Porch and Parish The Podcast
Our mission is to make sure every Zachary resident feels heard and engaged! Hosts Mike and/or Jen Gennaro facilitate candid conversations with local leaders, influencers and innovators in Zachary, Louisiana and beyond with the help of producer Mike Holt. New episode every other Monday at noon!
Porch and Parish The Podcast
Transforming Your Winter Garden with Native Plants: Insights and Tips from Brett Auttonberry
Discover the secrets of transforming your winter garden into a sustainable haven with native plants, guided by our expert guest, Brett Auttonberry. Brett shares his profound knowledge of native gardening, revealing how to create resilient landscapes that require less water, support local wildlife, and minimize maintenance efforts. Listen as Brett uncovers his top picks for native plants perfect for a Louisiana winter, like hollies and frostweed, while explaining the pitfalls of choosing non-native species that often struggle to survive.
Join us for a journey through the trials and triumphs of winter gardening, where personal experiences bring to life the symbiotic dance between plants and wildlife. From tales of gardening alongside cheeky chickens and clever rabbits to the heartwarming story of Puddles, the beloved Basset Hound, we paint a vivid picture of the joys and challenges of cultivating a garden in harmony with nature. You'll explore the ecosystem benefits of native plants and pick up practical tips for dealing with curious critters and cold-tolerant citrus.
The episode also tackles the pressing issue of invasive species like the Chinese tallow tree, sparking a conversation on the complex balance between ecological change and biodiversity preservation. Brett shares inspiring stories of local initiatives and the growing availability of native plants, encouraging listeners to embrace the unique beauty of these species. With insights into innovative gardening practices and the rewarding experience of supporting native flora, this episode is a treasure trove for those eager to nurture their gardens sustainably.
I'm Brett Auttonberry. Keep listening to Porch and Parish the podcast.
Mike Gennaro:You know, there's something magical about a garden that thrives through the winter months. In a world that often prioritizes instant gratification, native plants offer a timeless beauty and resilience. As someone who's always enjoyed a good garden, I've found that the best gardens aren't necessarily the flashiest or the most labor intensive. They're the ones that work in harmony with the local ecosystem. You can't achieve that if your plants die off completely in the winter and never come back.
Mike Gennaro:In today's episode, we're excited to talk to Brett Auttonberry, a local expert in native gardening, about how to cultivate a thriving winter garden that's not only beautiful but also sustainable. Cultivate a thriving winter garden that's not only beautiful but also sustainable. We'll learn how native plants can transform our landscapes, reduce water usage and support local wildlife, all while thriving through the winter months. Brett is here to help us understand the many benefits of using Louisiana native plants, and he'll guide us on how to bring the beauty of nature to our homes during the colder season. As always, we're here to bring you the best of Zachary in the Baton Rouge area through engaging conversations every Monday from our Virginia Street headquarters. This is Portion Parish, the podcast. Stay tuned, because the lightning round is coming up next.
Speaker 3:I'm Keri Godbold, your top producing local realtor here in Zachary for over 15 years. If you're looking to buy or sell real estate or just have questions about the real estate market, give me a call or send me a text 225-936-4898.
Mike Gennaro:All right and we're back with a lightning round. So welcome Brett. Hello, hey, how's it going? What is your favorite native plant for a louisiana winter garden?
Brett Auttonberry:oh, I can't do a one.
Brett Auttonberry:It's like choosing a child right it's like going to mcdonald's and just getting fries, right, I guess if I would have to choose any, it'd be any of the ilexes, whether it be those are hollies, possum hall and your ponds, because of of the bright red and orange berries that persist through the winter and feed the birds, or, I'm going to say it, verbencia virginica, that's frostweed or white crownbeard, and it's a really cool showy flower in the fall. It was used as wedding bouquets back in the early 19th century, mid-19th century, but when it gets cold, these ribbons of water shoot out of them and it looks like taffy pulling out of them.
Mike Gennaro:Cool, cool, cool. That's just a little sample of what y'all are about to get from Brett today. You know just a little bit more background on you, brett. You came out and did our native garden certification and I didn't know. You know I was very nervous about it because it's like I don't know if I'm about to be tested or if he's just going to come and identify that we have planted things in their living, at least in the short term. Right, and it was more of the latter. You came and inspected and I learned a ton about what we actually had in our garden outside of the things that I planted.
Mike Gennaro:So if you look around your yard, you know you kind of assume that your lawn is just this monoculture of St Aug, but really look closely and there's a lot filling in those gaps and a lot of those gap fillers are natives. Right, right, yeah, so I want to take us into. I don't want to leave anybody behind, no listener left behind. So let's start off this episode with what is native gardening, and how is it any different than gardening? Gardening?
Brett Auttonberry:well, native gardening, once you get it started, really takes care of itself. Um, and I'm not one of those purists where you must have only natives in your garden. You know there are many that work together so you can have those things that everybody recognizes, but it punctuated in with plants that have evolved here with the wildlife and the ecosystem over eons. And so work hand in hand with the environment and keep your costs down, because you don't have to water them, you don't have to overwinter them, you don't have to fertilize them, blah, blah, blah.
Mike Gennaro:It's great Is that. I mean, God bless Home Depot. I spent so much money there, my goodness. But is that kind of the game that we're playing? Do they sell things that don't survive?
