Madison Eco Garden Tour on Sunday, Sept. 12 |
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Sneak peek at just a few sites! |
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Visit organic vegetable gardeners who are also beekeepers! Check out their environmentally beneficial meadow with goldenrod, little bluestem, Christmas fern, black-eyed Susan, butterfly weed and more. Friends of Madison Shade Trees will be on hand with tree advice. |
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This property has chickens! Learn how they're eco helpers, eating food scraps and providing manure for compost. Visit an organic vegetable and herb garden, with native pollinator plants including Liatris, coneflowers, Rudbeckia, and swamp milkweed. |
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Check out a residential rain garden featuring vivid cardinal flowers, which attract hummingbirds. Learn about animal-friendly trees including winterberry holly, gray dogwoods, and American beech. Be on the lookout for squirrels enjoying beech nuts, or perhaps caterpillars on the milkweed. |
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Chat with a Rutgers Master Gardener who has kept a 5,000-square-foot lawn organic for 6 years by feeding the soil, and keeping the grass at optimal height. No synthetic herbicides or fertilizers are used. Learn a variety of simple methods to keep your own lawn healthy, beautiful and lower-maintenance, without toxic chemicals. |
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Visit beautiful gardens with native plants, veggies, chickens, pollinators, and more!
🌸 Learn where to shop for native plants and which ones are best for you.
⚡️ Test out electric lawn equipment so you can ditch polluting gas-powered blowers and mowers.
🌳 Learn why native trees are critical to pollinators—and which ones support the most moths and butterflies.
đź’¦ See how rain gardens filter pollutants, reduce flooding and help recharge the aquifer that provides water to our homes.
💚 Get great ideas for shrinking your lawn—and caring for it organically.
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Admission to the September 12 Eco Garden Tour is free,
but reservations are required.
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Presented by Madison Environmental Commission. |
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By Bridget Daley
Member, Madison Environmental Commission
For many years, I chose garden plants based on what was available at the local nursery that looked pretty. As I've learned more about native species and their benefits, I've since become an enthusiastic eco-centric gardener, embracing Doug Tallamy's concept of " gardening for life."
Here are 4 reasons why I love native plants:
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They typically require less time, money and water to maintain, because they thrive in their "home" soils and growing conditions. (Tip: If you have to water a native plant frequently after the first year, it's likely in the wrong spot so consider relocating it.)
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They're beautiful! And they don't look "cookie cutter" like many of the bred-to-unnatural-perfection plants widely sold at nurseries and home improvement stores.
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They provide food, shelter and nesting sites for birds and other wildlife—many of which depend on specific plants. Birds and animals eat the berries, seeds and nuts, and caterpillars are an essential protein source for fast-growing baby birds. However, moths and butterflies feed and reproduce only on certain native plants. Without those host plants, fewer caterpillars mean less food for nestling birds, and less butterflies and moths to pollinate crops and other plants that are crucial to our existence. Use the National Wildlife Federation's Native Plant Finder tool to see which native trees and plants host the most caterpillars!
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It's FUN to see all kinds of bees buzzing about (or snoozing in) my flowers; fluorescent yellow goldfinches swaying on faded coneflowers as they eat the seeds; butterflies constantly fluttering about; and the occasional caterpillar, before it gets eaten or morphs into a butterfly.
In the last few years, I've removed butterfly bush and English ivy, and continue to work on uprooting lilies of the valley and vinca vine—all known to be invasive, yet nurseries continue to sell them. Bit by bit, I'm replacing imported invasives and sections of turf grass with lovely native perennials, trees and shrubs.
Come see my yard, including work-in-progress areas, during the Eco Garden Tour on September 12!
Photo: Bee on great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
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Did you know that habitat changes caused by invasive species have led to the decline of about 42% of the threatened and endangered species in the U.S.?
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Madison Garden Club's Commitment to Conservation |
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By Lydia Chambers
Conservation Committee Co-Chair, Garden Club of Madison
The Garden Club of Madison is known for its welcoming gardens downtown. You may be surprised to learn that the Garden Club also has a long-standing commitment to conservation.
For example, our Conservation Committee—which is responsible for environmental advocacy and community outreach—designed the Gibbons Pines Park Stormwater Swale Rain Garden. Planted with river birches, golden ragwort, milkweed, bluestar, and other native trees and plants, the rain garden filters pollutants from groundwater, provides drainage that mitigates flooding, and attracts pollinators. Visit the rain garden as part of the Eco Garden Tour on September 12!
Last year, the Garden Club of Madison's conservation focus was on Doug Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope, and his Homegrown National Park message that by replacing part of our lawns with native plants, we could create acres of biodiverse habitat and form the equivalent of a big national park. We are all “Nature’s Best Hope” for restoring our damaged ecosystem and bringing back insect and bird populations.
When we learned of the threat to the Drew Forest Preserve, the largest and most biodiverse ecosystem in Madison, we decided to make forests our theme for the upcoming year. Please see the article below for details on how you can help protect and preserve the Drew Forest.
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Save the Drew Forest, a Pollinator Preserve |
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Sign the petition to Save the Drew Forest and help us get to 10,000 signatures!
Take your family on a self-guided biodiversity tour to see why this 53-acre Forest is a vital biodiversity hotspot. The Drew Forest has a rare understory of native plants and trees with a flourishing population of pollinators, birds and wildlife. Please sign and share the online petition.
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Sign Up for the Town-Wide Yard Sale!
Saturday September 25
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Get ready to clear out your closets! Our fall Town-Wide Yard Sale, a partnership with the Chathams, is a fundraiser for the Great Swamp Watershed Association. Register your sale on the official digital map with a $10 tax-deductible donation that supports an amazing environmental nonprofit. |
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Do you have a friend or neighbor who'd be interested in receiving Madison Environmental Commission's newsletter?
If so, please forward this email and let them know they can sign up here to receive future issues. |
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Follow @GreenMadisonNJ on social media for the latest eco-tips, events, discussion & more.
We want to hear your thoughts there, too!
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