Tichenor Middle School in Erlanger got a late start on their pollinator garden, but the students put forth a spectacular effort. The garden will be fabulous this spring!
Steven McNabb, a teacher at Tichenor, is the adult sponsored for the project. WildOnes Cincinnati are providing educational support for the next two years to help ensure the garden’s success. The school received a $500 grant from Kentucky Native Plant Society, and Ironweed Native Plant Nursery in Waddy supplied the native plants.
The school is hoping to plant even more plants this spring if they can secure more funding.
We have one more pollinator garden grant to announce for 2023. Tichenor Middle School of Erlanger, KY received a $500 grant to start a pollinator garden this fall. Science teacher, Steven McNabb is the school’s sponsor and the Greater Cincinnati WildOnes chapter has agreed to be their educational partner for the next two years. Ironweed Native Plant Nursery in Waddy, Kentucky is supplying the plants.
They plan to break ground in the next few weeks, so the garden will be ready for spring.
Sarah Grace and Jonathan Omar Cole Kubesch proudly introduce Joseph Cole Kubesch to the Kentucky Native Plant Society. Joseph joined the Kubesch family on August 20th and has taken quickly to life on the family’s turkey ranch in Pembroke, Virginia.
Lizzie Darling started her native plant adventure in 2021, when she and her husband moved into a new home in Louisville. She noticed that many of the plants growing in their neighborhood were cultivars and even invasives, such as Japanese honeysuckle and winter creeper. After researching their origins, she learned that these plants prevented a more robust natural ecosystem from developing. Lizzie wanted a native habitat for wildlife and insects to thrive.
There are many reasons to plant natives Lizzie says. They’re beautiful, low maintenance, and hardy. They’ve adapted to the region, so nature supplies what they need. That means they need no fertilizer and little to no supplemental water once established. Natives provide food and shelter for wildlife thanks to their symbiotic relationship with the ecosystem. Consequently, natives require no pesticides to support good health. Finally, natives usually have deep roots that prevent erosion and water runoff, while enriching the soil for life beneath the surface. It’s a win for humans, flora, and fauna alike.
Yes, you’ll see the occasional insect having lunch, but in a balanced system, plants withstand the picnickers quite well.
In 2022, she began transforming her Louisville property, but was disappointed to find few natives at neighborhood nurseries. Dropseed Native Plant Nursery and Ironweed Native Plant Nursery proved to be excellent sources to meet her needs. But still looking for options closer to home and finding none, she decided to grow natives herself.
Lizzie Darling, owner of Native Roots Nursery.
This past winter, she began growing native plants from seed and removing nonnative invasives and improving her wildlife habitat.
She joined several gardening groups this past spring and found many local gardeners looking for natives. That’s when she began growing them to sell, after acquiring her nursery license. Now, she supplies plants for local companies, such as Native Oasis, who designs and maintains native plant landscaping.
Native Roots Nursery is sold out for the 2023 season but watch for their pop-up events come spring. They also sell at local markets throughout the Louisville area. To keep up with her pop-up and local market events, like her Facebook page.
The native plant movement is alive and well throughout Kentucky, so much so that finding native plants can be difficult. Fortunately for those in the Louisville area, Beargrass Thunder sells native plants and more.
Plant native wildflowers.
Beargrass Thunder evolved from a YouTube channel for hobby gardening and urban placemaking in Louisville. They joined the Kentucky Proud family as a certified plant nursery and seed seller in 2021. Besides selling plants and custom seed mixes, they can install native yardens at your property. According to owner Jody Dahmer, a yarden is a native food, meadow, or pollinator planting.
Jody answered both an opportunity and a need when he started Beargrass Thunder. Neighbors in their Louisville community were fined for growing heirloom vegetables and flowers. He started Beargrass Thunder as a way to challenge Louisville’s restrictive, 90-year-old weed ordinance that outlawed plants taller than 10 inches.
It took three years, but the effort was successful. Louisville repealed the outdated ordinance in March 2022. The Louisville area is seeing a massive trend towards native plants with help from Beargrass Thunder and Native Plant Alliance, which steers suburbs and HOAs toward native plant landscaping in the greater Louisville area.
