PODCAST Episode #005
Kim Eierman is an Environmental Horticulturist specializing in ecological landscapes and native plants. In this episode Kim gives us easy and new ways to think about helping our pollinators and native plants on our decks, patios, in our yards, and gardens.
Hi this is Verla from Your Outside Mindset Show where I shine a light on aging adults who may have a chronic disease, and who are taking back their outside mindset by looking or going outside to spend time close to trees, shrubs, and plants.
These spring days if we are not walking in the woods, we are kneeling into the ground in our gardens – in what almost feels like a prayer. As we dig our bare fingers into the dirt we breathe in the health giving microbes in the soil. By simply being in our gardens we breathe in antivirals, anti-inflammatories, analgesics, and antiseptics. Science shows that by just being outside our negative thinking slides away and the way we pay attention changes. By noticing something new in something old, as Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer advises us to do, we boost the mindset benefits of being outside in green space.
Today I am thrilled to have the author of a terrific book I read recently called “The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening” by Kim Eierman. In her practical and intelligent book, Kim will give you new ways of thinking and noticing and around your garden.
Kim Eierman is an Environmental Horticulturist specializing in ecological landscapes and native plants. Based in New York, Kim teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Native Plant Center in NY, Rutgers Home Gardeners School. Kim is an active speaker at Master Gardener groups, garden clubs, nature centers, Audubon Society chapters, AND beekeeping groups. Kim also provides horticultural consulting to homeowners and commercial industry.
Thank you Kim Eierman please tell us your story and why you wrote this book about nature and plants?
Several years ago, I made a major career change. I worked on Wall Street and had always been a nature lover. I switched careers to become a horiculturalist and “traded one kind of green for another. ”
I am a naturalist and part of that is looking around at creatures that inhabit the earth with us and try to take better care of them. So pollinators are incredibly important to us and we tend not to we to pay attention to them. Pollinators, animal pollinators not just bees, give us 80% of the reproduction of flowering plants on earth and a significant part of our food supply So we really should care so I wrote the Pollinator Victory Garden to empower, encourage, and inspire folks to help make change.
Please tell us about some of the research in your book.
There are many different kinds of Pollinators. So we think about pollinators as bees and maybe hummingbirds. But pollinators are also bees, beetles, butterflies, flies, moths, and even some mosquitos are pollinators . This is important because we need to provide them with not just flowers but a place to live. That is the one thing I found missing from other books on the nature and gardens. So we need to start thinking about habitat
The vast majority of our bees are native bees – not honey bees that were imported from Europe. The majority of native bees are ground nesters. They need bare patches of soil in a sunny location where the ground is workable – not too much clay, not too much sand. So keep that in mind.
Our cavity nesting bees need cavities to rest in. They might go to pithy plant stems or hollow plant stems like Joe Pye Weed or Elderberries. They might go to old holes where beetles were burying. There are many places our native bees can go if we just start thinking about the habitat that we need to provide them with.
So just providing flowers is a flower buffet — you need to provide habitat. Pollinators need a place to live, to rest, to hide and to be protected from the wind.
Can we leave little piles of brush around for them?
Yes a natural landscape is a good thing. Some of us can do that, some of us it is a bit more challenging – depending where we live. Brush piles can provide a very good habitat. Leaving a dead log on the ground is also good because beetles leave holes for bees. Or we might leave a dead tree standing but we do have to be safety minded and might have to cut it back to a safe height so it does not hurt our kids, cars, house, etc. Thinking in a more naturalist way is not just good for pollinators but it is good for wildlife in general.
There are honey bees (that live in huge numbers in hives) and our native( solitary ) bees.
Kim what about native plants?
Our native plants are an important part of this and so is evolution. There are now close to 4000 bee species in North America – they were all here before the here settlers came – and they have different requirements than honey bees. Each bee is a pollen specialist. So there is a connection between the plant and the pollinator. For example the Monarch butterfly and milk weed connection. The Monarch needs specific to leaves to become adult monarch butterflies. This is where native woody plants, perennials, and shrubs count. We call these host plant plants. We can make better choices if we think about these connections. When we make the connection between what we plant and pollinators, we are also structuring an excellent habitat migrating birds (eg berries and fruit) – evolutionary connections are profound and we are not always aware of them – so I tend to focus on native plants.
You can find Kim Eierman’s book “The Pollinator Victory Garden” at her website https://www.ecobeneficial.com and to get started on regional native plants go to her website.
Where Should We Buy Local Native Plants
Join your local native nursery to find out exactly which native plants are in your region. This way you can see how plants evolved in your particular area. Think local when you buy your plants, support your local native nursery native nursery, (instead of big companies) because they carefully select seed, make sure it is native, and pesticide free. If we don’t support our local native nurseries they will not exist. Think of this as supporting your local organic farmer.