Brett Auttonberry:our environment has has evolved over years and when you introduce something new, it could be a some type of fungal or some type of bacteria into the soil from these, these uh, tropicals that are being bought to these places that may have been grown three, four states over in different situations. Some of these things have been grown by growers, say, in Tennessee, and have a completely different environment. They get down here and hello, it's a big difference between here and, say, nashville. I mean, those are great for accent things as long as you're managing them right. But really, if you want longevity, if you want plants that work cohesively with what's going on around you and don't break your bank, basically with your time and your money trying to keep it going, you go with natives.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, my bank has been broken many times, uh, just from buying plants year after year. Um, and the the big heartbreakers to me yep, you kind of helped me with this one. It's like how many times have I bought sasanko camellias and I'm thinking that that's local, like? Or you hear satsumas, that's a louisiana thing, right. And then I planet and it's like why don't? You don't seem to belong here very yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, I mean, citrus is spanish okay, yeah, thank you and these different varieties, uh satsumas being one of them. It's something that has been bred through time from a species that comes from the Mediterranean. Yeah, and so you fight with them.
Mike Gennaro:People fight with them, you go, protect them. You're like I'm going to save you this year, I'm going to some. Some years I've spent just as much on the plant you know as I, as the actual plant itself, just to cover it like putting something over the top.
Brett Auttonberry:The sides right tint it. Yeah, I know people who will heat up um large rocks in a bonfire and put on the ground under them so that it the the heat radiates off of them during that same night right and you're doing crazy things in the freezing weather and I'm dancing rain odds on my fingers and toes.
Brett Auttonberry:I'm like freezing you know, it's just and then you think that it's oh, it survived. And then you come back and it's sneaky when the rootstock will shoot out. It's thorny trifoliate, you know invasive species that will take over any woodland around here. So you got to be, you got to watch out for all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those citrus plants and the camellias.
Brett Auttonberry:I mean they're more sustainable than some, but they're also. You have to spray them for thrips. You have to make sure that they're fertilized. They're still high maintenance. They're not as high maintenance as some things but they're still high maintenance.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, absolutely. Let's go with the camellia tip, because I appreciated the one you shared with us. You said they don't like wet feet. Maybe move this camellia that is clearly dying over next to another tree. That way it would what the root system of the larger tree would dry the ground yeah, so like help me with that.
Brett Auttonberry:The southern magnolia tree has shallow root systems. It almost creates a desert situation under them. That's why when you're around a magnolia, you don't see a lot of other plants growing under them.
Mike Gennaro:That's why my woodland ferns probably died under the magnolia.
Brett Auttonberry:Probably so. Okay, Probably it could be. I mean, after they've worked cohesively together, they can start to work together. But getting them started is difficult under a magnolia tree. Okay, so if you move that camellia a little bit closer, maybe not under it certainly, but closer where those root systems can try to help keep its root systems well-drained it'll help it. Nice, certainly not in low-lying ground that collects water.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, what are some other fantastic species that you can recommend that really like dry ground or well-drained soil? Oh gosh well-drained soil.
Brett Auttonberry:Oak leaf hydrangea is fantastic. Yeah, a lot of people struggle with hydrangeas.
Mike Gennaro:Right right.
Brett Auttonberry:So this is one of those plants, and there's a number of these that have evolved in more of a rolling hill type topography. We're in alluvial soil here. These things really started to grow where there was a lot of rich loam from forests having dropped and sloping topography that really doesn't let the soil become saturated. Yeah, it stays moist, but it doesn't become saturated, and you can mimic these situations in your garden by building a bed that will accommodate those things, and I see people do it very successfully in this alluvial plains, and they're beautiful.
Mike Gennaro:All right, let's speak to those. All right, we just were inundated with rain. It feels like over the past couple of weeks, having come from no rain at all for like four weeks before that. What would you tell those families that have, like these, just huge wet spots in their yards where, like you, can't even walk without saturated your tennis shoes? What can you plant that's native in those areas?
Brett Auttonberry:Well, first, you have to. You have to, or how would you approach? You have to ask yourself to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to let go of the lawn in this area and make a swell of some sort, because that's what your yard is doing it's creating its own swell. When it's doing that and you look around at wetland areas, at things that are doing that job already, and say, hey, I can do that in this spot. Okay, let me put some irises here, let me put a buttonbush here, that will really draw up a lot of water and also really feed wildlife really well. There's so many things that can tag into these.
Mike Gennaro:See, I put the buttonbush under the magnolia tree.
Speaker 3:I just saw that.
Mike Gennaro:Okay, so now I'm getting. I'm starting to get kind of the the algo here. Right it's don't put something that wants a lot of water under something that's sucking up all the water right, yeah, if you, if you've ever been out to Lake Martin and Brobridge, I have oh, that's a fun family trip too.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, buttonbush growing in the water, and it just about any waterway around the LSU lakes. You'll see buttonbush on the edges of of the LSU lakes, okay, and I mean that's where they like to be and they flourish.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, what about sea oats? That's a um that one sounds like it needs to go around a wet area. It does, let's. I want to speak to the root system on sea oats specifically, because I think the roots go really, really deep, right, really deep.
