Deer Resistant Plants - a conversation with landscape architect Edwina von Gal

 

Francesca Rheannon talks with landscape architect and activist Edwina von Gal at her magnificent gardens in East Hampton, New York. 

Edwina is a proponent of planting native shrubs and an opponent of the use of pesticides which kill vital bees and insects.

They talked about deer-resistant plants.  

 listen here

 

Here is a list of deer-proof or deer-resistant plants compiled by Edwina von Gal:  

• Carex pennsylvanica: Pennsylvania sedge (native)
• Pachysandra procumbens: Allegheny Spurge (native)
• Hakanechloa macra: Japanese grass  
• Petacites japonica: butter burr
• Lindera benzoin: Northern Spice Bush (native shrub, great for pollinators, blooms in Feb/March)   
• Hamamalia virginia:  (not deer proof) spring witch hazel (late season bloom)
• Leucothoe axillaris — Prefers a bit of shade; evergreen
• sweet alyssum
• Aconitum napellus (not native): Monkshood 
• Actaea racemosa:  black cohosh (native)
• Amsonia hubrichtii: Bluestar (native)
• ground covers: bee balms, mountain mints, pachera, chrisogonum (Yellow Star), mahonia 
• flowering trees: Carolina silver bell; Carolina all spice, calalanthus
• hellebore (not native) good for pollinators
• American dogwood, American fringe tree
• magnolia virginiana: swamp magnolia (blooms all summer)

 

Two Thirds for the Birds: A conversation with landscape architect Edwina von Gal

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with acclaimed landscape architect Edwina von Gal about her project Two Thirds for the Birds.

Listen here  

The bird population is declining dramatically. The Audubon Society estimates that 3 billion birds have gone missing in North America in a generation. But there's something you can do about it. What you grow in your yard can make all the difference. 

 
Did you know that a chickadee needs 3000 to 6000 caterpillars to raise one nest of young to maturity? What happens if you've nuked your property with pesticides that kill all that vital bird food? What, for example, are tick sprays doing to that bird food?
Today we talk with celebrated landscape designer Edwina von Gal about her new project, Two Thirds For The Birds. It's all about gardening to meet the basic needs of the Earth and the creatures we share it with. How? By planting two thirds native species for every one third of exotic plants.

Francesca Rheannon visited Edwina at her magnificent gardens in East Hampton, New York were she puts this principle into action. 

Francesca talked with Edwina von Gal about her initiative Two Thirds For The Birds. 

 

More Information about it is available at www.234birds.org

 

Kelp farming for food, fertilizer, fuel and cleaning up pollution.

Francesca Rheannon talks with Dr. Chris Gobler of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Stony Brook University and fisherman Sean Barrett of Dock to Dish, a community-supported fishery. 

They talk about the promise of kelp farming in local bays for use as food, fertilizer, fuel and cleaning up pollution. Also we noted kelp's ability to reduce ocean acidification and provide habitat, thereby improving conditions for our region's shell fishing industry.

 Here is the conversation:

Here is some more information about kelp farming:

East End Beacon

https://www.eastendbeacon.com/kelp-farmers-get-a-big-surprise/         

https://www.eastendbeacon.com/drawdown-on-east-end-kelp-farming/

BBC

The miraculous power of seaweed on kelp in Australia -   kelp forests dissapering as temp. rises and growing seaweed alongside mussels 

https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/future-planet?vpid=p09bxb6f 

Sarah Schaefer of the Peconic Estuary Program & East Hampton Town Board's Sylvia Overby on Climate Emergency Declaration

 

Francesca Rheannon talks with Sarah Schaefer, Program Coordinator of the Peconic Estuary Program (PEP), about the PEP's work developing tools for local governments on adapting to climate change. Those include their Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Action Plan and Climate Adaptation Toolbox for Land Use and Municipal Planning .

Also Francesca talks with East Hampton Town Board member Sylvia Overby about the Climate Emergency Declaration the Town recently issued and what it will mean for East Hampton's climate action response.

Listen here

Steve Schott - Protecting shorelines on Long Island with living shorelines

We talked this week with Steve Schott, the Marine Botany and Habitat Restoration Specialist at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. 

Super-storm Sandy destroyed shorelines on Long Island and was the impetus for Steve’s work replacing bulkheads, boulders and other hardened structures with living shorelines and native vegetation. 

We talked about projects that reverse erosion and also create a habitat for wildlife, including one on the Shinnecock Bay coastline at the Shinnecock Reservation.

Here is our discussion:

More Information about Steve Schott’s work and the living shoreline project is available at

https://peconiclandtrust.org/blog/peconic-land-trust-presents-living-shoreline