Wednesday, September 12 and Saturday, September 15, 2018
Wild Ones member Kevin Mowery hosted two yard tours in September at his home in Ballwin. Wednesday evening 34 members, 1 child and 6 guests attended. On Saturday morning, attendance was 18 members and 2 guests. Kevin’s landscape was one of the ten featured on the 2017 St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour and we were excited to visit to see what he’s done since that time.
Marsha Gebhardt, our Chapter president, welcomed everyone to the gathering and then introduced Kevin to speak about what he has been doing on his property for the last four years. He owns a double lot, about one acre, and it all began with clearing bush honeysuckle. No surprise there with any of us who have committed to a complete yard renovation!
Kevin then established a native prairie garden with one honeybee hive and four native bee stations. His property has a huge variety of native plants, and he has also planted 140 seedlings for erosion control since there is a large hill along the back. The seedlings came from the Missouri Department of Conservation and included aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica), ninebark, (Physocarpus opulfolius) and false indigo bush (Amorpha fructosa)-pollinators love it!
We walked around the property for over 30 minutes and were in awe of all the varieties of plants. Kevin, as many west county residents know, has deer in the area, and he hangs soap and uses lots of wire cages as deterrents. One of the best treats was sampling the nuts from his Hazelnut tree (Corylus americana) – yum!
2018 is our chapter’s 20th anniversary. To celebrate, we will provide door prizes at each of our 2018 gatherings. The drawing for an A. M. Leonard soil knife was won by Betty Struckhoff. Sherri DeRousse and Sherry Ann Cordover each won a box of cherry tomatoes from Kevin’s garden.
Our members and guests are generous and bring native plants to share. It is always fun to see what species are available!
Kevin requested more native plants from our members if there are extras – he will even come dig them up!
Recorded by: Ginny Johnson, Secretary
Photos by: Dawn Weber
