by Savannah Furman
Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter member
Editor’s note: Our April gatherings were scheduled to visit the Pang landscape, so we’re having a short virtual visit. We hope to be able to visit this landscape at a gathering in the future.
Susan and Kei Pang have always seen themselves as part of nature, and, as such, their goals have been to nurture nature and not to put a template on it. That led to their enthusiasm for native plants.
A starting point began a decade earlier when Susan became a master gardener and worked at the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center. She learned the merits of a biological biodiverse landscape and got her first native plant there.
Seeing the pollinators visiting, even with one plant, she began to eliminate turf grass, bit by bit, by adding to garden beds and creating plant islands.
Having a mature home, with an existing yard, Susan began where many of us begin, by ridding outdoor spaces of invasive plants such as bush honeysuckle, English ivy, wintercreeper, and Japanese honeysuckle vine.
Fast forward ten years, and with a newer construction project, all the trials and errors from the past would help develop this clean-slate opportunity. It started with a few native trees and shrubs that they had planted around the perimeter in anticipation of the future.
It was a no-brainer to go with rain gardens rather than a lawn. Rain gardens work with nature, trapping and slowing rainwater flow and allowing it to percolate through the soil. The Pangs created the gardens that capture rain from all sides of the building and their basement is dry as a bone.
The rain gardens and pond have become home to dragonflies, frogs, damsel flies and other insects that effectively eliminate the need for pest control. This is nature giving back, and an outstanding example of Susan’s efforts toward helping nature.
