Melinda Myers will help you learn how to manage water in your backyard to support the plants in your landscape and help reduce the risk of sewer backups, basement flooding, and sewer overflows. Develop a strategy that works best for you by implementing some or all of these seven steps. These include improving the soil, maintaining a healthy landscape, installing rain barrels, creating rain gardens, planting trees, adding native plants to the landscape, and growing a water-friendly lawn. Handout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g4VanVaAcS01TSAH0WV8ojKQBsx2EoJP/view?usp=drive_link
okay all right here we go hello and good evening everyone we’re just going to wait a minute to let everyone log in because I see you all rolling in on my participants list thanks for being here tonight just wait like 30 more seconds all right why don’t we go ahead and get started um welcome to the Milwaukee Public Libraries online Zoom session with our special guest Melinda Myers who is nationally known gardening expert TV radio host author and and columnist um she has written over 20 gardening books and is a big huge Milwaukee Public Library friend and Champion thanks so much for being with us tonight Linda um tonight she’s presenting seven steps to managing water where it falls in your yard just a little bit of housekeeping my name is Beth I will be in the background while Melinda is speaking if you have any questions for Melinda please use the Q&A function it helps me keep track of all your questions in the order they come in otherwise you can chat amongst yourself in the chat box um there will be a PDF handout that I will attach once I turn my camera off and you will also get that handout and a link to the recording in a couple days after we’re through tonight again any questions just let me know all right I’m gonna turn over you Melinda thank you so much thank you Beth and thanks to all of you wrong button that’s okay I thought you were done with me Beth so that’s okay thanks to all of you for joining us as well and with the recent rains I think this is a very timely topic always important I moved um I grew up in Ohio and moved to Milwaukee oh many years ago and I remember talking about water and living by the Great Lakes I thought water was something plentiful and we’ve learned how precious our water is too much or not enough seems to be wherever you Garden the issue so let’s talk about seven ways to manage that water that Fells on your landscape as always I like to thank those who sponsored make it possible for me to provide these webinars for you for free fresh Coast Guardians you’ll learn more about them people just like you who are concerned about keeping the Great Lakes clean and good quality water and our waterways and things that we can do to help make that happen Milwaukee Metro sewage District who are also partners for a cleaner environment thanks to both of them for sponsoring this thanks to Milwaukee Public Library best right I’m a huge fan of Milwaukee Public Library and appreciative of all they do to help me reach all of you so let’s get started water matters and I think most of you know it but when I was living in the city I was always amazed how people looked at the storm sewers almost as a trash can I’d see them sweeping debris Into the Storm sewer hosing off their Al the alley their driveway Into the Storm sewer thinking that just just appears but you’re here so you probably know this but you can help me spread the word that everything we do on our property has the potential to end up in the storm sewer and then that ends up into the river and lakes and eventually has to get clean for us to have drinking water well one way we can manage it is to have healthy Landscapes and besides that managing storm water it’s a beautiful place to spend time I think we’re all anxious for spring to arrive I took a little timeout yesterday and walked around my garden to check out what was blooming what has survived this crazy winter weather and was rewarded to find lots of bulbs I plant were flowering and lots of pollinators were already out there so a healthy landscape is going to help keep water where it falls in your yard and that’s good because it provides the water our plants need but it also grows a beautiful landscape and besides that there’s some other things you can do and there’s a link on the handout to um a publication by mmsd on the things that help manage rainwater we’re going to talk about a few of those mainly from a plant perspective but things that you can do fixing leaky Windows making sure the foundation is solid and filling any of those cracks if uh there’s a problem with grading making sure that the soil grades away from your house that your sump pump is in working order and your gutters are clean so a few things that you can do this was my old house in the city Milwaukee and um as you can see I took to heart having all the surface covered with plants but a healthy landscape starts from the ground up it’s not the part that’s the most beautiful part we like to talk about when I taught at Milwaukee Area Technical College I’d always told my students if you can sell soil preparation to your customers you’re a good salesperson because as gardeners what do we do we drag people out to see our cool new plant the Flowers In Bloom the butterflies visiting only a few of us are geeky enough to show them our great soil but if you’re a gardener you already know that good soil means a good healthy garden and it also absorbs storm water now this is ideal soil we’ve got that organic humus layer top soil that takes a hundred years for nature to build one inch of top soil so that tells you how important that soil is below that the subsoil and what often happens when during construction is when they dig the foundation for our homes they scrape off the top soil they used to sell it now more and more companies are stockpiling it to put back on your property but often that subsoil is spread over the surface then an inch of top soil add a couple trees sod thrown on top and it’s called a landscape you then spend the next years trying to fix that soil and grow a healthy landscape so a soil test I know not all of you are going to do it but a soil test is a good place to start when you’re doing a new Garden it tells you what that soil contains you let the soil testing lab in Wisconsin it’s UW soil testing lab and then you tell them what you’re growing and they tell you what if any nutrients you need to add if you’re having problems in an area let’s say you’ve got a garden that just isn’t growing well or maybe your lawn on the side is not doing well You’ take a sample just from that area send that in explain the problem what you’re growing and they can decide if it’s a nutrient dis um issue and then every few years it’s just a good idea to see if you’re on track with your maintenance adding organic matter is one way we can improve our soil it improves drainage and heavy clay soil and it improves the water holding ability of sandy soil I left the city and Milwaukee after 26 years I had um converted my yard into a garden lots of organic matter organic mulches I had great soil I moved out into the country so I have a little more space to do my profession and my hobby but now I have pure sand and so I’m working on building my sandy soil to hold more moisture it’s great when there’s a lot of rain but when it’s a dry summer like we had last year and the year before that means more watering for me so compost there’s a lot more benefits to compost than just the water holding ability one it provides a lot of essential nutrients to your plant so that means you’re going to fertilize less research and I think this was out of Cornell University found that soil that’s been amended with compost grows healthier plants and they have fewer insect and disease problems it also if you’re composting your plant-based kitchen scraps and garden waste it also keeps that out of the landfill reduces rainwater and fertilizer runoff into our waterways because that makes our soil act like a sponge and it absorbs that storm water it holds on to those neutri so they don’t wash out it keeps rainwater as I mentioned where it falls and that means you’ll be watering less and conserving more so how much do you add well ideally you would add an inch of compost for every two inches of soil now that may not be practical so it may do you may be doing that over time but if you can add a few inches to the top 8 to 12 Ines of soil that’s a good place to start the other thing you can do is let’s say you have exist ing Gardens and you don’t want to start over you would like to improve their health and reduce fertilizing top dressing with compost adding about an inch of compost every other or every third year uh researchers found provides most of not all the nutrients that perennials need and so the or soil organisms will help pull that compost into the soil mix it in and so you’re doing all the same things you would do by tilling it in just over longer period of time with the help of nature so if you do have a garden that’s just not doing well and your top dressing isn’t doing everything you’d like you could do vertical mulching as you see here so you could either spread the compost over the surface take your Aug bit and run it into the soil to push that compost down near the plant roots but it also helps irate the soil or you could do what we did here which was drill the hole add some compost and smooth it over either way you’re a rating the soil working compost in improving the health and vigor of your plants many of you may’ve heard about no no till gardening that’s been a big movement I grew up with a father who always