September 9, 2025 • 17 mins
We continue our 3x3 series with the final installment focusing on planting helpful plants to feed pollinators, save water, eliminate chemicals, and store carbon. This free course from Minnesota Gardening provides nine keystone actions for creating a healthier lawn and landscape.
• Introducing the concept of "helpful plants" as an inclusive alternative to the native/non-native divide
• Explanation of keystone plants that provide the most ecosystem services for local wildlife
• The importance of reducing lawn areas by converting 20-30 square feet annually to helpful plant spaces
• Why starting with smaller plants is more cost-effective and often produces better long-term results
• Bonus action about reducing salt use to protect waterways (one tablespoon permanently impairs five gallons of water)
• Tour of the Minnesota Gardening platform and membership benefits
• Community support for transitioning to environmentally responsible landscaping practices
Head over to MinnesotaGardening.com and click on 3x3 to download the workbook, see photos, and access the complete course materials. This course is free for now but won't be forever, so check it out today.
Want to switch to more environmentally-responsible landscape and lawn care practices but don't know where to start?
Join our movement bringing together Midwest homeowners so that we can to make the world a better place for our kids and grandkids by building up strong local ecosystems for songbirds, pollinators, and our families to thrive.
Learn more at MinnesotaGardening.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
happy tuesday, my friend.
It is great to uh be here withyou.
My name is brad tabke, host ofthe minnesota gardening podcast,
and today we have part three ofthree in our three audio
episodes of uh.
Three by three, which is a freecourse we have at minnesota
gardening for now on how you cantake in our three audio
episodes of 3x3, which is a freecourse we have at Minnesota
(00:29):
Gardening for now, on how youcan take nine keystone actions
to take today for a healthierlawn and landscape.
So I hope you have enjoyedparts one and two, and part
three is the conclusion here andyou can head over to Minnesota
Gardening and get the video,download the workbook and see
photos and lots more there atMinnesota Gardening.
So you go there and click on3x3.
And again, this course is freefor now, but it won't be free
(00:52):
forever, so make sure to go overand check it out today.
So with this episode here wehave the audio of Plant Helpful
Plants, which we talk about whatyou need to be doing for
planting plants that will feedpollinators, save water,
eliminate chemicals and sitstore carbon, plus some bonus
action items, and so we havethose here for you today.
(01:15):
So I hope you enjoy and headover to MinnesotaGardeningcom
and check out 3x3.
All right, I hope you areenjoying this quick free course
for everybody here at MinnesotaGardening, so I just appreciate
you being here.
We're going to go into seven,eight and nine here in plant
helpful plants, which is kind ofthe crux and the majority of
what we do here at MinnesotaGardening, and wanted to quick
(01:38):
give you a tour real quick ofwhat Minnesota Gardening looks
like, just so you can see.
It is our flagship website,minnesotagardeningcom, and so
here is the second, the mainpage, where you land, and so you
can look at it as like acontained social media site, but
without all of the crazy folksand without all of the terrible
(02:02):
information.
Everything's curated,everything is made sure that
we're accurate here and gettingyou nothing but the best
information about yourtransition to more
environmentally responsible lawnand landscape practices, and so
that's here.
We've got an awesome communityof folks, and so people are
posting all the time.
We have monthly masterclasses,and so this is just the main
updates section through here,and so this is just the main
(02:22):
updates section.
Through here.
There's a discovery sectionwhere you can see the upcoming
classes that we have.
Checklist says, once you becomea new member, what this means
and all the members near you.
This is the core of things allthe cool members and wonderful
people that we have I think,because I'm recording it's
loading slowly here but just alot of awesome, awesome people
who are doing great things.
We have monthly classes foreverybody to have.
(02:45):
This is the main menu over here.
On the left, we've got awelcome to Minnesota gardening,
which you've already done, threeby three course, which we're in
now.
Then we've got two differentcommunities.
One is a free community wherepeople can get information, and
so these are our master classes.
All of our podcasts live hereand just general information,
and our weekly emails that goout, which are just built to
help everyone learn more aboutfeeding pollinators, eliminating
(03:09):
chemicals, saving water,storing carbon.
But the crux of everything ishere in our members area, and so
membership is $37 a month.