Brett Auttonberry:A lot of the native grasses. I say all the native grasses really. These prairie grasses can have root systems that go down 10, 12 feet. It's crazy. Think about that.
Mike Gennaro:That's like look up at the door in whatever room you're listening and add four feet. That's how much water this plant is using right and sucking up right.
Brett Auttonberry:And it's also the other way around sequestering carbon out of the air down to that depth. So your turf grasses in your yard aren't doing anything.
Mike Gennaro:They're very surface, they're a toupee.
Brett Auttonberry:Okay, they're the toupee of grasses yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you have a lawn?
Brett Auttonberry:Brett, very, very little. Yeah, we employed the chickens to scratch and scratch and scratch and take care of our lawn Delete it, yep, and then we put them back in their pen and now we have natives and some native grasses finally getting in there, some pink newly grass and blue stem and things like this. They don't eat that. No, what Well their root systems get so established that sure they'll eat them.
Mike Gennaro:But they come right back Got it, so you might need to give it a sec. They prune them.
Brett Auttonberry:That's what they do they prune them, they keep them, cut back.
Mike Gennaro:That's interesting that you say that, because I don't know if I've, if I was as much of a an animal keeper in previous episodes, but lately the homesteader in me has just been just, you know, going to town. We've got four bunnies, three turkeys, three ducks. I've got chickens and ducks incubated upstairs. The problem is that these animals always eat the grass and you end up with mud everywhere and it's gross. So I can use native grass, let the roots establish, and we should kind of have a firmer soil.
Brett Auttonberry:They will help firm the soil up better.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:There's a number of resources out there. That about keeping gardens with livestock with small livestock and with it, and. I have yet to figure that out, exactly how these people are being so successful with these Martha Stewart looking.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, they just throw the ducks in the garden at the last minute and take a picture, and then they toss them out.
Brett Auttonberry:Can I get some of that, please? Yeah?
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, um, I got an update for for listeners out there, for anybody that you know has ever heard me mentioned puddles the Bassett um, she got out of the gate, you know, has ever heard me mention puddles the the Basset? Um, she got out of the gate, you know, speaking of wonderful animal friends, and she was hit on main street a couple of weeks back, um, but that was. That was the ultimate garden friend and huge, huge tribute to her. She never dug anything up because the Basset breed is just fantastic about just being lazy and not really caring about anything except squirrels or. But yeah, just wanted to give a quick, you know update and tribute.
Brett Auttonberry:I'm sure your your followers have been following her too, as well as you.
Mike Gennaro:Oh, she was the brand on on my, my cabinet shop, barn dog mill, and she's just been with me for a while and she, I've felt like for a while and uh, she, I felt like she encapsulated the community spirit because you know, what do dogs do? They just, they bring people together.
Speaker 3:They're always loving.
Mike Gennaro:They're always hospitable, just, and that breed is really cool because they don't bite but they do wander. You know that's. That is one of the downsides If anybody's considering a hound of any type like is it?
Speaker 3:thank you, it's open yeah.
Mike Gennaro:It, their, their nose, surpasses any loyalty. So, yeah, all right. Well, um, moving on. So, um, what? What? I promised people to talk about? A winter garden right In Louisiana. The winter involves so much like rain and, and just you know, satsumas these are all winter problems to me, right, um, keeping them alive. And I finally bought um some cold tolerant satsumas called the arctic frost variety, um, and I put them out and you know what those suckers are doing, great. But the rabbits just just tore up their stalks or trunks, took the cambium off.
Speaker 3:Just took it right off. You saw it.
Mike Gennaro:It left one little string and I said you know what, I spent so much on these things. You can't return it. We're either going to feed the rabbits, the branches or just see what it does. And so far it's not dead after two weeks now. So maybe it'll keep going.
Brett Auttonberry:Just watch out for that rootstock coming out.
Mike Gennaro:Oh, thorns, oh, I think it's over, but it might not be over Burn it if it does. Okay.
Brett Auttonberry:All right.
Mike Gennaro:So what are some of the things that are on your mind? What problems do you try to solve at this time of year in your garden?
Speaker 3:Well.
Brett Auttonberry:I mean, really, if I was to give anybody any advice about the winter, is that, yeah, it's unpredictable for us, but these native plants have really evolved to this unpredictability. If anything there may be some getting used to with our change of polar systems that we've been having the past two, three years, with these blasts that come through for a week that are just so cold and then it gets warm again. Yeah, um, those blasts can, those sustained cold blasts may end up being issues for some of our species, but I don't see them being that big of an issue as far as overall. With the native garden, yeah, I mean it is good to to allow them to be for a while and and just observe and watch once they're established. I mean really, they're like bring it.
Mike Gennaro:Okay.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah.
Mike Gennaro:Bring it and then we're going to like drop seeds everywhere and just keep proliferating. That's what I'm seeing. So we earned the certification this year, but it's been a year working up to this and I think I got my plants in around July, which is probably not a great time to plant everything either. But they all lived, except the woodland ferns that now you all know why they didn't live. But I'm lived, except the woodland ferns that now you all know why they didn't live. Um, but um, I'm seeing them all drop these fabulous seeds everywhere. Uh, one of my favorite ones is that the one with the purple berries. Uh, beauty berry, beauty berry, calicarpa americana. And when I went to the local farmer's market here in zachary, there's this, um, there's this incredible maker there that she makes jelly right, but she makes Louisiana-specific jelly. So when you go see her it'll say Louisiana Hackberry, louisiana Mayhaw, or in my case, I found Beautyberry Jelly. It's so good, y'all.