spayed age manure from the family farm his family’s Farm into the garden and so we had great soil and so I grew up thinking you always turn the garden no is really a not a new technique but bringing um awareness to the fact that the less we till the better for our soil tilling brings up weed seeds tilling adds oxygen breaks down the organic matter faster and um if you do it especially at the wrong time of year you end up damaging the soil structure so one thing that I’ve been doing a lot lately because of my sandy soil and I don’t have 26 years to fix it I’ve been doing lasagna garding and the idea is building layers of organic matter to create a planting mix hugle culture gardening oops sorry clicked too much hugle culture gardening takes that one step further so basically what you do is you take logs and twigs and leaves and make your first layer this is my hugle culture garden and as I mentioned I have sandy soil I also have a lot of wind so I started my Hogle culture Garden below ground most people do it on the soil surface so I dug out a trench as you could see about 18 15 18 in deep and then I layered the L no black walnut no black walnut no black locust and no Cedar uh Cedar and black locust break down too slowly black walnut is toxic so we want to avoid those fill it with branches and then you do your lasagna gardening on top adding green debris and so as you can see from this picture you would measure out your garden put a layer of newspaper Andor cardboard and then just like your composting 8 to 10 in of organic matter a little bit of comp comp post and fertilizer you continue to layer till it’s 18 in tall with hugle culture we’ll top this off with a lasagna Garden this is a great way to create a planting mix so this is my lasagna garden and I have a large area that’s fenced in for testing plants and growing vegetables and so I started this right on soil I didn’t put it in a raised bed frame instead I just left it freestanding but if you’re considering a raised bed garden this is a great way to create your own planting mix you’re recycling all that yard waste kitchen scraps worm castings if you do worm composting to create great soil and plant a garden uh this is a hugle culture Garden someone sent me um that I appreciated that she shared it look how beautiful it is so you can see that change in elevation where she built up the soil planted a garden over time it does eventually settle down in hugle culture garding the logs absorb moisture and release it back in it breaks down slowly releasing nutrients you’ve probably seen that happen naturally in the woods when you take a hike and a log’s falling on the ground it’s taking that concept and putting it to work in your garden we also want to so we’re building our soil that’s one thing we can do but we also need to protect our soil and we can protect it with mulch or plantings because when the we get a heavy rain and we’re having more and more episodes of heavy rain that can compact the soil that can lead to erosion by covering the soil surface with mulch or with plants we help protect that soil we reduce the risk of comp compaction we reduce the risk of erosion and then here it just made a nice pathw pathway mulch also suppresses weeds as it decomposes organic mulches add organic matter and nutrients so it builds the soil over time and it helps moderate soil temperatures think about how hot it was last summer and how dry bare soil is could be up to like 104 and or5 degrees where covered soil is much cooler better for the plants so leaf mulch is one of my favorite mulches it’s free so instead of raking your leaves to the curb in the fall gather them up and or put them in your planting beds around your perennials bag them use them next year for your annual beds put them in your compost pot but they do make great mulch they weave together I often um I find that if I put them down I water them in right away and that prevents them from blowing in really windy days but a layer just a couple inches thick does great things and they’re home for beneficial insects and you could also use Evergreen needles and Cones they won’t make your soil too acidic they’re great to walk on Barefoot they smell good um the picture on the right is my friend Paul’s garden and the first time I’ve visited them it smelled like I was in northern Wisconsin that you know Woodland smell with all the Evergreen cones and they’re pretty too now if you’re buying compost mulch or any soil um ask the provider about jumping worms these are invasive worms that come in on mulch compost plants uh people share a plant they sometimes share the jumping worms and so it’s really important for us to try to avoid the problem and if you have jumping worms in your property always wear clean boots clean your tools before you go to a friend’s Garden to help them out and I know it’s hard to say no thanks but unless you know your friend doesn’t have jumping worms it’s better for them to keep their own plants it’s a question that I’ve been asking we had some work done on our property a couple years ago and uh ask every every all the providers if it was an issue the second thing we can do is add some rain barrels and if you haven’t done it consider doing this now they’re a great way to capture rainwater off the roof collect it to use to Water Gardens you can collect up to six over 620 gallons of water off a, square foot roof in a 1 in rain so start by disconnecting putting a rain barrel by one down spout start with one and as you gain experience see how you manage that water then you can start putting rain barrels at other down spouts off your house maybe you start with the garage but it’s a great way to capture water because we tend to have a lot of water at one time and then nothing and so that allows you to capture and use the water later and they’re much more decorative than they used to be when you’re selecting your rain barrel there are a couple of things to watch for either have one that’s screen that has a screen to keep the debris out or in this case it has a place for the Downs spout to go directly into the rain barrel and the rest is a solid top the spigot should be low on the ground so you don’t have water stagnating and you need to have an overflow so when that 50-gallon rain barrel fills up you can put the water either back in your down spout and I’ll show a diverter out into the lawn area or into an adjoining rain barrel and then you need to have it on a stand to elevate it because it empties by gravity this is a down spout diverter and if you’re in the Milwaukee Metro sewage District they have a whole setup you’ll see in a minute for hooking up a downspout diver Mur and so this what happens here is this rain barrel is hooked into the down spout and before it fills up water goes down and it goes into the rain barrel once the rain barrel is full it closes that diverter so then the rainwater goes into the down spout and away from the house I mentioned you can also interlock your rain barrels and that interlocking happens at a high level on the rain barrel so one fills up the water goes into the next one and you could do more than two but that’s a great way to increase the amount of water you can collect now here’s this is from fresh Coast Guardians to give you an idea of how to install your rain barrel hi I’m Zach from mmsd and fresh Coast Guardians today I’m going to show you how to install your very own rain barrel so the first step to installing your rain barrel is to choose your spot every rain barrel should be about a few feet away from a down spout so for this rain barrel we’ve chosen this down spout here and we’re going to put the rain barrel right here after you choose your spot you’re going to prepare your area so for this spot here there’s already some mulch down we’re going to have to clear this away so we can make a nice level base after you’ve cleared your base you’re going to want to put down some gravel this will help create um a nice level spot for your cinder blocks um and then you’re going to use one of the cinder blocks to help Tamp that down and make it nice and firm [Music] after you’ve created that level base with the gravel you put down your cinder blocks and then you’re going to want to level them uh we have this big level tool but if you don’t have something like this you can always use an app on your phone so what you’re going to do is going to make sure that it’s level this way and level this way for each CER Block in order to prepare your rain barrel you’re first going to want to attach the spigot and the drain to attach the spigot and the drain you’re going to want to put on these pieces first this creates cre a seal and a place for you to screw in your spigot drain next you’re going to screw in these pieces the spigot will go on the top spot and the drain will go on the bottom to finish preparing your rain barrel you’re going to be drilling into the side of the barrel this will connect your diverter piece through a tube into the barrel to feed it water uh to do that you’re going to use a small hle saw provided in your kit and choose the appropriate side for this rain barrel we’re going to choose the left side because that’s closest to the down [Music] spout next you’re going to measure on the down spout in order to drill a hole to put the diverter in what we’re going to do this uh level from the top of the barrel and then we’re going to Mark 3 in [Music] down we’re going to be drilling into the down Stu to do this you’ll want to a large hle saw provided in your kit and you’re going to want to use safety gloves and safety glasses to put in the diverter piece hinch the sides insert it into the dot spot to secure the diverter use the two