Know Your Pokeweed w/ Victoria Alzapiedi

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well hello out there in podcast land and beyond and
into the atmosphere and above, into the skies and space
Maxie Margot Rubin along with my co host Malcolm Berman,
and this is the Many Shades of Green, a program
that adds a dash of green into your life, sometimes
more than a dash, sometimes less than a dash. As

(00:42):
we engage in conversations that move to inform, educate, activate,
and raise your eco and social consciousness through culture, politics, music, art, science,
gardens and community, we hope to inspire you to pick
a shade of green and become a steward of this beautiful, blue,
green planet we call Earth. So hi to Malcolm out

(01:04):
in Lalla Land and Victoria who's literally a walk away
from me around the corner. And we got Neil back
out in Ruckland, so welcome. We're gonna do a show today.
It's involving climate extremes, drought, et cetera. And now we

(01:24):
have a song which we're gonna use to bring us
in called sun flood or Drought by the Avitt Brothers.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
What we are a part of is bigger than we know,
and the height of our ability is further than we go.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Every is just another problem. We will figure out and
we will grow our garden.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Come some flow to drown.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
How far into a dream would you follow me?

Speaker 4 (02:22):
And how sure of a thief does.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
It gotta be? In the most uncertain terms of certainty, all.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
That I counting on is you and me.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
And what we are a part of is bigger.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
Than we know, and the height of our.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Ability is further than we go.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
And fear is just another problem. We will figure out
and we will grow our garden.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Come some flood, drought, And what.

Speaker 5 (03:10):
We are apart of is.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Bigger than we know, and.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
The height of our ability it's further than we go,
And fear.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Is just another problem. We will figure out.

Speaker 6 (03:30):
And we will.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
Grow our garden. Yeah, we will grow our garden. We
will grow our garden, come some.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Flood, the drought well, being able to grow a garden
in sun, flood or drought. And we're hitting extremes. I mean,
just some of the lyric on this. What we are

(04:11):
a part of is bigger than we know, and the
height of our ability is further than we go, And
fear is just another problem. We will figure out and
we will grow our garden come sunflood or drought. It
kind of fits into a lot of things. Not only that,
but it was from the movie of the Biggest Little
Farm w if you can catch it, it's documentary. It's

(04:31):
streaming probably on a lot and this little it's like
a folk melody which just follows the persevering theme of
that film about a couple that trades the hustle of
city life to transform a barren two hundred acre plot
of land outside Los Angeles into a thriving farm which

(04:53):
uses holistic approach of regenerated farming. And they use that
to enhance the health of ecosystems by working in harmony
with nature's processes. And we can talk about you know,
what they did in that, you know, reduce tilling to
to make less disturbance in the soil, to use cover
cropt to prevent erosion, crop rotations, and and and they

(05:16):
plant diverse species because you have to, you know, have biodiversity.
They use livestock to manage grazing and minimize uh synthetic fertilizers,
pesticides and herbicides to restore natural you know, soil fertilities.
And that's that's a fantastic thing. So if you can
catch that movie, go out and do it. Uh, so

(05:38):
into what I'm going to just quickly say, Maybe not quickly,
but as quickly as it can. Uh. The realities of
climate change are happening in plain sight. You can't not
see it. It's in front of you. Now. Many parts
of the northeats where we are are experiencing drought conditions.
All of course today it's raining. Well what do we expect, uh,

(06:00):
which is more than just dry soil. It's a stressor
that cascades through plants, pollinators, ecosystems, and agriculture. Droughts are
becoming more frequent and intense with climate change, even in
regions previously thought relatively water secure. During a drought, the
soil cracks under the heat streams run low, gardens wilt,

(06:23):
and overhead bees, butterflies and hummingbirds search for nectar that
just isn't there. Pollinators are essential. They enable reproduction of
many wild plants and support ecosystems, and are vital for
food crops. If we don't have pollinators, we don't have
us pretty much. While challenges are real, there are many

(06:43):
practices from the backyard to the policy level that can
make a difference. Pollinators have survived through great adversity, and
with awareness and action, people can help them thrive under
change in climate as well as everything else around on
the floor in the fauna, we need to pay more
attention to importance of trees as well. They are vital

(07:06):
because they produce the oxygen we breathe a rebsorb carbon
dioxide to combat climate change and filter the air, improving
air quality. They provide food and shelter for wildlife, prevent
soil erosion with their roots, regulate water cycles and cool
urban areas by providing shade. And unfortunately I've been seeing
and I know Victoria has a lot of trees going

