2-16-25 - Tyler Wayland with Roundstone Native Seed Company

On tonight's show, Jim and Scott talk with Tyler Wayland, Land Management Conservationist and Business Development Manager for Roundstone Native Seed Company. Topics included the importance of native plants and how to plant and manage them for wildlife pollinators like butterflies and honey bees. For more info, check them out at roundstoneseed.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good evening everyone, Jim Straighter Here if I saw host
Scott Throwning and Scott, we have got a great program
online for folks. Tonight we got Tyler Wayland who is
a land management conservationist and he's the business development manager
for Roumstone Seat Company and knows so much about native plants,

(01:25):
warm season grasses and all the things that help wildlife
indoor pollinators in general. And Scott, I know you're as
excited as I am.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
We're really trying to get people to take and engage
with that habitat enhancement work Jim to promote conservation, no
matter if they're done with square feet or acres or
square acres, and Roalmstone and Tyler himself are going to
be able to represent not only practices and products the program,

(02:01):
but just with the knowledge and the team that they
have over there, there is something for everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, you know, we were talking before the program how
crazy it is that Roundstone is a leader nationally in
the development and or production of a lot of these
native species. And so that's one reason we're just super
delighted to have an expert on like Tyler on the

(02:28):
program with us, who came here because he was excited
about Roundstone and what they're doing. So he recently became
part of the team, and in that regard, we're going
to talk to him in depth about the needs for
these pollinators and grasses had intermingles with wildlife conservation practices
and it's just a big scope of things tonight that

(02:50):
we're going to talk about that I think folks will
find fascinating. So without further ado, I'm going to go
to the break and coming back we'll talk with Tyler Whalen.
The break is presented by SMI Marine. Remember you never
get soaked by my friends at SMI. All right, folks,
we're talking tonight with Tyler whalon Again. He's a land

(03:13):
management conservationist and he works for roundstoem Seed and Tyler.
Welcome a board, buddy, Delight to have you on.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Jim, thank you for having me. Scott too. I really
appreciate the opportunity to talk about something I love, talk
about a company I love all around the mission of
creating high functioning, healthy habitat across the country. And so
the opportunity to talk with you all and learn from
you and share what I know. I'm thankful to be here.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Good. Well, tell folks a little bit about your background,
what brought you to Kentucky in Ramstoe.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yes, sirch So, I was born and raised in Texas.
Only moved to Kentucky about two years ago, but prior
to that move, I was working for Texas A and
M University Kingsville. There's a wildlife research institute there, the
Caesar Clayburg while Life Research Institute, and they operate a
statewide initiative known as the Texas Native Seeds Program. In

(04:08):
about twenty fifteen, I got connected with the Texas Native
Seeds Program and it's their mission to enable successful native
plant restoration on a large scale. So if we talk
about highway rights of way, energy transfer rights away all
of this infrastructure and development that goes into supporting a
growing population, the unintended consequences from that development is loss

(04:33):
of habitat. And so the way it was introduced to
me is, yes, we need to conserve as much as
we can as far as land, but when we're not
able to do that, when opportunities a rise, we need
to be able to restore and restore that land to
its functioning habitat, if you will. And one of the

(04:54):
challenges there is the availability of native seed sources. So
the Texas Native Seeds program augments the native seed supply
by doing research and development on regionally adapted seed sources.
So our end product was foundation seed that we can
give to a native seed farmer like groundstone native seed

(05:14):
to grow out on a large scale and make it available.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
And so when we talk about regionally adapted seed or
native seeds, those are terms that some people may not
hear regularly. When we talk about native seeds, we're talking
about plants that originated here pre European settlement, so time
and a place here in North America pre European settlement.
The opposite of a native plant or a native seed

(05:40):
source would be an introduced species. These are species that,
whether by accident or on purpose, humans introduced to this continent.
Bermuda grass, Johnson grass, a lot of the ornamental flowers
that we have. We brought them over here to solve
very specific problems, whether it's forge production or erosion control.

(06:01):
We brought them over here, they solved a problem, and
they actually solved a problem so well that they become
aggressive or invasive. And so that's the dynamic there is.
As we lose land and development, it really the problem
exacerbates itself because then the spread of non native species increases,

(06:22):
and all of a sudden, we lose diversity and we
lose habitat. And so that's that's kind of the problem
I've sought out to solve. And in that time in Texas,
I was introduced to Roundstone native seed. They've been doing
this work for thirty years, and so I had the
opportunity to step onto the larger stage, if you will.
Where I was looking at solving problems in Texas, Roundstone's

(06:45):
looking at the entire Eastern United States, the Southeast Gulf
coastal Plains, the Transitional the Transitional Zone, Kentucky, Texas and
the Carolinas, and even up into Ohio and the Northeast.
It's a problem that's not specific to Texas, but across
the country is we need to increase the quality and
quantity of native seeds available.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
And obviously Randy and John Seymour are very unique individuals
and this is their life passion and give folks kind
of an idea of the scope and magnitude of Roundstone
because right here and up in Kentucky, it's a homegrown story,

(07:26):
so to speak, one that all Kentucky's can be very,
very proud of Scott. You made a comment earlier this
evening about people are proud of the bourbon industry. They
need to be just as proud of what we got
in Roundstone in terms of these native plants and types
of areas that need this.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
So John and his father have such a tradition and
heritage on a local level, but also known so well
on the national level of what they've done and how
innovative they been, but at the same time keeping things
somewhat old fashioned because a lot of the techniques and

(08:07):
the procedures and which have to be done in order
to gather and collect this seed and to be labeled
and professionally distributed across the United States, it takes a
whole lot of detail and respect, and John and his
father have been able to do that. And not only
is it just the bourbon industry. The racehorse industry is known,

(08:29):
especially our thoroughbreds in the state of Kentucky, but often
has something that everybody in the United States can utilize.
And I would even stay on the global level when
it comes to being able to provide that seed source
to people to meet their objectives and their goals. And
that's what's going to be really nice about tonight's program

(08:51):
to Jim is these programs and goals, the objectives that
people are going to have don't have to be just
with acres. It can be something as small as a
project in someone's backyard, and Roundstone will serve everybody no
matter how big or how small of an area they have,
And they're also willing to work with people no matter

(09:13):
what their background is. And if anybody's been in and
around the world of conservation and understand what's happening with
habitat natives is probably one of the most popular words
and buzzwords that's out there, but it also ties into
establishing this habitat for our Bob White quel, making better

(09:35):
resources for our wild turkeys are invertebrates, and somewhere along
the way what sparks everybody's interest is going to be
some incentives. There's money connected to this, and there's ways
in what we can produce better habitat and also show
folks these landowners where they can be paid to utilize

(09:55):
the product and the services that Roundstone has to offer.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yes, sir, to that point, kind we talk about Renaldstone,
so again their scope and some of the things that.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
They do yeah right, Scott mentioned it. John and Randy
Seymore father and son team I've started Roundstone thirty years ago.
Before officially being known as Roundstone Native Seed, they were
Kentucky Native Seed and as I'm moving into Kentucky and
learning about the history, very rich history in Hart County
up to Kentucky, tobacco and beef cattle farmers, dairy farms.