Stick around to the end andwe'll give you a pretty good
deal on this.
And so these are our members.
They get personal time with me,one-on-ones monthly, a lot of
different information and photosand a lot of how-to guides and
(03:30):
step-by-steps and personal Q&As,and so it's pretty cool and I
highly encourage you to join.
But that's not the point ofbeing here, I just want people
to learn.
We've also got a gardencoaching session, which anybody
can purchase.
A seasonal calendar and thenavailable to everyone is my
favorite things.
So these are resources that wefind really helpful here at
Minnesota Gardening.
(03:50):
And then, as a member, you alsoget access to the helpful plant
database that we're buildingout now, which will have
hundreds of different plants onhere as we're aggregating it
into an easier way to findinformation about the plants
that you know and love.
So we will go now to planthelpful plants.
So planting helpful plants isreally important.
(04:10):
So if you look closely here,you can see that the upper
Midwest has a couple ofdifferent eco regions, and so we
wanna make sure that we areplanting helpful plants that are
in those regions, and so I'mgonna step on my soapbox here a
little bit and with that, letyou know that we really avoid
using the word native, becauseit has a lot of political and
(04:31):
terrible connotations and alsoit's not super helpful in the
landscape context of things.
Because we talk about helpfulplants, because there are many
non-native plants who areextremely helpful in our local
ecosystem.
You think about all the annualflowers that we plant.
Those are mostly often helpfulplants that have pollen for our
pollinator friends and a lot ofgood things.
That way, there are a lot ofthings that we consider weeds
(04:53):
that are actually helpful forour local ecosystems, that don't
necessarily need to be labeledas weeds and disintegrated and
those kinds of things, and so wewant to make sure that we're
talking about things in theright and most inclusive way
that we possibly can, and so wetalk about helpful plants.
Most of those helpful plantsare native plants that have
co-evolved here in our localareas, and so we'll get into
(05:14):
that in just a second.
Those plants that are really themost helpful are what we call
keystone plants, and so thereare a handful of plants for each
of these eco regions which arereally, really helpful in shrubs
and trees and perennials andgrasses that really are
extremely helpful and beneficialto our local ecosystem.
(05:34):
So, as I've talked about many,many times, it takes between
five and 7,000 caterpillars togrow a clutch of black cap
chickadees.
So black cap chickadees to growto adulthood.
Five to 7,000 caterpillarsthat's a lot of black-capped
chickadees.
So black-capped chickadees togrow to adulthood.
5,000 to 7,000 caterpillarsthat's a lot of plants, that's a
lot of caterpillars and we needto make sure that we're
supporting those kinds of thingsas much as possible, and so
that's exponential across thesystem, and we want to make sure
(05:57):
that we're supporting all ofthose pollinators in order to
have caterpillars for songbirds,because songbirds are really
important to our local ecosystemand those populations are
collapsing, and so we want tomake sure that we have all of
those things available for ourchildren to see and experience,
because when we lose those keycogs in our local ecosystems,
things start to break up and wewant to make sure that we're
(06:18):
supporting those as much as wecan in our home lawns and
landscapes, and so we want to beplanting helpful plants and in
our home lawns and landscapes,and so we want to be planting
helpful plants.
Keystone plants provide the mostecosystem services, provide the
most services for pollinatorsand insects and songbirds that
we possibly can, and those haveco-evolved in our region for the
pollinators to be able to workwith the plants, and so a lot of
(06:43):
those are singular, a lot ofthem like if you think about
monarchs they eat milkweed.
That's all monarchscaterpillars eat, and so we need
to make sure we have milkweedto support the monarchs.
You have a lot of native beeswho only work with one type of
plant, and so we need to makesure that we have those
available for all of thoseplants, and so keystone plants
provide the most ecosystemservices.
If you download the workbook,you'll find a list of keystone
(07:05):
plants for the upper Midwest.
Those are really great placesto start on getting plants
planted in your landscape.
Number eight is very similardifferent vein plant, more
helpful plants, and so with thiswe want to make sure that we
are giving the most space andthe most time and the most
availability for helpful plantsto thrive and support our local
(07:28):
ecosystems.