Brett Auttonberry:It's so good.
Mike Gennaro:Well, it's sugar. It's so good. Yeah, I mean yeah. I mean, you could call it anything and add some citric acid and some sugar and it tastes great.
Brett Auttonberry:It's a beautiful jelly, yeah, I mean you don't get that color from anything else. No, no.
Mike Gennaro:I mean, I also have some questions because at the farmer's market you can find certain people that you know also raise species of things that are like animals for consumption. Are there any combinations of Louisiana animals that we can raise to compliment the native garden that you can think of? I'm guessing peacocks.
Brett Auttonberry:That's a good question. Probably not here, yeah. Even though it seems like a louisiana thing yeah, I had wanted peacocks forever oh, if anything just just to annoy the neighbors that sound they make um, and. But when I was a horticulturist at the batman zoo for a while, yeah, and the destruction that they create in the garden. It's like so many hours of work put in and they will absolutely tear it up.
Mike Gennaro:It's like a chicken on steroids. Thanks for preparing dinner, Mom. Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:Oh, look at those better yellow pansies.
Mike Gennaro:Oh, it's a salad, that's right.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, as far as I mean, I can't think, I mean it's not my forte, but I think. I mean that's not a question I can answer no it's okay.
Mike Gennaro:It's okay. I was thinking like quail. What could be Certainly quail?
Brett Auttonberry:And that's a big prairie species.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:And they like land. They like expanse and grasslands, tall grass, yeah, and they like land. They like expanse and grasslands tall grass, yeah, and that's something that I don't know that a lot of people want to invest their small piece of yard to yeah. I mean, I know some people that have acreage that have done that for that reason. Yeah, just let them loose.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, cool For quail and dove and things like that to foster that so they can go and harvest those, yeah, which is a lot of fun. But uh, I mean as far as, like in your yard, I can't imagine.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, prickly pear for tortoises maybe, oh yeah well, y'all know that I've got the tortoises, but they are not I, I wasn't smart enough to get a native tortoise now that that would be the smart thing to do. So I have to say, buyers, beware out there. If you're seeing sulcata tortoises, this is like as invasive of a species of tortoises you can possibly imagine. Um, they have a lot of eggs. People are selling them and making money for now.
Brett Auttonberry:It's problematic, it's problematic and then they go reproduce, right and they're giant and they get loose, our gopher tortoises, uh, which are our native tourists yes um. Can you know their populations can be harmed like that if uh yeah invasive species gets out there and starts taking over their, their territories, because they are very territorial. Yeah, now I somebody will probably correct me and I, but I think a gopher tortoise can have a, a, you know, a mild yeah Right.
Mike Gennaro:I'll make a new friend if they want to comment on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, you like tortoises, cool yeah.
Mike Gennaro:But I mean where, where my mind is with all this? I can put a box tortoise, a box turtle out in the garden and she'll be fine through the winter. Oh, yeah. If I put a Salcata out as soon as it's like 50 degrees, it's getting like organ failure. So I have to keep a heat lamp, a special high maintenance, special light, high maintenance.
Brett Auttonberry:It's very much like the plants. Yeah, yeah, like the plants. Yeah, very much like the plants. They're not supposed to be here.
Mike Gennaro:It says evolution.
Brett Auttonberry:They're not supposed to be here.
Mike Gennaro:I don't know A Muscovy duck, though I think that's a Mexican transplant Close enough.
Brett Auttonberry:Neighbors, yeah, neighbors. We'll say neighbors.
Mike Gennaro:But man, that thing has claws, it can roost, that is going to live, no matter what, in Louisiana. All right, all right. So let's, let's go into some more surprising things about the native world here. So what is the when? When did the paradigm shift for you, you know? Was there a point where it.
Brett Auttonberry:I mean, it really was an evolution, and and a pretty fast evolution over the past decade for me.
Brett Auttonberry:But yeah I mean I started out as a kid I'm saying seven years old and and on just walking in the woods and I have always been a plant guy because of it, um, and I've always had interest in gardening and planning and all that I'm. I mean, I'm still consider myself a novice at it, but I'm always finding ways to fail at something. But when I got out of the service and spent some time in Los Angeles and really got involved with some people over there in their native plant movement, yeah, and it was fascinating to me because you know I'm thinking desert, what's here?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:And it was amazing what you find, the diversity that you find in that. And when moved back here, I really got involved with some people and worked with the Capital capital area native plant society, which is still out there, but we're not doing anything, um, and I learned through that and I made some mistakes and and I as and learned some from the, from the old, from the, the aunties yeah right, native plant aunties and learning.
Mike Gennaro:Did they come up to your yard and like start ripping out all the chinese tallow, or?
Speaker 3:oh no, I did that myself like you did over here.
Mike Gennaro:I was like brett, my dad loves these chinese tallows. He's like sorry, I'd have to. I'd have to take points off if you leave this rip I hope, I hope you don't mind from my perspective I was. This thing is most people look at the Chinese tatler like, oh, it's a trash plant anyway. Right, but it's the only bit of fall color we have anywhere. Don't take it, it is gorgeous color.
