Give the Green Light To Curb Appeal

By Laurie Casey
The Morton Arboretum

Looking for ways to do the right thing for the environment and your family’s yard?

Finding the right plant for the space is one of the eco-friendly gardening techniques explained at “Sustainable with Style,” this year’s Midwest Gardening Symposium, held March 13-15 at The Morton Arboretum. Homeowners are invited to come and learn from local and national experts the new techniques that can help you rejuvenate your home garden.

“Our lineup of illustrated talks and demonstrations will help you discover how to use green solutions in stylish ways,” says Karla Lynch, Arboretum Manager of Horticulture Education. “We’ll reveal how to use good design principles to create more sustainable gardens using eco-friendly techniques, plants, and products.”

One of the best eco-friendly things homeowners can do is conserve water. The talk, “Waterwise Gardening” unveils a state-of-the-art water-capture system coming soon to the Chicago market, Lynch says. This new take on the “old fashioned” cistern, enables homeowners to collect rainwater in a large, underground tank. The tank has a pump and hooks directly into an existing irrigation system or water feature. The stored rain is later used for watering trees and other plants. Some cisterns under development are solar-powered.

At a symposium talk called, “Tough and Lovely: Plants for Dry Sites,” Kunso Kim, The Arboretum’s Assistant Director of Collections, along with Todd Jacobson, the Arboretum’s Assistant Director of Horticulture, will highlight suitable plants from the Arboretum’s landscape, garden displays and collections.

“There are plenty of plants to mix and create an interesting garden,” said Kim, who will show pictures from his travels and the Arboretum’s collections of water-wise gardens, such as sand bed gardening and trough gardens. “It’s a different gardening style than we’re used to here in the Midwest. But we can find plants that thrive in hot and exposed sites and dry soil.” These plants include yucca, Russian-sage, and stonecrop.

“Often, homeowners attempt to radically alter their gardens in order to fit the needs of their plants,” said Jacobson. “In sustainable gardening, the idea is to work with what you have, without a lot of fuss.” Jacobson will share ideas for plants for shady, dry areas, such as under trees with thick canopies like spruce, Douglas-fir or Norway maple. Some ground covers, such as Christmas fern, English ivy, and barrenwort do well in those conditions.

Several new selections of coneflowers, asters, hydrangeas, bottlebrush buckeye, and trillium are coming on the market. The symposium shows them off and describes how to use a broad range of native plants in a sophisticated, elegant manner in the talk, “Taming the Best and the Brightest.” Rick Lewandowski, director of Mt. Cuba Center, a Delaware estate garden where native plant conservation is key, discusses the facility’s work in hybridizing native plants, bringing several to market, and how gardeners can design with them effectively.

Break out of the traditional techniques for developing an outdoor space and create “destinations” with the keynote presentation featuring “The Authentic Garden.” Join author Claire Sawyers for a book-signing afterwards.

Other talks at the Midwest Gardening Symposium will cover community supported agriculture, and, in the spirit of “eating locally,” a brand-new service that shows homeowners how to vegetable garden, or does it all for them.

Glad You Asked

Q: Are all native plants drought-tolerant?
A. No, native plants have evolved in a wide variety of environments from rivers’ edges to ridge tops.

Q. Why isn’t my sun-loving lavender thriving like the garden phlox right next to it?
A. One mistake beginning gardeners make is mixing plants that have different growing requirements. Both of your plants love sun, but lavender likes well-drained soil, and garden phlox likes rich, moist soil. Before you dig, know the growing needs of every plant.

At the Arboretum
Receive great deals on eco-friendly jewelry, home décor, garden supplies, books, holiday merchandise and more at the “Semi-Annual Clearance Sale” in The Arboretum Store, February 28-March 1, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. And, register for the Midwest Gardening Symposium at (630) 719-2468 or at www.mortonarb.org, select “Visit,” then “Events & Activities.”

Laurie Casey, M.A. English Literature, is a staff writer at The Morton Arboretum.