(10:32):
But at some point John and Randy were approached by
the Nature Conservancy Mammoth Cave National Park. They were tobacco
and beef farmers and they started slowly moving into native
seed collections. The problem that they were presented was is
there was habitat restoration needing to be done in and
around Mammoth Cave National Park. And Randy Seymour, being a

(10:54):
self taught botanist, spent a lot of time in the woods.
I think we spent a summer nine hundred miles documenting
plant species in and around Mammoth Cave National Park. He
wrote his first book, Wildflowers of Mammoth Cave, and from
that became folks became interested on Howard's store, and so

(11:15):
John and Randy took five gallon buckets out into the
woods and started collecting native seeds, and the way I'm
the way I'm told about it is as the years
went on, less tobacco, less cows, and more plants into
what is now one of the largest native seed producers
east of the Mississippi. We farm somewhere around thirty five

(11:38):
hundred acres in seven different states, covering two hundred and
fifty to three hundred species depending on the year. It's
incredible what this team has done and I am honored
to be a part of it. I'm standing on the
shoulders of giants coming into a roundstone in twenty twenty three.
There's a lot of history before me, but I'm honored

(12:01):
to have the privilege to help further that mission is
in getting the right seed in the right place at
the right time. And Scott, you mentioned it the programs
NRCS programs natural Resource Conservation service programs. In two thousand
and eight, there's a program known as CREP Conservation Ooh,
don't give me a line live on AIRCRP Conservation Reserve

(12:24):
Enhancement Program. When it was surrounded by US, it was
focused on protecting the Green River. They found a number
of endangered muscle species in the Green River and it
was the goal to install buffers protect the Green River
from agg production, from herbicides, from runoff from erosion. So

(12:46):
we wanted to so the goal was to remove land
along the Green River from agg production and replant it
into perennial native, warm season grasses and flowers. And that's
an example of an NRCS program focused that putting habitat
on the ground, and it really launched Roundstone's work. I
mean that work in the early two thousands was pivotal

(13:09):
in getting seed into production. And two thousand and eight,
two thousand and nine, I think Romstone was planting somewhere
around twenty thousand acres in the summer of habitat on
the ground. And you look up in two thousand and
two thousand and nine and you realize that the need
isn't just in Kentucky, but it's across the southeast. And

(13:31):
so that's really what led Roundstone to expand its effort
in getting the right seed, the ecotypic seed where it
needs to go.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
What's so important is Roundstone has a team that will
not only help you become educated on such programs and
the features they have, it's the long term commitment to
be able to focus on water quality improvement and reduction
as fall and all of these things lead to enhancement.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
For wildlife habitat.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
And because of that, and you work with someone like Tyler,
what's so beneficial to that As you start looking at
not only improving the habitat and improving the lands, you're
looking at ways in what you're going to get annual
payments based on saving.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
Your sole productivity.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
And you're taking areas out of traditional agriculture production that
would typically have low yields or increase the amount of erosion.
And it allows us to bring everybody together.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
When we do work like this.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
We can bring the farmers together, the hunters together, the
consumptive users together, the non consumptive users together, and it
leads to one big, happy marriage. And that's what's so
important is we can have our agreements and disagreements, but
we all hear going to be the purpose of our
program tonight is to get people to put more acres

(15:01):
into wildlife habitat Enhancement programs.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Tell very briefly how folks can learn more about those
programs and incentives.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Right, so we encourage folks to, if they have not already,
start to build a relationship with their local NRCS office,
their Farm Service Agency office, getting in their local extension
office as well, meeting those folks, the agents, the team
members there at those offices and just let them know
that you're interested. That's the that's the best way to start.

(15:34):
And then Roundstone comes into augment that we can provide
the technical guidance obviously the plant materials and the products needed.
But we have a team of experts, wildlife biologists, restoration ecologists,
customer service that their rivals, the rivals, the best of companies.

(15:55):
I mean, our goal really is to make friends and
help you succeed. And so we work in concert with
US Fish and Wildlife, Kentucky Wildlife and our CS offices
anywhere where you can connect in your community. It's the
best place to start.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
And you know, at the small end of things, what's
so impressive to me is you also don't mind somebody
call and say, I need a small packet the seed
for a backyard project. Please tell me what I need.
There's somebody there that'll take the time, that'll walk you
through it, that'll ask you what your objectives are. And
I find that to be very, very impressive in today's

(16:34):
business climb.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Right, it's nice to have a human being answer to
the phone and we'll talk you through it. Like you said,
from square footage to acreage, we'll sell a seed packet
to a truckload of seed. All with the same attitude
is we want you to be successful because when you're successful,
everybody else is successful. And we want to get to
keep the momentum going as far as being able to

(16:58):
restore when the opportunities to arise.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Off the top of your head. I think you mentioned
this earlier, but I want you to minch agan. Approximately
how many different types of seeds does around Stone produce.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
We're dealing depending on the year. I mean, we're in
the two hundred range, so I like to say two
hundred and fifty species grasses, flowers, forbes, you name it.
We either produce it or we've got friends that produce it.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yes, sir, all right, Well that is obviously a very
lofty goal. And this one that you all accomplished just
through time. It's like everything else, it starts small, but
if it's worthwhile, it gets big. And they've done a
great job. And again, folks that are right down in
Upland Kentucky and Upton rather and very close to just

(17:49):
about anywhere in the state. I encourage you to go
down there and meet with these folks at sometime. It's
a fascinating operation of great people to meet and deal with.
All right, folks got to go to break here. This
is presented by Mastile Properties Aren't Realty. Paul Thomas is
the broker there all kinds of wildlife property, farms, wildlife
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(18:12):
mp H A r T realt dot com.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
Hower.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Let's talk a little bit here about the value of
native seeds and grasses. What you know brings to the
plate for people.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
So if somebody were to google or search on the
internet native plants, native grasses, very likely it's going to
show a diagram. We may have all seen the diagram
of the deep root systems of native grasses. Native grasses
and flowers are known for their deep root systems, stretching
reaching six eight feet even more into the ground. And