Brett Auttonberry:And the fruiting bodies are very interesting. You know, people call it a popcorn tree because those fruiting bodies are like grains of popcorn up in there. But birds will eat them. They get no nutritional value from them.
Brett Auttonberry:They poop them out in the woods, under trees, on tree lines, on fence lines, and they push out the native flora that used to be here. We used to have um strawberry bush everywhere. Uh, and that's one. That's one of the things that the privet and the tallow have really kind of pushed out like strawberries euonymus Americanus, it's a it's a beautiful uh green. Uh, the stems are green. It's a great plant. It's related to the burning bush.
Mike Gennaro:Okay, I've seen that the eonymous yeah, oh, it's a huge pop of fall color.
Brett Auttonberry:Right, huge, gorgeous red, orange color, which you don't see it anymore because it's been pushed out by these other things crowding it out. So, yeah, tallow is definitely it's. It's even become successful in wet, swampy areas and are destroying swamps.
Mike Gennaro:So at what point you know I love that you said you're not a purist at what point do we accept the new, like there's no way to get that out? Come on, it's not like you know. They shoot the nutrias and all this stuff and take their tails. I'm like it's you'd have to be shooting, Like each one of us would have to go kill a thousand a day to get rid of nutrias at this point, or make dog biscuits out of it.
Brett Auttonberry:There's a company that makes dog biscuits out of nutria.
Mike Gennaro:At. At what point do you just say we've been conquered?
Brett Auttonberry:by the invaders. We can only do what we can do. I understand, but we have to do what we can do and if we can control it on our own properties, then we can control it on our own properties. And sometimes it feels like a losing battle when your neighbor doesn't see any worth in trying to work for the environment and just let these things just go or even plant them as a. You know your neighbor doesn't see any worth in trying to work for the environment and just let these things just go or even plant them as a. You know cities that have planted them as I've never seen that.
Mike Gennaro:I've never seen that on purpose.
Brett Auttonberry:In New Orleans, in the French quarter, there are a number of tallow that have been planted specifically for a street trees. What Wow? And there's some beautiful ones, yeah, gorgeous ones. Shout out to our swamp fly friends. In this, specifically for a street tree. What yes, wow okay, and there's some beautiful ones, yeah, gorgeous ones shout out to our swamp fly friends in new orleans right, um, if y'all want, they're doing the good work.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, if you want, like um, to hit the easy button and just have a native garden, bang, bang, bang, bang just pay them. You'll get a great consultation. You'll work with some amazing people, learn something along the way. They'll give you a design great specimens beautiful specimens.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, really, they really do a good job. Brought to your house this isn't a paid advertisement.
Mike Gennaro:No, no, no no, we had them on the show before did you? Yeah, yeah, right on I even um, I even, you know, had them consider our yarn. It was just like ah, y'all, I can't right now, so I'm gonna do the good work myself and just got my shovel out. But seriously, if you can afford the easy button, and that's the way you want to go, then by all means.
Brett Auttonberry:And you'll get accolades from your neighbors like this is beautiful.
Mike Gennaro:Oh yeah, it's all native.
Brett Auttonberry:What Are you kidding me, yeah?
Mike Gennaro:I still don't think everybody understands that and I think some people shout out to my cousin Adrian, she was like you're so annoying, Stop talking about natives. Nobody wants to hear that. I'm like you, just surprised, I am obsessed. It's just everything. It's how like if anything ever went wrong, let's say in Louisiana, if you understand this stuff, there's medicine in it, there's survival.
Brett Auttonberry:You know, just knowing your land is at the essence of I don't know survival, right, yeah, there's a great program at gosh I'm going to call myself stupid now University in Lafayette, oh, ull. There's a great program over there of Acadian Medicine Garden. There's a great Acadian Medicine Garden over there that they've, you know, or have all these native plants that they discovered and used when they started settling this area and that the indigenous peoples taught them how to use. And it's I mean, it's there I taught them how to use and it's, I mean it's there.
Brett Auttonberry:So when things go awry, we're going to have to surry back to what's been given us in this area.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, yeah, and I don't want that to have to be the only reason either. It's just genuinely rewarding when you see, but butterflies on zinnias which are not native, correct Right, they're pretty for a little while and you have to wait until next season. But when you see a butterfly on something native, it's going to go and form a chrysalis and it's going to live there and it's going to raise its generation. It's just different.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:Right, and it clumps a bluestem Skippers I think there's nine species of skippers that use as a host plant and their babies will grow from that clump of blue stem, and even in the winter, once that grass is, uh, dried and brown, yeah, and it still gives interest. It's very structural, very architectural, yeah, but if you, when you are ready to cut it down, leave it in place, because those eggs may still be on those stems and they will grow from those stems in the spring, when it warms up.
Mike Gennaro:It all works together, yeah yeah, so I think a lot of people, if they already have gardens, myself included I'm starting to see that it's beautiful in its own way, but it's dormant in a lot of areas, so I really miss that spring and summer color. So what do I do?
Brett Auttonberry:So you can really work with the specimens that you choose, to keep a variety of color in there and accent with some pansies. They're not going to get away and be invasive. You know, these are the things. If the non-native species that you want to use in your yard play well with the environment, use them, okay. Couple them with the things that are actually going to give benefits.
