(mellow music) >>Everything that lives on the surface of the earth has evolved a very finely honed biological system that depends on the day/night cycle.

And now that we're messing with the day/night cycle with artificial light at night, it's really impacting all kinds of living creatures all over the planet.

>>The whole center of this garden is a grass circle in the shape of a full moon.

And it's surrounded by plants that were originally either white or pale so that they catch the moonlight and reflect it.

>>Production funding for "Virginia Home Grown" is made possible by.

>>Strange's Florists, Greenhouses and Garden Centers.

Serving Richmond for over 90 years, with two florist shops, two greenhouses, and a garden center.

Located throughout the Metro Richmond area.

Strange's, every bloomin' time.

>>And by.

(critters chirping) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) >>Welcome to "Virginia Home Grown."

While the garden may be soggy, my spirits are soaring with the cooler temperatures.

Today we're exploring The Nighttime Garden and the effects of diminishing darkness on our plants and wildlife.

While we rest, the garden is busy.

For example, this white-blooming Vinca is pollinated by moths at night.

Before we get started, I want to remind you to send in your gardening questions on our website, vpm.org/vhg.

We'll be answering those a little later.

In the second half of our show, we will visit a garden full of native plants in Waynesboro, designed to be enjoyed by moonlight.

But first, I met with Dr.

Kelsey Johnson at UVA's Morven Sustainability Lab in Charlottesville to talk about the ways that light pollution impacts nighttime pollinators, migrating birds, and our plants.

Let's get going.

>>Kelsey, I have to admit, I have never given a garden interview in the dark.

So this is a first for me.

(chuckles) >>Well, as an astronomer, I have never been on a garden show, so this is also a first for me.

>>Well, this is exciting.

'cause here we are at UVA's Morven Sustainability Lab and it's getting darker by the minute, but that's what we're here to talk about.

>>In the world today, 80% roughly of the global population lives under severely light polluted skies.

As an astronomer, this is a problem, but it turns out it's also a really big problem for everything else that lives on the surface of the planet.

>>Our circadian rhythm is really connected to that dark sky, that rhythm of our living and even our processes, you know, our plant processes and stuff.

So what have you discovered as you've brought the darkness down to the earth, you all call it?

(both chuckling) >>Well, yes.

We have to bring things down to earth.

Well I think, you know, one thing that I think is glaringly obvious if you think about it, is that everything that lives on the surface of the earth has evolved actually over millions of years, a very finely honed biological system that depends on the day, night cycle.

In modern life, when we have artificial light at night, we're actually messing up something that things have evolved to have over millions of years.

And it causes a lot of stress.

>>It does.

People just don't understand that plants have processes during the day, photosynthesis, but they also have them at night.

>>That's right.

>>You know, and if you don't have that darkness, the plant can't shift over to do its nighttime respiration.

But there's other processes dealing with plants that are affected by the lack of a dark sky as well.

>>So many, I mean, almost everything you can think of with plants is affected by their sensitivity to daylight.

So we could think about, for example, blooming out in the spring, right?

If plants start getting or perceiving that they're getting more daylight, they might think, oh, it's spring, it's time to bloom.

And we might think, oh, they're blooming.

They're so pretty.

But here's the thing, right?

If they bloom too early, what happens?

>>Well, you don't have the insects coming out to match the plants.

>>That's right.

>>You don't have the pollination.

>>That's right, they've shown up early to the party, no one's there.

>>Exactly.

>>Well, and the other thing that can happen is frost, right?

If it's still early in the season, and we're not outta danger of a hard frost yet, you know, if plants bloom to early, they're in danger of actually losing that entire reproductive cycle, which is a lot of energy for a plant.

>>You know, we think about the pathetic tomato on the sad plant, but that plant's putting everything it can, into making into seed.

Yes.

>>Into reproducing itself.

>>Yeah.

And it will lose that if it happens too early.

>>Exactly.

And exactly.

And the same with leaf color change.

You know what triggers leaf color change, a myriad but day length is one of them.

>>Exactly, and so when they get their cues wrong, because they're around artificial light at night, they might leaf out too early in the spring or in the fall.

Likewise, they don't get the cue that, oh, it's time to go into hibernation and let those leaves go.

And they waste a lot of energy holding onto those leaves that they need to be putting into themselves and into their systems.

>>And you know, we don't think this affects us, but it does be.

Think about your fruit tree growers.

>>Yeah.

>>Think about your farmers.

Think about the importance of the health of those plants and the timing of the bloom to meet the insects so that those fruit tree flowers can be pollinated.

So we can have our fruit and think about the bread baskets to feed everybody here on earth.

So I mean, it draws a direct line from dark sky to the plant to us.

>>It does.

When many people take a step back and think about greenhouses and how do we get tomatoes in the winter, people understand the importance of light signals to get things to bloom or to fruit at particular times of year.

>>Right.

>>But, when we do it in that controlled way, we're doing it on purpose and with a goal, what's happening with light pollution is we're doing some of that light engineering by accident and not in a productive way.

>>Right, animals too, with their processes and disrupting some of our wildlife, particularly our insects.

>>Yeah.

I think a lot about pollinators and I know many people are thinking about pollinators in the world right now.

And often when we think about pollinators, I think bees get all be attention and they should.

I love bees.

I'm like, I'm a fan of bees with everyone else.

But I think what people often don't realize is that when it's dark at night, a whole night shift of pollinators come out and moths.

Anyone that has been outside at night with a light understands what moths do with light.

So I think it's pretty intuitive to understand when moths are around light pollution, they're gonna get distracted.

They're gonna go into like doom scrolling with the light, and they're gonna fly around and they're not gonna go do the important work of pollinating.

>>And I know too, bird migration.

>>Yeah.

>>Because, birds are running into buildings trying to survive and live in this brighter environment when they're used to navigating really by the stars.

>>That's right, many birds use light cues to navigate at night.

In North America, it's roughly 50% of the bird species are in decline.

So this is a real growing crisis.

And estimates are, and this number I think is astounding.

Roughly a billion birds in the US die a year from collisions with buildings.

