Guiding Principles for Sustainable Gardening

Part One: A Video Class on Biodiversity

“One of the things that I value above all else (when designing gardens) is biodiversity. Biodiversity means being willing to grow many sorts of plants in different types of habitats. We want to increasing the number of plants we are using, so that we can also increase the number of butterflies that come to our gardens, the number of caterpillars that we will have, and the beneficial insects we will have; the number of toads, the number of frogs, the number of birds that will come to our places.”

Julie Witmer in Guiding Principles of Sustainable Gardening

Welcome to part one of my class: Guiding Principles for Sustainable Gardening

This is a topic that is near to my heart, so I am excited to begin to share it with you this month! I will post part two at the beginning of August, so that you will have some ideas about create a more sustainable, longer lasting and healthier ecosystem in our gardens.

Julie Witmer recording part one, Biodiversity.

In this section of the class, we will talk about trying to create as many different growing conditions as we can in the garden. We will see how diverse conditions result in plant biodiversity. We will also talk about layered plantings, succession planting, and letting all plants show you their own value.

“What that means at Havenwood is that we have made several distinct sorts of habitats…”

Join me for Part One: Biodiversity