screws provided in your kit and screw them into the two spots around the diverter [Music] next you’ll insert the tube into the debr so just stretch it out and you’ll shimmy it back and forth into the secured Place once your rbr is all set up you put the lid on there’s two options one of them can be like this um just the normal design you can see there’s a little sunflower here looks pretty nice the other options to flip it upside down and put in the filter piece this then acts like a planter and you can fill it with um sh shallow rooted flowers and herbs um or just a poted plant even so around Halloween you’re going to want to winterize a rain barrel you’re just going to disconnect the connection put on the winterizing capab then you’re going to store the Barrel upside down in a garage or in a basement uh for the winter and then you can bring it back out around Earth Day so we recommend checking your gutters and your diverter piece regularly uh if it’s not functioning properly and or just as a regular checkup if possible we recommend us using the water in your Barrel 2 to 3 days after a storm for more information make sure to check out fresh Coast guardians. now obviously it’s going to vary a little bit based on the rain barrel you select but hopefully that gives you at least a general idea of how you can make that happen and how easy it is relatively easy it is to do one of the big questions I get about rain barrels is what about mosquitoes well one reason for the screen and also having a a solid lid where it’s just directed directly or with a diverter it limits the access by the adult mosquitoes however you can just toss a mosquito dunk in your rain barrel and that’ll give you 30 days control the water is safe it’s a naturally curing excuse me soil bacteria that kills only the larvae of mosquito fungus snats and blackfly so if you’re concerned about mosquitoes you could throw one of those in make sure with rainbrow you provide easy access because if you’re going to use the water if it’s too hard to get to it’s not going to happen right and then masking it how do you blend it in you found a place for your trash cans but this is right up next to your house well some of the rain bars are very pretty as you saw but how about this just a potted plant or a planting in front of it something easy to move make it into a piece of art and if you’re not a great artist uh don who works with me is a great artist but I’m not the greatest stst so using stencils is another option and then what about using the water ruers university did some research and they found that the bacterial levels of the water coming off of roofs generally was within the safe uh levels to use on ornamental on edible plantings their recommendation however is have your water tested if you’re planning on using it on edible plants otherwise there’s usually we most of us have plenty of ornament Al containers maybe use it to wash your car or lawn furniture so other purposes if you’re concerned about water quality definitely have the water tested if you’re going to use it on edibles but what a great resource to put to work in your landscape another option depending on where you live and how big your yard is is to disconnect and then run the water from your roof and down spout into your yard now many of you may already be there but some of the older sections of the city all of their sto their down spouts go into the combined sewer system so when it rains that water goes in with the storm water going down the storm sewers and that’s how we get a lot of O too much pressure on our water treatment plants so if possible that’s one option but always check first I just we just did a video for fresh Coast Guardians I think it should be up soon this year um talking about you want to make sure that that water will be directed at least 5et away from your house and 5 ft from your property line and that’s really important that it is allowed if you’re in a small City lot my daughter for example there’s no way she can divert water to uh five feet away from the property line or house or yards pretty small so she’s going to be doing rain barrels and try and diverters downspout diverters to try to reduce the amount of rainfall that goes in the storm sewer so that’s one thing we can do to help the third thing is plant a rain garden and some of you may have been doing it I did a webinar um hosted by Milwaukee Public Library so it’s on their YouTube channel on how to plan and then selecting plants for your rain Garden if you are in the Milwaukee Metro sewage district and you’re not aware they do have a deal Every Spring so the it’s pass for this year but maybe in the planning process keep them in mind for next year that you can buy plants up to 50% off and plants that are sometimes hard to find at your local Garden Center so why plant R Garden it’s pretty it’s a beautiful garden it’s just got a little bit different design features to help capture water the goal of a rain Garden is to take the water that lands on the roof hard surfaces in your lawn capture it in the garden let the plants and the soil filter any Pur impurities out before it recharges the groundwater so we want it to be beautiful it helps keep water where it falls on your property it manages that storm seore storm water and as you can see it invites pollinators and songbirds to your garden so if you’re planning a rain Garden check out the Department of Natural Resources this is Wisconsin some others have it but this guide is used by gardeners all over but they take you step by step through the process of how to plan your rain Garden all that’s involved in what size do you need for the amount of water that you’re directing to your rain Garden very easy to follow it’s free to download and print out there’s a link on your handout you do need to leave keep a couple things in mind when you’re locating your rain Garden you want it if possible 10 feet from your foundation um at least six because you don’t need W more water near your basement right we’re trying to keep it out of the foundation no more than 30 feet because if you get too far away You’re capturing water all the way from the roof to the walk along the lawn and you’re going to need a really big rain Garden notice if possible that the broadest part the widest part of the garden is perpendicular to the down spout um that’s designed so it can capture the water so it doesn’t run off and if possible keep that down spout as close to the center of the garden as possible you are going to need to prepare the soil because here’s the idea the idea of a rain Garden is once it’s established those plants should be fairly drought tolerant so you’re not going to want to have to water your garden except during extended drought periods and we’ve had a couple of those these last couple years most of us across the country we also want water to drain out within 24 no more than 48 hours so this is not a garden it’s not a water garden it’s not something where you’re going to have standing water for days it’s a garden that’s going to capture drain within 24 to 48 hours you’re going to need to direct the water from the downspout to that rain Garden as you saw on that diagram earlier and they’ve put stones here because when You’ get a lot of water running off the roof in a heavy rain storm there’s a lot of um force behind that water the stone helps break down that speed so it doesn’t erode the soil away in your garden now as you’re directing it you need to make it easy to maintain now here they went under a an existing walkway you may want to bury the pipe that goes out create a sale because if it’s hard to manage the grass and the plantings around it it’s going to be a mess it’s going to be a problem I helped install a rain Garden um at a residential setting where uh the people who managed the landscape it was an apartment building the people who managed the landscape I think disconnected the down spout because they knocked the extension off and was disconnected from the building so we ended up burying a pipe to run the water flexible drain pipe to run the water from the downspout to the Garden covered it with sod so that it wouldn’t get disconnected by the maintenance people as I mentioned you want to direct it away from your house this is red Nature Center in wakaa County if you live in southeast Wisconsin they put an addition on their building and what I liked about this is they planned for managing the water so all the water ran into the gutter the gutters were directed into these pergolas these Arbors that you can see coming out where the rain chain connects so the water collects in the gutter and they directed it so they go through these extensions of the gutter down the rain chain and into the rain Garden and they use Stone underneath the rain terrain again to break the velocity slow the water so it wouldn’t wash away the soil when we’re looking at plants we’re looking at plants that tolerate drought and flooding uh so not every plant can be grown in a rain Garden because some plants just don’t tolerate it some plants need moist well- drained soil all season long so we often look to many Native mesic Prairie plants those that are designed to take flooding and drought and we design so the more moisture tolerant plants are in the center where the water tends to stand longer and the more drought tolerant plants are along the edge that dries out more quickly these were just a few of the plants provided at the mmsd plant sale Number Four grow more native plants there’s been a lot of Buzz about growing native plants no pun intended here and uh they do a lot of great things for our landscape many of you may already be growing them in fact purple