As we talked before, lawns doabsolutely nothing for our local
ecosystem.
They don't provide anything buta place to play for our
families and kids, and even thatcan be problematic on different
things, and so we want to makesure that we're using that lawn
space for the best possibleneeds.
We want to take any placeswhere you have lawn that's
(07:49):
unnecessary.
If it's difficult to mow, ifit's a corner where you never go
to, if it's a spot that staysmuddy, if it's a slope, whatever
those are, start there and justtake 20 to 30 square feet each
year and eliminate that turf andgo ahead and plant helpful
plants in those areas.
It could be anything that fallsinto a helpful plant category.
So we've got a list of furtherhelpful plants in the workbook
(08:11):
if you want to download that andgrab those.
Fall is the best time to beplanting these things, right in
end of August, labor Day,weekend type area, and then
spring is the second time.
Number nine is bigger is notalways better and, uh, this is a
really important one, becausepeople think that landscape and
(08:33):
planting these helpful plants isgoing to be really expensive,
that you need thousands andthousands of dollars to do that,
and that just couldn't befurther from the truth.
And so in uh, spring again,second best time to plant plants
.
But, but in the spring you canalways go to your county, your
local soil water conservationdistrict, and they will have
plant sales where there are bareroot trees that cost 50 bucks
(08:54):
you can take and grow acorns.
You can grow oak trees out ofacorns and it's a bit
counterintuitive on things, butwhen you start things small,
within five to seven yearsthey're generally about the
exact same size as if you startwith a big plant.
So if you get a big tree that's10, 15 feet tall, that has lost
a significant amount of itsroot system, and so it is not
(09:16):
able to get super stressed inthat transplanting process, and
even though it starts big and issubstantial, it doesn't grow.
It starts really, really slowlyuntil it can get that root
system reestablished.
And so a small plant, however,is much more resilient and it
doesn't have the same stress ofthe planting that a large tree
will have, and so it will growsignificantly faster and be
(09:36):
caught up to that plant within afew years.
And so starting small is reallyhelpful.
Plugs for perennials and grasses.
It'll take an extra year forthose to grow into the size that
if you were to get a one-gallonplant, but those are only, you
know, an eighth of the cost ofwhat a one-gallon plant would be
.
So start small.
That's the way you can affordto do more, you can plant them
closer together and it's areally good thing.
(09:57):
So next up we have bonus action.
So this is I was teasing a 10ththing, and so come back to the
next lesson and we will getthere all right.
Thank you so much for beinghere for three by three, our
free course for Minnesotagardening on how you can do nine
action items today in order tobe more environmentally
(10:19):
responsible in your home lawnand landscape, and so we've got
another bonus for you here today.
Let me pull it up.
And so we've got bonus actionshere for you.
So number 10 is salt use.
People don't recognize just howharmful and detrimental salt
use is to our native naturalareas.
(10:42):
So our natural waterways herein the upper Midwest are
extremely damaged by salt use,whether that be roadway salt use
, whether that be in yourdriveway and your sidewalk, and
so we need to make sure that weare minimizing this salt use as
much as possible.
So do not use salt for meltingsnow.
You need to shovel that snow,blow that snow off.
(11:02):
Whatever you're doing, howeveryou do that, make sure to do
that first, and then only usesalt for slip and fall
prevention.
It's important I'm not sayingit's not important whatsoever
but do not use more salt thanyou need.
So use a lot less than youthink, and if it is still
slippery, you can add some morefor sure, but make sure that you
are reducing that salt use asmuch as possible, because what
(11:24):
happens is a tablespoon of salt,just one tablespoon of salt,
will permanently impair fivegallons of water.
So let me say it again so atablespoon of salt will
permanently impair five gallonsof water and that means that our
freshwater fish cannot live inthat.
That means that it is killingoff a lot of plants, a lot of
things that we have in ourwaterways and systems.
(11:46):
Many of you will have stormdrains and things off of your
home that go straight into ariver, straight into a creek,
and that's extremely problematicand really important that you
do not use salt as much aspossible in those areas so you
can switch to sand Gives greattraction on things, but make
sure you're reducing that salt.
Use as much as you can and onlyuse as much as you need in
(12:10):
order to be safe and avoid slipand falls during the winters.