(18:48):
what that does is increases water infiltration. These plants grow
in a bunch grass form, and so unlike your turf
grasses or your lawn grasses or other introduced grasses. If
you will Bermuda grass, Saint Augustine. Those are turf forming species.
The root systems aren't as deep. They create this net

(19:11):
at the top of that top few inches of soil,
so there's very little infiltration possible, and those turf forming
grasses create what we call monoculture stands, single species stands.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
Well.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
The benefit of a native grass is that it's growing
in a bunch and so there's plenty of space around
that plant for other plants to grow. And so the
push or the value of the natives is that it
promotes biodiversity. More species are allowed or given the opportunity
to grow in these stands, and diversity is really the

(19:46):
key to life. We need increase diversity, and so by
planting natives, that's what you're increasing. You're planting multiple species
to create habitat.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
And the cool thing about that, Scott, from our perspective
is that's really good for wildlife and the pollinators which
are so necessary to every one of them. If we
don't feed these honey bees better, we're gonna be in trouble.
I mean, everything that we eat depends on pollination. That's
you know, a plant.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
It's a big, full circle of everything. It goes back
to why Roundstone has so many different seeds available. When
you look at what you can do with prescribe burn,
management of plannings, all of these best management practices that

(20:41):
we're familiar with from the agricultural side, there's best management
practices that are available for the conservation side, and that
conservation side with water erosion the habitat. It leads us
to take these different sectors of land. And because we

(21:04):
can increase the invertebrates, and because we look at the biodiversity,
it's just not doing habitat work for turkeys or deer,
or ducks or song birds, it's for all of it.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
It's the total equation.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
It brings us back to the common denominator, and that
is we want to make things better than what they
are in us as a human species.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
It goes back to the old days of.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Hearing people start talking about, well, we started losing a
lot of rabbits, and we started losing a lot of
our quail because of the innovations of the bush hog,
or people started turning more acres over and they started
turning more dirt and more ground when into production. Well,
today we have more and more acres of dirt that
are being utilized for shopping malls and asphalt and roads

(21:52):
and people have to build houses. And it's not just
the impact on habitat as far as what's not out there.
It's about how we're using the land that we have.
And we can't necessarily change asphalt over as easy as
we could maybe make a fallow field or an area
that's just sitting there idle into better wildlife habitat. Because

(22:14):
at the end of the day, a lot of people
want to do something, but they don't know what to
do and they're scared.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
And that's where our.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Program and people like Tyler and Roundstone can give those
people solid legs to have the confidence to go into
the project with that objective and mindset of Hey, this
is what I want to do. This is for the
butterfly people, This is for the churches, This is for
the corporations, This is for the landowners, the city parks,

(22:47):
all of the government acres. This program tonight covers something
that everybody has that we need to do better things with,
and that is we have land. We have private public land,
and we have the need that we want better aesthetics
on the landscape and we want more wildlife and.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
Better habitat for our wildlife.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
So it's just a win win. The wildlife wins, the
human species wins, and in the end we're dancing and
celebrating because of our ability to take and bring things
back that were originally here. That's that whole part of
that native thing is it is who the Master put
in charge, and that is Mother Nature had certain things

(23:31):
that we're here that we kind of screwed up. Just
to be honest, would you agree with that, Tyler?

Speaker 4 (23:36):
I would completely agree. And going back to your point
of it can be daunting, It is scary folks. Folks
want to do the work and they don't. Sometimes they
don't know where to start. And so you're right, any
chance we can get outreach education not only driving the
idea of why it's important that we do this work,

(23:58):
but how do we do this work? And definitely that's
something that Roundstone spends all of their time on, is
that education and guiding those talk.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
A little bit about establishment here.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Right, So going back to what I said earlier is
introduce species. Right, we've brought them in to solve certain problems.
The unintended consequences from that is that they have they
have taken over, and the number one cause of failure
in establishing native plants is weedy competition. It's competition for water,
for resources, for ground, for sunlight, for nutrients. All of

(24:33):
that competition is the number one cause of failure, and
it's because native plants are slower growing. The old saying
is first year they sleep, second year they creep, and
third year they leap, and so there's definitely an establishment period.
One of the one of the attractive parts of the
introduced species is that they're quick to germinate, they're quick

(24:56):
to colonize, and you get quick covered. Natives on the
their hand, again are slower growing, and so there's certain
steps that we need to take to give them their
best shot. And there's herbicides, there's organic methods. There's all
sorts of approaches to this, but they cover two main principles.
And so what we tell folks is there's two things

(25:18):
you need to address, and it's one existing vegetation. Wherever
you're looking at planting, what is right there, and most
likely it's going to be a conversion. There's there's an
introduced species, a fescue field, an old hayfield, bermuda grass,
Johnson grass land that hasn't been touched, its laid fallow.
First step is determined what's growing there right now, and

(25:40):
we want to address existing vegetation. More often than not,
it's a herbicide application. And I don't like herbicides as
much as the next one, but I do think I
do call it the chemotherapy to the cancer. We have
introduced some very aggressive species to the landscape and oftentimes

(26:01):
one of the only options is is herbicide treatments. There
are organic there are organic methods solarization, smothering of the ground.
But depending on the area that we're looking at treating
and this existing vegetation, that's going to determine how we
kill off that stand. And the number two things so

(26:22):
that if the first one is existing vegetation, the second
part we need to address is the seed bank. Once
you apply that herbicide application or once you smother the
ground and remove existing vegetation, that's a disturbance. And so
now we've exposed that ground to sunlight, into moisture, and
we want that seed bank to respond. Their seed in

(26:42):
the seed bank let it respond, and so we ask
folks to let it grow up four to six inches
and do another application another treatment to over time, we
want to deplete that seed bank, and so that the
point that we're planting the natives, there's very little competition
there gives them the best shot.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Absolutely, So let's start a conversation. Well, I'll tell you what.
Let me go to break, because I want to get
your idea about the number one recommendations you got for
taking people from I've got place, what I need to
do to prep it totally, what I didn't need to
do to planet. Let's talk about differences between drilling and proceeding,

(27:25):
for example, and we'll get into that in more depth.
All right, and we go to quick break here, folks
is presented by s and by Marine. There are eleven
four hundred Westport Road just north of the Snyder. All
the twenty twenty five's are there. They got all kinds
of incentives on leftover twenty twenty fours. And remember you
never get soaked by my friends at SMI twer again,

(27:51):
I'd like you to take folks from kind of a
to z on the establishment of these types of plannings
and plots, because it's not as hard or expensive as
people might think.

