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Why you should kill your lawn · Silver FM 100.6

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From Spider Man to a new Steven Spielberg movie. We
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: know that TV and movies you'll want to watch this summer.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about this film.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: I just know suspense, intrigue, aliens, and I'm like, all right, Spielberg,
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: I'm in.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Check out the summer guide from Pop Culture Happy Hour,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Maryel.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: I grew up in a suburb of New York City,
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: and our neighborhood was the definition of post war development.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Lots of houses in the same style, evenly spaced with
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: bright green, manicured lawns, and the lawns were good to us.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: My brother and I. We played barefoot in the sprinklers.
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: We drove around in our little electric red jeep. We
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: tossed the ball to our dog, who was big and
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: blonde and full of energy. What I'm saying is, grassy
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: lawns they have their appeal.
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: But the reality is that we do, let's be honest,
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: have a lot more lawn than we actually use a
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: lot of it. It's basically just kind of like for
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: the look, right, it's kind of like aesthetic.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: This is Celia Yopi s Jepson, a science reporter at
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Harvest Public Media and the host of their environmental podcast
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Up from Dust.
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  Speaker 5: If you add up all this manicured grass turf that
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  Speaker 5: we've got in the US at this point, actually adds
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  Speaker 5: up to an area that's bigger than the state of Georgia.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a lot of lawn and it's a problem
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: because the things we do to keep these lawns tidy
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: and green tax our environment. We put down fertilizer and
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: weed killer, We use our drinking water supplies to run sprinklers,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: We burn fossil fuels in our lawnmowers. What if we
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: did things differently. NPR is dedicating this week to stories
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: and conversations about how communities are moving forward on climate
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: solutions despite the political roadblocks, especially at the federal level.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: One way people are doing that is by replacing their
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: lawn with native plants. Because if you grow plants that
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: are native to your area, you're not going to have
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: to water them very often except during long dry spells, and.
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: You certainly are not going to have to fertilize them,
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: and you're obviously not going to be running in a
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: mow or over gorgeous flowers.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Plus, you'll be helping the wildlife.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: And we know wildlife in our country like does need help.
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: North America has lost a quarter of its birds. The
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: US has lost like an estimated one fifth of its
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: butterflies at this point. So you can do a solid
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: for the environment by ditching even just some of your
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: lawn and replacing it with a wildlife friendly garden.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: The good news is you don't have to ditch your
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: whole lawn to make a difference. In fact, the experts
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: recommend that you start small. That's actually what my dad
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: did in the yard at the house I grew up in.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: He started a native plant garden along the fence and
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: it is the best part of the space with its
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: fluttering butterflies and massive sunflower stalks that reach toward the sky.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: On this episode of Life how to Help the Planet
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: by starting a native plant garden, Celia is going to
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: walk us through how to actually kill that patch of grass,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: where to find plants, and what to expect as your
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: garden grows.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: From Spider Man to a new Steven Spielberg movie. We
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: know the TV and movies you'll want to watch this Summer.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about this film.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I just know suspense, intrigue, aliens, and I'm like, all right, Spielberg,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: I'm in.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Check out the Summer Guide from Pop Culture Happy Hour,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: listen on the NPR app or wherever you get.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Podcasts, Celia, can we walk through some of the fears
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: or reservations that folks might have around this? I feel
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: like a common one is what are the neighbors going
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: to think? Right if I replace my manicured front lawn
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: with a patch of wildflowers?
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: Those are really legit questions, right, I mean, first of all,
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: one culture is real, Like we love a tidy, green lawn,
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: and I feel like a lot of us LUNs feel
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: like a safe way to keep property of values up
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: in our neighborhoods, right, Like it's something, it's a look
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: that we trust. But on the flip side, your neighbors
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: may be like totally into attracting wildlife, and like they
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: may see your gardens and love it. Someone who knows
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: a lot about this is Paula Dias. She is a
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: master gardener in Kansas City. She helps people turn their
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: yards into wildlife spaces by adding native plant gardens.
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  Speaker 6: One of my neighbors. We were just talking and she says,
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: your yard is so full of life. That's it. It's
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: the life. It's the there's always a bird that's singing
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: or frogs that are croaking like a Disney movie.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I know, right, Like as far as I know,
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: the birds don't actually come and land on Paula's hand
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: when she calls them. But nevertheless, like she's got a
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: lot of birds and bees and frogs and things, which
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: also her grandchildren love. But that neighbor you know who
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: said that to her like started planting native plants too,
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: and so have several other of her neighbors.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: Another fear I think folks might have is what kind
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: of wildlife is going to show up? Like maybe I'm
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: rolling out the red carpet for butterflies and birds, but
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: I'm actually going to end up with ticks.