That was number 10, a littlebonus action item for you here.
Next thing, I just want toencourage you please become a
Minnesota Gardening member.
If you liked this type ofcontent, if you liked knowing
more about how you can switch tomore environmentally
responsible lawn and landscapepractices at your house, become
(12:30):
a member.
So we have just an awesomecommunity of folks, as I showed
you a little bit ago, who aresharing, who are giving their
experiences, who are encouragingand helping folks become more
environmentally responsible,because all of our futures, all
of our kids' futures, all of ourgrandkids' futures, belong and
require us to do better, andthis is a way where we can all
(12:52):
do better together.
So, in switching to moreenvironmentally friendly lawn
and landscape practices, giveyou tons of step-by-step
instructions.
Whatever you need to meet yourgoals.
You don't need to be 100%,completely chemical free, but
over the course of the year, Iwill teach you how to eliminate
the vast majority of chemicalsin your lawn and landscape
practices.
You will reduce the amount ofwater use and you will also
(13:15):
reduce how much work it is totake care of your lawn and
landscape.
So, if you want to spend moretime with your family, if you
want to increase, improve thehealth of your family, so if you
want to spend more time withyour family, if you want to
increase, improve the health ofyour family, reduce carcinogens,
we are here for you to help youdo that.
So, becoming a MinnesotaGardening member, we will help
you throughout the course of theyear with all of those things
as well.
We have a helpful plantdatabase.
So if you have plants that youwant to learn more about, if you
(13:43):
want to find the top fiveplants that have yellow color.
We will have those for you.
Those are all, uh part of wherewe're coming gardening task
list, so that just what you needto be doing and when you do
things to make sure that you areoptimizing your time and use
monthly one-on-one zooms whereyou and I talk one-on-one uh
one-on-one and help out withthose things.
You can check us out atminnesota gardening for two
weeks for absolutely free.
(14:04):
So if you just click on thelink below, we will be here for
you.
So it's two weeks free and thenafter that it's just $37 a
month.
You can cancel at any time.
Obviously, hope you don'tcancel because you love us and
you love the community and lovebeing part of something bigger,
where we are working to make theworld a better place, starting
with our home lawn and landscape, and so I encourage you highly
(14:25):
to grab two weeks free ofMinnesota gardening and become a
member here, and so just clickthe link below and you can get
started for just two weeks free.
No commitments, no, nothing.
You can cancel at any time.
There's zero risk for you and Ihope to meet you in person as
soon as so let's do thistogether.
We are the solutions, we arethe answers and we can help do
(14:49):
this.
Our world is on fire.
Cancer rates are skyrocketing,insect and songbird populations
are plummeting and we can do alot to help out in all of those
things.
So again, I encourage you,become part of the solution with
us here at Minnesota Garden andbecome a member and get two
weeks for free and check us out.
It's no risk whatsoever.
(15:09):
So I hope again to meet yousoon with your first one on one
monthly zoom.
Thanks a lot, have a great day.
All right, with all of that, Ihope you have learned something.
And if you just take one or twoof these actions that we put
forward here in three by three,one or two of these actions that
we put forward here in three bythree, I know that you will be
making huge change in how we arehandling our landscapes and do
(15:30):
some really, really good work,and that will spread to your
neighbors and that will spreadto your community and that will
spread to your state and we willwork together to switch to more
environmentally responsiblelawn and landscape practices.
And, as I said in that lastvideo, as we are switching more,
it's a really huge help to havea community and have people
(15:51):
around you, working together toin that journey and making sure
that we're doing the rightthings and making sure that we
are learning and growingtogether, and with that, I hope,
you become a member ofMinnesota Gardening.
It is a really, really greatcommunity where we have
step-by-step instructions,guides all the things that you
need for becoming a moreenvironmentally responsible
(16:15):
homeowner and doing the bestthings for your family, for your
pets, for your neighbors,because right now we have
epidemics going on around us.
We have collapses of insectpopulation, collapse of songbird
population, skyrocketing cancerrates, and it's personal and
really important to me that wedo everything we can to keep
(16:37):
those things from getting worse,and so I'm doing my part,
trying to get everyone, in thebest way possible, to become
more environmentally responsiblein their own home, lawn and
landscape.