>>Wow.

>>And so, turning our lights off and being aware of the illumination we have in the corridors that birds use to migrate, it's really important.

>>That is extremely important.

So now that we've kind of defined the problem, I know that we have a dark sky movement that's slowly gaining momentum.

You know, what are the steps that homeowners could take to sort of improve their situation?

>>Light pollution is actually one of these problems that is in principle, super easy to fix.

Like we could almost literally fix it overnight, if we had the mindset and the will to do it.

Don't use lights when you don't need them.

Don't use lights brighter than you need them.

When you do need lights, make sure they're pointed down.

If I can make one plea to your viewers, (both laughing) one simple thing is just please don't uplight your trees.

But then, you know, there are other things too that may seem less intuitive.

One really important thing about outdoor lighting at night, if you get a light bulb that says daylight on it, it's mimicking daylight.

We wanna avoid those at night.

So for nighttime, you really wanna use warmer color temperatures.

So redder lights, it's not that there aren't still impacts on the flora and the fauna, but they're not as bad as when we're using the daylight.

>>Well, I have one more question for you, and this is for the astronomer.

>>Okay.

>>I have been seeking a dark sky to go to experience that.

So where would you recommend I go?

>>Oh goodness.

East of the Mississippi, there are really only two spots left.

>>Oh, wow.

>>And, those are in extreme, Northern Minnesota.

>>Okay.

>>And extreme Northern Maine.

Those are your options.

>>Two of my favorite places.

>>I mean, I'll go to Maine with you.

That'll be fun.

>>It's a deal.

Let's go.

>>And we can look at gardens and stars.

>>Okay.

>>But locally, you know, we really, within Virginia, we don't have access to any pristine dark skies.

But just over the border in West Virginia, there is a pocket of darkness that it's not pristine, but it's darker than anywhere else on the East Coast.

So we do have something drivable from here.

>>Okay, but we do have capabilities to make choices that are more positive to helping to mitigate this problem.

And I think we all need to just learn more so that we can consider those choices as we move forward.

>>Such simple choices.

Right.

It doesn't take a lot to make a really big difference.

Even just in your backyard, you can change the ecosystem and make it healthier, just by reducing the illumination at night.

>>Collectively.

We make a huge difference.

>>We do.

We do.

>>So, thank you, Kelsey, thank you so much for coming on, being an astronomer on the gardening show.

(chuckles) >>My pleasure.

>>Yes.

(crickets chirping) >>Our nighttime skies have changed, the baseline has shifted from a star-filled sky to one that glows from lights, obscuring the majority of stars.

Tim Ryan from Lighthouse Design Studios is with us to talk more about light pollution's effect on plants and to share responsible practices certified professionals use when lighting landscapes.

But, before we get started, remember to send in your gardening questions on our website at vpm.org/vhg or through Facebook.

Well, Tim, this is exciting because we've got a lot of tools here.

But the first step is understanding how we as gardeners can be more responsible with lighting.

>>And that's really a great question because I know it comes up a lot in conversations nowadays about dark sky concerns and over-lighting gardens.

And so we really do have to be sensitive to those things for sure.

So when it comes to illuminating garden spaces, I am very much pro-lighting as a lighting designer, right?

>>Yes.

>>Of course.

But I also believe that there are ways to do it correctly.

And there are ways that even contractors and lighting guys out there in the industry, right now, even a lot of homeowners, they're doing it incorrectly.

And oftentimes they're over-lighting things much more than they really need to.

>>Less is more.

>>Yeah.

It actually can be.

So lighting, it's very dynamic.

And to be able to bring that into the garden space, it allows our clients to really enjoy those spaces so differently than they do during the day.

It's just a completely different look.

But with all that beauty and with all of that light that we're bringing into the garden, we still have to be responsible about still how we're using that light at night and then allowing the garden a time to rest as well.

>>Exactly.

We need it to rest for the plants, for our wildlife, and for our neighbors.

>>Absolutely.

And speaking of neighbors, when we talk about light fixtures, we've got an array of things here on the table.

And I want to just talk to you briefly about a couple things that we have here.

And I know, within our outdoor lighting spaces, landscape lighting, just so we're clear, landscape lighting really doesn't contribute to the overall sky glow in the sky.

>>Yeah, it's low voltage.

It's very soft.

>>Yeah, it's very, very low.

It is literally- >>It should be.

>>Well, it should be, right?

It should be, right?

But really what we're seeing is the majority of the light that we're seeing in the air is coming from parking lot lights, commercial lighting, where they're using 25 to 75,000 lumens per light.

That's crazy.

Right?

>>That's crazy.

That is crazy.

>>And it's bouncing off structures.

It's coming back up in the air.

And it's particulating in the atmosphere.

But when we talk about landscape light, we're talking about luminaires that are literally a couple hundred lumens.

So by comparison, they just don't have the power to reach up in the atmosphere.

So when we look at a simple thing just to get all nerdy on you with math- >>Slightly, yes.

>>Slightly nerdy, right?

There's a thing called the inverse square law of light.

And so every time you double that light, you have one quarter of the output of light at that distance.

And with landscape lighting luminaires, they just don't have the power to have an effect on night glow.

So really when you talk about landscape lighting, when it's done responsibly and well, it's not gonna contribute.

But we do have to be careful about a few other concerns.

Namely, I'll just name a couple here.

One, insects and birds.

They like to live in the trees.

>>They do.

>>And they wanna sleep too.

Right?

>>Yes.

Yes.

>>And I've even noticed over the year, I've documented over the last 10 to 15 years with LED lights, there are certain varieties of fine-needle evergreens, particularly Picea species of spruce.

>>The spruce.

>>You've got your firs.

Your true cedars, the Cedrus varieties.

I've noticed that they just don't do really well with prolonged periods of light at night.

They will tend to defoliate.

And I've even seen it break off in patterns that follow the light beams.

Crazy.

Right?

>>Fascinating.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

>>So trees and these, they're biological creatures just like us.

In the same way that we have biological rhythms, we need that rest, so do the trees and so do the animals that live in those trees as well.

