So Wellfield Botanic Gardens here in Elkhart looks a lot different than it did the last time I was here.

Lots of exciting renovations going on that are hoping to open later this year, but there's still a lot of things that you can do between now and then.

I'm here with Chrisi Cornell, who is the education coordinator.

How are you doing?

Thank you for coming, Dave.

Yeah.

You know, I love the chance that experience Michiana gives me to come out on a day like today.

Because I would never really think about just coming out in the in the middle of April.

It would never really cross my mind.

What can people see this time of the year here?

Oh, this is a beautiful time of year to come.

all of our tulips are in bloom as well as our daffodils.

the flowering trees are in bud, and it's just a fantastic place to come around and see the birds chirping here.

You hear a lot of birds here.

and the flowers that are in bloom.

So.

And the geese and the geese, they are pretty.

There are.

There's no shortage of geese.

Not to mention some of the surprises they keep on dropping around us here to watch where you step them.

But I know there's a lot going on throughout the year as well.

Like there's different things like concerts and different programs that are going on.

tell us about some of the highlights of the year.

You bet.

on April 30th, we are having our, el dia de Los ninos celebration, celebrating and our appreciation for children.

And that is 3 to 530 on a Tuesday afternoon.

Free to all Elkhart County residents.

then we have, in May.

May 18th is our plant sale that we've partnered with for Fourwinds Garden Club.

Plant Club.

And that will be also free during the event, 9:00 to 1:00. and we'll have several vendors, they're selling, art or plants?

just local goods.

Yeah.

And I know that there's also like music events throughout the year as well.

Yes.

That our concert series, Groovin in the garden starts in June on June 13th.

And we have three concerts a month in June, July and August.

And we've got an amazing lineup this year.

We have Navarre Catering, providing food and then the chief or vanilla bean ice cream coming out.

Oh, nice.

For desserts.

Yeah.

Elkhart County is spoiled with ice cream choices between the chief and vanilla bean.

That's exactly right.

two great options and lots to look forward to.

When you say June.

In my head, I still feel like June is, like, so far away, but it's less than two months away.

So I know there's also things as well for people to actually get involved with and different classes as well that we're going to talk about.

Yeah, we have started a new Hort.

class series.

we started actually last month or this month in April at the beginning.

And, we are offering a class the second Saturday of every month through the end of the school year, through the end of the year.

Why is that important to, for well, feel to be able to do those classes?

You know, we have a really talented and knowledgeable Hort.

staff and we wanted to start getting, them giving them an opportunity to share their knowledge with, our guests.

And it's not just, classes taught by our Hort staff.

We have, Larry Benjamin coming from the Bonsai Club and doing a class on beginner bonsai.

We have Jimi Garten from Matzke Florist coming in to do some, flower arrangements.

And, we have Dave, a gentleman from Grand Rapids is coming down to talk about the Peace Garden.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

So there's so much coming up, and I know I'm going to chat with those two, horticultural managers that you have here.

So who are they?

Cody and Kyle are our manager, and I'll let them introduce you themselves to you and tell you a little bit about them or about themselves.

Kyle will be, teaching our first class in May.

Okay.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Well, the sun's out, and I'm here with Kyle.

He's got the guns out as well, actually.

Yeah.

No, I'm just joking that.

Kyle, tell me a little bit about your role here.

What is it that you do at the gardens?

I'm the manager of public horticulture here at Wellfield, and I.

One of the components of my job are maintaining the gardens as well as the parts of our implementing parts of our public facing mission components and, community outreach.

So as part of that community outreach, you have some classes coming up about sustainability and landscape at home.

And tell me a little bit about what the classes, the class is basically to give people an idea of what they can do at home to make their landscapes more sustainable, or if they're if they're interested in starting a pollinator garden.

how to go about that?

sustainability, really, in the landscape has to do with, conserving water, planting more native species, utilizing integrated pest management and, and, and supporting local pollinators.