cone flowers the number one most popular native plant that you see in almost every garden now native plants support pollinators beneficial insects and song birds they all evolved together so those were the plants that the birds the bees the butterflies the humming birds uh the song birds ate the seeds that they all depend upon they also build our soils you know I mention a lot of soils are Disturbed when they build our homes there are some plants known as clay Busters ERS that have deep roots that break through that heavy clay soil and those that really work well at breaking down the clay and when their old roots die they’re adding organic matter to the soil Prairie Nursery based in Westfield Wisconsin has a great has lots of good information on starting preparing the soil starting native plantings and then a group of plants that he identifies as clay Busters so it’s a good point of reference if you’re looking for more information in the plants to consider they also prevent erosion because they’re deeply rooted so when water is running down your lawn they stand tall they again intercede so they slow down the velocity stop some of that water directing it into the ground below and how they do that is with their deep roots so they’re creating those channels in our soil not only adding organic matter as the old roots die in those channels but opening up the soil so that when water does go through the garden or passes by a native plant some of that goes down those channels before it charges the rainwater and many of the impurities are washed out or cleaned out thanks to the plant roots and the soil once your garden is established you need to do minimal fertilization the blue flowered plant there is baptisia um false blue indigo one of my favorites it’s a beautiful plant big and bold it’s also in the legume family so it fixes nitrogen with the help of a soil bacteria so it’s actually adding nitrogen to the soil that it and other plants can use again you don’t have to water often once established now it takes a year or two and especially if we have extended drought you’re going to be watering but once they’re established these are the last Gardens you usually need to water and then of course you’re going to need to divide as those plants grow and Thrive and get a little too big for the space make sure whatever you plant it’s the right plant for the growing condition um there are ornamental plants that people add to rain Gardens as well and even native plants you need to select carefully some are fast spreaders and can take over a garden quickly so you want to be very careful I love cup plant now I have room in a place of mine to put it in my property but I have space but on a small City lot that could end up being the only plant not only in your rain Garden but on your whole landscape so make sure you’ve got the plant that thrives in the sunlight that is in existence that it’s the right size so that it’ll will fit and that it’s the right part plant for your design we want to make sure we have flowers spring summer and fall not only for you to enjoy but also for our pollinators and song birds and things that provide winter interest because winter can get to be pretty long and if it wasn’t for the birds visiting the landscape and eating the seeds I might get a little crazier than I do normally in our winter time in our winter weather again match those plants to the growing conditions and as I mentioned suited to your Design This is latus this is one that does recede readily but um is a one that’s pretty easy to manage Culver’s root doesn’t spread it’s a clumper so it’s a great one for small plants for small gardens Hy verb H Hy verban sorry um is another one that tolerates drier soil that’s the one I grow and it tends to be more of a clumper blue veran is more tolerant prefers moisture so it’s another clumper think about bbom a great plant but it Reeds readily so you’ll be doing a little thinning but it smells great so I call it a little aroma therapy in Spring as I thin out The Unwanted plants so how do you get started adding native plants I know some people consider them weeds if they’re not used properly but any plant can be a weed if it’s a plant out of place so maybe before you go all out start with making substitutions maybe something dies this winter so you need to replace it well fountain grass for us usually works as an there are perennial forms but often serves as an annual in our area but on the right is our native Prairie drop seed notice a similar growth habit the benefit of prairie drop seed besides being a host for Skippers it’s perennial and reliably hearty has great fall color you can see the flowers and then the seeds when they’re covered with ice look like Little Gems so you get yearr round interest with this this plant while supporting pollinators and you don’t have to replace it every year then when you’re building your confidence after you’ve put in replaced a few non-native plants with native plants maybe you’re ready to go all out and so maybe you want to create a garden with all native plants the white plant here is wild quinine it’s one of my favorite it spreads but not aggressively I find it kind of weaves around my garden kind of going slowly on the right that spiky plant is latress or gay FEA oh and also in the middle behind the wild quinine you can see a little purple cone flower on the right in some in the back and a little B bomb as well so look to Nature and get some ideas of combinations that work well if you decide to go all out and I’ve been lucky enough to visit several Gardens where people have converted their front yard to a prairie so they didn’t have to mow a steep slope their backyard this is Stacy and Ken’s backyard and it’s a steep Hillside houses at the bottom the amazing part between their prairie planting their Keyhole Garden they don’t end up with water in their basement because they’re stopping it all along the travels down that hill and they have beautiful scenery to look for but if you’re going all out you need to talk to your friends and neighbors and make sure they know put in signs of a intent whether it’s a birdhouse some garden art when I lived in the city I converted my front yard to all Gardens they weren’t natives but they were all gardens made my neighbors a little nervous so I kept a strip of grass around a couple of the beds so they knew the yard was being tended and this was intentional that I did gave up the sheared use and the row of geraniums that came with the house when I bought it for a more informal look and a yard full of plants but it took a while to establish it and get my neighbors to enjoy the view the fifth thing we can do is plant trees if SP is available you all know on a hot summer day there’s no better place than to sit under the shade of a tree it can cool our house reducing energy cost it can act as a Windbreak reducing heating cost it helps absorb storm water as well it’s an amazing thing more and more cities are looking at how they can add more trees to help manage storm water and here’s how trees help manage storm water as the rain falls they intercept quite a bit of it in the canopy and some of that evaporates right back in to the atmosphere While others are slow down and slowly reach the soil below reducing the risk of erosion tree roots Ground Covers Leaf litter help to promote absorption again so we’re not compacting the soil under the tree that the water’s not running off and instead it’s going down and then as it goes through the canopy of the tree some of the dust and pollutants are removed and the same thing happens once it hits the soil before it recharges the groundwater we do need to protect those trees and lawnmowers and weed whips are one of the worst energies along enemies along with drought so mulch is a great option um I need to pull this mulch back a little further it kind of kept going back we want to keep the mulch several inches away from the trunk and as big of a mulch area as you can stand mulch as we I mentioned before suppresses weeds conserves more moisture grass is a big competitor to trees and so if we can keep grass away from newly planted trees you’re going to be amazed at the amount of growth when I was teaching at MATC um I was teaching tree and shrub ID and we had a catalpa tree on our campus in mecan and I remember the first year I was teaching one of my students goes well that’s not really a very big tree it’s not too big well that was the spring of 19 or the fall of 94 that spring we expanded The Mulch bed quite a bit it was the summer of 95 which was a hot dry summer if you remember nobody watered that tree but the mere fact we expanded The Mulch area it helped conserve the moisture that tree put on a good foot of growth much more than it had in the past and the maintenance people appreciated it because they had less they didn’t have to get out and hand trim they had less area to mow so it was a win-win for all of us don’t over mulch no volcano mulches as I’ve heard them called that’s bad for the tree because that trunk is designed to be above ground when we pile Mulch on that surface we encourage adventitious roots that grow out they hit the oxygen they end up girdling the trunk it encourages root rot if you’ve ever seen an over mulch tree go over in a storm it kind of the trunk comes down where the mulch was piled and it rotted away so it’s indented and then the root plate below so don’t do this if you have this start pulling it away because it’ll be better for the tree and then consider doing shade tent Ground Covers if you can’t stand mulch around the the tree or maybe as that tree is growing or if you have the ability use some shade tant Ground Covers perennial