So being responsible, I always say, when we go to sleep, let your garden go to sleep too.

>>Yeah.

Turn off the lights.

>>Exactly.

>>Yep.

But we gotta talk.

We're getting- >>Let's do this.

Right?

Because we have to be careful about neighbors.

Right?

A nuisance glare, light trespass, it's a thing.

>>Yes.

>>Right?

And we have to watch it in the gardens.

We even see it with coach lights.

We have coach lights that are two bright.

If you're putting candelabra in there that are 300, 400 watts a piece, sometimes you have 12, 1,500 watts that are just blasting out into a neighborhood.

And you really have to watch those things, right?

Even even post lights, but landscape lights, they've been created to have many different features that help us mitigate glare.

And if you'll notice here, with this particular, this is an uplight.

This could be a down light.

It could be used for many different functions, kind of be ubiquitous light.

But you'll notice here particularly, we've got this nice shield.

And what it's doing is it actually helps shield the light source in here.

So as we turn it away on the backside, we're actually hiding and concealing a light source.

And this can actually be turned as we need to, to mitigate glare from a neighbor.

It even comes in longer shields.

You have longer varieties as well too.

And if you need full coverage, you even have full shields too.

So those are great ways to mitigate it just with garden lighting and directional lighting in the landscape.

>>And also we have down-lighting too.

>>We have down-lighting as well.

>>For Walkways and such.

>>Walkways and path lights.

Yep.

These particular little items here, you can put these on a stand or, and they can sit right here on the garden.

But one thing you'll notice about these is they have these great louvers.

And these louvers themselves, they block all the light.

So you're not gonna see that you're looking into that.

>>Which I personally like.

>>Right.

Keep it low, keep it out of sight.

>>Exactly.

I don't like light in my eyes.

>>Exactly.

>>And then over here we have?

>>Yeah.

So this is a bistro.

>>It's kind of fun.

>>Yeah.

So bistro lights are very popular nowadays.

Right?

>>Yes, they are.

>>People love them on their patios.

They like that kind of Italian bistro feel.

Right?

It's nice under dinner.

But one thing you'll notice about these bulls, when they turn them on, they get very, very bright, and they put a lot of light out.

>>I was just at family.

And, boy, did they put out a lot of light.

>>They put out a lot of light.

So some manufacturers, they've created some really neat things.

So one, either put them on a dimmer, bring them all the way down nice and low.

But there's also some great little covers that you can put on these.

And either every other one or every one, and you can hang these out in the garden over your- >>And break up that light.

>>Break it up, and you got a really kind of neat sparkler effect for your garden.

>>Yeah.

Kind of fun.

>>So really neat.

You can add those pieces in there.

But what that does is that helps block a lot of that side glare that goes into your neighbor's property.

And again, we wanna make sure that we're not offending the neighbors, right?

>>Exactly.

And we have seconds left.

So I think this is great information.

We've gotten down-lighting ideas, we've gotten talking about shields and a wonderful way to shield those bistro lights.

And make it more artistic, 'cause that's what lighting is really about.

People forget landscape lighting is, you know, I'll say, making it pretty, using light, very artistically.

>>Experience your garden in a completely different way.

>>Exactly.

So you can look out your window at night and go, "Wow, isn't that pretty?"

>>It should be framed art at night.

>>Exactly.

It should be.

So thank you so much.

>>You're welcome.

Thank you for taking the time to share this.

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

But first, Amyrose Foll has a tip to share on the importance of nighttime pollinators for the vegetable garden.

(mellow music) >>When we think about pollinators, you probably think about the ones that come out during the day, such as butterflies and bees.

We see them everywhere.

They are ubiquitous in conversations about pollination in your garden and in the wider world, but there are a lot of really important nighttime pollinators that are vital to the health, wellbeing, and even production of our gardens.

Here I am standing in a gourd and squash arch that I made out of some old cattle panels.

And around me you'll see little birdhouse gourds, there's a large one here, some warty gourds, spinner gourds, and Choctaw squash here.

And these are gonna be long season varieties, so you wanna plant them in the spring.

And what I have here is basically maximizing the square footage that these leaves are going to get from the sun, which is also very important.

The leaves are the solar panels of their plants.

They're going to be converting that UV energy, the sunlight into the fruits that are coming off of these vines.

And these guys have very large light colored flowers that open in the evening, and they will attract those moths, such as the hawk moth and the sphinx moth.

Sphinx moth will actually lay their eggs on the Virginia Creeper and the grapes.

Their caterpillars will eat them and develop into those moths that will help our garden.

So if you wanna plant some grapes, that's a good way to get them around here.

These aren't the only plants however that will benefit from nighttime pollinators.

There are other plants such as okra flowers.

Okra flowers are actually my favorite flower in the garden, more than hollyhocks or roses any day, hands down.

They're beautiful and they're delicious.

So you can benefit from your okra harvest with those nighttime pollinators.

Eggplants benefit greatly, as well as asparagus, beans and peas, those legumes.

And we have quite a few different kinds of nightshades, such as potatoes, tomatoes, and of course the tomatillos.

The tomatillos not being self fertile, they benefit the most out of the nightshade family.

But these moths will visit almost all of your nightshades in your garden, hopping about and doing their duty.

So when you're planning your garden or maintenance in your garden, just remember, there is pollination happening around the clock.

So we wanna make sure we're taking care of our little relatives that are helping us put all of these amazing things in our house and on our table, and make sure that we're not doing anything that could possibly hurt them.

I hope this helps and happy gardening.

>>And now, it's time for our favorite part of the show when we get to hear from you.

Make sure to send us your gardening questions through our website, vpm.org/vhg, or on Facebook.

Jen Naylor has joined us to be part of the conversation.

So, welcome, Jen.

We're glad you're here.

>>Thank you.

>>Yep.

So let's get going.

What are some of the questions?

>>Well, I was going to ask Tim, is there anything else that you can go ahead and add to what you've given us the information about?

>>Sure, and I would just caution homeowners, you know, part of the issue as a lighting designer that we run into that we have to really be careful for is making sure that we're balancing light levels in the garden, right?