It's really easy to do just aguide for that, and that's what
we do here at Minnesota Garden.
So head over to MinnesotaGardening.
There you can get two weeksfree for now and you can check
(16:58):
us out again two weeks free atminnesotagardeningcom.
And from there you click onmembers area.
So the members area is whereyou join and get access to a lot
of additional content and a lotof additional things, where we
take you step by step throughhow to make this world a better
place.
So I hope you join us and joinall that community over at
Minnesota Gardening and help usdo the good work.
(17:20):
So I will see you next weekwith another episode of
Minnesota Gardening.
happy tuesday, my friend.
It is great to uh be here withyou.
My name is brad tabke, host ofthe minnesota gardening podcast,
and today we have part three ofthree in our three audio
episodes of uh.
Three by three, which is a freecourse we have at minnesota
gardening for now on how you cantake in our three audio
episodes of 3x3, which is a freecourse we have at Minnesota
(00:29):
Gardening for now, on how youcan take nine keystone actions
to take today for a healthierlawn and landscape.
So I hope you have enjoyedparts one and two, and part
three is the conclusion here andyou can head over to Minnesota
Gardening and get the video,download the workbook and see
photos and lots more there atMinnesota Gardening.
So you go there and click on3x3.
And again, this course is freefor now, but it won't be free
(00:52):
forever, so make sure to go overand check it out today.
So with this episode here wehave the audio of Plant Helpful
Plants, which we talk about whatyou need to be doing for
planting plants that will feedpollinators, save water,
eliminate chemicals and sitstore carbon, plus some bonus
action items, and so we havethose here for you today.
(01:15):
So I hope you enjoy and headover to MinnesotaGardeningcom
and check out 3x3.
All right, I hope you areenjoying this quick free course
for everybody here at MinnesotaGardening, so I just appreciate
you being here.
We're going to go into seven,eight and nine here in plant
helpful plants, which is kind ofthe crux and the majority of
what we do here at MinnesotaGardening, and wanted to quick
(01:38):
give you a tour real quick ofwhat Minnesota Gardening looks
like, just so you can see.
It is our flagship website,minnesotagardeningcom, and so
here is the second, the mainpage, where you land, and so you
can look at it as like acontained social media site, but
without all of the crazy folksand without all of the terrible
(02:02):
information.
Everything's curated,everything is made sure that
we're accurate here and gettingyou nothing but the best
information about yourtransition to more
environmentally responsible lawnand landscape practices, and so
that's here.
We've got an awesome communityof folks, and so people are
posting all the time.
We have monthly masterclasses,and so this is just the main
updates section through here,and so this is just the main
(02:22):
updates section.
Through here.
There's a discovery sectionwhere you can see the upcoming
classes that we have.
Checklist says, once you becomea new member, what this means
and all the members near you.
This is the core of things allthe cool members and wonderful
people that we have I think,because I'm recording it's
loading slowly here but just alot of awesome, awesome people
who are doing great things.
We have monthly classes foreverybody to have.
(02:45):
This is the main menu over here.
On the left, we've got awelcome to Minnesota gardening,
which you've already done, threeby three course, which we're in
now.
Then we've got two differentcommunities.
One is a free community wherepeople can get information, and
so these are our master classes.
All of our podcasts live hereand just general information,
and our weekly emails that goout, which are just built to
help everyone learn more aboutfeeding pollinators, eliminating
(03:09):
chemicals, saving water,storing carbon.
But the crux of everything ishere in our members area, and so
membership is $37 a month.
Stick around to the end andwe'll give you a pretty good
deal on this.
And so these are our members.
They get personal time with me,one-on-ones monthly, a lot of
different information and photosand a lot of how-to guides and
(03:30):
step-by-steps and personal Q&As,and so it's pretty cool and I
highly encourage you to join.
But that's not the point ofbeing here, I just want people
to learn.
We've also got a gardencoaching session, which anybody
can purchase.
A seasonal calendar and thenavailable to everyone is my
favorite things.
So these are resources that wefind really helpful here at
Minnesota Gardening.