Mike Gennaro:Don't use invasives Right.
Brett Auttonberry:Don't use things that I mean you can check the invasive plants list the USDA, I think, has it out there, usgs, I think, has it and you can make sure that it's not going to escape your garden and become a problem. Yeah, and use them along with the natives that you know are going to do well, there are a number of specimens that can add great interest in the garden. I mean, like I said, the Ilexes, the Yaupon and the Possum Hall and Winterberry and things like this. Yeah, you know, large shrubs, they're not trees. Large, large shrubs, they're not trees, um, but the berries are like like lights out there in your landscape.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:Um, the evergreens, like Yucca filamentosa, which you have one, you have a variegated version of it, yeah.
Mike Gennaro:Oh, I love that one, yeah, and it has this crazy stem that that appears sometimes. It's like the shoots up with? Yeah it shoots up with the flowers.
Brett Auttonberry:It's wild looking and I've got a great story about yuccas and and moths, but that'll be for another time, I guess, um and you might get people too excited with the moths. You know, let's just save it there's a moth that has evolved for every yucca um, there is it beige, please no the um, uh rattlesnake master that's evergreen and is sculptural, and blue, green and and has little thorns on his edges?
Mike Gennaro:uh, eryngium yucca folium yeah, it looks like a yucca. Imagine the pointy um, the pointy leaves. It's almost cactus like, but with nothing.
Brett Auttonberry:It's very fleshy, and that's what the yucca folia means. It's a leaf folia, which gives it a yucca look, but it stays green, a real bright green, structural, sculptural looking. I have some that are shooting up bloom stalks right now.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, crazy is agave in the yucca family no, that's a cool looking plant, yeah giant blue agave, agave americana that's a big huge thing, that's a century plant.
Mike Gennaro:People will call it yeah yeah, to me that has the same appeal as like tortoises, just giant and cool. Um, yeah, there's something I wanted to ask you shoot. Oh, it's escaping me. Yes, okay, can you give me like just a very third grade education level of of scientific names and plants, like I asked you what's japonica mean? I see it everywhere. What does virginica mean, like, can you speak my language a little bit more well?
Brett Auttonberry:virginica means white. Okay, it's telling you that it's going to have a white flower.
Mike Gennaro:Oh, um, uh, okay so guara, is there a virginica guara and a pink version, or like?
Brett Auttonberry:well, the pink versions are are cultivars of that virginica okay, yeah and they've just been bred for that color show and they're beautiful and they're great and they're still beneficial in the landscape because they are a native uh, they're a version of the native, the virginica that's okay has a higher, a higher placed bloom, from what I understand, um, so it stands up higher above the plant okay, um, all right, so they're usually two names to every scientific species. So so you have the genus and the species genus and species, okay, okay.
Brett Auttonberry:So if, for instance, I would say Yucca filamentosa, the genus is Yucca, the species is filamentosa, sometimes you'll have variants. One of the variants that you see a lot is Eliadei. It has two I's at the end that are pronounced differently, which is fantastic, and that's a tribute to, I think, the scientists who discovered that. So Elliot's blueberry is another one, vaccinium eleati. Well, that's a variant of it is the eleati.
Mike Gennaro:The Louisiana blueberry is one of those Is rabbit eye.
Brett Auttonberry:Louisiana or no. I have to look into that. Okay, that's all right, that's not mine.
Mike Gennaro:No, um, that's good. That's good. Um, uh, I've got a lot of questions about that, but that that seems like a huge lesson there. So, um um, are we leaving anything out that you're dying to talk about?
Brett Auttonberry:Uh well, we certainly wanted people to have resources where to go and get native plants.
Mike Gennaro:This is tough. Even after you explained it, I'm like it's just too much, I don't know what to do.
Brett Auttonberry:So the availability has come a long way in the past decade in the past five years really, but in the past decades for sure, since I've been in Baton Rouge dealing. It used to be just a couple of nurseries in Ameet and one up in North Louisiana, and then you'd have to go to Georgia, alabama, florida, for natives that would coexist here because of being grown in a certain ecotype. Yeah, but it's really developed a lot, one with more than three or four new clubs or or associations, societies that have really popped into activity and are doing their own sales. You got Beaver's Abundance. That's doing really great work.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, that's where I got everything, and it's cool. It gives you a receipt that has all of the scientific names that someone like me would never have remembered. And then, like I, I used that receipt months later when I completely forgot every name of things that were in my garden, except beauty Barry, because that one's easy and and I mean green hand nursery which is in Baker.
Brett Auttonberry:Oh they do a lot of good natives they do. They do your typical bedding stuff as well and vegetables and things like that, but they will also do growings of natives and they'll plant what you ask them to plant.
Mike Gennaro:I feel terrible for not knowing about green hen right under my nose. Sorry, I didn't support local, will you give?
Brett Auttonberry:me a flat of rattlesnake master. Oh sure, sure, no problem. Okay, and they're usually at the Farmer's Market downtown Baton Rouge. Okay, where's Green Hen? They're in Baker, right off of Gibbons Road. Yeah, so right across the street from what used to be the entrance to the zoo, so it goes straight across. That's Gibbons Road.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:And they're right down there on on one of the, on that little canal, On frontage.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Mike Gennaro:Like on commercial frontage.