Speaker 4 (28:02):
Right right, it's just it's it's making, it's putting a
game plan together and following it and then understanding that
each treatment that is applied, we need to be waiting
for a response. You know, everybody has a great plan
until they get punched in the face. I've heard, and
so we just need to remember to take the time
and see what response we're getting. There's no there's no

(28:23):
silver bullet, there's no prescription for for everybody. It's very
site by sight. But if we follow the principles, we
can get there. So for example, if we would listeners
listeners today and they say I want to get involved,
what do I do? I want to plant this year,
we would start by identifying the site and understanding what's

(28:43):
growing there right existing vegetation, and so let's say it's
a hayfield, we want to clean it up. Let's get
let's let's we can go ahead and mow it, get
a good clean slate. If if we need to disk
to clean it up to turn that existing vegetation over,
now's the time to do it. If we are gonna
be disturbing the soil, now's the time. Start there, and

(29:05):
then so clean it up, get ready, and then we're
gonna look at doing our first herbicide application. That's gonna
be more often than not, it's gonna be glyphis safe.
It's a non selective herbicide. It's only gonna kill what's
actively growing. There's not gonna be a soil residual that's
gonna that's gonna prevent us from planting on for planting
later on. This is a contact, non selective herbicide to

(29:29):
kill this existing vegetation. And so usually when you're applying
gly glycysate, it's gonna take about two weeks to see
to see a difference, you're gonna see the grasses or
the plants start to shrivel up. It's gonna take another
two weeks to get crispy, brown and dead. So four
weeks and you've removed that existing vegetation. Now we want
to wait two more weeks to get a response from

(29:52):
the seed bank. So we're to the little heads until
it starts coming up.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
To your point for cancer selves will start to show
back up. Gotta hit it with some more chemos exactly.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
There are there are organic methods, but when you're dealing
with the invasive species, it really truly is chemo to
the cancer it's it's understanding that without that we have
very little success with the natives, and so keep that
in mind. That first application needs to be probably most

(30:25):
likely sometime in March when we have actively growing plants,
and then you wait that six weeks period, and we
want regrowth to be somewhere around four to six inches.
And the idea behind this is if you hit it
too soon, you're not getting the bank through your buck
with your chemical application. The goal right now is to
get as much germination from that weed seed bank as possible.

(30:46):
That way you're getting full benefit of the herbicide application.
So four to six inches. If you wait too long,
now you're gonna have too big of a thatch area
and you're gonna start losing seed desoil contact. Number one
goal right now is we want seed desoil contact. We
want good placement in the soil. So about four to
six inches of regrowth, let's hit it again with a
herbicide application. And so if we're in March doing this,

(31:07):
we finally get into April. All of these herbicide applications
are targeting cool season weeds, but we are worried about
the warm seasons warm season weeds as well, and so
we need to take it further into the spring now
April May, and we're going to start to look for
the Johnson grass or the foxtail, these warm season weeds
Bermuda grass in certain areas, and then we want to

(31:28):
attack the seed bank of the warm season grasses. And
so that takes us sometime into May and we can
do it spring planting in May. Two options for plant
area and can be a spring planting or a fall planting.
I guess third option if you talk about frost seeding,
so spring or winter plantings and both I've had success
in planning both times of the year. For me, it's

(31:50):
less about the day and the month than it is
site prep. It's your site prep that's going to tell
you when you can plant. So, say May, you're still
getting response from the seed bank. I would recommend, if needed,
cover crops through the summer, but get you through the summer,
continue treating that seed bank, and now you're looking at
a fall or frost planting.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Talk about cover crop and it's important and value because
that's something a lot of folks don't know about.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Right. So what I'm describing is probably about a year's
worth of site prep. We can do it a little
bit quicker starting now, planning in many about four month window,
but ideally we've had the most successful and we can
take it out a full year. And so when we're
killing off the existing vegetation, we're exposing a very, very
valuable resource in that top soil. And so the cover

(32:42):
crop is we're introducing a species. It's gonna be an
annual species. In the warm season, we recommend brown top millet.
In the spring, we like to use oats. Both species
aren't gonna stick around and get aggressive, but we're gonna
get quick germination and quick cover. And that's the purpose
of the cover crop is hold everything in place while
we continue our site prep process.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Because in a lot of fields, foul fields especially, and
Scott you chatting here with me, where you've got a
lot of foxtailer Johnson grass. I'm gonna give those two examples.
It's late, you know, it starts to really emerge and
gather it's steam if you will, in late summer, right,
and those are problems species in a lot of our area. Scott,

(33:27):
your thoughts on that, or you got any additional.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
It's temperature base and it's no different if we're looking
at at wildlife food plots are going back with native
warm season grasses. No matter what, people have to remember this.
Everybody thinks that the most important thing is putting the
seed in the ground, and that's one of the last
steps after you've done all the hard work, and the

(33:55):
hard work is patience and just dealing with what mother
nature gives you. So you can't rush mother nature. She's
gonna bring to you the rain, she's gonna bring to
you the heat that you're gonna have to deal with,
and these are all gonna be things that are gonna
impact the sites. The importance of that cover crop, it's
so important. It is about getting that less aggressive species

(34:18):
of plant in there. But we've got to remember that sand,
silt and clay and that soil makeup that is there.
We do not need to create a bigger problem, and
that is burning something down. You've got to remember that.
And when those rains do come, we do not want
to lose that seed to soil contact when it's time

(34:38):
to plant. But we also don't want to lose the
quality of soil, especially that top soil, and that's what
we're protecting. So it's a matter of patience it's a
matter of management, and it's a matter of reaching our goals.
So as far as Tyler coming to you or myself
and just snapping fingers and saying, hey, it's gonna be

(34:59):
quick and simple, I don't think it's ever quick and simple.
It's just some seasons give us better conditions than others.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
It's about managing expectations and those need to know that
patients will pay off, because Scott, you're right, putting seed
in the ground is probably one of the last steps
and once you do that, your toolbox shrinkings very quickly.
And so the more work we do on the front end,
the more success we're going to have on the back end.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Absolutely, and that's been shown time and time again, no
matter whether you're talking about the grasses or the flowers
or any of it. It's just part of the.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Equation about getting that seed bed prepped and ready to
go when it's ready to go, and you can't rush.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
That, yes sir exactly, or else the cancer might come back. Amen.
All right, folks, got to go to break here. This
break is presented by Paul Thomas and Massile. Property's heart realty.
He's got all kinds of knowledge and experience helping you
find farms, wildlife management properties, lakefront home anything of that

