Jeanine Rubert is co-owner of Pine Hill, a two-part nursery and landscaping business located in Traverse City and Torch Lake. A current participant of Go Beyond Beauty, Pine Hill is a fantastic resource for all of your gardening needs. Visit their website to learn more and read on below to hear a bit more from Jeanine!

The main mission here at Pine Hill is to help people be successful gardeners, no matter what their experience level.  Our tag line says it all, though:  Growing a better world, one garden at a time!  That is our primary focus, because how can we grow a better world if we poison it in the process?  We do this by promoting sustainability in the garden. Among the tenants of sustainability are limiting lawn size, irrigate efficiently, prune conservatively and use native and appropriate non-native plants.

Why did you join Go Beyond Beauty?

There has been a learning curve even for us, so we understand that our customers are learning too.  I have always been a proponent of gardening where you are, so the use of natives is a natural extension of that belief.  As we learn more about  the plight of pollinators and loss of habitat for wildlife, it only makes sense that as gardeners, we do our best to help by making choices that not only provide beauty for us, but food and habitat for them!  It's easy to get in the rut of planting only what is familiar and widely used and available, so it has been fun and rewarding to help our customers think in a new and creative way when helping them choose plants for their landscape.

What is your favorite native plant and why?

It's very hard to choose just one plant as my favorite, so I'll mention a few.  Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly weed, is one of my favorite perennials.  I love the bright orange flowers and its tough nature.  Serviceberry, Amelanchier, is one of my favorite native trees because of its 4 seasons of interest, flowers in spring, followed by berries in the summer, wonderful fall color and smooth bark for winter interest.  I also love Ilex verticillata for those brilliant red berries in the winter!  I am a big fan of Bearberry, Prairie dropseed, Little bluestem, Joe-Pye-Weed and Wintergreen.  I could go on, but you get the picture!