Saturday, October 6, 2018
In 2011, The College School purchased 28 acres of property in the LaBarque Creek Watershed area near Pacific, Mo, creating a rich place for experiential, hands-on learning beyond the classroom. Besa Schweitzer, a member of our chapter, is professionally contracted by The College School to maintain the native plantings and has a year-old native landscaping business, Besa Grows Wild. 29 members and 6 guests attended this special event.
After welcoming all, our president, Marsha Gebhardt, introduced Besa Schweitzer to the attendees. Although many of us know Besa from Shaw Nature Reserve and Wild Ones, we didn’t know she was involved in so many other community organizations! Besa presented a talk on her design, installation and maintenance of six native plant gardens around the new Jan Phillips Learning Center. She also talked about the building and the surrounding property. After one year of use, the learning center will be certified through the Living Building Challenge, a green building rating system, even above the better-known LEED certification. Why one year? The certification requires actual, rather than projected, performance as demonstrated over a year of use. Only 11 structures worldwide have been certified through the Challenge.
Besa had to follow strict guidelines for planting. Her water comes from a cistern, and her materials were all locally sourced. In addition, she may only use plants that have been identified as “growing wild” on the property. The Missouri Native Plant Society was instrumental in surveying the land and coming up with the plant list. She particularly mentioned wanting to use prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) on the site but it has not been found growing on the property, so she isn’t allowed to use it, according to the Challenge rules.
In 2017, our Wild Ones – St. Louis Chapter gave the LaBarque campus a grant of $500 for plants. They also received 100 trees from Forest ReLeaf, seeds from Shaw Nature Reserve and help from Missourians for Monarchs. Besa began planting in 2016 while the building construction was still in progress. Despite the terrible clay soil that was left behind, she succeeded by sticking to her planting plan and by using help from volunteers and students. The variety of native plants in the rain gardens and surrounding area are a tribute to her dedication and hard work.
If you are interested in volunteering with Besa, let her know. She generally works on Thursdays from 10 a.m. til 2 p.m. Her email is besa.schweitzer@gmail.com
After her talk, we toured the gardens with her or hiked the property with her dad and chapter member Rick Schweitzer, before we enjoyed lunch. 29 members and 6 guests attended. We had a wonderful lunch and left nothing behind, because this was a zero trash event. We used washable plates and silverware, kept consumable plastic and paper to a minimum, and took our trash out with us.
2018 is our chapter’s 20th anniversary. To celebrate, we will provide door prizes at each of our 2018 gatherings. Soil knife won by Linda Tatum The book Native Landscaping for Wildlife and People, written by Dave Tylka, was won by Besa Schweitzer. Janice Schweitzer and Michael Copple each won a beautiful blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) plant.
Recorded by: Ginny Johnson, Secretary
Photos by: Dawn Weber
Great photo Penny!