It's All Over Now Horticulturists

DOUG TALLAMY
New York Botantical Garden
February 16, 2012

No more heuchera, hakone grass, hellebores, euphorbia robbiae, anemone tomentosa, agastache ... Oh no!  What is a garden designer to do?

A couple of weeks ago Larry Weaner knocked out his "opponent" (horticulturists, garden designers and landscape architects) with the first punch.  Today, Doug Tallamy went two rounds, before he delivered a most forceful blow.  There's a war going on between the ecologists and horticulturists.  After listening to these two guys, I crossed enemy lines.  Some might say I'm a traitor, but I prefer to think of myself as a patriot.  I've sided with the future of the planet.

As Tallamy said, "We need an ecological savings account.  We need to find a way to share the planet with living things.  Let's put the plants back that feed the birds and insects.  We have to stop thinking of plants as decorations."

A lot of people who make gardens, including myself, might choose to see these guys as foes.  That old cliche about change being scary is really true.  For those of us who have been working with a diverse plant palette, loving new introductions and using plants from all over the world; this could be bad news.  I see it differently.  Once you connect the dots, there is only one conclusion you can come to.  Tallamy asked "if we were willing to re-landscape our neighborhoods?".  I am.  And I am willing to change my ways in order to do so.  Good-bye lawn!  Hello Papilio glacus (Tiger Swallowtail butterfly)!

OCCUPY: Creating Plant Communities

LARRY WEANER
Breaking the Rules

Ecological Design for the Real World
New York Botanical Garden
Thursday, January 19, 2012

What will happen if I do nothing? 
When it comes to gardening,
I probably ask myself that question everyday. 
Usually, my answer is disaster. 
Larry Weaner said NO! NO! NO! 
And I tried to listen. 

DUKE it OUT.
Really.
Yes. Really.  Match the plants to the habitat where those plant grow.  All native plants are not the same even if they all come from the Northeastern US.

PLANTS are married.
A plant is part of a COMMUNITY and that is the most important part of looking at any plant. Plants complement one another in a competitive landscape.  They benefit one another.  It's understanding those relationships, that lead to a successful ecological design.

Try an
INTERVENTION.
Weaner advocates using disturbance to your advantage.  Perpetually weeding will spread weed seed.  Things change over time.  In nature plants die.  Understand how plants have involved over thousands of years.  And use that knowledge.

CUT it down.
BURN it up.
Mow it down.  Mowing is a management technique.  Selecting when and how high to mow creates stronger plants and eliminates weed seed.  Most interesting and used widely in Europe, is burning.  And although, in the US it would be hard to do, Weaner told us that the Native Americans had been using this method for years and years.  Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness by Omar Stewart.

Weaner ended by playing part of Hayden string quartet.  For him the music expressed what he feels when he is "in" one of these landscapes.

I thought what he was saying was profound.  Some of us understand parts of it.  I am still learning.

I include the outline Weaner handed out at the lecture, because if you have the opportunity to hear him speak, do so.

Wildflower Meadow Randall's Island

WHY BREAK THE RULES?
Because considering ecological science changes everything.

Habitat
Plant Communities
Specialist and Generalist Species
Pattern
Plant Proliferation Strategies
Disturbance
Competition and Vegetative Stability
Natural Succession

R and K Factor Species

WHAT TRADITIONAL PRACTICES MIGHT BE ALTER?
Density
Vertical Layers
Planning for Plant Compositions that change over time
Design  by Management
Design by editing during the Management Phase

PLANTING
Soil Preparation
Tilling
Imported Topsoil vs. Native Soil
Amendments:  Organic Material and Fertilizer
Supplemental Nutrition

CONTROLLING DISTURBANCEAvoiding Disturbance
Applying Disturbance

ASSISTING PLANT PROLIFERATION AND

NATURAL RECRUITMENTLook for naturally recruited desirable plants before you mow or weed
Assist propagule disperal
Seed dispersal
Disturbance
Foliar Disturbance: Revealing Succession
Expanding Nurse Plant Zones
Manipulating Sunlight

IS THERE STILL A PLACE FOR FORMALITY?

THE GOAL:
Relative Vegetative Stability

Native Plant Dominance in the Seed Bank

EXPERIENCING
THE LANDSCAPE DIFFERENTLY

http://www.lweanerdesign.com/larry.html

All photos from the Wildflower Meadows
on Randall's Island