Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 6 PM in Wood Library, Canandaigua, NY
Third floor Ewing Room
Noreen Riordan of Birdsong Landscape Design is an ecological landscape designer, professional gardener and ISA Certified Arborist looking for opportunities to reach out to the gardening community to spread the word about home gardening for and with nature. Her presentation titled Home Sweet Sanctuary makes the case for keeping some of the plants you may already have as well as how and why to carefully select natives to improve the ecology of the property. This event is free and open all.
The weather outside was frightful yet Noreen ventured down from Henrietta to share her presentation with nine others. She was a wealth of information and encouraging to start with what you have towards getting rid of lawn and inviting pollinators and habitats over time.
Noreen spoke of the Haudenosaunee, pollinators, and restorations to relationships. She encouraged pathways, plant density, formal boarders and sign usage for enhancing native gardens. Although favorite cultivars may remain she urged us to get rid of Callery pear, burning bush and mono-cultured lawns
Some favorite natives included: little bluestem, mertensia, service berry, viburnum nudum, highbush blueberry, white oak, choke cherry, American plum, eastern cottonwood, box elder – butter hickory, black tupelo, American hop hornbeam, fothergilla button bush, sweet shrub, winterberry holly (male and female), spicebush, new England aster, goldenrod, bottle gentian, violets, giant blue hyssop, baptisia, purple liatris, green mulch (wild strawberry and gro low sumac), cup plan, amsonia (deer repellant – blue flowers in spring, yellow in fall), native switch grasses, culver’s root, American hazelnut, dwarf chinkapin oak, native clematis, mountain mint, and more!
Here are some resources Noreen shared with us:
BRAIDING SWEETGRASS Robin Wall Kimmerer