(07:28):
down being cut, and I just every time I see
one of those, my heart goes. You know what is
going on? So on today's podcast, we have Victoria Alzipedia,
our resident garden Wildlife and Healthy Yards Guru, and we're
going to discuss the current drought extremes of the weather

(07:50):
here in the East Coast, but everywhere not just here,
which affect our gardens and us Our horder and drier
conditions is a result that I said, of climate change
and global warming, and we need to educate people to
be more proactive in their behavior to become more attuned
to mother nature. So back to Victoria, She's at tuned

(08:12):
to Mother nature and it is incredible. She's the co
founder of Newcastle Healthy Yards, is chair of the Town
of Newcastle Conservation Board as well as a member of
the Westchester Climate Small Communities Task Force. She's a member
of Friends of Button Hook, which is hoping to save
like twenty point three acre forrests in the Town of Newcastle,

(08:35):
and we've been doing that for a bit, so fingers
crossed that this will come to fruition. In addition, she
is the co founder of Newcastle Pollinator Pathway Coalition and
started the Facebook group The Nature of Westchester, which is
an active community of nature lovers, which is how many now.

Speaker 7 (08:54):
I think we're like fifty two hundred believers.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Oh wow, you're getting every time it's going up, which
is good. Yeah, getting there. Victoria is also a native
plant garden and consultant and coach, providing eco friendly planting recommendations.
We can go to my nativegardenoasis dot com. So our
hodro and drying conditions are a result, as I said,
of climate change, and we need to just emphasize that

(09:21):
people must be educated and be more proactive in their
behavior to become more tuned to Mother Earth. And I'm
gonna mention this a couple of times throughout the show
that Doug Tllomy, who's an entomologist, conservationist, author and professor
the University of Delaware, will be giving a lecture at

(09:41):
Seapac and Chappaqua on November two. We'll have more info
from Victoria, you know, in the middle and at the
end of the show. Some people can in this area
can see this guy. He's he's fantastic.

Speaker 7 (09:56):
There are people flying in from Texas for this, so
Abra and Westchester, New York right near about forty five
minutes north of the city. Doesn't mean you can't draw.
You know, you can drive here to see to join us,
fly anyway.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
You can get here metro north from the city.

Speaker 7 (10:11):
You know, you know it's not easy to see him
in person, and it's really a pleasure and a gift
to see him in person. So encourage you to do
what you can to get here on November.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Tecond Yeah, save me a seat. Okay, uh So, shade
of green, what's that? Let's start it off with that.

Speaker 7 (10:31):
Shade of green? And it goes without saying that. It's
an honor and a privilege to be here. So thank
you for having me back again. I love the show
and you do such great work, So thank you for
that beautiful intro. I love this song. Just to before
I say my shade of group of Green, I just
want to say that the lyrics you brought up, those
beautiful lyrics that you just mentioned, and then the whole
theme of count counting on you and me, that's a

(10:53):
lot of what we're going to talk about today. You know,
what can we all do? And the fear piece when
it mentioned fear, it is scared. I mean, I just
want to acknowledge it really is scary. We all are
living in a little bit of a state of unconscious
denial that we're just kind of or functional denial that
we're going along with things and just kind of hoping
that it's going to be survivable and work get better.

(11:17):
But really we need to take that fear as a
positive motivator and do something. Take action. So let's count
on all of us to have an impact.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's imperative we take action. I mean, I call I
you know yesterday it was like just it was you know,
it's the Jewish holidays here. You know, people celebrate people
who are not. You know, I celebrate, and Malcolm, we
all uh celebrate, and uh it's too the new year.

(11:46):
You know, you bring in all good things and then
whatever you're doing gets put in the book to be
uh stamped at the end for the Book of Life,
and you hope that you get a good stamp tip
to be in there.

Speaker 7 (12:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
But it's crazy out there and people just don't know
what to do. I I literally write my my my
senators like every other day, I mean, and I and
And the weird thing is I get stuff back from
Jillibrand you know it's it's a probably just a you know,
uh rowbo you know answer back. You know what. I

(12:25):
have never gotten a response back from Schumer, like a
robo response ever.

Speaker 7 (12:31):
Hm to get on top of that, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
But a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 7 (12:38):
To the Schumer Schumer staff anyone listening to I.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Don't know, it's like usually you know, like send something
like you got it because I know it went out
and said thank you, but hokel. I sent something a
couple of weeks ago, and interestingly, I got an actual
letter back from someone and her staff. It had to
do with the vaccines. And we should have a coalition
of New.

