden is holding a fall plant sale on September 17th and 18th.

For details, please visit their website LewisgGinter.org.

Next month, our show is all about how to enjoy gardening in small spaces.

We will meet a gardener who calls his designs miniature worlds, and visit a special small garden for children at a public library.

I look forward to being with you then.

And remember gardening is for everyone, we are all growing and learning together.

Thanks for watching and happy gardening.

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