(36:02):
nature easier. Yeah, check out their listings at m O
P h A R T Realty dot com. All right, Tyler,
we've talked about application of herbicide in subsequent fashion, and
I guess let's move towards planning methods because there's not
any one best way. Necessarily, there's several tex there's a

(36:24):
few ways to skin the cat.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
So where we're at right now is we we're talking
two to three herbicide applications have been done and in
areas that we may need more, may go to four
to five. But again, like I was saying, we need
we need to judge that as it happens. But I
think it's safe to say in some scenario we can
get away with the two to three herbicide applications. And
so now we're looking at being ready to plant. There's

(36:47):
a couple of different ways to plant a native No
till seed drill is a great option. It's designed to
be able to handle the fluffiness of the native seeds.
So most people are used to thinking of corn and
beans and how they're very slick and flowable. Bigger seeds natives.
We've got species that are ten million seeds per pound

(37:09):
or species that have one hundred thousand seeds per pounds.
So size and weight of the seeds are very different
depending on the species. And then they're also fluffy, and
it makes flow ability hard. And so when I talk
about a native seed drill, it's a planter designed to
move that flowable seed through the augurs and down into

(37:32):
the ground. The native seed drill places the seed at
exactly the right depth. If number one cause of failure
is we decompetition, the number two cause of failure is
planting the seed too deep. So we want to be
no deeper than a quarter of an inch, like to
shoot for an eighth of an inch deep. It's better
to be on top of the ground than to be
too deep. Planting these natives too deep essentially kills the

(37:55):
seed and so, but not a lot of people have
access to a native no tel seed drill, and so
broadcast seeding is a great option, whether by hand or
using a cyclone spreader on the back of an ATV
or tractor. That's a great option. When broadcast seeding, the
goal is seed to soil contact. We like to include

(38:16):
nurse crops in the mix, and my definition of a
nurse crop is one of those cover crops oats or
brown top millet, depending on the time of the year,
at a reduced rate, usually about twenty percent of a
full planning rate. And what that does is it bulks
up the native seed mix acts as a carrier and
allows the seed to broadcast better. It also, if we're
talking about slow growing natives, adding in these nurse crops

(38:39):
allows for quick germination without over competition, and that quick
germination gives some green up while the slow growing natives
work to establish. And so we mix a nurse crop
in with the native seed mix. We can talk about
seed mix design a little bit, but the end product
is broadcasting the seed across the top of the ground
and then ideally we have an opportunity to go back

(38:59):
over with a culti packer or a roller or a
light light rate just ensure that good seed to soil
contact to recap. The goal is that we want to
seed into a clean, firm, weed free seedbed.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yes, sir and Scott, you and I are really pretty
keen on the broadcast and frost seeding. Let's talk about
frost seeding a bit here because it's showing itself for
me and Scott, you chime in here, be very very
effective as long as the seed bank situation is good.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
Right, So with the natives, naturally they have a high
level of dormancy. They're not bred to be ninety nine
point nine percent ready to go out the door. We're
not getting germination in seven days. It's going to be
more like thirty days. Scott hit on earlier soil temperatures
is a is a big part of it. But inherently

(39:54):
these natives have some species have a high level of dormancy,
and so frost seeding is a great option because it
gives you a chance for natural cold moist stratification. As
the seed goes through this freeze thaw process, it can
break the dormancy and it'll give you a better first year.

(40:14):
The other benefit of frost seeding sitting across the ground
wins frozen or with the snow is as that melts,
it's taking it down into the ground. And so it's
actually you're working with nature as that ice, as that
frost melts, it's pulling the seed into the ground and
it's that seed to soil contact. Frost seeding is by

(40:34):
far a great option if proper site preparation was done
that year prior. I would not recommend frost seeding without
any kind of site preparation just because of what we
had talked about that competition.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah, and you're gonna be fighting city Hall on thatch
and everything else if you don't do it right. Yes, sir,
I've got one of the things that I know you're
very keen on about frost seeding, like I am, is
you get away from this seed too deep problem. Mother
nature takes care of that for you. And that's that's

(41:08):
kind of a beauty of it. And I've had great
success for example with switch Grass, Blue Step, all of them.
It really goes across the board, really, Scott your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
One of that I want to back up just a
little bit on this whole process, and that is have
a seed and a seed code and people that are
more familiar with some basics of plant science will understand it.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
But a lot of these areas that we're.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Going into to improve or manage. These can be areas
that are in and around riparian zones. They can be
areas that are harder to access. Not everything is going
to be a big pasture renovation. Not everything is going
to be several acres at a time. Those areas tend

(42:00):
to lend themselves towards bigger pieces of equipment, and as
Tyler's mentioned and touched on, there's a lot of specialized equipment.
And this is where it goes back to that plan
and what are your goals because different states, different agencies,
different departments are going to have types of equipment, some

(42:22):
that are free to use and some that have just
a bare minimum cost per acre that you utilize them on.
And you've got to think about how destructive and impactive
you're going to be in some of these areas that
could already be leaning towards this side of being highly

(42:42):
erodible or somewhat not even stabilized. The projects that you
get involved with are going to be as diverse as
what you can find in different seed beds where you
go and the weight.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
Inside of these seeds. A lot of.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Times you're going to have to work with experts or
people who have learned from their mistakes, they have failed
and improved upon their failures, and that's going to be
doing simple things is like what to blend your seeds
with to help through the broadcasting efforts. It's going to
be times where just no wind at all is going

(43:18):
to be best. Utilizing that weather forecast to make sure
that you're working right at the time. I mean, you
can almost smell the rain before it comes. These are
the types of decisions that you make with that patience
that's going to make a big difference in how successful
these plots are. And from that proceeding part of it

(43:41):
there we go back to Mother Nature again and creating
that geographical part of the country depending on where you're at,
to allow the geometry of that honeycomb shape to allow
that seed to be sucked into the soil through the
thawing and the freezing that is naturally going to occur

(44:01):
during certain times of the year that will allow you
and it's proven even by land grant universities that have
done the research on it and people like data, that
those methods are just as successful, sometimes more successful than
the mechanical planning, because sometimes what happens with mechanical plannings

(44:23):
is just because the soul has a little different texture,
or just because maybe people aren't familiar with the equipment.
They've done all the work and they've made a mistake
and they've not even realized it because of their planning
depth being too deep. And I see it time after
time after time again. And that's why it's so important

(44:44):
for you as you depend on your resources and you
start to develop these practices and techniques to build a
team around you with people, and realize that a lot
of these services that are available and this information is
free free. A lot of your nonprofit in state and
game agencies will come to your property and help you

(45:08):
for free to show you the techniques because we're all
a team fighting for this conservation habitat work and improvement.