Oftentimes we see homeowners will go out to the box stores, right?

And they'll pick up a kit and they'll just blast everything out there, right?

And you really need to be careful.

Just using a single light to light everything that you can, it's a really, one, it's an improper way to illuminate things beautifully.

But also, we talk about contrast ratios in lighting and it becomes very difficult.

I'm gonna use this analogy for you real quick, okay?

So you're driving down a country road, you got two cars coming at you.

One has their brights on, one has their dims.

Where do your eyes go?

>>Brights.

>>Every time, isn't it?

>>Every time.

>>Every time.

>>Every time.

>>So we use these analogies in the garden space as well to help create, not only to create scenes and how our eye moves through a scene and what the focal points are going to be, but we also have to understand the contrast ratios.

If you've ever walked into a backyard and had a floodlight hit your eyes, it's very hard to see walkways, it's very hard to see steps, and that can become very dangerous.

And so eliminating a lot of those high floodlights and things that are very, very bright, by bringing those contrast ratios closer together, it's actually going to improve our vision.

It's going to help your security cameras see much, much better in the dark, right?

So, overall, bringing these light levels down, usually we don't need anything more than 250 to 500 lumens, which is very, very low.

We're capturing most of everything into the tree canopies, into the soffits of the houses, being responsible at how we're doing those things and pointing the light and aiming the light as well and keeping those levels low.

>>And people don't realize that their eyes adjust to it so they actually can see clearer.

>>It's amazing.

So one of the organizations I'm affiliated with, we teach people how to see light.

And one of the number one things that people come out of that with is, "I didn't realize how much I was overlighting everything."

>>Yeah.

>>Right?

Because even on a full moonlit night, you can walk out and our eyes adjust down and we can see so much out there.

So even in the garden, our tendency is to, "Let's make it really, really bright."

But if we can keep it subtle and and soft, right?

And we can use a good balance of shadow and light together, it creates much more dynamics and it's much more interesting, right?

I think I told you a little bit earlier, one thing I always like to tell people is lighting without shadows is like music without rests.

>>Exactly.

>>You have to have that balance and you have to have those dynamics to be able to really shape and form objects in the landscape and create those interesting scenes.

>>Well, I shared with you that we actually reduced the lumens in our spotlights at our house and we've got them down-facing and they're very low lumens.

And I was out working in my garden the other night and a sphinx moth was pollinating the plants.

Rather than doing the death spire around the bright spotlight, these pollinators were down in the flowers and I looked up and there was nothing circling around my spotlights.

>>Oh, that's very wonderful.

>>And I was so happy.

It was like, "Yes, I did it."

And I could actually see much farther in through my garden 'cause I didn't have that dark curtain, that contrast you're talking about, that super bright to super dark.

>>Yeah, it's amazing how, you know, I'm a photographer, and so when I'm photographing in the dark, my camera only sees about 12 stops of light.

Our eyes can see about 22 stops.

A camera's a machine.

Our eye is a miracle.

And when we get these light contrast ratios, we can see so much into the garden spaces, but you have to bring those levels down.

>>Yeah, so what are the biggest offenders in our community, truly?

>>Good question.

>>Yeah, that is a great question.

And the biggest offenders obviously are gonna be commercial lights, and particularly I would say car dealerships where they're, you know, very cold, white light, 5,000 to 6,500 Kelvin, which is very, very cold white.

Very bad for circadian rhythms, for human-centric lighting.

And it just, what we're seeing is you have lights, just because the old adage of uplight bad, downlight good, it doesn't necessarily translate very well.

There's a misunderstanding about uplighting, particularly in the landscape, low-energy lighting, and the biggest culprit we have in our cities is going to be the city light or the streetlight's high energy that are bouncing off light-colored concrete and they're bouncing back up to the air and we're creating light scatter up in the atmosphere.

And so it almost acts like a soft box in photography where it takes that light and scatters it.

>>And people don't realize snow does the same thing.

>>Very much so, yes.

>>Beach and everything.

It just scatters that and then it bounces off the clouds.

>>Highly reflective surfaces, yes, all through the city.

So that's the biggest thing.

And there's ways that we can certainly mitigate that.

And I think if the city was to get involved in areas where streetlights, where there's no activity, have those lights dimmed down and have some proximity sensors for people coming through those spaces for sure.

Parking lots don't need to be illuminated all night.

>>Correct.

>>Yeah.

>>Right?

>>That's true.

That's very true.

>>So there's just- >>Plus office buildings in my mind.

>>Exactly.

>>Yes, yes.

>>There's some very common sense steps we can take, not only we'll be energy conscious as well and responsible that way, but let's help things out a little bit on the city side.

>>That sounds like- >>I think that God has created, you know, the light and dark because it is good for us.

>>We need it.

>>So we need to, yeah.

>>We need it.

>>Balance, right?

>>Correct, correct.

>>Yes.

>>What other questions do we have, Jen?

>>Let's see.

Oh, to lower overall light pollution and impacts lights have on plant and animal nighttime processes, are there certain colors of light bulbs that should be considered?

>>That's a great question.

So, yes.

And it's not only from a plant standpoint at night.

If we understand the processes during the day, daylight is around 5,500 Kelvin.

It's very cold, white light, right?

And we go into office buildings that are using cool white light because it increases our serotonin, it makes us alert and awake, right?

So we're productive during those days.

But when we come home, we need to shift that color in our houses.

Get rid of those daylight white bulbs, shift to warm white, 2,700, sometimes even dim to warm at 2,200K, because we need, as we begin the process of winding down for the night, we need those warmer color temperatures to help us begin that sleep process and those melatonin.

That's why they always warn about, you know, don't look at screens at night.

>>Exactly.

>>That blue light, right?

>>Yeah, yeah.

>>So this goes very much hand in hand with that as we move out into the garden spaces as well.

Getting color temperatures down 2,700K, very warm white, 3,000K, warm white, not only they look beautiful, but they help put us in that mindset and begin to relax us as we get into those spaces.