ground covers because you disturb the tree roots just once when you plant or if you have to move them around the majority of the tree feeder roots are in the top 12 to 18 inches so we really don’t want to get out there and till often surface roots are often visible and they they often get hit by the mower frustrating for the person cutting the grass bad for the tree because it creates a wound and it opens it up to insect and disease problems and bottom line if it doesn’t kill the tree it’s going to keep sending up surface Roots so planting ground covers that eventually mask those surface Roots creates a better environment don’t add top soil plant in the existing soil but those tree the trees roots that are underground the ground cover mulch they all help absorb the moisture the rainfall if you’re going to grow a lawn do number six and have a storm water friendly lawn providing the proper care because a healthy lawn can also help absorb moisture we just want to manage it differently perhaps than you’re doing now moh high if you don’t already 3 and 1/2 or 4 in now if you’re used to cutting your grass really short short or the person you share your yard with prefer Short Grass gradually raise the mowing height over time they’re not even going to notice and pretty soon you’re going to find that taller grass um tolerates drought much more readily it’s the last lawn on the Block to turn brown when the dry weather arise it forms deeper Roots as you see here so that does let it gain water from a larger area it’s more insect and disease resistant so you’re going to have less problems because it’s got a deeper root to absorb more nutrients to grow healthier Turf you’re going to want to cut often so you don’t end up with piles of clippings if this does happen run over the mower with the mower a couple times to break them down in size um it’s kind of hard to keep up when we get lots of rain in spring when the lawn’s growing quickly but by mowing often you can leave those short clippings on the lawn and they’ll break down quickly because a season worth of clippings is equal to one pound of nitrogen uh per per year and that’s one fertilization I was hearing one turf grass expert say that if you have an existing an older established lawn that you’ve been fertilizing for years you probably can get by with just leaving your grass clippings and maybe one fertilization to keep it good and healthy and reduce the weed issues when when you mow in the Fall leave the leaves cut them up with your mower if they’re smaller and you could still see the grass blades for those Leaf pieces like this if like the size of a quarter or smaller it’s not going to hurt your lawn it will break down and add organic matter and nutrients more than the lawn can handle that’s when I put my bagger on if I don’t want to go over the lawn a couple times put my bagger on collect those leaves and use them as mulch in the garden so that’s a great way to have your lawn take advantage of the nutrients and organic matter those leaves provide and if needed move them to other parts of the landscape use a sharp blade and yes I know I need to clean my mower but a sharp blade makes a huge difference you’ll use 22% less fuel your plants will use less water and you can mow faster and so a lot of benefits plus it makes a clean cut so it looks better but that clean cut closes quickly and that’s why it loses less moisture watering when you have a lawn there’s always that do you water don’t you water how do you water how often that’s a decision only you can make um allowing your lawn to go dormant is one way to be waterwise uh most northern Lawns will tolerate drought um and recover and you probably found that out the last couple years yes you’ll have more weeds but you won’t have spent a lot of money and time watering the lawn trying to keep it green um you can see this Gardener uh put her priorities with the trees and the shrubs the more long-lived members that can’t tolerate drought as well and let her lawn go dormant if we are having an extended drought you could give the lawn a/ quar inch of water every 3 or four weeks what they found is that keeps the crown of the plant alive but the lawn remains dormant because the Lawns that suffer the most are the ones that go dormant then you go oh no my lawn’s brown you water water water bring it out of dormy get your water bill or there’s a restriction placed and then you let it go Brown those that go in and out of dormancy because of you not because of nature are the ones that are stressed so leave it dormant if you’re going to let it go dormant and then reduce your mowing your watering you know you only have weeds to mow try to avoid as much foot traffic on that and don’t use herbicides because if you use herbicides on your dormant lawn yeah you’ll kill the weeds but new weeds will be the first to grow now if you decide to water water thoroughly but only when needed when you can see your footprints in the lawn like you see here it’s time to water some people will take a screwdriver if you can’t push it through it’s time to water water provide a good inch of water in clay soils one application a week in Sandy soils you want to make two applications about every four days so how much is an inch of water put out a couple tuna fish cans put your hook up your sprinkler if that’s how you’re doing it turn on the sprinkler probably full blast and put several cans out when there’s an inch of water in those cans you know you’ve applied an inch of water so okay I turn my spigot full low I put my sprinkler on this setting and it took this many minutes to provide an inch of water before moving it to the next spot so then you’ve calibrated at once for the season and try to water early in the morning you’ll lose less to evaporation and the winds usually are less in the morning so less of it ends a place you don’t intend to water fertilization now you’re going to base your fertilization on how you use your lawn is it one that the kids play in often maybe you have a mini golfing putty green on your lawn or maybe you just want to look at pretty green grass and you just want it to keep your feet get keep your feet from getting muddy when it rains so think about how you’re going to use it the more use it receives and the higher your quality goals the more often you’re going to need to fertilize so basically we look at Memorial Day because fertilizing then helps prepare the lawn for the summer but it doesn’t push a lot of growth that much more growth that it’s already doing in Spring top growth that is then again in Labor Day to recover from and these are Northern lines to recover from the summer stresses and then sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving before the ground freezes now if you’re growing a warm season crop if any of you have joined us from the south Easter um and then there are some blackout dates so check that Labor Day and no later than six weeks before your first fall Frost first hard fall Frost so if you leave your clippings if you’re looking for a moderate to low quality one application um Labor Day would be great two Labor Day and Halloween time frame those would be two times to fertilize you can reduce weeds by up to 50% with just one fertilization now if you know me I’m a phantom Al organite um I used it even before I started working with them as low nitrogen slow release whether you use Morganite or if you use another fertilizer and you haven’t had your soil tested think about a low nitrogen organic type fertilizer research found with Morganite when the microorganisms worked on releasing the nutrients from the pellets it released some of the phosphorus and potassium bound to the soil made it available to our plants most Urban and Suburban soils are high to excessive in phosphorus and potassium and a lot of that comes from years of using 10 10 10 202020 fertilizer Winter Rising fertilizers because the plants use nitrogen in higher quantities and the excess leeches out of the soil where phosphorus and potassium are used in smaller amounts by the plant and tend to stay bound to the soil and so make sure you’re applying the nutrients the plants need you’ll save money your lawn will do better and then always sweep clippings and fertilizers off the walks and drives because when it rains where do they go into the stor storms or we’d rather have them back on the lawn where they’re doing some good you may want to aate your lawn not as a yearly practice we aate our lawn if it’s the soil is compacted that’s the reason to aate not because it’s spring or fall we typically like to aate an actively growing lawn for Northern Lawns uh fall is a great time to do it when the lawn’s recovered from the stress of Summer and before you know good six weeks before we get a good hard freeze we’re core a rating we’re breaking pulling out cores of soil and if you can find someone who will Top dress with compost or you do it all that compost will go in those holes left by the core airator creates a nice layer of compost to help break down any thatch improve the soil and you’ll get great benefits on your lawn and keeping your lawn healthy is the best way to prevent weeds when weeds do occur small populations you can dig them out by hand it’s a great way to burn calories that was practical on my small City lot cuz I had very little grass so Hand digging was an option just removing at roots and all depending on that plant that you’re pulling out and that’s a great way to remove that leave that soil behind and go or maybe you’re going to use an eco-friendly product corn gluten meal is um a pre-emergent that we put on the lawn about the time the Foria there just finishing blooming when the van hoot