Growing Greener

In this week's Growing Greener Heather McCargo, founder of the Wild Seed Project, describes its programs to encourage gardeners to grow native plants from wild-collected seeds to preserve genetic diversity in the garden and beyond, and how McCargo has embraced the evolution of her personal garden from meadow to biodiverse woodland.

One of the ways that invasive plants displace indigenous floras is "allelopathy."  In a conversation first broadcast in February 2024, Dr. Susan Kalisz of the University of Tennessee Knoxville describes how many introduced plants actually poison the soil so that indigenous species cannot germinate or flourish in their former homes.

Selecting disease-resistant cultivars is an essential tool for avoiding the use of pesticides in the vegetable garden.  Plant pathologist Nicole Gauthier of the University of Kentucky explains how to identify cultivars appropriate to your region and your garden, and why "tolerance" may serve you as well as "resistance."

As Dan Jaffe Wilder Wilder says "you can grow a lawn which is a whole bunch of green stuff.  Or you can grow a lawn that is a whole bunch of low-growing green stuff with some yellow, some blue, some white, some pink and some red mixed in. Which do you choose? "  Join the conversation with this native plant expert and learn how you can make your lawn not only colorful but also easier to maintain and supportive of the local wildlife and native flora.

Estimates of fungi diversity range into the millions of species, yet the vast majority remain unknown.  What is clear, says mycologist Gabriela D'Elia, is that your garden plants depend on the services provided to them by the indigenous fungi.