Speaker 4 (45:20):
Exactly right as the more. And that's that's the thing
that I really love about what I get to do
is not only are we strengthening the native seed supply
quality and quantity, but the knowledge and the methodology of
how to get a successful standards just as important and
just as lacking. We need to increase that. And a

(45:42):
lot of people have had a lot of success, and
those people are are willing and ready to share their experiences,
and so that goes back to building that relationship with
the local nrcs, local extension offices, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, folks, got to go to break here. This
break is presented by SMI Marine. The twenty fives are in.
Twenty fours are available and they have all kinds of
sales incentives. And remember you never get soaked by my
friends at SMI Marine Prod. We're gonna talk here a
bit about maintenance, but I'll return to our conversation about

(46:20):
cleaning up areas and then a lot of upland type
of stuff where you're dealing perhaps with hate fields, whatever
the case may be. There's a way to feed wildlife
and really get that field area prepped for the chemical
applications to kill everything comes in behind and that would

(46:42):
be something like round up ready soybeans. What are your
thoughts on that, because I've had real good success with that.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
No, I completely agree, and that's converting the farm fields
or coming behind beans is one of the one of
the most successful ways we do our production fields real
not exactly. And so if we can get in and
have have a crop, so we're breaking new ground, we're
adding more acres into production. And that's the that's the
method we're using. We're coming in behind beans using that

(47:10):
as our site prep process. And then it's and then
we're going in with the natives. I mean, it's a
great option. Uh, it's it's we have the most successful
when we follow beans. The tougher ones are those existing
perennial stands of the fescues and the turf grasses in
the hayfields. But definitely converting the farmland over to perennial

(47:32):
native warm season grasses and flowers is a great option.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Okay, let's talk right here about maintenance, because that's something
else that is part of this prol im start to finish,
and a lot of people there's a lot of misconceptions there, Scott,
you and I have talked about this. Uh, it's it's
it's not complicated. It's just a process.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Well, as far as the process goes, I guess we've
got to figure out what people have to work with
the amount of time and and and their budgets. So
you have to kind of explained to me, Jim, what
what you're wanting to talk about here.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Well, I'm specifically talking about maintenance. So the plot wants
it's started, I guess, Well, Tyler, let's take it from from.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Well, Scott, Well, let's let's let's let's let's talk about
maintenance of a plot let's talk about maintenance of land.
One of the things that people deal with is they
own property away from where they live, or they have
a budget to keep a piece of property.

Speaker 5 (48:47):
Mode the upkeep the maintenance.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Whether folks have good habitat natives in place or not,
one of the major things is time and budget, having
the equipment up and running, having that equipment insured, finding
someone to mow for them, or finding the time in their.

Speaker 5 (49:06):
Schedule to do with themselves.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
This is one of the great things about what piler
can help someone with. You can reduce swear and tear
on your equipment. You can have a positive impact on
the environment if you're paying attention to your carbon footprint,
if that's something important for your business or your private

(49:28):
property or church or whatever the land that you're managing,
and if you're trying to reduce your labor cost, then
the less time that you have people on equipment, then
the less that you've got to pay them.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
So let's say that you do have.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
This maintenance program, you've got to realize that at some
point in time of the year, we will have something
that is very esthetically pleasing, especially when our annuals are
really popping early on. But with the use of mechanization
and with the use of burning. Depending on what types

(50:03):
of plants are in the area that you're managing will
determine how you're going to management manage it, and also
the age of that area and how well it did
or did not do with establishment is going to determine
where you're going in and what you're doing, because a
lot of times, not just in regular maintenance, for the

(50:26):
aesthetics of it, it's very common as you work through
these goals and these objectives that you may go in
and overseed with a little bit of this, or you
may have to go in and fix this little patch
or this little area. And even going back to the
herbicide use, yes, herbicide gets beat up quite a bit,
but there's times that you may even just have to

(50:47):
spot spray and do some more intensive management in small areas.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yes, so take us from that first year well, because
it's minimal, to his point, compared to mowing.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
And that's one of the draws for the natives that
we hear a lot is less maintenance, less inputs, and
I do think that's true once we're established, and so
like I said, first year they sleep, second year they
creep and third year they leap once we've got the
seed in the ground. So we've done our site prep.
Now we've planted, and when year one. Ideally we're not

(51:23):
using any herbicides year one, just because regardless of what
the nature of that herbicide is and how it functions,
these plants are very young, and they're at very young
and fragile. There's very little above ground growth. They're putting
all of their energy into root development. And so even
though we've done all of this site prep, we still

(51:45):
are going to get a response from the seed bank,
and so those year one, those annual weeds are still
going to be coming up. So once we plant, really
year one, one of the only maintenance options is going
to be top clipping. We want to prevent the weeds
from going to seed and adding back into that seed bank.
And so it's important to realize that it's not okay,

(52:07):
you're only gonna have to mow twice in the first
year or three junts. It's really as needed. With the
principle understanding, the focus is preventing the weeds from adding
back into that seed bank. So top clipping, what I
mean by that is staying above the desirables, the low
growing natives at this point and just focusing on any
kind of weed pressure to get us through that first year.

(52:29):
A lot of the natives. Scott, you mentioned that the
annuals will show up first. Annuals are not to get
too far into it, but they're gonna live their entire
life cycle in one year. They're gonna germinate, they're gonna grow, bloom, set, seed,
and die. The office is gonna be a perennial who goes,
who lives longer life body anial is gonna be somewhere
in between two two three year growth. But in the

(52:51):
first year we're gonna see a lot of annuals and
a lot of yellow. We won't see the full diversity
of a mix until we get into year two and
three again managing expectation.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Okay, we'll talk two and three. Coming back from break.
We got to go news break here, folks. That break
is presented by Paul Thomas Malcial Properties Aren't Realty. Check
out all his listings at MLP h A r trealty
dot com. How're we've talked about phase one on maintenance,
but going forward from there, second third year and what

(53:24):
becomes important why right.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
So ideally, again we've done the site prepping, so are
weed pressure's minimum. We're handling that in the first year
with top clipping. What to expect in the first year
is very little. From the natives. I tend to think
first year native plantings are very yellow partridge p. Coreopsis,
a lot of yellow flowers. We start to see more
diversity in year two and three, and now we start

(53:49):
to open up our toolbox, if you will. As far
as maintenance, again, there's no silver bullet, no perfect prescription,
but we want to see how the planting is responding.
And I don't know if y'all agree with me or not,
but one of the best tools I think that is
out there is Mother Nature herself and prescribed fire. Historically,

(54:10):
these prairies, these meadows, these this habitat was controlled with
frequent fire, whether it was applied by lightning strike or
lightning strikes in the south, lightning strikes in the South
Native Americans further north. It's setting. It's setting the plant
or setting the metal back, if you will. It's that

(54:31):
it's that disturbance that these systems rely on. Without that,
we start to get brush encroachment, and the end and
the end product would be a close campy forced And
so it's the fire and these disturbances that these ecosystems
evolved on, and so it's very important. So fire is
definitely a great option, but that's not always available, you know, depending.