Container Pollinator Gardening For Your Deck or Patio
Kim Eierman gives talks on containers with trees, shrubs, and perennials. She will be teaching a course this summer at New York Botanical Gardens. They are more cost effective than annuals. Stick with plants you know are pollinators, and leave your pots out year round. Plant with enough soil volume so that the pollinators come back every year. You can help the soil in the containers by adding nutrients. A good perennial for containers is coneflower . If you get a cultivar stick as close as you can to what the native (straight species) plant looks like. Some of the cultivars are pretty good. If you move too far away from the straight species you will potentially get less nectar, less pollen, and less seed. A “straight species” is a native plant with single quotes – eg echinacea purpurea has long lasting purple blooms. The more diversity we can plant the better. Get containers that are big enough, go with bigger rather than smaller because need lots of soil.
Kim’s Top Pollinator Gardening Tips
· Hire someone or get help from a friend, a family member, enjoy planting with others – make connections through planting with others
· Do a little homework before you go out and buy
· What are your pollinator plants in your region?
· Do A little site assessment of where you want to plant. Will you need a plant with wind tolerance? How many hours of hours of sunlight does that site get?
· Compare different lists of native plants
· Make some decisions – 4 and a half foot tall plants in container. One species is fine – get containers that are big enough – err on the
· Think about 3 seasons of bloom in a garden or container
· Think about leaf texture and foliage when the flowers are not in bloom – make it more interesting
· Not all pollinators come out at the same time.
· Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Kim Eierman (check spelling) an old gardeners saying “You don’t know a plant until you kill it.”
· Different pollinators have different tongue lengths.
· Keep saucer with little pebbles in it for the pollinators to drink – keep away from the bird bath.
· If you have a vegetable garden, planting native plants in and around vegetable gardens we can increase our vegetable quality and yield.
· With native plants in and around our vegetable gardens, this attracts beneficial insects, like lady bugs, that help to keep help pest populations at bay.
· So by planting native plants that attract pollinators we are providing pollen source through protein source for our beneficial insects and so protect and increase the quality of our produce.
· Can you pollinate with a brush? Why? This practice does exist where there are no pollinators, (eg Brazil) but is time consuming and expensive. Not practical and not sustainable. The better approach is to promote pollinators.
Anything you wish I would have asked you?
There are opportunities here since we are now paying more attention to the benefits of nature these days. There are more online opportunities. For example I am teaching a zoom online course at the New York Botanical Gardens this summer. Kim says to make these connections with your garden to nature, start taking some classes at botanical gardens, start educating yourself, pick up copy of her book “The Pollinator Victory Garden.” Her book is written in such a way that you can open it to any place and learn something. You can take action in simple ways.
Kim Eierman likes to say that “every landscape can make a difference – small changes can make big environmental results. So we all have it within our power to really be a force for good with nature, we just have to start trying and a great way to start is with pollinators.”
I found Kim’s book, helpful, easy to follow and uplifting. In reponse Kim says yes we all need a little garden therapy these days.
After the interview:
· When I say “you are a pro at this”, Kim Eierman says “ I really believe this and my goal in life is to try to educate people to make change – to care about what I have cared about since I was a little tiny kid and I have never stopped.”
We know the health benefits of spending time in our gardens and around plants on our patios, now through Kim’s book “The Pollinator Victory Garden” and her website Ecobeneficial.com – we can make more connections to our beneficial insects, our pollinators that include many different species specific native bees, butterflies, and more who need native plants – shrubs and perennials to provide rest and a home.
· I loved the way Kim finished the interview by saying: “every landscape can make a difference – small changes can make big environmental results. So we have it within our power to really be a force for good with nature, we just have to start trying and a great way to start is with pollinators.”
That alone is an uplifting and empowering thought. At the same time as we are learning about our local native plants and shrubs as Kim suggests we are helping our precious green space. We are making connections between what we plant and pollinators. Give your pollinators a place to rest and live. Don’t run out and buy plants without doing a little homework to find out what the pollinator plants and shrubs are in your region, assessing your site, and then making your plant choices. What a great way to boost your outside mindset.
Please join my free private facebook group Ditch Inside for Outside (link) Here in the group Kim will send a free copy of her signed copy of her book “The Pollinator Victory Garden” to one lucky respondent who answers to these two questions: what is one thing to do, and what is one thing not to do when it comes to pollinators and native plants. So search facebook groups for Ditch Inside for Outside to join others as we support each other to get outside close to spend time close to trees, shrubs, and plants. If you are not on facebook and want to leave your comment in this podcast episode comments – I will put your comments into the fb group for you so you can enter the contest to win Kim’s fantastic book.
And please go to my website treesmendus.com for the show notes on this episode with Kim and for free health tips on free and easy actions you can take right now to live longer, prevent dementia, and control your chronic illness – by spending time outside in greenspace.
Thank you for listening to the end, and good for you for taking back your outside mindset. And it you ask me, we all need a little more of Your Outside Mindset.
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