Jody said, “It has given us an opportunity to educate as well as influence the many ways governments maintain properties — switching from clearcutting and mowing to more fuel- and labor-efficient wildflower meadows and creek restorations. Once you know you have other options than mowed grass, it is very easy to change budgets! We have even had an HOA change their rules to allow gardens and native plants!”
In addition to changing minds and ordinances, Beargrass Thunder collects and shares localized varieties of wildflowers, vegetables, and fruit trees, which they share with members of the community as part of the Louisville Seed Bank. The seed bank is hosted by Louisville Tool Library on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 1227 Logan Street in the Shelby Park neighborhood.
You can find Beargrass Thunder at many Bernheim Arboretum events, neighborhood events, and other local businesses in the area. To make an appointment to purchase plants or seeds, or consult, contact Jody at jody@beargrassthunder.com. To keep up with their public events, follow Beargrass Thunder on your favorite social media platform:
Jonathan Omar Cole Kubesch1,2, Lauryn Jansen1, Dillon P. Golding1,3,4, Makayla Bryant1, Frank Reith1,2, and Derek Hilfiker1,2
Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences; Blacksburg, VA
Country Home Farms; Pembroke, VA
Virginia Tech Urban Horticulture Center; Blacksburg, VA
Hoot Owl Hollow Farm, Woodlawn, VA
Today, most Upper South pastureland consists of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). Tall fescue grasslands suit cattle production needs for much of the year with few inputs and tolerate mismanagement more effectively than many other forage species (Kubesch et al., 2022a). However, tall fescue (TF) is limited in that the warm summer months are suboptimal for the cool-season grass, and the toxic endophyte in most tall fescue can lead to undesirable cattle effects. Cattle might have reduced performance in terms or gain, milk production, or reproduction, as well as elevated heat stress.
Native warm-season grasses (NWSGs) are warm-season grasses suited to producing forage during the heat of summer, when TF is not under optimal conditions for growth, which peaks in spring and fall. Examples of these species include big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), and Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans). Additionally, NWSGs can improve environmental outcomes over TF through wildlife benefits as well as improved drought resilience (Keyser et al., 2019; Keyser, 2021). Our position on the utilization of NWSGs in the Upper South for grazing is that NWSGs can complement existing TF grazing systems where management and infrastructure are available to transition between spatially separated TF and NWSG stands.
Spatially explicit TF and NWSG stands are requisite in order for the use of these respective species to be sustainable over a production lifecycle. Cool-season grasses outcompete warm-season grasses during the spring and fall, and the inverse occurs in the summer (Keyser, 2021). Portions of acreage for the TF and NWSG components of a grazing system have been used rather than a composition basis.
NWSG grass stands have been suggested to make up between 10-30% of Upper South farm acreage in a recent synthesis (Keyser, 2021). Given recent experimental work where heifers had the ability to select tall fescue or NWSG portions of a paddock over most of a grazing season, the 30% of acreage in NWSG seems more reasonable than the 10% value. However, given that converting from one forage to another forage results in 1+ year of lost forage production (Keyser, 2021), a piecemeal transition strategy like that suggested for organic forage production might be more practical (Kubesch et al., 2022b).
30% of farm acreage might be the long-term goal, however, that goal can be accommodated through converting smaller tracts over time. In a series of farm case studies, producers converted approximately 5-10% of their acreage to NWSG stands as trials for potential expansion (Virginia Cooperative Extension [Case studies]). Seeing as these conversions are already at smaller scales than what may be the long-term target, a piecemeal approach seems to be the most logical process. Conversions of select paddocks within grazing management units might also constrain the conversion process. Any forage establishment carries the risk of failure, and as such, establishing NWSGs during the conversion process can create additional risks (Kubesch et al., 2022b). In addition to the stand failing to result in enough viable plants for forage production, establishing stands can risk soil erosion, weed encroachment, nutrient leaching, water quality decline, and minor habitat loss for insects. The preference for perennial sods is in part to mitigate these environmental constraints, maintain forage production with minimal inputs, and to reduce establishment failure risk (Keyser, 2021; Case Studies; Kubesch et al., 2022b).
We have exciting news — KNPS is partnering with horticultural education groups across the state to provide funds and educational support for pollinator gardens. 2023 is a pilot year so we can find partners throughout the state and work out the kinks.
