post by Donna Short, Chapter member and volunteer
photos by Laura Schaefer, host and SWIL chapter board member
Garden of Laura Schaefer
Sunday Jun 14, 2024 – 61 attendees from the STL chapter
We visited Laura’s half acre native plant garden in Millstadt, IL. In 2019, Laura purchased an entire block in Millstadt which included a house and 3 ½ vacant lots. Last year, Laura left her position in the biology department at Southwestern Illinois College to establish Little Sky Wildflowers .
She uses this garden for education and workshops, tours, plant swaps, plant sales and demonstrations. Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum) shown in the foreground, Phlox and Sweet Coneflower (Rudbeckia subtomentosa) in the background.
Mowed pathways guide you through the garden. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) shown left.
Laura’s interest in native plants started at an early age. She grew up in the country and was gifted the Golden Books Guide to Wildflowers. She made it her mission to locate every plant in the book! At one point, Laura worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden – there she heard about Wild Ones and became a member of Wild Ones St. Louis. She is now on the Board of the newly formed Southwest Illinois Wild Ones chapter and they joined us for this garden tour.
Laura considers herself a Garden Ecologist – she looks at plants as a resource. What does it contribute to nature? Most of the garden originated from seed and she expands the garden’s genetic diversity by collecting seeds from locally grown plants. In 2020, when Laura began sowing seeds for the garden, she was disappointed when wild violets and jewelweed took over but since she has learned to embrace them for their merits as a ground cover. In developing the garden, Laura began with a border garden and worked toward the interior. She has host plants for specialty bees and at this point the garden is at the peak of floral diversity. It includes an endemic species: Kankakee mallow, which has already bloomed.
She has two small ponds, though there is no water source on the property. One pond is full of aquatic plants and is fed from the roof runoff of the neighboring house which is piped underground to the pond. The second pond is fed by rainfall.
Along the way, Laura encountered a neighbor who complained to the village that the garden was attracting insects (funny since that’s the goal). The village supported Laura and shortly Illinois will have two laws protecting native plant gardens.
The vegetable garden shown on the left side of the path below.
American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) and Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) growing together on the trellis
Laura has certifications from the National Wildlife Federation, Xerces Society and Monarch Watch.
You can download detailed information provided by Laura: information about the garden, list of plants in the garden and a drawing of the garden layout.