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: I have talked to people who who are feeling like, well,
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: I want to do a native plant flowerbed, but I
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: don't really want like spiders to show up, or I
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: want to make sure like snakes won't be around, and
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: it doesn't really work that way. So for some people
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: getting into wildlife friendly gardening like may mean also kind
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: of working on some of our versions to these things.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: These are ultimately beneficial animals. But I do want to
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: get into ticks specifically, which you know one likes ticks.
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: Ticks are legitimately a very big concern because they can
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: make us really sick. So the question is, like, if
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: you ditch some lawn in favor of a flower bed,
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: does that mean you're gonna have more ticks around? And
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: scientists are looking into that.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: So far, the.
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: Research that I've seen it suggests that flower gardens don't
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: really increase ticks. The real factor here is if you're
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: living basically where ticks want to live, Like if you're
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: living right at the edge of the woods, woods have
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: a lot of ticks. They're going to crawl into your yard,
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: whether it's lawn or.
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  Speaker 4: Flower beds, take away one. A native plant. Garden doesn't
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: have to look overgrown. It can look pretty and intentional,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: something your neighbors will appreciate. Also, so far, the research
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: suggests that gardens are no more likely than traditional lawns
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  Speaker 4: to attract ticks.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: So let's say I.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Am ready to get rid of some of my lawn.
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  Speaker 4: How might I start?
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  Speaker 5: The first great tip that I have from experts is
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: like maybe don't do the whole lawn, Like people can
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: get really enthusiastic about this, but like, just kill a
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: bit of grass and make it like one flowerbed to start.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: So I talked to Stasia Stell because she leads Deep
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: Roots Casey, which is a group that educates the public
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: on how and why to ditch lawns for native plants.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: And she does not go around telling people like, hey,
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: jump in there and do everything at once.
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  Speaker 7: It can be overwhelming to take on an expansive garden
• 7:21
  Speaker 7: for any gardener, but especially for a first time or
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: like learning gardener. And as you, you know, get more
• 7:29
  Speaker 7: more comfortable with your existing garden, there's always room to expand.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: Well, walk me through how you would kill a bit
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: of grass to create one flowerbed.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: First things first, like you got to pick a spot,
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: like where are you going to kill some grass? And
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: maybe you think it would look really nice to have
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: a flowerbed along the walkway to my front door or
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: along a fence, or I want to throw out like
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: the idea of doing it around a tree. So like
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: maybe you've already got this nice oak tree in your
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: yard and you could replace the grass around it with
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: a flower bed and that's like a legit thing like
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: That approach is called a soft landing because actually there's
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: all these like butterfly caterpillars and things in the tree,
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: and when they finish eating oak leaves, they're gonna come
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: down and they're gonna look for a place to make
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: their chrystalis and they need someplace safe away from lawnmowers
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: and such, So you're creating a safe space for them.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: Once you've got your spot, you're going to like go
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: ahead and kill the grass. And that sounds intimidating, but
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: there's actually lots of options, and some of them are
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: easier than others. Some like work faster than others. So
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: an easy approach is layer cardboard and multch just right
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: on top of that grass. You're gonna cut off the sunlight,
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: and so without sun light, the grass is gonna die.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: It could take like six weeks or so, but it's
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: gonna die. Another option is you could lay out black
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: plastic on it that blocks the light. It also blocks
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: the rain. You can also like rent a sod cutter
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: or dig it out by shovel. Some people spray herbicide.
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: Every approach is gonna have pros and cons obviously digging
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: it out with a shovel. You know, that's fast, that's
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: like instant gratification. It's also a lot of labor. It
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: takes a lot of muffle that like I don't have.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: But you know, putting down cardboard on it that's easy.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: On the other hand, you're gonna have to wait longer
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: until that grass is.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Dead take away too. Time to kill some grass. First,
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: you want to pick a spot. Remember you don't have
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: to do this all at once, and it's not all
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: or nothing anyway. Do you have a tree, have about
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: a small patch underneath it to create a soft landing
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: for caterpillars. Next to a fence is great too, or
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: along a walkway. Once you pick a spot, you have
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: some options. You could layer cardboard and mulch to starve
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: the grass of sunlight. You could also do that with
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: black plastic tarp. Alternatively, you could use a sad cutter
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: or dig the grass out with a shovel. That's much faster,
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: but it takes more muscle and the sight of the
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: garden does matter here. If you're working under a tree,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: for instance, you won't want to use a sod cutter
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: because you could damage the tree. Roots coming up? What
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: to do after you've killed your lawn?
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: From Spider Man to a new Steven Spielberg movie, we
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: know the TV and movies you'll want to watch this summer.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about this film.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: I just know suspense, intrigue, aliens, and I'm like, all right, Spielberg,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I'm in.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Check out the summer guide from Pop Culture Happy Hour,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: listen on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: All right, so the grass is dead? Rip? Can I
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: start planting?
