On May 5th, Glacier Oaks Mary Tree McClelland was invited to speak at The Growing Scene's Open House at their Garden Center on Harmony Road in Marengo, IL.
Thank you to owner Kathleen Carr and her knowledgeable staff for inviting us and for the opportunity to welcome the season of the garden.
An Excerpt From Mary's Talk:
"My topic for today is about using edible plants in the landscape. Our interest in edible plants grew out of our Sustainable Nursery Initiative that we adopted this year in an effort to transition all of our growing practices to a sustainable level.
Practicing weed and pest management as well as healthy growing, in ways that reduce energy use and reduce waste.
Another huge part of sustainability is about diversity and symbiotic systems. Every living thing in your landscape has a function. Worms and micro-organisms keep soil healthy which in turn determines and supports the plants we can grow in our landscape.
If you stop and think for a minute, isn’t it amazing how in the last three weeks we’ve gone from bare branch and brown ground to a covering of every shade and shape of leaf and flower. Most of those flowers will produce fruit—all food for insects, birds, animals –including us!
We started looking at the plants in our nursery with a different eye last fall when the Aronia melanocarpa were literally covered with berries. The birds were having a festival and pointed us in this direction—that ended up with buckets full of the purplish-black blueberry sized fruit. We experimented with jam, wine, cookies and sweet breads."
- Download a copy of the handout 'Landscaping Not Just for the Birds'
