Native Plant Brown Bag Presentation, Edith J. Carrier Arboretum

On June 14, Anna Maria Johnson gave a great presentation on gardening with native plants at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at JMU. The room was packed with avid listeners. There were several HMNers in attendance (Ann Murray, Peggy Plass, Dave Forrer and Elaine Smith).

After a nice introduction from the Arboretum Director Jan Sievers Mahon, Anna Maria started with a plug for the native plant gardening guide. Then she advocated for thoughtful use of the land, in order to share it with all the other “people” (plants, animals, bugs etc.).

Key points she covered included:

Ecological Gardening, which means choosing plants that feed and shelter wildlife, improve the soil and protect the water, as well as redefining “beauty” to include less pristine specimens.

Some considerations: removing invasive species; using straight species vs cultivars; maximizing diversity; considering eco-regions; “mild, styled or wild” options of approaches, and not needing to be perfect.

She discussed four kinds of diversity: species, structural, functional and genetic. She also urged us to “learn and edit our landscape, rather than trying to control it.”

All in all, it was a wonderful presentation to a large, receptive audience!

– Elaine Smith, Cohort IV, June 2023

Reprinted (and adapted) from the June 2023 issue of the Shenandoah Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society’s newsletter, thanks to Elaine!