Spas are in bloom some people call them Bridal re Spas you put your first application University of Minnesota found that one spring and one fall application three years in a row reduced weeds by up to 80% what I applied here was a iron based uh herbicide um and it was fetta heta it’s a chelated iron not the fertilizer level but a stronger level that kills broadleaf weed so that dandel line eventually it’ll turn black if I got any on the surrounding grass then that grass turns a deep green but it kills the top and The Roots so FAA Hada sold as ecosense check the active ingredients to make sure you’re getting an organic product it should say omry certified um it’s a little pricier but if you have a small to medium yard or you’re looking to avoid synthetic herbicides this would be an option and if you do go with regular synthetic chemical fertilizer spot treat don’t apply it to the whole yard if your yard is 60% or more weeds you’ve got some work to do and you might want to consider either starting over doing some over seating or a little more aggressive way to build the lawn to reduce the weeds consider reducing the size of your lawn more flowers more garden beds shrub beds uh mulched are uh can provide seasonal interest they don’t have to be filled in every year more and more people are looking for lawn Alternatives like Nomo uh Nomo lawn like this where you’ve got uh you could either grow it like a meadow and cut it once a year in spring or you can mow it once a month so that it does look more like a lawn Dutch Clover is very aggressive but is a great pollinator plant and University of Minnesota has some great information on growing bee lons using th if you have well- drained soil Clover heel all um and to create a lawn that will bring in and support the native bees and then maybe look for ground covers this is one of my favorite Baron wart so when the leaves emerge in the spring you can see they have a little red tinge and they bloom at about that time when the flowers finish in Spring the heart-shaped leaves are solid green they’re very dainty and they turn a brilliant red and fall so you get lots of seasonal interest from this plant maybe it’s garden beds instead like you see here the last thing to do is if you’re considering a patio a deck any other kind of solid surface can you make it a permeable surface now you need to consider use now this sitting area in Wisconsin you probably aren’t going to be sitting out there in the winter so you don’t have to worry about shoveling the snow but walkways and things that you use year round you’ve got to think about maintenance when we have snowfall if you’re going to walk on it how are you going to clear the snow and deal with ice permeable surfaces may be steppers with plants in between it’s a great way to add some steppers in a garden help you trans move from one part of the yard to the other if you’re using nothing but plants if you have well- drained soil and sunny location time is a great option with flagstone bees love the flow so keep that in mind they usually I find they don’t bother me but I’m not allergic so if you have some bee allergies you may want to skip this or use it in an area away from the house where people who do have the allergies don’t frequent and how about permeable pavers this is our garden at we energy energy Park and probably about 15 years ago we energy said you know we want people to look at the garden beds but the grass dies on this walk every year so let’s just put a sidewalk and I said how about a permeable sidewalk there’s so much black top on our state Fairground so um Tera Firma landscaper with the help of the Wisconsin landscape contractors Association installed this permeable pavers we’ve had them they work great and they work very well in fact we had a 1 inch rain during State Fair a few years ago between our garden beds that you can see one of them here the permeable pavers we have a rain garden and rain barrels uh we didn’t have standing water everywhere else on the grounds had an inch of water that I saw people you know pushing it into the storm sewer and you know what that water’s like after a day at the fair there are other products that you can use for driveways that you see here so it that may be an option as well and this is my friend Will’s yard and he converted a side by-side tow houses a duplex um into a one family unit and the city made him keep both driveways and make them interconnected and he had beautiful garden so here’s what the landscaper came up with they put pavers the width of the car tires so it is truly a driveway and then they filled the space with plants so it really Blends into the garden quite well serves the intended purpose you could do this for your driveway if you wanted last but certainly not least I’d like to encourage you all to call 811 or if you’re in Wisconsin file at Diggers hotline.com at least three business days before putting the first shovel in the ground whether you’re building a rain garden planting some flowers you want to have those underground utilities located in your work area it’s a free service you put the call in you place the order they send the utility companies out to Mark any underground Utilities in your work area so that will help reduce the risk of injury because if you hit an underground utility you could be injured or even killed reduce the risk of inconvenience because if you knock out the cable your family is not going to be happy and it saves you money because if you damag an underground utility and you did not call them at least three days before starting the job you’re responsible for the repair who wants to spend their money on that when you could buy plants instead I want to thank fresh Coast Guardians and mmsd once again for supporting this and other webinars that I do for them and for all of you as I mentioned fresh Coast Guardians is uh people just like you who want to support communities um with inspiration education or by making a difference on their own yard just helping to protect Lake Michigan as we build our landscape so I want to thank them again and thanks again to Milwaukee Public Library for hosting this webinar um I always enjoy seeing Beth and Kelly When I get to host and as always help me grow a gardener or two someone inspired you inspire the Next Generation to plant Gardens manage rainwater or maybe it’s a young family down the street I want to build a Kinder and Gent world and I think together we can do that one Gardener and one Garden at a time I do have more webinars and appearances coming up and some of them in uh in conjunction with Milwaukee Public Library I will be talking about um growing ornamental fruits and vegetables on May 1st sponsored by part of our library program sponsored by Wei energy I will how to plant your rain Garden should be plant your rain Garden sorry on May 9th Miss typo and um and so we’ll get you you’ve hopefully planned it by then you’ve ordered your plants or getting ready to and we’ll help you get them in the ground and tell you how to maintain them and so hopefully you’ll join me for future webinars as well and in person please stop by and say hello I mentioned uh our library program sponsored by We Energies and the public libraries of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula besides webinars you’ll find videos and activities just go to my website Melinda Meers .c click on this icon and it’ll take you to those videos and activities that are updated every month April through June you have links to my contact information be patient if you send me questions I’m trying to catch up with all of you so now I am happy to answer any questions that we might have and I see oh we have a few we do here I can read them for you just scroll back up to the top top all right Susan would like to know does compost attract rodents uh so if you are doing composting finish compost no so that’s a great question Susan so if you live in an urban area check with your municipality there are some that have restrictions because of rodent issues and so some require certain type of composters um one of my favorite is a dual bin composter two bins where you stockpile on one side and once it’s full you start composting and then you stockpile in the other bin they’re made out of heavyduty um hard plastic that most municipalities approved so great question so if if you live in the city that’s the reality right rodents are reality and so if you are composting find out what those restrictions are some have limit what you can do some have guidelines on the type of composter so thank you so much for asking once it’s finished finished compost is not a problem because it’s broken down and it’s just you know like it’s almost like Pete Moss sort of not Pete Moss but it’s got that consistency so you don’t have those raw ingredients that the rodents are looking for you know the plant debris and the the melon rins and things great question thank you for asking Susan Okay Renee is asking if we are looking for hardscaping to manage water in a driveway like bricks or cement is there a certification or train training we should look for in a person installing she was thinking along the lines of a lead certification for energy you know that’s a great question they’re starting to have some green I don’t there’s some organic gardening organic Landscaping certifications um none that I’m aware of that’s a great question but what I would do if you if you’re in southeast Wisconsin there’s a website called findall landscaper do org and you could go on that and find landscapers in your area and then I would ask to see the projects they’ve done and I’d ask for references and I think that’s going to be your best bet um