(03:50):
And then, as a member, you alsoget access to the helpful plant
database that we're buildingout now, which will have
hundreds of different plants onhere as we're aggregating it
into an easier way to findinformation about the plants
that you know and love.
So we will go now to planthelpful plants.
So planting helpful plants isreally important.
(04:10):
So if you look closely here,you can see that the upper
Midwest has a couple ofdifferent eco regions, and so we
wanna make sure that we areplanting helpful plants that are
in those regions, and so I'mgonna step on my soapbox here a
little bit and with that, letyou know that we really avoid
using the word native, becauseit has a lot of political and
(04:31):
terrible connotations and alsoit's not super helpful in the
landscape context of things.
Because we talk about helpfulplants, because there are many
non-native plants who areextremely helpful in our local
ecosystem.
You think about all the annualflowers that we plant.
Those are mostly often helpfulplants that have pollen for our
pollinator friends and a lot ofgood things.
That way, there are a lot ofthings that we consider weeds
(04:53):
that are actually helpful forour local ecosystems, that don't
necessarily need to be labeledas weeds and disintegrated and
those kinds of things, and so wewant to make sure that we're
talking about things in theright and most inclusive way
that we possibly can, and so wetalk about helpful plants.
Most of those helpful plantsare native plants that have
co-evolved here in our localareas, and so we'll get into
(05:14):
that in just a second.
Those plants that are really themost helpful are what we call
keystone plants, and so thereare a handful of plants for each
of these eco regions which arereally, really helpful in shrubs
and trees and perennials andgrasses that really are
extremely helpful and beneficialto our local ecosystem.
(05:34):
So, as I've talked about many,many times, it takes between
five and 7,000 caterpillars togrow a clutch of black cap
chickadees.
So black cap chickadees to growto adulthood.
Five to 7,000 caterpillarsthat's a lot of black-capped
chickadees.
So black-capped chickadees togrow to adulthood.
5,000 to 7,000 caterpillarsthat's a lot of plants, that's a
lot of caterpillars and we needto make sure that we're
supporting those kinds of thingsas much as possible, and so
that's exponential across thesystem, and we want to make sure
(05:57):
that we're supporting all ofthose pollinators in order to
have caterpillars for songbirds,because songbirds are really
important to our local ecosystemand those populations are
collapsing, and so we want tomake sure that we have all of
those things available for ourchildren to see and experience,
because when we lose those keycogs in our local ecosystems,
things start to break up and wewant to make sure that we're
(06:18):
supporting those as much as wecan in our home lawns and
landscapes, and so we want to beplanting helpful plants and in
our home lawns and landscapes,and so we want to be planting
helpful plants.
Keystone plants provide the mostecosystem services, provide the
most services for pollinatorsand insects and songbirds that
we possibly can, and those haveco-evolved in our region for the
pollinators to be able to workwith the plants, and so a lot of
(06:43):
those are singular, a lot ofthem like if you think about
monarchs they eat milkweed.
That's all monarchscaterpillars eat, and so we need
to make sure we have milkweedto support the monarchs.
You have a lot of native beeswho only work with one type of
plant, and so we need to makesure that we have those
available for all of thoseplants, and so keystone plants
provide the most ecosystemservices.
If you download the workbook,you'll find a list of keystone
(07:05):
plants for the upper Midwest.
Those are really great placesto start on getting plants
planted in your landscape.
Number eight is very similardifferent vein plant, more
helpful plants, and so with thiswe want to make sure that we
are giving the most space andthe most time and the most
availability for helpful plantsto thrive and support our local
(07:28):
ecosystems.
As we talked before, lawns doabsolutely nothing for our local
ecosystem.
They don't provide anything buta place to play for our
families and kids, and even thatcan be problematic on different
things, and so we want to makesure that we're using that lawn
space for the best possibleneeds.
We want to take any placeswhere you have lawn that's
(07:49):
unnecessary.
If it's difficult to mow, ifit's a corner where you never go
to, if it's a spot that staysmuddy, if it's a slope, whatever
those are, start there and justtake 20 to 30 square feet each
year and eliminate that turf andgo ahead and plant helpful
plants in those areas.
It could be anything that fallsinto a helpful plant category.