Plus, they're better for plant biology.

>>Right, right.

>>And for insects as well.

>>Well, we've just got one minute, truly.

What's another question we have?

>>Let's ask real quick quick.

Okay.

Have any areas put dark sky lighting requirements into law?

>>So there's many places around the country that are now beginning to move into a dark sky space.

It's challenging for me as a landscape lighting designer because these come from a place of misunderstanding about landscape lighting versus commercial lighting where landscape lighting doesn't really contribute any appreciable light into the atmosphere.

So it's a balancing act where over the next year, through the organizations I'm affiliated with, we're really gonna try to educate the municipalities, the HOAs, the cities, about bringing real scientific data, measurements of like, "This is the data."

>>Wow.

>>So we can actually allow a little more landscape lighting, allow people to enjoy a little bit more of their gardens at night, but yet help to form different types of policies that will make people more aware of how we can approach cities, municipal lighting, more responsibly and smarter.

>>This is great, Tim.

>>Really fascinating.

>>I know there's a number of communities working on that.

So this will be great factual information.

So, well, that's all the time we have right now, but I look forward to answering more questions later in the show, so, please, keep 'em coming.

And Tim, thank you for helping us better understand the effects of lighting in our landscapes.

>>That's my pleasure.

>>We sure do need it.

(Peggy laughs) >>Yeah, we do.

>>And next we're going to visit The Moon Garden in Waynesboro and Dr.

Robyn Puffenbarger sat down with Lucy Ivey to learn how the garden has evolved over time to include a native plant focus.

So let's take a look.

>>I have always wanted to have a Moon Garden.

And the whole center of this garden is a grass circle, which is in the shape of a full moon.

And it's surrounded by plants that were originally either white or night flowering or fragrant, or pale, which is the idea of a Moon Garden, so that they catch the moonlight and reflect it.

My husband and I moved down here from Afton.

When we moved into this house, this lot, which was an extra lot next to the house, was one flat yard.

And I got it into my head that I wanted to start doing some native plant gardening, but I wasn't the gardener, my husband was.

He, though, had done a life of construction and could no longer really garden.

So gardening was up to me.

I got a gardening company to help me build the garden.

>>And we're sitting here under an incredibly beautiful semi-circle pergola.

>>I can't really describe to you how they bent the wood.

And you can see these pegs are hand hewed and driven into it.

It involved the cooperation of the landscaping company and a woodworking company.

And the idea of the pergola was you would sit out here in the night and enjoy the moon passing over the garden.

So here's this glorious sky that you're supposed to do that.

Unfortunately I got it a little bit wrong and there's only about a week in the month when the moon passes over this garden, when the sky is dark enough and we're actually awake.

But it is glorious when that does happen.

>>But I think you enjoy this space much more than just when the moon is going over.

>>Yeah, because actually, the moon circle is so large that it's hard for it to pick up these and reflect off the flowers.

But it is a perfect place to have coffee in the morning, to eat out here with friends.

And also it's wonderful when there're children 'cause they just love to go out there and dance and look like little fairies dancing around.

>>I think a lot of people don't think about plants going up unless they're trees.

But what all do you have growing on this?

>>So I planted them behind the columns and they're all native vines, Virginia Creeper on the outside, then Coral Honeysuckle.

And there is a Purple Passion flower vine growing up the last one.

And because it began to take over the whole garden, we ended up trying to pull it all out.

But I miss it.

It gets the most wonderful fruit and has the most beautiful flowers.

After seven years of summers, the fruit was finally delicious to eat.

It wasn't just empty seeds inside.

It was really wonderful, flavorful fruit.

>>So, one of the things that's traditional about a Moon Garden is fragrance.

And I'm not sure I see a lot of fragrant plants right now.

Is it a time of year thing?

>>Well, you know, it's difficult to get a lot of native plants that are really fragrant.

We have the mountain mints and they are, and then surrounding this garden, but not actually in it are a few fragrant trees that flower.

Virginia Magnolia, apple tree was fragrant in the spring.

That's not native.

The sweet pepper bush is fragrant and the Virginia Sweetspire is fragrant.

So unless I wanted to bring in a lot of non-native plants, that's one element that's sort of lacking from this Moon Garden.

>>But you have lots of pollinators.

>>Yes.

So really this is a splendid pollinator garden.

And the wonderful thing about this year, as opposed to last year, is that because there's been rain, it has been a year full of flowers, which of course pollinators love.

They first started coming with the shrubby St.

John's wart, which was covered with bees.

And then they move on to the Mountain Mints when they started flowering.

Now they're in the Obedient Plant.

So they have just been racing through all the plants.

Oh yeah.

The milkweeds, there've been mostly bees in this garden.

I have lots of native bees.

There's Dog Bane down in the lower field and that beautiful dog bane beetle.

>>Yes.

>>Is much more beautiful than the Japanese beetle.

>>Saw lots of skippers >>Yes.

>>Tonight.

>>And this year, unlike last year, even the year before, I've had plenty of monarchs flying through and I have pawpaw trees now, but I have yet to see a zebra swallow tail.

>>It may take a few years.

>>Yeah.

>>As we were looking around, though, there's a lot of pollinator plants.

You've kept a lot of really great things.

>>Well, there are hundreds of species in this garden, not just forbs, but there are plenty of species of trees and shrubs.

But there are a few successful native plants that have really taken over, like the ones right behind us, which have the common name of Shale Barren Asters.

And they are so successful.

We have actually spent this entire summer trying to replace some of them with worthy competitors so that we, I don't end up with a monoculture in this garden.

>>And I see you have some Mountain Mint.

>>Yes.!

Now isn't the original Mountain Mint.

There were three plants back up in there.

And it really features one of the things that's so wonderful about native plants, which is that they spread themselves all over the garden.

And one year you'll have them up here and the next year you'll have them elsewhere.

So this year they formed themselves right here in front, which is really nice when the moon comes over this garden.

>>So nice when natives work out that way.

So it sounds like one of the themes of your eight years of gardening is you build it and they will come.

>>Yeah.