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: Yes? Now you get to the fun part of designing
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: in the bed. You're going to pick the flowers, the bushes.
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: You know what do you want it to look like?
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: This is when you're going to do some dreaming. Like
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: look out your window. You know what do you imagine
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: would be pretty to look out and see every day?
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: You could go full on like cottage core and do
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: big drifts of pastel colors. Or maybe you want something
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: it feels like a prairie and it's swaying in the
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: wind and has tall grasses and bright, cheerful sunflowers. It's
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: kind of up to you. You could do like a
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: woodland look so that you walking in your yard you
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: feel like it's in the woods with an oak tree
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: and like some short pretty woodland flowers underneath it.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: That sounds so nice.
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it can be an expression of who you are.
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: And once you have that vision, then you'll also need
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: some details like about the spot that you picked, right,
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: So is it in full sun? The what's your soil like?
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: Is it sandy? Is it like clay? Are you looking
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: for tall plants or like really short ground covers. You're
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: kind of like putting together a shopping list of like
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: like your specifications. I guess then you're gonna go online
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: and look for a native plant guide that's specific to
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: your region. You're gonna want native plants from your region
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: because obviously, like wildlife friendly plants are totally different if
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: you're in Arizona versus New York, Right, they're not the
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: same plants.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: And that's like the whole point, right, that.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: Is the whole point. You don't want to have to
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: baby them, right. You want them to be kind of
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: like adapted to where you live and also to the
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: animals where you live, if that makes sense. So online
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: there are lots of great like native plant societies, wildlife
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: groups that will be regional. They'll have cheat sheets basically
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: like here's the top ten native flowers, you know for
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: the Midwest for a shade garden, or they'll like just
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: plane lay out flower beds, like here's a ten foot
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: wide flower bed for this type of bed in the Southeast.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: And you can like steal a cheat sheet and use
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: it right, make a little easier for yourself. And then
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: the other thing that's nice about those websites is that
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: they'll probably also have a list of places where you
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: can actually buy those plants, which sounds like, well, how
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: hard could that be? But the reality is native plant
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: gardening is still kind of niche in some places. Some
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: regular nurseries will have some of these plants, but like
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: the surefire way to find them is to get a
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: list of the native plant nurseries in your city or
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: your state.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Take Away three, Design your garden. What would you like
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: to see out there swaying in the wind? What colors
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: inspire you think about the spot where you're planting, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: what kind of sunlight it gets, what soil it has,
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: and what native plants would thrive there? And if this
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: is your front lawn, also consider any neighborhood rules that
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: would apply.
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: Here when you're picking your plants, you should pay attention
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: to whether, for example, do you have a homeowners association
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: or are there city codes that are particularly strict in
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: your area. Like I met one person who a city
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: coder made them rip the milkweed out of their front yard.
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: So city rules can matter. There can be rules specifically
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: against tall flowers in your front yard or tall flowers
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: within a certain number of feet of the curb to
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: make sure you're not like block view. Yeah, there can
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: be rules like that that are worth paying attention to, definitely,
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: But to be clear, you can garden in a way
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: that's going to fit in in your neighborhood. So like,
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: if you live in a very manicured neighborhood and you
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: want to fit in with that look like you can
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: do that. Or if you want something that looks more
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: naturalistic because that's your style, like, you can do that too.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: How expensive is all this?
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, buying lots of plants that can add up really fast.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: So there are a few ways to save money. One
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: good tip is that you can grow plants from seed.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: You can buy native plant seeds online or from like
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: a local native plant nursery. You can also look for
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: nurseries that sell plugs, like just very small plants in
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: six packs or even in flats, instead of shelling out
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: big bucks for mature plants. You can even you know,
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: sometimes that could be a wholesaler for example, who's like
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: mostly selling to a landscape contractors, but who might also
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: let you walk in and buy plugs by the flat
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: at a better price that you're going to get like
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: at a typical retail place. And then like, I have
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: a tip for potentially getting plants for free, and that
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: is to look for native plant Facebook groups in your area,
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: because lots of gardeners swap or give away plants because
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: they'll they'll plant them in their garden. It will grow
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: in a few years later, like it's maybe gone to
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: seed and produced baby plants, and people are happy to
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: swap or give away plants when they have extras. And
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: then a final money tip on this is that nowadays
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: there are quite a few cities and counties that have
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: incentives for you to replace part of your lawn with
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: native plants. So that can mean reimbursing you for part
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: of the cost, and it's worth looking into that before
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: you even start to see if there's something like that
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: in your area.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: Take Away for mature plants can be expensive, so to
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: save money, you could grow plants from seed, or look
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: for nurseries that sell plugs, which are just very small plants.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: A hot tip is to look for a wholesaler who
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: sells to landscape contractors but is willing to let you
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: buy plugs by the flat at wholesale prices. Also look
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: for native plant Facebook groups in your area because a
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: lot of folks give away plants for free or they're
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: willing to swap and you might be able to get
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: money from your city or your county for planting a
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: native garden. Well, how long is it going to take
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: for the garden to actually look good?