So we've got a list of furtherhelpful plants in the workbook
(08:11):
if you want to download that andgrab those.
Fall is the best time to beplanting these things, right in
end of August, labor Day,weekend type area, and then
spring is the second time.
Number nine is bigger is notalways better and, uh, this is a
really important one, becausepeople think that landscape and
(08:33):
planting these helpful plants isgoing to be really expensive,
that you need thousands andthousands of dollars to do that,
and that just couldn't befurther from the truth.
And so in uh, spring again,second best time to plant plants
.
But, but in the spring you canalways go to your county, your
local soil water conservationdistrict, and they will have
plant sales where there are bareroot trees that cost 50 bucks
(08:54):
you can take and grow acorns.
You can grow oak trees out ofacorns and it's a bit
counterintuitive on things, butwhen you start things small,
within five to seven yearsthey're generally about the
exact same size as if you startwith a big plant.
So if you get a big tree that's10, 15 feet tall, that has lost
a significant amount of itsroot system, and so it is not
(09:16):
able to get super stressed inthat transplanting process, and
even though it starts big and issubstantial, it doesn't grow.
It starts really, really slowlyuntil it can get that root
system reestablished.
And so a small plant, however,is much more resilient and it
doesn't have the same stress ofthe planting that a large tree
will have, and so it will growsignificantly faster and be
(09:36):
caught up to that plant within afew years.
And so starting small is reallyhelpful.
Plugs for perennials and grasses.
It'll take an extra year forthose to grow into the size that
if you were to get a one-gallonplant, but those are only, you
know, an eighth of the cost ofwhat a one-gallon plant would be
.
So start small.
That's the way you can affordto do more, you can plant them
closer together and it's areally good thing.
(09:57):
So next up we have bonus action.
So this is I was teasing a 10ththing, and so come back to the
next lesson and we will getthere all right.
Thank you so much for beinghere for three by three, our
free course for Minnesotagardening on how you can do nine
action items today in order tobe more environmentally
(10:19):
responsible in your home lawnand landscape, and so we've got
another bonus for you here today.
Let me pull it up.
And so we've got bonus actionshere for you.
So number 10 is salt use.
People don't recognize just howharmful and detrimental salt
use is to our native naturalareas.
(10:42):
So our natural waterways herein the upper Midwest are
extremely damaged by salt use,whether that be roadway salt use
, whether that be in yourdriveway and your sidewalk, and
so we need to make sure that weare minimizing this salt use as
much as possible.
So do not use salt for meltingsnow.
You need to shovel that snow,blow that snow off.
(11:02):
Whatever you're doing, howeveryou do that, make sure to do
that first, and then only usesalt for slip and fall
prevention.
It's important I'm not sayingit's not important whatsoever
but do not use more salt thanyou need.
So use a lot less than youthink, and if it is still
slippery, you can add some morefor sure, but make sure that you
are reducing that salt use asmuch as possible, because what
(11:24):
happens is a tablespoon of salt,just one tablespoon of salt,
will permanently impair fivegallons of water.
So let me say it again so atablespoon of salt will
permanently impair five gallonsof water and that means that our
freshwater fish cannot live inthat.
That means that it is killingoff a lot of plants, a lot of
things that we have in ourwaterways and systems.
(11:46):
Many of you will have stormdrains and things off of your
home that go straight into ariver, straight into a creek,
and that's extremely problematicand really important that you
do not use salt as much aspossible in those areas so you
can switch to sand Gives greattraction on things, but make
sure you're reducing that salt.
Use as much as you can and onlyuse as much as you need in
(12:10):
order to be safe and avoid slipand falls during the winters.
That was number 10, a littlebonus action item for you here.
Next thing, I just want toencourage you please become a
Minnesota Gardening member.
If you liked this type ofcontent, if you liked knowing
more about how you can switch tomore environmentally
responsible lawn and landscapepractices at your house, become
(12:30):
a member.
So we have just an awesomecommunity of folks, as I showed
you a little bit ago, who aresharing, who are giving their
experiences, who are encouragingand helping folks become more
environmentally responsible,because all of our futures, all
of our kids' futures, all of ourgrandkids' futures, belong and
require us to do better, andthis is a way where we can all
(12:52):
do better together.