Now, every time I think about our lawn and our garden and want to do stuff, and then one day I'll be like, let's go chickens and then be like, let's grow some vegetables.

And then I think about all the work that has to go into it.

Is there a way to be sustainable without having to be a lot of work?

There is, yes.

And especially planting site specific plants to your area, which would mean we all have microclimates within our own yards.

We all have different soil types, basically planting plants that do well in that area to begin with.

And they tend to require a little less maintenance if you do.

So.

Yeah, you're setting them up for success.

So when is your class the first class going to be on?

It's going to be Saturday, May 11th at 9 a.m. 9 a.m..

So the people have to sign up in advance or just show up or how does that work?

We do ask that you register in advance.

Just so, just so we know how many people to expect.

Okay.

So go to your website starts at 9 a.m. and then how long are people expected to be there?

About an hour.

Okay.

So not too long.

And then can people ask questions from you?

Absolutely, yes.

And what are some of the things that you're going to go over during that?

I'm going to talk about?

I'm going to build a case against monocultures and why we need some diversity in our yards.

I'm going to talk about why why we plant native, why is why is it important?

we're going to talk about supporting pollinators.

integrated pest management, how we can kind of conserve resources in our landscapes.

all right.

It's all about sustainability, as you mentioned.

So who am I going to chat with next?

Who's this guy with the beer?

This is Cody Hoff, our, manager of, horticulture operations.

All right.

Thanks so much, Kyle.

Yeah.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So now we're on the north side of Wellfield Botanic Gardens, and I'm here with Cody.

Tell me a little bit about some of these invasive species that we have.

Yeah.

So in October, the second Saturday of October, we're going to be doing a walk around our woodland and identifying some of the native species that are common in our area.

We're going to go over how to identify them, where they came from.

What harm are they causing to our native, local environment?

and it all ties back into Westfield's mission of, stewarding for fostering stewardship of the environment.

Now, I came here from Ireland, so I'm not a native species either to this area.

But how did they get here?

I'm sure they didn't fly over.

Right.

So how do these that, so many of them are common ornamentals.

The one I have here is, an Asian bush honeysuckle.

these are spread often by birds eating the the fruit, and then they leave the seeds around our woodland for us to come find.

and many of them are propagated the same way.

So what's the kind of, like, how much with nature?

Because obviously nature is more powerful than we are in most cases.

What's the kind of opinion of kind of leave it alone and let it kind of nature take its course versus now we gotta like, make sure and take care of native plants that are here.

Sure.

So, so, so part of the issue, is something like this, the honeysuckle, where it comes in, it actually can cause our lower growing, ephemeral and native plants to be wiped out of the area.

and so that's why we're, we're pulling them, is to prevent the loss of our natives as part of the ecosystem that's going on here.

Like, how important are all the plants that are here?

Like, what role do they play specifically here in the gardens?

Is it feeding birds?

Is a feeding squirrel.

Like who?

Who lives off in our what?

What's the what's the kind of purpose of them here?

Yeah.

So it's actually a little bit of, of everything animals eat some of the plants.

Some of it is for pollinators to get the nectar.

it it's a food source for the wild animals in the area.

And being downtown in Elkhart.

there's really not a lot of places for them to go.

So this this has a lot of them.

Awesome.

And, you mentioned when is that going on that you're going to be, October.

It's the second Saturday of October, I don't know.

Okay.

So we got to talk about because I know we've talked today about a lot of things that are going on, but that's all.

Yeah.

Come on.

You don't know the second.

So everyone knows the day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And but there's a lot going on between now and then obviously.

And, check out their website.

They even have bird walks every week.

They've got yoga, which, trust me, you don't see me and yoga pants.

That's definitely not a thing that will get rid of all the species in here, not just the ones that aren't welcome.

And yeah, there's so much going on.

So go to Wellfield gardens.org and find out all the details.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.