Speaker 6 (12:59):
York and send letters out there or do you send.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Emails, emails, emails, guitar to call. But anyway, we're we're
digressing here.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
Write a letter.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, well you could write a letter and send it in.
But yeah, could do that too. Why not. Postcards are
a big thing now, sending postcards.

Speaker 6 (13:18):
I don't know, I remember postcards. You send postcards because
it's much cheaper in them.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Letters. Yeah, well, now mail is like fifty plus cents
for a stamp or something.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
I can't even.

Speaker 7 (13:30):
Post cards are a great alternative to get throw it
out to them.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, absolutely so all right, shade of green then.

Speaker 7 (13:36):
Okay, and chinatoba to all who celebrates right new beginnings
of good ways to support the ecosystem that we'll talk
about today. Right, So, my shade of green is the
shade the color of leaves and the green question mark
that we have now. So this time of year, we're
starting to see the green leaves turned to yellow and

(13:57):
brown because autumn is a pro coaching. Autumn just arrived
within the past couple of days and some of the
browning of the leaves that we're seeing though, is not
due to autumn. It's due to dryness. So I'm seeing
a lot of prematurely browning green leaves, and it's again

(14:17):
a little bit scary to see. So I'd like everyone
to kind of pay attention to when you're seeing leaves
on your trees, leaves on your shrubs. Be aware when
you start seeing them turn brown prematurely. That doesn't have
anything to do with autum. And this is for other folks.
Many people listening to this may not be, you know,

(14:39):
on the east eastern side of the country and don't
experience fall in that way. So keep a lookout because
often by the time the leaves start to turn brown
because of the drought, it's too late. So what we're
going to talk about today a lot is, you know,
how do you get ahead of the drought? How do
you provide enough water? And we have to be careful
about the consumption of water, but how do you find

(15:00):
that balance?

Speaker 6 (15:02):
Strange because I'm on the West coast and I know
it's dry over here, but when I speak to Maxine
all the time and friends in New York, it's always raining.
Where is all the water go.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, it's been hasn't been raining for a little bit,
but when it does, it rains harder more.

Speaker 7 (15:21):
It's part of the extremes that you talked about, Maxine, Right,
So this is one of the biggest challenges that we're
having extreme you know, dry arid gaps of you know,
periods of time with no rain at all and everything's
drying up, and then suddenly like here we are. We
had weeks without rainy rain and all the wetlands are

(15:44):
drying up and everything shriveling. Now suddenly we have like
three days in a row of rain, and not just rain.
It is humid.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
It is very humid. It's very unusual for this time
of year. I see my door is all clouded up
from humidity. I go out with my dog is like,
what what is this? You crazy? It's it's almost October,
Like what's going on?

Speaker 7 (16:06):
Yeah, it's like a soup enus right, It's soup.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
It's like soup yeaeah.

Speaker 7 (16:11):
And just remember we can go out, we can come
back into our homes and apartments and turn on an
air conditioner or do something to mitigate that. But outdoors
is the habitat for all of these creatures and it's
bad for their bodies. In other words, that extreme that
they can't escape. So they start thinking, Okay, it's dry,
so they're trying to, you know, figure out where to

(16:32):
go for wet and then suddenly, you know, they could
be changing their where they're walking each day, where they're
going to be nesting based on whether it's dry or wet.
And then suddenly you have a shift and it throws
everything up in the air. And it used to be
that we would have these you know, as you were saying,
macting it it's raining, but it's not just raining a
little bit here and there. It's raining inches and inches,
and that's where it starts to you know, flooding becomes

(16:55):
detrimental to nature and to plants and all the flora
and fauna. So you know, we have to be thinking
about again what you and I can do to really
try to support all the wildlife out there.

Speaker 6 (17:06):
I just the wildlife survives on instinct. It's not the
where they think. They don't say, oh, it's you know, September.
You know, it's going to start cooling, and they sort
of go what their bodies tell them to do, and
they must be confused exactly.

