Видео

I'd love to see a lawn planted with Florida Natives that does not rely on an irrigation system. My goal in my own home's landscaping has been to slowly transition it toward not needing to use any irrigation at all. This means either a large focus on soil care, or careful plant selection for plants that can tolerate sandy and low ph soils. Of course, when establishing any new plant, it needs constant water. To resolve this problem, I basically plan each year what I want to add to my yard, then plant around June so that it enjoys the heavy summer rains we get here. If I need to use irrigation, of course, I will. But I'm slowly transitioning toward a lawn that is completely irrigation-free

How do these people have this much open mulch with no weeds in Florida? In my yard that would be clear for about two or three days. Hell, I have weeds growing through my ground cloth

Better than a lawn

Nice! I've seen very low maintenance florida friendly. But even high maintenance may be less cist than lawn maintenance...right? Love the frog fruit. Will it grow in Tallahassee without irrigation ??

There is something fundamentally wrong in saying that we need to garden the wild, because Thomas here is missing the big picture. In the past, there used to be forest AND meadows/prairie. Naturally. Yes, you often need cows today to maintain meadows but why ? Well in Europe the answer is simple : because there is no more bison. Bison used to create clearing in the forests, and help against fires spreading. In fact, they're trying to put the bison back in Spain precisely for that reason. So I wouldn't be surprised if where Thomas went in China, there used to be a mixture of clearings and forests, entirely natural, but that nowadays you need this farmer's cows to maintain the meadow because another big animal that used to do it has been chased off or hunted down. But when farmers in alpine region keep saying "you need us to preserve the meadow biodiversity" it's a blatant lie and a myth. Yes if they stopped doing it forest would grow and many flowers would disappear, but that's just coz another animal is missing from the picture. One that manages the forest.

I like this idea of even planting below large perennials with groundcovers or small plants. But what was missing in Thomas' book was a list of those groundcovers... There's a page with about 9 of them but that's it. It's not easy finding plants that will be happy in spring sun and summer / autumn shade, since bulbs don't qualify. Many geraniums will be too big. So I guess that leaves sedges/carex, but I would like some diversity. According to Piet Oudolf, sedges go well with asters, calamagrostis, campanulas, geraniums, persicarias, salvias. But they don't go well with thalictrum, veronicastrum, eupatorium, achilleas, eryngiums, deschampsias... For those plants, there's deffinitely some bare ground underneath. Artemisia ludoviciana can be used sometimes, but it requires pruning in June otherwise it flowers and gets a bit untidy.

I'm adding a lot of Florida native plants in my landscape in Tampa.

I would love to have heard the questions too! Excellent talk and presentation. Definitely makes the case for the ground cover/matrix layers and how they become both as a feature and as a benefit to the other plants and life in the garden/area. Gotta go buy more carex!

This was great! Reading Planting in a Post Wild World currently. Loved having additional examples of concept application.

🌟 Promo-SM

I personally love the american movement because they create always plant communities that have a functional layer.

The Asclepias (milkweed) featured in the thumbnail and in the tour is NOT recommended by lepidopterists. Asclepias curassavica or Scarlet/Tropical Milkweed is not native to Florida and is highly invasive (I've seen it spreading around the shores near Rollins College for instance). It does not die back in winter and even outside this season can confuse Monarchs to think they have already reached Mexico. This causes them to miss their opportunity to reach their historic breeding grounds. There are a slew of other reasons not to plant it. Much better native alternatives are Asclepias incarnata, Asclepias tuberosa, Asclepias perennis, and Asclepias verticillata which are often sold at native nurseries. If the plant nursery you visit is not a native one, chances are the milkweed you picked up is Asclepias curassavica.

great video!

Odd there was no mention of leaving the clippings to reseed...?

Highly recommended! I attended a presentation of his in 2023 and came away wildly inspired-- bought the book and am already integrating the philosophy and practices into my own client projects. Well thought out and well presented. Would love to hear more.

Thomas is the man. His book with Claudia west called "planting in a post wild world" is incredible. You can build a career on the back of it. Not enough people in that audience.

This is very inspiring!

do you incorporate shut-off valves on the poly lines so you can control where water goes when you want it in certain areas?

I wonder if I can use the mulching lawn mower on twin flower in late October?

𝐩𝓻Ỗ𝓂Ø𝓈Ｍ

Now, I know there are whole worlds inside individual acorns…just like I thought when I was a kid in the woods. Dr. Tallamy, thank you for your work. Bugs and native plants can change the world! I’m in! 👒 KT

Really excited to for this. Great job OUTSIDE Collab!

Looking forward to the Outside Collab and working together to provide better access to a designed landscape palette here in North East Florida. 👒