Brett Auttonberry:No, no, it's their house.
Speaker 3:It's a house, and they have the greenhouse and she works for.
Brett Auttonberry:Mila works for Southern university and agriculture department. Andiab does most of the work. Um, they're at the greenhouse and typically their output is for the farmer's market that they go to.
Mike Gennaro:Okay, and and they have, uh, customers from their farmer's market that come and shop at their place got it so you kind of maybe need to make friends first and then go visit on that farmer's market yeah, downtown farmer's market down in down in baton rouge.
Brett Auttonberry:What's that?
Mike Gennaro:Red Stick Farmer's.
Brett Auttonberry:Market.
Mike Gennaro:What else you got?
Speaker 3:There's also Maypop Hill.
Brett Auttonberry:Nursery which is up in Norwood. Betty Miley has been up there. Betty Miley is an old hand native plant. She's been doing it for decades and she's had a nursery up there for 20 years now and she does some interesting propagation work of some odd things that you can't find in other places. Also, there's the Native Plant Initiative, that's NPI, out of New Orleans and they do a lot of plant sales out of the city park greenhouses.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cool.
Brett Auttonberry:Sometimes once a month, and I mean talk about really beautiful specimens and a lot of variety On that note.
Mike Gennaro:So when I first got into this, you got to forgive me. I had this whenever I was shopping for the native species. I would just roll up at whatever market and you know, you see all the beautiful stuff at, like clays, like all these other, these big production. You know facilities and then, like the, the native offerings might look like just a bunch of absolute trash at first Right, please trust me on this. But as soon as it grows a little bit it will look amazing. But it's not satisfying, like going to buy flowers that are already in full bloom at your local big box garden center.
Brett Auttonberry:Okay, I just wanted to get that out.
Brett Auttonberry:That had been bred to look like that in a pot so they can make a 3 000 profit on it yeah, yeah, that's why yeah, yeah I mean, and and this is the time right now is the time to do your own seed sowing of native native plants and and you can do. That sounds complicated, but no, it's so easy. Yeah, it's some potting soil with about a half an inch of head space around it. Put the seed spread on there evenly and spaced a bit, cover it with some sand and leave it outside.
Mike Gennaro:I thought you were just going to say take the seeds and throw them in the air, like I do.
Brett Auttonberry:So that's not as like okay, and you can do that. If you just want to direct sow into a garden someplace. I mean, this is what they do. Yeah, this whole thing about gorilla gardening just throwing them to empty empty lots and have a field of echinacea and cosmos and blanket flower and all that in this empty lot.
Mike Gennaro:Seeds over in there. Yeah, echinacea is awesome. You got to have that staple. It's the big purple cone flower now I did to depot's, granted, I saw some huge, a huge selection of purple cone flower this summer yeah, what was that at home depot you're talking about? Yeah, it was crazy I thought I was seeing an oasis or something, but and they are uh you're gonna say something bad they're cultivars.
Brett Auttonberry:Okay, so that, yes, they are echinacea purpurea. Okay, um, their nectar content is a fraction of what the native straight up species is so they're not doing as much benefit for the wildlife as this. Yeah, they're beautiful. Yeah, they're more compact, so you can really do something crazy and structural with them.
Brett Auttonberry:But, they're really not doing the work that the wildlife are looking for. The butterflies will go to it, but they'll have to go to it a lot. The bees will go to it, but they'll have to go to it a lot because the sugar content isn't there where they really need the fuel, the food, right. I mean you lose something when you breed for a particular look or a particular trait and when you say you breed for height, you don't want it over a foot tall, yeah, you're also going to lose something when you breed it say, oh, I want one that's more pink, or I want one that's green. There's a green one out there. Have you seen that one? No, green echinacea Crazy. I'm like nope, alien. Yeah.
Mike Gennaro:I mean, there's so much to be said about what colors actually do, different color spectrums to animals, eyes and all these things like where they? You know? Just watch some. David Nate. Your last name is confusing me. David Attenberry, who's the guy from Planet Earth?
Speaker 3:Oh.
Brett Auttonberry:Attenborough.
Mike Gennaro:Attenborough, not to be confused with Attenberry.
Speaker 3:Dang.
Mike Gennaro:But yeah, like animals pick up on the craziest minutiae and they like use that as their sole survival method sometimes.
Brett Auttonberry:And yeah, the seed sowing that I'm talking about a lot of it requires three or four months of being under a certain temperature. So if you're sowing them now outside, they're going to get that. This is the time to get that. I mean, you can do it in a pill bottle in the refrigerator doing a moist stratification. But you know high maintenance. Why don't you just sew them outside and just let them do their thing and you'll see them start coming up All right.
Mike Gennaro:Well, okay, I've got a bamboo question. Louisiana has some native bamboos right. I live right next door to a beautiful, beautiful railroad track. Like we, we feel the the the train rumbling. It's so close. So I was going to plant a bamboo screen and they're running and clumping. That's the traditional thing people talk about like uh-oh, don't buy the running one because it'll take over everything. But, um, are there any louisiana native bamboos?
Brett Auttonberry:that's not a question.