Speaker 7 (17:22):
I mean, think about if you're a squirrel right now
and you're nesting, you know, and you're creating a nest
and you're thinking, oh, it's really dry in this area.
I'm going to build my nest in a spot that
I think is you know, a good spot. Well, if
it's flooded with water two weeks later, your babies are
going to die, you know. In other words, these are
really practical questions that you know, and like possums have

(17:45):
babies at various times through the aren soda, squirrels and
so all of these animals there to your point, Malcolm,
it's instinctive and they're sensing. They can sense the cold,
the wet, the dry, and they're looking for places to live,
hide from predators. So it really you're right, it's very
disorienting and deadly in many respects.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, we're getting rain, Malcolm, as I
always report to you, you know, we have our East
and West coast weather. But I was just looking at
a data I just checked before we went on that
significant portions of the Northeast are under moderately severe drought
is being reported as of mid September twenty twenty five,
over forty four percent of the region was affected, some

(18:25):
areas even under exceptional drought. And that was the Times
Union paper. I think it's upstatement. I'm not sure. And
the impacts again, as you said that Victoria is not
just from you know, the lack of rain, but also
from heat evaporation and water table depletion. And and the
animals are beyond confused. I mean, it's detrimental to the creatures.

(18:51):
And you know, I mean I have a water little
water bath outside that I always you know, keep putting in.
So if the birds which are migrating now, by the way, uh,
I mean I just caught something online today. Nearly one
billion birds were in the sky migrating south last night.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Did you hear the number? One billion? Almost? Uh? This
is I don't know if it was an autobn thing
is that we knew it would be a big night.
But the birds beat the model estimates by a significant margin.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
Amazing. And that could also be because they're getting signaled
that they need to move out from where they are
faster than they usually do, right, and they're yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
That's pretty crazy, I mean unbelievable. So so where does
this put us? I mean, how do we deal with this?
I mean, what do we what do we need?

Speaker 6 (19:43):
What do we do?

Speaker 2 (19:44):
What do we do? What do we do?

Speaker 7 (19:47):
And by the way, that's the first my first opportunity
to plug Doug Tellomy. Okay, most recent book, doctor Doug Tallamy.
His most recent book is called how Can I Help?
Which is very too and tune of what we're talking about, right,
great book and he has a version of it for
kids too. So again, come to see him on November
second at the chapicol Performing Arts Center in Chapicola, New York.

(20:10):
November second and two pm. You can register online for
that at the Chapicoal Library.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
And I Help, Yeah, it's stoke. How could I help?
You know, semi call saving nature with your yard that's
the second part of that title.

Speaker 7 (20:23):
Yeah, and so here's some good stuff that we can
do in our yards. Good segue. So, so, first of all,
think about these past you know, weeks months that it's
been really really dry here on the East Coast. So
you know, sometimes we don't even realize that it's going
to start being dry until it's you know, way into
the into the drought. There's something called rain rain garden gardening,

(20:45):
which is basically creating containers that collect the rain. So
by the time it's starting to drought, it's a little
bit too late to do that. So today, for example,
it's raining yesterday, when it rains, we should be taking
advantage of capturing the rain in a barrel and container. Yeah,
way to reuse it. It's part of the whole regenerative gardening,

(21:08):
you know, to utilizing our natural resources. So try to
capture water when you can and use it during drought conditions.

Speaker 6 (21:17):
That in a major way. In like Denmark or Sweden.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Or Australia, they're doing it in a big way saving
the water. Yeah, I think every house has to have
a mechanism for rain barrels to save rain.

Speaker 7 (21:31):
You know, we all need to be thinking because countries,
countries that are forward thinking, like you're saying in Australia
and a number of other countries are thinking about how
do they make that It's almost like their grid, you know,
they're you know, you think of the electrical grid, you
think of how countries supply electricity. Well, how can countries
be very kind of macro oriented in their thinking and
figure out ways to save the water instead of just

(21:53):
letting it drain down?

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Or sewer.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
So we can do this in our yards. And you know,
it's a matter of finding appropriate containers. It's easy. Make
sure that you're not leaving them open. In other words,
figure out some safe way to cover them. And you
want to do that because you don't want the mosquitoes.
You know, there's certain times of years when mosquitoes leave,
leave their their larva, their eggs in the standing water.

(22:18):
So you certainly do right exactly so if you can
keep it covered, and also you know you don't want
to create we call it in law an attractive nuisance,
you know, having a thing of water, especially when it's
dry out and then the animals are desperately searching for
something to drink. They're dehydrated. They go to the edge
of your water barrel rain barrel and fallen and drowned.

(22:40):
So just really think about all the critters out there.
Keep it covered. Doesn't have to be so you know, snug,
but it just has to be covered so that none
of the animals.

Speaker 6 (22:48):
That must sound like you're damned if you do, and
you're damned if you don't.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
But you can get I guess I believe online you
can purchase rain barrels and I would. I'm assuming they
have a cover. I mean, if you go online and
just say, you know, rain barrels, yeah, you see what
you come up with. I'm sure. Uh, that's something I
should really absolutely look into myself. Practice what you preach. Woman.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
You know, you have any groups that could advise you,
you know.