We’re partnering with organizations with an education mission because the success rate of grant gardens is small. With a two-year educational support commitment from our educational partners, we hope to improve the success rate.
The partnership includes three parties:
The Kentucky Native Plant Society as grantor will provide funds for the purchase of native plants and seeds.
The grantee will be the owner or caretaker of the garden. The site should have education as part of its mission and offer public access, within reason.
An educational partner will provide education and continued support for at least two years.
Currently, each grant is $500. KNPS and educational partners can assist with purchasing plants. The grantee will use their volunteers to prepare, plant, and maintain the garden.
The five pilot sites
Currently, we have five pilot sites in the works. Two are in Frankfort and three are at or near Eastern Kentucky University.
Gerrard County High School
Kelly Watson, Ph.D. and the associate director of Eastern Kentucky University’s Division of Natural Areas supplied the education component for this new pollinator garden on school grounds. The KNPS grant of $500 was used to purchase native plants from Ironweed Native Plant Nursery in Waddy.
On May 17th, Kelly worked with two shifts of students: One was an Agriculture/Horticulture class (taught by Natasha Parsons), and a second group of students is part of GearUp, working with Amy Whitt. Kelly will continue to support these groups in maintaining the garden to secure its success.
Students planting the outside classroom. Students planting the outside classroom.
Science for Sustainable Living Initiative
Kelly Watson serves as the educational partner for this pollinator garden outside the EKU science building and the plants were purchased from Ironweed Native Plant Nursery. EKU has two gardens here that are used as outdoor classrooms and during the campus pollinator workshops, which occur twice a year.
The gardens were established two years ago through a grant from Novelis, using seeds from Roundstone Native Seed Company. The groups caring for these gardens have battled invasives since then. By adding mature plugs, the group hopes to tilt the tables a bit more in favor of the natives.
In May, a group of group of summer student interns (they get paid!) and Kelly spent six hours weeding preparing the gardens. The gardens were planted on May 31 and June 2.
Volunteers planting the pollinator garden. Student volunteers.
EKU Scholar House
Kelly Watson is providing the educational partner for this large outdoor classroom space and plants were purchased from Ironweed Native Plant Nursery. This site already has three large, raised beds and they’re currently working to create a larger outdoor classroom space.
On June 1, EKU Scholar House and EKU Sustainability Office hosted a planting event. Volunteers helped plant the classroom space and children visited educational tables with games and activities. One table taught the children how to plant a seed, and the children took their small pots home!
Students help volunteers plant their new garden classroom. Teachers and volunteers lead the planting.
Second Street School
Connie Lemley of Frankfort facilitated the grant for the group. The plants were purchased from Ironweed Native Plant Nursery and the Capital Area Extension Master Gardeners (CAEMG) will provide educational support to ensure the garden’s success.
On Saturday, June 3, Eagle scout candidate Sam Curry and his fellow scouts planted a pollinator garden at Second Street School in Frankfort, Kentucky. The spot is concrete bound by sidewalks and Second Street, so it will receive a lot of traffic.
First, the group removed a large knock-out rose and turf before planting. Sam has a large number of volunteers to help maintain the garden over the summer. From there, the school’s volunteers, under Connie’s direction, will resume care using Sam’s educational and maintenance plan for guidance.
A before shot of the Second Street School pollinator garden plot. Second Street School volunteers. Second Street School scout volunteers.
Liberty Hall Historical Site
Anna Campomanes, the garden curator for Liberty Hall in Frankfort, secured a grant to restore an historical garden that is available to the public. CAEMG is the educational partner.
Anna decided to supplement an existing historical garden with native shrubs. CAEMG visited the site and provided a list of sun-loving native shrubs that would fit the garden nicely and attract pollinators. Many people don’t think of native shrubs when they think of pollinators, so this is a unique opportunity.
Planting is scheduled for fall. Liberty Hall hopes to host a public workshop for planting shrubs that day. This will give KNPS and CAEMG the opportunity to promote native shrubs as pollinators to the public!
Going forward
It’s an auspicious start, and the commitment and enthusiasm from the grantees are infectious! We plan regular updates throughout the summer, so watch for more information in The Lady Slipper.