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Hi Plant People,Happy Equinox! Today marks the beginning of autumn, the return of migrating monarch butterflies, and this, inaugural newsletter on all things ecological horticulture. I hope to send one a month, containing resources, articles, and upcoming events. It was a wet and wonderful summer at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Gardeners found the first walking stick in Brooklyn, welcomed a rare specialist Blueberry Digger Bee to the park, and took on the unfortunate responsibility to squashing invasive Spotted Lantern Flies. We’ve started our Monarch tagging operation and are gearing up to plant thousands of nectar and host plants for the butterflies. Our work at the Park got some marvelous coverage. Margaret Roach wrote an article on the rational behind fall planting and Jennifer Jewell and I spoke about constructed ecology on Cultivating Place. How absolutely incredible it is to see this tiny corner of nerdy gardening start to grow!
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When planting native plants, it is especially important to assure they have not been grown with systemic insecticides such a neonicotinoids. This can be hard to verify, but it’s critical, as those chemicals applied to kill “pests” will also harm the pollinators and herbivore who visit, like lovely but poisoned apples. Systemic insecticides can migrate to the soil and persist in trees for years. New research shows how wild bees who feed on neonics make poor foraging choices and that soil nesting bees cannot avoid contaminated soils. Remember to let the nurseries you shop at know your preferences. Consumer pressure can create real change.
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It brings me great joy to share Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Horticulture and Ecology databases with you, specifically the Native Plants for Urban Conditions database which can be downloaded here. There is a myth that native plants can’t hack it in big cities; the argument always has something about how the environment is so drastically altered, only exotic plants could possibly survive. To that we say: hilarious. Here are 250 native plants that thrive in cities as well as all of the information we’ve gathered thus far on how to grow them, and how they behave. It’s a working doc, rough around the edges, and updated regularly. Please let me know if you have something to add!
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Thinking about wiping out those spiders and mantids on your milkweed? New research shows that a diverse arthropod community can help monarchs survive, possibly because a thriving jungle has many more options for dinner than toxic caterpillars. So let’s stop micro-managing our garden communities. Encouraging biodiversity can bring balance. New research shows that embryonic birds start to learn songs in the egg! And older research found that the embryos can even communicate warnings to each other, egg to egg. They’re heeeEEERRReee. Spotted Lanternflies have arrived in New York. And it’s our unfortunate job to squash them. The New York Times interviewed some incredible women on the topic, with BBG Director of Horticulture Ronnit Bendavid-Val warning, “I can’t think of something they don’t lay their eggs on — cloth, metal, furniture, sides of buildings and of course trees.” and City Botanist extraordinaire Marielle Anzelone reminding us to keep perspective, “there are a lot of invasive plants in New York City that are more destructive.” I personally see their demise as a sort of weeding, but for insects. It’s our job to edit.
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Courageous by Design October 15, 2021 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. NYC. This symposium will feature leading women landscape architects, as well as allied professionals, who are inventing and deploying new tools, techniques, and technologies to meet the challenges of the current climate crisis in New York City and beyond. Rebecca will be speaking on a panel focusing on biodiverity and climate change, along with Barbara Wilks and Edwina von Gal. Darrel Morrison: The Beauty of the Wild Oct 20, 2021. 1PM - 2PM. NYBG. The fabulous Darrel Morrison, the brilliant designer and one of my favorite teachers, will speak at NYBG on his new book, recent designs, and long career. Heather Holm on Wasps! October 20, 2021 6PM - 7PM. Virtual. In a FREE lecture presented by Wild Ones, Holm will be sharing from her new book, “WASPS,” which features approximately 150 species of flower-visiting wasps that occur in eastern North America, and the specific native plants and habitat each species depends upon. UConn’s Native Plants and Pollinators Conference November 5, 2021 9AM - 3:30PM. Virtual. Presentations will feature current science-based research and information
on supporting pollinators in managed landscapes. Rebecca will lecture on The Language of Flowers: An Introduction to Pollination Ecology. Rooted in Place Ecological Gardening Symposium November 14, 2021 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM This is the 7th annual Rooted in Place Ecological Gardening Symposium at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. It will focus on Growing Resilience: The Climate Crisis, our Gardens, and Communities and is scheduled to be in person. Rebecca will present “Lessons in Built Ecology” on her work at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Other speakers include Jennifer Jewell, Sam Hoadley, and Pete Grima.
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