>>And they will spread themselves and it will evolve and change sometimes to your liking and sometimes not.

>>Yeah, this year has been really lucky 'cause we had plenty of rain for most of the summer.

But native plants do really well in most drought situations.

But last summer we had months of drought and they really suffered for it.

>>But, like you said, they've come roaring back.

>>That was the good news, is that they don't die.

They don't, you know, give up the ghost, they hang on.

Their roots go really deep into the soil and so if you can shield the soil and part of what shields the soil is the fact that they grow so tall so they shade themselves.

So even if they don't flower abundantly, they protect the future for themselves.

>>So just give it some time.

>>Yeah.

>>And you'll see it again.

>>Yeah.

>>Well, thank you so much for having us here to enjoy this incredibly beautiful space.

>>Thank you, Robyn.

>>Right in downtown.

>>It's been my pleasure.

>>Native plants are so versatile and support our ecosystem both day and night.

This garden is a beautiful example of that.

And now we're joined here by Earl Gary from YME Landscape to talk about other plant choices for moon gardens.

But before we begin, remember to send your questions through our website, vpm.org/vhg or through Facebook.

Well, Earl, I love seeing a table full of flowers, particularly those that glow in the moonlight.

But you know, we've got so many attributes on this table.

So share with me, what are some of those attributes for moon gardens?

>>Yeah, Peggy, how you doing?

>>I'm doing great.

>>So the moon gardens definitely, you're looking for white and light type plants, and definitely you want plants with fragrance and flowers that bloom at night.

>>Definitely.

Well, what are some of your favorite moon garden plants?

>>So, my favorite is the hibiscus.

This came outta my garden.

Technically, I think with the weather changing, like most of my leaves, it fell off, when it kind of got cold.

But then it started warming up.

And then this one just bloomed last night, so it was just perfect to bring this in today.

>>Perfect timing.

>>So look how big the flower is, it's white and bright and it's definitely an attractor.

>>Yes.

An excellent focal point for a moon garden.

>>Oh yeah.

>>Yes.

>>So another one of my favorite plants is this gardenia.

It's very fragrant, gardenias don't like to be in direct sunlight, so trying to find somewhere that's kind of close to the house or right up against the house that doesn't have full sunlight throughout the day.

But you get these beautiful plants that, they flower, this is the non bloom bulb.

But these things are great, and they smell so good.

>>And the pollinators are just so attracted to them.

>>Oh yeah, 100%.

>>Yes.

Absolutely.

But magnolias are another one, those are some of my favorite.

You've got these two.

>>So I got two different types of magnolias.

Of course, magnolia's a tree, flower and tree.

>>Right.

>>But yeah, they're very, very showy, and very, very bright.

You can see 'em from a great distance.

And these things grow extremely tall.

So it looks very nice.

>>Yes.

And both of these are native, we've got our swamp magnolia, as well as our grande flora.

>>Oh yeah.

>>Southern magnolia.

>>These are very nice.

>>Very good ones.

>>Tree flowers.

>>Yes.

Another native one.

What do you have over there?

>>This is a dogwood, so it's in kind of two different stages here.

But you know, these are the seeds, I guess they start blooming from this.

And a little later in the day, dogwood's bloom morely in the spring.

So it's late in the season, but I tried to bring what I could.

These are the berries on this one.

And these are- >>Buds for next year.

>>Buds for next year.

100%, yeah.

>>Again, wonderful.

We have to think of the spring as well as the summer and the fall for our moon gardens.

>>Right.

So this is a- >>I say the plant most people love to hate.

>>Oh, yeah, yeah, these yuccas.

So I couldn't, they're not in bloom right now, so I couldn't get a flower to show.

But definitely, I definitely like these yuccas.

They look really good.

Like I said, you got variegated colors in the middle of it.

And they give a real tall nice, and they got these little flowers that kind of fall, kind of look like bell shape, so it's really nice.

>>Yeah.

Color guard is my favorite cultivar.

I like the light pink in there.

>>Oh yeah.

>>With the yellow and the green.

>>Oh, yeah.

>>And it looks really sharp in the winter, but it lights up at night.

So we got one more shrub, and then we'll see if we can talk about a few of these perennials.

>>Oh yeah, this is the vibranium.

So these, they got really small flowers, but once they all bloom, it just looks like a huge, almost like a hibiscus, but it's just a huge, big show, you know?

>>Yes.

>>That kind of comes out.

So these are really, and this one's kind of, kind of blooming again, I guess again, from the temperature, they kind of coming out a little bit.

>>Exactly.

They kind >>Of start off a little brown, but then they end up changing colors.

>>Yeah.

And actually, you're right.

We had that period of dryness, the period of rain, and some of our plants are starting to rebloom that normally wouldn't be re blooming this time of year.

So we get the little extra show.

I agree with that.

But one people don't really think about is here, our tiarella, our native, our coral bells.

>>Yeah.

So you switch over to your perennial.

So yeah, this is a Tiarella.

And they have these pink, these pink white type flowers that grow off the top.

And now of course these are green.

This is a green.

So the heuchera kind of, it's in the heuchera family.

So there's some heucheras are burgundy, and then of course this green one.

So the tiarellas is the pink, they got nice, really, really kinda like frilly type flowers, that grow soft, really flowers that grow.

So I, you know, I love a lot of these.

I I plant a lot of these.

>>Yeah.

I enjoy them myself.

What's another favorite of yours?

Do you like those garden phlox?

This is Peggy's favorite.

>>I like phlox.

Right?

I got a lotta phlox in my garden too.

And they grow really fast in the spring.

In the first part of the spring, they kind of spread, especially if you get like spreading phlox and they just grow and they just take over that space.

And they just kind of really good ground cover.

So I got a lot of different color phlox but of course, moon gardens with the white- >>something that's very light.

>>Or very light pink.

>>Right.

Light pink.

Yeah.

>>But not the darker colors.

.

Not the darker colors, no.

>>And this is David.

So it's resistant to mildew.

You could choose different varieties that don't get the mildew, and it makes your garden look a little prettier too.

>>I'm learning something.