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: A common rule of thumb that gardeners like to use
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: for any kind of flower gardening really is this idea
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: of sleep creep leap. So three years, like that first
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: year you're not really seeing much happen. The plants are sleeping,
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: the second year they grow a little bit, it's like
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: they're creeping, and then the third year they're going to
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: like really thrive and fill out and look great.
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: So that's the leap year, Celia, three years, like I'm
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: looking for instant gratification.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: Well, if you have a very deep bank account, a
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: lot of magical things can happen, right, Yeah, but if
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: you want to do it on the cheap, then I
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: think patience goes a long way.
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: Okay, three years it is, yes, and then what do
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: you have to do from there? Like, what does maintenance
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: look like?
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it gets off repeated that if you have a
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: native plant garden, there's no maintenance. Here's statia again from
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: Deep Roots.
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: Casey, Yeah, that's not a thing, but it does require
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: less maintenance over time. Honestly, even the first year, especially
• 17:38
  Speaker 7: with the inconsistent rain cycles we've been having lately thanks
• 17:42
  Speaker 7: to climate change. Watering it the first couple of years
• 17:45
  Speaker 7: is always a good idea, especially when we were in
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: the middle of a drought or really dry time of
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: year and it's one hundred and ten degrees or whatever.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: So, yes, there is some maintenance. You're gonna want to
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: stay on top of watering and weeding that bed, especially
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: while those plants are maturing. But it does get easier.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: The weeding gets easier over time when your plants get
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: nice and big and fill out your flower bed, and
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: then you're not going to end up having to water
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: these plants much if you've like picked the right plants
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: for your region and your site.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: All right, So what if you don't have your own house.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: You're either renting the house or you live in an
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: apartment and you don't have a yard where you can
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: do this, but you still are interested in, you know,
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: being more wildlife friendly, making more space for tiny creatures.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so, I mean there are definitely things that you
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: can still do. One cool option would be to look
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: for like local volunteer opportunities to do things like plant
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: or maintain wildlife gardens in the local road medians or
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: pocket parks or city parks. Sometimes there's going to be
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: like a local agency or a neighborhood group that needs
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: lots of hands on deck to you know, maybe weed
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: these spaces, especially while they're getting established, or to help
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: remove invasive plants that are kind of getting in there
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: and smothering the wildlife habitat. And you know, that's a
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: fun way to also meet other people who are interested
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: in what you're interested in. And then if you have
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: any outdoor space, like maybe you have a patio or
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: a balcony, you can grow native flowers in pots as
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: well and attract bees and butterflies. Maybe it's your patio
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: that way, and give them some nectar. So just because
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: you're maybe not able to like plant a larger space
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: right now, doesn't mean there aren't fun ways to get
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: involved in doing a little something where you live for wildlife.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Celia, thank you so much for this.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: Thank you, it's been fun.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, time for a recap. Take Away one. A native
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: plant garden does not have to look overgrown. It can
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: look pretty and intentional. Take Away two. Time to kill
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: some grass. Remember you don't have to do this all
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: at once, and it's not all or nothing. You could
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: layer cardboard and mulch to starve the grass of sunlight.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: You could also do that with a black plastic tarp. Alternatively,
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: you could use a sadcutter or dig the grass out
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: with a shovel. That is much faster, but it takes
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: more muscle. Take Away three. Design your garden. What would
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: you like to see out there? Think about the spot
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: where you're planting and what kind of sunlight it gets,
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: what soil it has, and what native plants would thrive there.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Also consider any neighborhood rules. Take Away four. Some ways
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: to save money grow plants from seed or look for
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: nurseries that sell plugs, which are just very small plants.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: Also look for landscaping wholesalers and follow the native plant
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Facebook groups in your area because a lot of folks
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: give away plants for free or they're willing to swap.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: All right, that's our show. Just a reminder that you
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: can sign up for life Kit Plus to support our
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: work at NPR and to get curated playlists on popular
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: Lifekit topics. Start listening today at plus dot NPR dot
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: org slash life Kit. This episode of Life Kit was
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: produced by Sylvie Douglas. It was edited by Shaila Farzan
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: and Nila Bannercie. Our digital editor is Malica Garib and
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: our visuals editor is c J. Rikolon. Megan Kane is
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: Our production team also includes Margaret Serino and Claire Marie Schneider.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Fact checking by Andrea Lopez Grussalo. Engineering support from Nisha Heiness.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: I'm Mariel Sagara. Thanks for listening and happy planting.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: From Spider Man to a new Steven Spielberg movie, we
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: know the TV and movies you'll want to watch this Summer.
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