Mike Gennaro:I have an answer to oh shoot, you're just ready for that that one, that one I could certainly research for you yeah but I don't have it at the time I I find particular appeal in the, the giant Mosso bamboo that Avery Island is famous for. It's just like this forest of bamboo and it's incredible, but yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:We've lost a lot of that cane break. Cane break, yes, yes, and there are particular birds that have evolved specifically for these cane breaks and were at risk of losing some of these things.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Brett Auttonberry:Because that's not there anymore. It's been swept away through.
Mike Gennaro:It has nothing to do with sugar cane, because that's what I thought cane break was. It's bamboo related. Yeah, okay, all right, it's bamboo related.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, okay, all right. Well, feel free everybody to clock in and correct me when I'm wrong, cause I am no crazy doctorate, you know we haven't, um, I don't know.
Mike Gennaro:I we've got wonderful followers out there and listeners and not a ton of correcting. You know when it's usually political in nature, if it ever, uh, comes up, you, you know when it's usually political in nature, if it ever comes up, you know. But like, specifically, politics, political, but when it comes to native gardening, you know what. You're in a completely safe space here. If somebody wants to start critiquing this, you're just going to make a new friend because I'm going to be like you know what?
Brett Auttonberry:I know nothing Totally. If somebody wants to critique it, it's like oh, there's another resource for knowledge right there.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, there's another nerd that I can hang out with. Right, let's keep together. Yeah, exactly. Well, I think that's a good place to wrap today. You know I asked you this earlier. Is there anything that we're leaving out, Cause this is a big, old topic and maybe give us something to ponder?
Brett Auttonberry:uh, for next time yeah, I, I mean really the the biggest thing is to, to, to get the plants in and and let them live and get used to where they are. Start small, but plan well. At the same time, know where you're going to be putting the plants and find the plants that are conducive for that spot. Whether you know the hydrology of be putting the plants and find the plants that are conducive for that spot. Whether you know the hydrology of it. How much water is in the soil, how much water stays in the soil, how does it flow through the soil? That's a huge aspect, isn't it? It's a huge aspect and something that a lot of people don't think about. They go and plant something just like. This is a good place for this. It'll, it'll. It'll look really well with the shed once it's done.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, but you know, you really have to think about these things, and not just with natives, with with other things as well. So just start, small plan. Well, you know, geek out over it for a minute and and and make sure it's the thing that you need.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, then go do it and fail a little bit, try again you know, Well, that's a. That's a great place to end this thing, um. So we're, we're wishing you well during this, this season, you know um and please, please, please, send us pictures of your uh, of your efforts and gardens out there.
Brett Auttonberry:Um, maybe we get a pnp garden club together, but uh and also you can apply to have your your native plant garden certified, like you did yes absolutely native plant society. Uh, they have the certified habitat program and tell me how much I spent again I think so. I think that's what I spent.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, that's what I wanted to say, and you get a sign for your yard, pays for the plaque and a nice, a good new friend to come over and talk plant right um, yeah, there's immense value in that.
Mike Gennaro:You know why I I I did this because I read an article about swamp fly and what they were doing had no idea what natives were. And it said, like, look for the stars in your local, you know area of people who got certified and looked at zachary. I was like we don't have any stars at all. And then I find one popped up during that course.
Mike Gennaro:It was, I think I don't want to say somebody's private name and all that, but yeah somebody right around throw his drones throw away from me, and we had one star and all of Zachary and I was like well, and that's partly my fault, because there's a couple of more that I haven't put on the spreadsheet yet.
Brett Auttonberry:Well, how many do you think there are? Swampfly did one right over here.
Mike Gennaro:Okay.
Brett Auttonberry:Another stone's throw through you, and it's beautiful.
Mike Gennaro:Yeah, it's not a big property probably a quarter of an acre.
Brett Auttonberry:Yeah, there's a guy up north of East Feliciana Parish that had his cattle ranch done no way, and it's amazing. It's a great place. It's got a lot of bottomland to it, it's got some rolling hills to it and it's 58 acres.
Mike Gennaro:If you have 58 acres, just make up any species. You're not going to go comb over all of it. You checked it.
Brett Auttonberry:You did, I checked it all right, all right, but yeah, that's then the side by side and just went out. Yeah, you did. Oh well, on the four wheel yeah, yeah, we got on the four wheel and went out um, that's great.
Mike Gennaro:That's great.
Brett Auttonberry:Okay, so maybe five yeah come on, y'all, you may have been number five all right.
Mike Gennaro:Well, out of 20,000 in in Zachary and then add Slaughter and West Westfell, I mean I'm sure Westfell has a bunch, because I think I wasn't there in.
Speaker 3:Slaughter.
Brett Auttonberry:Slaughter was there in Slaughter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah sure, I saw like two in Slaughter.
Mike Gennaro:Is that about right?
Brett Auttonberry:Yes, that sounds right.
Mike Gennaro:Okay, all right. So let's get on the map. People Come on, get on the map.
Brett Auttonberry:Let's bling the map up.
Mike Gennaro:Bling the map up. Yeah, go for gold, because there's bronze, silver and gold. Maybe you'll be the first ones to get platinum out there, I don't know. But until next time. This is Mike G saying happy holidays and good planting to you. Best of luck, bye-bye.
Brett Auttonberry:America, america. May God thy gold refine.