>>The other thing about phlox though, is that the fragrance, we were talking about fragrance.

And we were talking about color.

This hits both of 'em, like the gardenia.

>>Yes.

Mm-hmm.

>>Yeah.

Wonderful.

Well, here's one that most people don't know about.

It's veronicastrum.

And this is a fun one.

I'm gonna ask you to put that over there.

I'm running outta room over here.

>>I see, yeah.

>>You brought this one in.

This is a fun plant too.

Culver's root.

Not very common.

>>No, it's not really common.

It's not in bloom yet, but it kind of blooms like a spiny, really light purplish flower.

But it's pretty, it's very pretty.

It's really kind of spurs off.

But like I said, it's late in the season now, but technically, it is a good plant.

I plant a few of these a lot too.

And this is a perfect moon garden plant, especially for ground cover.

And it takes up space.

And it multiplies very well.

>>It does.

It really does.

It's a good one.

But people also kind of, we'll do our last one here, is some of, everybody's favorite, is the snowdrops.

>>Oh yeah, >>Sorry.

Sundrops, excuse me.

>>Sundrops.

Yeah.

So it's primrose, I think.

>>Primrose?

Yeah.

>>So these are really nice.

I think I got another one.

It's got a stalk on it that's almost about to bloom.

But again, if you can see, it's like a really tall stalk.

And the blooms kind of start at to top and just kinda roll down in a bell shape.

So, yeah, late in the season again.

So you probably gonna have to wait until the spring to get a full bloom.

But they look, they are very, you see the leaves got a burgundy color, so they got other colors in it, but they do bloom white.

>>[Peggy[ And it's nice to think About spring, summer, and fall.

>>Oh yeah.

>>For that garden.

>>Yes.

>>Well, Earl, thank you.

Thank you so much for coming in and sharing us some of your favorite plants for moon gardens.

We greatly appreciate it.

>>Oh, thank you.

>>Yes.

Next we're going to answer more of your questions, but first, Shana Williams has a tip on how to enhance the sensory experience in your garden by adding calming sounds, which can be enjoyed day and night.

(light percussion music) >>Whenever visiting a garden, there's an explosion of sensory information that you receive from the beautiful flowers and viewing all of the beautiful pollinators flying here and there.

What I've noticed is that there's a couple things that are missing from my garden.

I mean, I love the smell of the mint and being able to pick and touch and the beans that grab hold of you.

But the garden is beautiful at night.

You may not be able to see everything, but what I can observe is to hear the wind chimes and the tranquil sounds of water.

So what we're going to do is we're going to add two of those simple features to our garden.

First we're going to start with just taking our bird bath and adding a simple solar fountain.

And this solar fountain comes with many different types of adapters that allow the water to shoot up in the air.

That creates that beautiful sound for us.

What we're going to do is move that over to the side, and we're going to start trying to make some bamboo wind chimes.

Wind chimes, understand, they're made of various types of materials, but we're going to use bamboo because I like that natural deeper tone that it creates.

So we have an anchor right here, which we've already pre-drilled, and we also have pre-drilled some of our bamboo.

So we leave that first notch right here.

The larger they are, the deeper sound that they might make.

And the smaller they are, their tone changes slightly, and it may be a little bit more higher pitch.

So what I have here is an anchor point, and I've attached one.

But what I have to do is take my drill.

Along the top I have to drill in through here to create two holes on opposite sides.

And then when I do, I have to lock this string, which this is the fishing wire that I'm choosing to use.

But I can also use twine, but it doesn't last as long.

And then sliding it under and pushing it through just like so, and pull that knot nice and tight.

So I'm gonna hold this up so you can see what this one is starting to look like.

Now, if you notice, this still has to have an anchor point.

I'll drill a hole right here through the top.

(drill whirring) And this will allow me to also add just a little piece of wire through the top there so I can have an anchor point so I can attach this here.

Or if I didn't wanna use that anchor point, I can simply go just like this.

Open that up.

Attach it.

And it allows me to hang it like so.

It's not done yet, but it's the start of a beautiful wind chime.

Perhaps you might wanna try creating wind chimes.

They don't have to be fancy.

It can just be slices of wood clicking together just to make simple, beautiful sounds.

Wind chimes, water features, they add to our experience in the garden.

Happy gardening.

(wind chimes clatter) >>Sounds, sights, smells and darkness are all components of the night garden.

Of those, darkness is vital because of its influence on plants, wildlife, and the environment.

And now we're gonna take more of your questions, so go ahead and send those in at vpm.org/vhg.

So let's see what we have here.

Well, Earl, somebody's asked about non-flowering, you know, moon garden plants, some that flower, but also the foliage is, I'll say, the star of the show rather than the flower.

What do you think?

>>Definitely, you can go with, like, hostas, variegated hostas, that's a good flowering plant that gives you output as far as for the moon garden.

You also can go with, like, grasses, any type of grasses, pink muhly grass, you know, maybe a Pennisetum, or something like that.

I think that'll give you a good output too.

And, you know, they contribute to the noise, and they kind of give you some type of, you know, I guess it's just movement in your garden at nighttime, you know, especially on the wind.

>>I think that's beautiful.

>>That would be beautiful.

>>Yeah.

>>Absolutely.

That's a good one.

And I'm also thinking too, that we had the yucca.

That's a good one that we brought up.

>>Yeah, yucca's nice.

Yeah.

>>And some of our plants that do bloom but have variegated foliage.

Just because it's got a bloom, we shouldn't discount it.

Like I was thinking the hydrangea, variegated hydrangeas.

>>Oh yeah, I like hydrangeas.

>>And native plants, our variegated Solomon's Seal.

>>Oh, yeah.

>>You know.

So we've got some pretty good stuff.

Can you name, or does anybody know of any plants that open just at night?

The flowers only open at night.

>>Hm, well, I think one of my favorite, yeah, the hydrangea.

I mean, not the hydrangea, excuse me.

The... What is that called?

>>The big white flower.

>>Oh yeah.

The big white flower.

(Jen and Peggy laugh) >>Hibiscus.