Speaker 6 (54:53):
On well I want to I want to take a
minute too to throw some advocacy out there for the
Kentucky Our Council, because we will cover it in another
program with prescribe burn.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
But all this prep and herbicide and all of these
things that we get the point into the program, there
is a whole lot that we can do to just
help with the succession of natives with doing fire and
anybody that wants to learn how to burn and prescribe
burn on private property. I can't encourage them enough and

(55:28):
advocate enough for what's available to folks in the city
of Kentucky to go and get certified. It's an eight
hour class with the Kentucky Fire Council and learn what
you can do with fire to help these natives and
improve your habitat.

Speaker 4 (55:43):
And Scott, you're saying it, You're saying it perfectly. It's
that prescription process. There's a plan in place, it's designed
that's structured its controlled burn for the outcome. It's a
great tool to have in the toolbox, just like mowings.
Mowing is also a tool. I don't like to say
that mowen is a substitute for fire, but it's another

(56:04):
tool that we can use to achieve our goals. For example,
one of the benefits of fire is removing old growth,
opening up the ground of sunlight and allowing those natives
room to grow germination, regrowth, spring, green up. Mowing can
be used or hanging a field, bailing it, removing that

(56:26):
thatche letter. The goal is to remove the old growth
and allow that new growth to come on.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
You know. The good thing about this topic too, Jim
and Tyler, is that not only is fire gonna help
us with maintenance, Fire's gonna help us with establishment, even
in plots. And I've seen it firsthand time and time again,
where the time and effort and all the steps have
gone through the process to get those natives there part

(56:56):
of that maintenance over the years, and once they had
that establishment in the thatch layer got to where it had.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
To be burned, it was amazing.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
And what was introduced into that biodiversity that we talked
about at the beginning of the program of what that
fire does to even trigger what didn't come up and
what didn't germinate after those first two or three herbicide
applications and getting that seed bed prepared.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Okay, Tyner, talk about some fairly specific mixes if you would,
for different species, and right here, I guess talk about
wildlife in particular, which because of that the pomat is
we'll do just fine. And to Scott's point, we'll have
the insect life to help feed small quailed turkeys, rabbits,

(57:45):
et cetera. Get covered. Can you get just some general
guideline to people, right and obviously they can call you
off consultation anytime, definitely, but just for the audience's purposes.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
Yeah, So, natives fill a lot a lot of different roles.
Whether we see it in erosion control, floodwater mitigation, we
see it as from the esthetic standpoint, and gardens and
rain gardens. But what you're talking about right now is
that wildlife component. And so when we design a mix
based off wildlife, we're gonna do things a little bit differently.

(58:18):
We designed mixes based on the number of seeds per
square foot, like we were talking about earlier, these different
species have they vary in size and weight, and so
our design process is looking at seeds per square foot.
So to give you a little bit of reference, a
mix that's designed at twenty to forty seeds per square

(58:39):
foot is going to provide less dense cover than something
we're seating at eighty seeds per square foot. So when
we're thinking about wildlife, we want to be in that
twenty to forty seeds per square foot range. So where
it's dense, we've got cover and protection, but it's not
dense enough that it covers the entire ground. We want
room for animals and birds to rome and so then

(59:01):
so we know, planning rate wise, we want to be
in that range. And then we're going to look at
the different species. What we're looking for, whether it's height
of plants that we want to look for, but what
I like is diversity. We want things growing at throughout
the year to provide brows for the wildlife, provide the
blooms for the insects. But then there's also scenarios where

(59:22):
we would plant a monoculture. I know you and I
have talked about monoculture plants and switch grass, and you've
had success with the switch grass. Can you talk a
little bit about that.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Well, in my case, it's a cover type on properties
where there isn't a lot of available cover.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
In other words, other components are there. There's plover plots
and what heavy for food that are providing stuff for
the insects and or the pollinators. But I'm looking for
something for deer to be able to fall in or
for turkeys to be able to nest in. It's dense, thick, and.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
A deternative present and so for and that example, and
I got we got a lot of landers calling in
and they want they want to buffer between them and
the road.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Okay, they talking a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
They talk a lot about cars slowing down ride as
they get in front of the field. And so yeah,
what you're talking about what we would call is travel
or escape cover. It's gonna be a less diverse, mixed
sometimes just a monoculture of switch grass. The value of
switchgrass is that it's going to stand up throughout the year.
Coming from Texas, we don't deal with a lot with snowfall,

(01:00:27):
but I'm seeing here in Kentucky that we get a
little bit. And the value of the switch grass is
it stands up. It provides that covering structure throughout the year.
It's a great, great asset to have and to provide
that escape traveling cover.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
What are some of the food types that you would
integrate with switch grass or ending grass or some of
the other grass mixes.

Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
Yeah, so they're they're native clovers. We've got purple prairie
clover and white prairie clover. Those are the native clovers
that can be used. Some of the some of the
species folks may know, black eyed Susan's partridge, Illinois bundleflower,
some of the different sunflowers, or native les padizas. We've
got really showy gay feather laatrists species. We can get

(01:01:10):
as diverse as folks want. We can meet any kind
of budget or price point they're looking for. But the
idea is we want blooms throughout the year and browse
for the deer if we're looking at deer deer habitat.
The other part is is we'll hear folks planting. Going
back to the planting rate part of it, it's not
five pounds per acre of this species, ten pounds per

(01:01:33):
acre of this species. To get up to that fifty
one hundred pounds range in a native seed makes we're
looking at seed ten to twelve pls pounds per acre.
That's not that much seed. It's almost compared it to
open up a can of snuff and trying to sprinkle
it out over an acre. It's just it's tough to do.
And so some of the stands that we see certain
species get away from us. I think that has a

(01:01:54):
lot to do with planting rate. Putting too much seed
out isn't always the best option, and so designing mixes
species definitely needs to be a consideration, but also planting rate.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Well that some of the types of flowers, for example
above the flower the partridge pee and get pretty darned
profuse aggressive and aggressive right to the detriment of some
other types of planting, and they don't need to be.
And I think to your point, that's from overseeding more

(01:02:26):
than anything.

Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
And that's what I love. So I was before Roundstone.
I'm in research and development, working with academia, working in
the university system, and our goal was again to add
back knowledge into this industry on what works best. So
a lot of proof of concept, a lot of demonstration
plantings to figure out that sweet spot for rates. I
come over to Roundstone and obviously they've been doing this

(01:02:48):
for thirty years. They figured it out. I mean, they
know we're not going to want to put partridge p
in a mix. The max rate we want to use
is about a pound. We'll be somewhere around eight ounces
half a pound breaker and we see it respond really well.
We actually both those species Illinois butterflower and partries free
we consider very valuable indicator species. Talking about planting the
seat too deep, Well, if we see partridge feeing Illinois

(01:03:10):
butterflier German and establishing we know we got our depth right.
Annuals that are going to grow, they're gonna show up first,
but over time allow everything else to fill in. Too
much of it, I would agree, can get very aggressive.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Okay, cool, let me go to break here and come
back from break. We're going to talk about flower habitat
for backyards and industrial parks and things of this nature
that where this could really be a big benefit and
so much enjoyment just from a visual. All right, folks,
this break is presented by SMI Marine that are eleven
four hundred Westport Road, just north of the Snyder. If

(01:03:46):
you're going to get your boat ready for spring. Now's
the time. It's also time to look at the new
twenty twenty five's that are in. And remember you never
get soaked by my friends at SMI don't. Let's talk
here about something that's very very important to our broad audience,
and that is pollinators and native plantings that do in

(01:04:07):
their yard. And then we'll talk a little bit about
commercial facilities. But folks, if you're tired of cutting grass
in a portion of your yard, or you got a
little area in your garden where you've had to work
so hard to produce things that are not native plants,
I can tell you the color and profusion of color

(01:04:28):
this can bring to you is mind boggling. And the
coolest thing is you'll see hummingbirds, You'll see butterflies, you'll
see honey bees. It's it's a burst of color that's
almost on parallel taler you all do this small pocket.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
Yeah, So what we've been talking about this whole time
is maybe larger plantings, larger conversions of fields. But you're
hitting on a very important topic is everyone can get
involved in this. Everyone has a part of their yard.
Like you said that, maybe they don't want to mow
or maybe they're having trouble getting something established. Those are
great areas for what I would like to call pocket prairies,

(01:05:06):
to be able to bring in and provide some kind
of habitat for the insects and birds. There's been a
study out there and the conversation is surrounding. If just
a quarter of the yards in America and incorporates some
kind of pollinator or planting in their yards, we're talking,
that would come to about ten million acres of habitat,

(01:05:30):
right and so, and maybe we don't get that quarter,
but get some part of it. And so I don't
want to leave anybody out in this conversation. If you've
got an area, just follow the same principles. One, we
want to address the existing vegetation, whether that's tilling it up,
smothering it using plastic and solarization. It doesn't necessarily have
to be the herbicides, but the same principles. Let's address

(01:05:52):
existing vegetation, and then let's give a chance for response.
Same deal. We want to let that seed bank respond
and we want to handle that and then plant seed.
You don't need to go out and buy a fifty
pound bag of seed. We'll send you a seed packet.
Whatever your square footage is, we can get you that seed.
So whether it's fifteen square foot, fifteen square foot or
step it up to the thousand square foot plots, we've

(01:06:15):
got it available to you. It's a great way to
incorporate the color and the habitat into your backyard. We
design these mixes, what I would call a pollinator mix,
based on blooming season, and so we want in order
for it to be active and functional, we want something
blooming throughout the year. And so we have a number

(01:06:37):
of spring bloomers in a mix, and then for that
transition from spring to summer, we've got a slate of
blooming right there, five or six species, and then we
move into deep summer, summer and fall, and then in
the fall we have our asters come out. They're designed
through no matter what part of the year, there's something
there blooming.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Thos Asters are some of the most beautiful flowers anywhere.
I mean, folks, what we're talking about here that's native
is as pretty as anything you'll see on a podcast
from England in a maintained garden.

Speaker 4 (01:07:08):
If we want to get away from that uniformity, that
mode lawn look there's no better way than to use
the natives. There's so much diversity, not only in color,
but in look, in function. I've got two little boys
six and four, about to be seven and five, Tucker
Case Carver Reefs. Maybe they're listening tonight, but they have
a time of their lives getting to go out to
Roundstone and learn these plant communities. Walking around the yard

(01:07:30):
and on our woodland edge, they're starting to learn the
different plants. I mean, it's a family affair to plant
something like this. You learn in so much not only
about the flowers, but the insects and the birds that
are using them. In low maintenance, low maintenance, it's there's
a period of establishment, but in the end we're not
running that zero turn nearly as much as we're doing
it right now.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
Absolutely, commercial applications, these roadbanks, like the hospitals, commercial developments
and stuff. Same Instead of FASCU that has all this vagenance,
like Scott was talked about year uh, we really encourage
them to have some of these zones adjacent to it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:09):
It's a great opportunity to add back the habitat that's lost. Again,
going back to the beginning of the conversation, we're losing
land at alarming rates, and so when the opportunities arise,
we need to be able. We need to have the
capabilities to restore what we can. And that's the mission,
that's the purpose.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
Absolutely, Tyler. Tell folks how they can get more information
about Round Still Native Seed. And we're all on Facebook,
et cetera.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
So we are a fully vertically integrated company. We sell
direct to the consumer off our website roundstunt seed dot com.
We're a phone call away two seven zero five through
one three zero three four. Whoever answers that phone, we'll
be able to walk you through your project. Canell us
on Facebook, Instagram, all of it, and it's all at
roundstun seed dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
All right, and give that number again slowly please.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
Two seven zero five three one three zero three four.
Telling Jim straighter since you, we'll get you set up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
And mentioned my boy Scott.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
Yes, sir Scott, thank you. Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Tyler's a great program, very informational. I learned a lot.
I'm sure the audience did as well. All Right, folks,
that's a wrap. Stay warm, stay safe, God bless everybody.