In 33 years of living on a parcel of Appalachian woodland and meadow in Ohio, Julie has done it all, battling invasive exotics, managing meadows, and turning her gardens into a bird and butterfly paradise through simple but creative enhancements that we can each distill to benefit our own properties.

She has recorded an astonishing 198 species of birds and 77 butterfly species there.

Julie’s thoughtful stewardship has made all the difference, and she’ll share the changes she’s made to enhance her land and gardens for maximum diversity—and how to adapt them to your own space on whatever scale.

Julie feels that all life is an experiment, and gardening is one of the grandest experiments of all.

In your own yard, you can take it as far as you wish:

• Experiment with more natives, including collecting their seeds and propagating your favorites

• Explore tactics for effective invasive-plant removal

• Update other garden-management practices for the maximum benefit of birds and beneficial insects

Come with your questions to ask live in class or submit in advance (with a photo attached for design and plant ID help, for instance).

You’ll leave Julie’s talk and the Q&A opportunity that follows feeling inspired, and full of ideas for your own space, no matter how small.

• How to convert your existing lawn to a wild one—or how to start from a blank slate

• Ideas for the native grasses and small-scale wildflowers you can combine into your wild lawn

• Tips for supporting beneficial insects and songbirds—while saving water and skipping the chemicals

At 40+ million acres in the United States, lawns constitute the single largest horticultural “crop” on the continent, a lot of it irrigated, fertilized, and composed of invasive Eurasian grasses. They sequester little carbon; do little to capture rainwater, and provide scant nutritional value to wild animals. 

But lawns are also a kind of simple comfort that a lot of us need or want. They are habitat to our kids and pets, a defensible firebreak around our living spaces during dry summers. They signify intent and care in our communities. 

This webinar highlights the potential and achievable alternative paradigm of wild lawns. Instead of manicured and uniform greens, wild lawns are irregular in texture and composition, low-growing but scattered with drifts of small wildflowers, built upon a matrix of native grasses that require neither supplemental water nor fertilizer. 

Wild lawns can be fostered in situ—by converting existing lawns—or created from scratch. They can provide durable/walkable/mowable groundcover, while also supporting pollinators and songbirds. They are like a regular lawn, but lower maintenance and more full of life.

Come with your questions to ask live in class or submit in advance (with a photo attached for design and plant ID help, for instance).

Like all earthworms, jumping worms consume organic matter. But they do so very rapidly, quickly changing the soil structure and its nutrient and carbon content. This has cascading effects on plant health, on other organisms that live in the soil, and even impacts carbon that might have been in the soil that is released into the atmosphere through their burrowing activities.

This webinar explores what we know so far, and what can we do:

• Get an introduction to basic earthworm biology and ecology—and how these species are different

• Learn to ID them, and to diagnose an invasion

• Understand their impacts on your soil

• Learn whether to continue traditional soil-care regimens in their presence, such as mulching and adding compost

• Explore the latest research on potential control options