>>Hibiscus.

I'm thinking hydrangea, but yeah.

It's the hibiscus, yeah.

That's like... I got like four different types of hibiscus in my garden, so that's like one of my favorite.

>>Yeah, I think they're just gorgeous.

>>Yeah, just the huge flower and then they drop off, you know, and then they come back the next day.

So it's just constant, constant, constant flowering.

>>Yeah.

>>So.

>>In my garden, I have four o'clocks and they start opening- >>Oh, definitely.

>>at four o'clock, and the- >>Four o'clock, yep.

>>fragrance is phenomenal.

And then the next morning as it gets brighter- >>They're gone.

>>They're gone.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah.

>>A hundred percent.

>>But, it's absolutely... And then you were telling me about your jasmine.

>>Oh my gosh, yes.

I never realized that jasmine can bloom at night.

And I planted one and I was telling my husband, "I think I'm gonna get rid of it, 'cause it's not blooming."

It's just a scraggly thing going up and, you know, up to the deck, and one night, my friends were visiting.

We were drinking wine, right.

And there it was, this beautiful, just amazing fragrance just coming up, and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's what that is.

(host laughs) >>Oh yeah.

>>I mean, it was just absolutely amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

>>And the next morning it went to sleep when you woke up.

(laughs) >>It did.

Exactly.

I was like, I think I'm gonna plant it again.

(laughs) (Earl and Peggy laugh) It was just amazing, amazing.

So, you know, I think that depending on, you know, what type of plants that you plant, and if it's adding to that night life, and especially on the... It's just absolutely beautiful.

>>It is.

>>Absolutely beautiful.

>>Another favorite of mine is a moon flower.

It's an annual.

>>Yes.

>>And it gets to be about 30 feet long and you always plant it and it's never enough space.

You know, you're twining it everywhere.

But then those blossoms, those white blossoms- >>Yeah, so beautiful.

>>that come along are so pretty.

It's in the morning glory family, and frost comes, it's gone, but it's just lovely.

>>Right, right.

>>And then another one that I planted is flowering tobacco.

It's an annual and the fragrance at night is so intense.

>>Really?

>>And it's, well, they have different heights, but evening... Evening... I can't remember which cultivar it was.

It's been too many years that I actually bought the seed.

But it's a fantastic plant to add.

So there's a number of plants that we can add to our gardens that just bloom at night.

>>I'm like so excited to go home and that's my new project now.

(Peggy laughs) I wanna go home and build this moonlight garden.

>>Oh yeah.

>>And I'll probably put my tent out there and just sleep there all night.

(gardeners laughs) >>No, I hope I can... Yeah, I hope I can build one for somebody, or even for myself.

I got like three or four of those plants in my garden, so I never had that whole concept down of, hey, let's only, you know, focus on moon garden types- >>I mean, I'm just learning so much.

This is amazing.

>>Yeah, a hundred percent.

>>Well the other thing is too, you don't have to have a full focus.

You can add enough plants to your garden, so that when the moon is out, it lights up.

>>It lights it up.

>>Right.

>>You know, and it's just not these dark purples and, you know, other dark pinks and reds and stuff.

But that in the moon, in that light there in the nighttime, you can still experience your garden.

>>Especially the bright white colors, right.

>>Yes.

>>It's just so beautiful.

>>Even soft pinks and soft yellows, you know, which will be pretty in the day, but also pretty at night.

Another question we have is where do those nighttime pollinators sleep during the day?

You know, we always think about our gardens, you know, as active all day long and we're learning that they're active all night long as well, but where do all those pollinators sleep, you know?

And it's an important thing to have a variety of plants so that we have places for them to sleep.

You had mentioned grasses, Earl.

Do you realize that that's the number one place a lot of them sleep?

It's tucked underneath and in and around.

>>Yeah, when I trim 'em, they come out, you know, so I know they're there.

(laughs) >>They're there, they're there.

>>And during the day, you know, I see 'em come out like, okay.

>>And we also mentioned shrubs.

Those dense planting shrubs.

And then we also have our perennials and things like that.

But we have to, when we're planting our moon gardens, we need to think of these things, to have that diversity so that we can provide the spaces for them to be protected and safe and secure.

>>Right, right.

>>But also logs.

Gotta have some logs.

>>Logs, true.

(Peggy chuckles) >>That's a great point.

Actually, I was going to say that, because those pollinators are sleeping on the grass, we have to also really careful about lighting those grass where these pollinators are sleeping.

Just like us, we need the darkness so that we can sleep well.

So we have to go ahead and also, you know, pay attention to how we light those areas.

>>And also turn 'em off, the lights.

>>Yes, yes.

>>You know, when we go to bed, turn those lights out.

>>Correct.

>>So that all of our critters out there can go to sleep, and our plant processes can go, (sighs) I can finally do my nighttime gig.

>>Yes.

>>You know?

(coughs) Excuse me.

Not just the daytime gig.

>>I think it's also good too, to add some, you know, maybe some wind chimes or some type of like, bird feeders or some type of bird bath to, you know, to add some ambience to your garden.

>>Give them the sound bath.

>>Yeah, give it a sound bath.

>>This all sounds great and I appreciate it, but we are out of time.

And, Earl, thank you so much for being with us.

>>Thank you.

>>And Jen, thank you as always.

>>Well, thank you.

>>And thanks to all of our guests today and thank you for watching.

We hope you'll think of your garden as a full 24-hour experience as you consider the important role darkness plays when making lighting choices.

Remember to sign up for our monthly newsletter at vpm.org/vhg for gardening information and advice from me and the team.

Also, our Facebook page is full of gardening tips, so be sure to visit us there.

I look forward to being with you again soon, and until then, remember, gardening is for everyone, and we are all growing and learning together.

Happy gardening.

(pleasant music) (pleasant music continues) >>Production funding for "Virginia Home Grown" is made possible by Strange's Florists, Greenhouses, and Garden Centers.

Serving Richmond for over 90 years with two florists shops, two greenhouses and a garden center located throughout the metro Richmond area.

Strange's, every blooming time.

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