So, in switching to moreenvironmentally friendly lawn
and landscape practices, giveyou tons of step-by-step
instructions.
Whatever you need to meet yourgoals.
You don't need to be 100%,completely chemical free, but
over the course of the year, Iwill teach you how to eliminate
the vast majority of chemicalsin your lawn and landscape
practices.
You will reduce the amount ofwater use and you will also
(13:15):
reduce how much work it is totake care of your lawn and
landscape.
So, if you want to spend moretime with your family, if you
want to increase, improve thehealth of your family, so if you
want to spend more time withyour family, if you want to
increase, improve the health ofyour family, reduce carcinogens,
we are here for you to help youdo that.
So, becoming a MinnesotaGardening member, we will help
you throughout the course of theyear with all of those things
as well.
We have a helpful plantdatabase.
So if you have plants that youwant to learn more about, if you
(13:43):
want to find the top fiveplants that have yellow color.
We will have those for you.
Those are all, uh part of wherewe're coming gardening task
list, so that just what you needto be doing and when you do
things to make sure that you areoptimizing your time and use
monthly one-on-one zooms whereyou and I talk one-on-one uh
one-on-one and help out withthose things.
You can check us out atminnesota gardening for two
weeks for absolutely free.
(14:04):
So if you just click on thelink below, we will be here for
you.
So it's two weeks free and thenafter that it's just $37 a
month.
You can cancel at any time.
Obviously, hope you don'tcancel because you love us and
you love the community and lovebeing part of something bigger,
where we are working to make theworld a better place, starting
with our home lawn and landscape, and so I encourage you highly
(14:25):
to grab two weeks free ofMinnesota gardening and become a
member here, and so just clickthe link below and you can get
started for just two weeks free.
No commitments, no, nothing.
You can cancel at any time.
There's zero risk for you and Ihope to meet you in person as
soon as so let's do thistogether.
We are the solutions, we arethe answers and we can help do
(14:49):
this.
Our world is on fire.
Cancer rates are skyrocketing,insect and songbird populations
are plummeting and we can do alot to help out in all of those
things.
So again, I encourage you,become part of the solution with
us here at Minnesota Garden andbecome a member and get two
weeks for free and check us out.
It's no risk whatsoever.
(15:09):
So I hope again to meet yousoon with your first one on one
monthly zoom.
Thanks a lot, have a great day.
All right, with all of that, Ihope you have learned something.
And if you just take one or twoof these actions that we put
forward here in three by three,one or two of these actions that
we put forward here in three bythree, I know that you will be
making huge change in how we arehandling our landscapes and do
(15:30):
some really, really good work,and that will spread to your
neighbors and that will spreadto your community and that will
spread to your state and we willwork together to switch to more
environmentally responsiblelawn and landscape practices.
And, as I said in that lastvideo, as we are switching more,
it's a really huge help to havea community and have people
(15:51):
around you, working together toin that journey and making sure
that we're doing the rightthings and making sure that we
are learning and growingtogether, and with that, I hope,
you become a member ofMinnesota Gardening.
It is a really, really greatcommunity where we have
step-by-step instructions,guides all the things that you
need for becoming a moreenvironmentally responsible
(16:15):
homeowner and doing the bestthings for your family, for your
pets, for your neighbors,because right now we have
epidemics going on around us.
We have collapses of insectpopulation, collapse of songbird
population, skyrocketing cancerrates, and it's personal and
really important to me that wedo everything we can to keep
(16:37):
those things from getting worse,and so I'm doing my part,
trying to get everyone, in thebest way possible, to become
more environmentally responsiblein their own home, lawn and
landscape.
It's really easy to do just aguide for that, and that's what
we do here at Minnesota Garden.
So head over to MinnesotaGardening.
There you can get two weeksfree for now and you can check
(16:58):
us out again two weeks free atminnesotagardeningcom.
And from there you click onmembers area.
So the members area is whereyou join and get access to a lot
of additional content and a lotof additional things, where we
take you step by step throughhow to make this world a better
place.
So I hope you join us and joinall that community over at
Minnesota Gardening and help usdo the good work.
(17:20):
So I will see you next weekwith another episode of
Minnesota Gardening.
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