Home of Mary Brong and Ed Spevak
Wednesday, August 13th at 6:30 PM
Saturday, August 16 at 9:30 AM
Photos and highlights by Donna Short
For Mary and Ed, native plants are a central part of their life. Mary has a degree in landscape architecture and Ed is a pollinator conservationist who gives presentations on bees, butterflies and biodiversity to various organizations – including Wild Ones. Mary says her exposure to Doug Tallamy’s books sealed it for her, convincing her of the importance of native plants. They began their native garden journey in 2017 and have managed to squeeze garden time into their work schedules. They have been Wild Ones members for three years.
The group gathers for the latest news and Mary and Ed provide background stories about their garden’s development.
Their battle against invasives is ongoing and includes honeysuckle vine, euonymus, clematis, English ivy and day lilies that keep coming back and creeping over from the neighbor’s yard.
Mary says they have found the Puller Bear, which comes in various sizes, to be invaluable for removing unwanted trees and vines. Eliminating water issues which result in basement flooding, is a work in progress.
They have over 100 species of native plants – primarily in the front and side yard with Wild Ones, Bring Conservation Home, Xerces, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha signage advertising their native plant connection. As a result, they often receive compliments and thanks from neighbors and have inspired some to pursue their own native plant garden! In fact, a walk down their street reveals quite a few homes with native plant gardens. They carefully track species and have recorded over forty species of bees and forty-six species of birds in their city location. Butterflies and bees were active during our evening visit!
Pollinator Garden displaying dense blazing star, prairie blazing star, mountain mint and sweet black-eyed Susan and more.
Monarch on display!
The Moist Savannah area contains a Wild Plum tree fruiting, Wild Senna and Serviceberry.
Coral Honeysuckle climbing the front porch!
The Sunny Prairie Garden features Missouri Primrose, Purple Love Grass, Texas Green Eyes and Tumbleweed in bloom.
The Short Hot Dry Glade Garden has Whorled Milkweed, Nodding Blazing Star, Sweet Black-eyed Susan, Eastern Blazing Star, Fall Glade Onion and Hairy Wild Petunia in bloom.
Bee hotels located on the porch and in gardens provide nesting sites for mason, leafcutter, resin and carder bees.
Arrow indicates recommended bee hotel design. You can find more detail information regarding bee habitat and butterflies at Xerces.org
Mary and Ed have a goal to convert ten square feet every year to native plants. For their next project, they plan to begin working on the backyard. They emphasize the importance of “intentionality” in their garden design and try to pass this philosophy on to others, urging them to avoid the unkempt look which has caused some of their neighbors to be cited by the city.
They have the Bring Conservation Home Gold Certification and their home was included on the 2024 Native Plant Tour.
Thank you, Mary and Ed for sharing your garden with us!
Hi there, your story is so inspiring especially as I think about moving back to St. Louis from the Northeast.
Thaks for the report