when we in the company that did the installation on these permeable pavers that was their first project and since then they’ve done quite a few because they saw how how wonderful it worked and how effective it was and so they’ve got quite the you know the portfolio of permeable pavers so you might want to I would say what have you done in terms of permeable surfaces for walks drives see some examples and then see if you can contact any of the people um you know I’ve had some work done in my house and I’ve had some great contractors and I have no problem talking to anyone because I’ve also had bad contractors and I don’t want you know so I’m always happy if somebody’s given me good service to tell someone else about that so that’s a great question as far as I know there not yet there isn’t a certification but ask for references ask to see their portfolio ask about the jobs they’ve done um I don’t think mmsd does I don’t think they provide a list of uh green infrastructure providers but I would do that and if um you know what info@ melindam meyers.com that’s my email and let me I’ll do a little hunting to see if mmsd or anybody has a list of contractors let me know where you’re at first of all so then that’ll help me narrow it down but if you’re in southeast Wisconsin anybody looking for a contractor find a landscaper do org is a place to start all right awesome it looks like somebody uh Damian put ai.org in the chat as well so I’m not sure what that website’s for you can check it out um and I wonder if that’s Damian um who was a former student who does water gardening so I’m um I’m guessing that maybe Damien if you’re still with us if you could write down the abbreviation that’s probably certified public uh a designer maybe I so thank you Damen I will check that out too and maybe if you’re still on if you could write it out for us what that stands for we’d appreciate it awesome yeah it looks like he had sent a message that yep it’s your former student thanks Daman all right um Anita would like to know if they’re looking for bushes that drink a lot of water what would you suggest we need some help to soak up the water in our backyard before it gets into our basement okay so when I think of so when I think of plants so you bring up a good point so when we put a rain Garden we don’t put the rain Garden in places where the water is standing because then you end up with a water garden and using shrubs is a great way to absorb some of the water make sure the grade is going away from your basement so that would be the first thing I’d do before I plant more plants by the basement if the grade’s wrong you’re rush you know you’re pushing water into the basement instead of away um things that tolerate wet soil aonia our native aronia choke Berry is a wonderful plant they use them a lot rain Gardens and they have white flowers in the spring they have fruit that persist into winter because it’s very astringent it’s very high in antioxidants and the birds will clean it up after it ferments on the plant and Brilliant red fall color comparable to uh burning bush as well if you go into um rain garden plants listing of rain garden plants for your area there will be some shrubs that are often identified um Elderberry is very aggressive so if this was away from your house kind of a hedge likee setting elderberries um will tolerate wet and will tolerate dry but they do have a vigorous ryome so they spread which would make a great hedge if you get them away from the house there are some like an Arctic Blue Willow again that’d be one i’ keep away from the house so that um we don’t have it gets to be about six s feet tall beautiful foliage root system not as aggressive but it’s a big plant so you wouldn’t want it right up against the house would be a good one um our native Alders um also help absorb moisture as well so those would be a couple but chokeberries I don’t know how much water and how far from your house that you need to place these um even perennials will do a good job if you have enough room looking at like swamp milk weed um it’s more of a clumper and it won’t spread readily some of your sedges palm sge can be a little aggressive but it’s a beautiful plant absorbs lots of water um we use that in rainwaters Joe pie weed is a big bold beautiful plant with a great root system that will absorb water as well so you might want to look at can you create maybe maybe you have some choke berries and then you have some perennials and you have kind of a mixed border and that way if something happens to one of those plants um you know you don’t lose the whole thing and you have more of a garden than just a water absorbing option so check those out all right Susan says I have a long City lot that is below all my neighbors and it often floods and heavy rains thankfully it’s not near the house can the native plants help in that area to lessen the flooding this sounds a little similar to what we just talked about but I thought figured I would read it no I think that’s a great idea and so you may want to well I the house I grew up in all the neighbors changed their grade and that water I ended up in my parents backyard too and we even had Ducks sometimes so I I feel your pain if there was any way if you and your neighbors get along that you could work collectively to try to create some ways to do that one thing you might want to look into um is a French drain where if you dig down you put a base of gravel you put some landscape fabric over then put soil on top and the idea is the water comes in there and it drains down a dry riverbed if this is just a seasonal issue um kind of the same idea um instead of putting grass over top or plants over top that French drain you would dig down um add some gravel so it drains faster put some weed Berry put some gravel so then or it just create a sale in your backyard not directing the water to your neighbors because DNR has to be involved in that if you move water certain place across your borders um but you could do a dry River bed so that as the water is draining when there’s a lot of water you’ve got it fills up so you’ve got a kind of a Swale in your backyard filled with landscape fabric and gravel because you don’t want the gravel going down captures the water then it drains down there and that’s one way that might help reduce the problem so French drain probably the best um doing the plants as we talked about trying to create maybe um Hedges that will help absorb that water on their way to collecting in your backyard it you got a long narrow lot that’s always challenging when I lived in the city it was always hard to get everything I wanted um to grow in my small City lot so you might be looking at a rain Garden above where the water collects not where it collects I don’t know if you have space for that and that might be an option for you too okay um Susan asks are any of the native plants toxic to dogs or cats okay here’s I never answer that question because I don’t trust my memory and the place to look is the American society Prevention of Cruelty to animals aspca.org I think it is a.org or a doom might be but American Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals they have a list of plants that are toxic and non-toxic that’s one place the second place is the University of North Carolina Gardener toolbox and it’s all it’s their plant directory and it’s one of the best to talk about toxic plants to cats dogs and people so you I just do UNC Gardener toolbox it gets me to their website then you do a search on the plant and there is a lot more extensive because it’s for gardeners where ASPCA I always check there but then I also check uh University North Carolina Gardener toolbox and it’s got great information they talk about um growing conditions uh if it’s deer resistant they talk about toxicity as well to cats dogs livestock and people so check those out awesome I put the link to those two places in the chat and then um I will make sure we put those in our followup email too oh thank you then you don’t have to write it down everybody I know how it goes and that’s exactly what everybody was doing so thank you be yeah no problem but I get if you want to write it down too that’s fine all right um when do you would like to know we have extremely sandy soil in Adams County her yard looks like something out of a Dr Seuss book with Barren spots and toughs in lumps of grass I can visualize this we have lots of dandelions more than grass how can we get the grass to grow and to absorb water and improve the soil condition fertilizer didn’t work H hubby says keep the leaves raked and I disagree The Tick will take over if we cut it at a taller height what are we doing wrong and what can we do to get it right it’s a lot it is a lot okay so a couple things the 4in grass isn’t going to increase your tick tick population and I have to tell you ticks are out already on my property so always do your tick checks you know dress appropriately uh take a hot shower within two hours when you’re done in the garden just we need to be safe you know I thought we’d have a little break but I think it’s going to be a great uh great for the ticks bad for us season um so um leaving your leaves If you shred them that will definitely add organic matter I have pure sand too and you know what my lawn is some grass some weeds I don’t water it it’s too big and I I’m not going to water it um I’m considering adding some Dutch Clover um it’s a little more drought tolerant but then you know getting it established is going to be challenging so if you have the option to water that’s always the challenge if you’re going to do any grass seed um you may want to do some top dressing with compost that will eventually those or you know so soil microorganisms will work it in I’m guessing I don’t here’s what I would do I would pick smaller sections and work on those because I think you’re going to have a fair amount of work you could try to get a slit Cedar to try to get grass seed in there to get it established um you could try to do a beon University of Minnesota talks about it but they talk about if your lawn’s bad starting over I’m guessing you don’t want to start over if you do want to start over adding organic matter uh grading the soil then spreading grass seed mulching water to get that seed to germinate and you’re going to be watering often in sandy soil that’s going to be the best way to get a thick dense lawn of grass you may decide that you just want some grass you just want something to cover the soil so it looks better you know ours is a combination of weeds and grass and it’s it’s good enough but I’m out in the country you may be in the city or in the suburbs and you want a better looking lawn so one is starting over that’s going to be a lot of work one could be get a slit seeder and overseed what you have you’re still going to need to do some watering you’re going to cut the lawn short or whatever’s there cut it short uh get that grass seed in once it’s sprouted raise the mowing height as high as you can stand it okay I get it it’s your lawn and then that might be a way to beef things up fertilizing the reason I recommend Morganite it’s 85% organic matter so you’re feeding the soil as well as the grass and you may want to start by doing Memorial Day Labor Day and sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving before the ground freezes you may want to beef up your fertilization at least these first couple years to get that lawn to thicken up um and water is is key if you want a normal lawn and that’s one of the the stresses um fescues um tend to be somewhat drought tolerant um you may want to try that but I would beef up I would just do some over seaing do some if you can top dress with compost then seed that would be great you wouldn’t need a slit seedar and fertilize and I think it’s just going to take time to beef up your lawn i i i i with you Beth I could picture that was a great description unfortunately right it was but it could be beautiful too I think I think you can do it this is the librarian she’s already got a story written for this one yes it’s magical um I feel you we just got rid of a trampoline a big one in our backyard and there’s just a round dead spot okay I’m working on it’ll be fine all right um Anita would like to know we have a ton of ground Elder in our backyard suggestions on how to get rid of it as it kills anything we plant around it I’m not I don’t know a plant by that common name ground Elder um I know ground ivy Creeping Charlie creeping jenny um I’m trying to think ground Elder um you know I’m going to do a quick can we go to the next question why I do a quick is there another question while I try to look up ground to Elder while I answer the next question I’m going to cheat here um otherwise Anita if Fe are still here just we’re working on it all right we’re working on it you can do this one easy um Linda would like to know what does a jumping Worm look like okay so I’m gonna try to and I okay ground Elder I never have heard goutweed that’s you know it’s one of those common name things that um didn’t know I’m going to try to back up and show you the picture of a jumping worm so ground elder or agap Podium um I know it as Baron uh not as Baron wart as goutweed or Bishop’s weed I’ve heard it’s so aggressive it makes even a bishop swear and that’s probably you could believe that so that’s I learned something new I didn’t know that common name so goutweed Bishops weed once grown as a ground cover as you found it’s very very aggressive and hard to kill and so a couple of things you may want to find the epicenter Edge that garden bed um that’s so that if there are any plants outside of that garden bed they’re not feeding what you’re going to then cover either with black plastic for the summer or cook it with clear plastic for at least six to eight of the hottest weeks of the year and yes I know that’s oops a lot of time to give up but that would get rid of oops that would get rid of that plant you’ve probably tried using um Roundup and not with a lot of success and so it takes repeated applications again if you can contain the worst part of it and do several treatments or mow it and continually cut it down you eventually starve the plant to death um the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources if you do Wisconsin DNR and put in goutweed I’m pretty sure they have I it’s considered invasive um they may have some additional recommendations on treatment that’s always a great place for any invasive plant you’re trying to get rid of so thank you for your patience so I’ve learned a new common name for Bishop’s weed um or goutweed so uh thank you for that this is what the jumping worm looks like uh they over Winter though I’m wondering this year I think I found a few in a few of my garden beds alive they usually over winter as cocoons or eggs the size of a mustard seed so very tiny in a season they can grow like six or eight inches long they thrash around they’ll drop their tail to try to escape and then you see that kind of kind of it’s a light pinkish beige uh ring towards the tip that goes all the way around on a jumping worm where on an earthworm it only goes part way around um you can do it’s very there’s no great control for them so avoiding them coming into your garden is the best thing um ground mustard using a mustard and watered solution that will irritate them and bring them and regular earthworms to the surface and some people will do that one to see if they have jumping worms and two wants they’re at the surface to remove them it’s not a once and done it’s kind of a continual thing heating up your mure compost to 104 or 105° for 3 days I was reading the University of Maryland suggests that you spread that compost out 6 in deep on plastic then you make a little pocket so you close it up so it seals it up so it solar Rises check the temperature after a few days it needs to be at 104° for at least 3 days now in the garden it doesn’t work well because if you treat a garden bed they’ll just go to a place that’s not getting heated up and then come back when the temperature’s cool but if you’re concerned about your compost or the compost you buy or the mulch I know it’s it’s a pain but it might be worth the extra effort um and then ask the provider um how are they managing their product for jumping worms and if they go huh then you know they’re not managing them for jumping worms and then you may need to take that you know into your own hands that’s why anytime you can repurpose Evergreen needles and leaves off your own property you know what you have it’s a great way to manage those resources and then avoid the problem with jumping worms if they’re not in your landscape all right we answered that one just two more Susan asks are any of the deep root plants native plants damaging to house foundations no they tend to go deep down instead of uh like Willow in um some of your other trees that will go seek out water in the cracks of your foundation so no not a problem they don’t really put the pressure the ones that spread by ryom um won’t go into your foundation but you might you know it’s always a good idea to keep at least a foot between the foundation even more the foundation of your house and the back edge of your garden because you’re going to need to get in there and do some work and if you’re using organic m mulches you know you’ll have ground ground beetles and carpenter ants don’t nest in mulch they get in our house looking for moisture and rotten wood so it’s not the mulch that brings them in it’s the tree that had the carpenter ants that was cut down and they look for a new place or where the dishwasher or the shower leaked and the wood rotted and the carpenter ants found their way in um but the insects in the mulch help Break Down The Mulch turn it into organic matter releasing the nutrients so not a problem with the foundation but I try to leave at least some airspace and access between the house and that back row of plants okay and last question from Linda where can I get just the diverter kit I have an old mmsd brain Barrel but I need a new diverter um I know the pictures I showed you were from Gardener Supply I’m sure you could go on the internet and just do a search for downspout diverter I don’t know if M you know if you’re in the MMS you’ve got one of their rain barrels it’s worth a call see if they have any diverters available that they would give you or sell you but I know you can find them online um as well sorry I was typing awesome um I just wanted to let everyone know that um again this recording will be made available to you a few days after tonight’s program it is Friday tomorrow so I’m hoping they’ll get it uploaded tomorrow but otherwise check your emails early next week for sure so don’t worry if it’s been a couple days um I just want to again thank Melinda for your time and for all of you for attending this evening and any final parting words for us Belinda no I you know it’s going to be another interesting year and if we all do our part we can make it better for everyone and I want to thank everyone who contributed in the the chat who joined me this evening let’s spread the word so we get more people helping to manage water where it falls it’s going to benefit us all and thank you all for your time all right have a great evening everyone we’ll see you next time good night