Speaker 7 (23:18):
There if you search online, you know, I'll bet a
number of the of the conservation oriented groups and maybe
in your own town. It's something you're making me think
maybe the Conservation Board, Ability Advisory Board, we should do
something joint project the same way that we provide like
the Sustainability Advisory Board Newcastle provides amazing composting kits. We

(23:39):
should be supplying rainbow. In fact, there are towns and
maybe even Westchester County if I'm remembering correctly, supply rain barrels.
So something to look into in your community, on your
community website, municipalities, counties, states, Yeah, they that.

Speaker 6 (23:55):
Seems to be it's going to be a major problem,
if not a major problem already.

Speaker 7 (24:01):
Absolutely absolutely, and let's take advantage, you know, because look,
we don't want to think about it. If you're capturing
it in a rain barrel, it's not falling to the
ground and saturating the soil. Right, So we're struggling right
now against you know, the erosion issues, right, I mean,
think of all these mudslides. You see all of the
hillsides collapsing into the water. And we're obviously going to

(24:23):
talk about planting for that. Right if we could be
planting along edges of wetlands to make sure that they're
containing the erosion, but capturing the water puts them in
a barrel instead of in the ground, and then you
can reuse it when it's appropriate.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Okay, Well, we hit the brake already, which I can't believe.
Every time I say, he gives me the break and
every time every time I go, we hit the brake.
What anyway, So we'll be back with more information on
rain barrels and other things. So please stay tuned and
we'll be back with Victoria Zipiti talking more about all
this important stuff. Udginriverradio dot com. This is Hudson River

(25:06):
Radio dot com.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Hudson River Radio dot com. This is Hudson River Radio
dot com.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Hello, and we're back with Victoria al Zippedi to talk
more about what we can do to be more sustainable,
especially during these times of extreme weather, and we need
to care for Mother Earth, and there's more that we
can do and we need to do it. So I'm
asking everyone to subscribe to the podcast. It's on all
major apps, follow us on Facebook, instag at Tmshades of Green,

(26:03):
and any questions feel free to email me at Greenworld
Radio at gmail dot com. So Victoria, Malcolm and Nails
back there. We are talking. We're talking about rain barrels
before the break, so let's kind of finish up with
that and then like talk about planting fruit, extreme weather

(26:24):
and pokeyweed. I like that, boke weed, Yeah, poke weed great.

Speaker 7 (26:30):
Yeah. And so yeah, we were having a good conversation
before the break about rain barrows, and I just wanted
to mention a couple of other things. I mean, there's
a lot of information online about rain barrels, a lot
of good, you know, pictures of different options. And we
talked about covering the rain barrels so that animals don't
accidentally fall in and drown, and so that mosquitos don't
have a place to lay their eggs, and also, you know,

(26:53):
you want to just keep it as clean as you can,
you know, prevent algae so leaves can fall in and
then suddenly, you know, it kind of messes around a
little bit with the chemistry of the water. So many
of these rain barrels have kind of a mesh cover
that comes with it, or that you have to you know,
purchase separately. But that works really, really nicely because the
rain can just go right through. It's less high maintenance.

(27:15):
But please do look online because there are a lot
of good tips about how to set up the rain
barrel and how to make it as effective as a
count And just remember you can't drink that water, so right,
the sort thing is, it's not for human consumption. It's
really for the plants and the ecosystem, right.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
I mean we used to drink out of anything and everything,
and you would think, you know, we were young growing up,
we drank stuff like we used to drink out of
a hose. Not a real good idea, because God knows
what was going through the plastic hose, you.

Speaker 7 (27:45):
Know, the so what the plastic was made of? Now
they not please, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
The water tastes so good.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Oh yeah, Well, there were water fountains in parks, you know.
I remember, you know, when when you fell off the
monkey bars and you went to the water fountain, get
the put on your hand, and get the blood out
of your knee. Oh yeah, my knees. We were a
casualty of the monkey bars because now they have soft
stuff to fall in. Back in Brooklyn, it was the

(28:12):
hard submit protection. You fell. You were like, you run
home and then they put on the back teine of
a cure chrome and you're screaming from the pain of
it all, you know, and then go back to the park.
They didn't.

Speaker 8 (28:25):
You know, here's a bandaid. Goodbye. It's like, uh strong,
we were strong, you know back then. But anyway, so now, okay, so.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
We were going to go into extreme weather and and
and how with erosion you know, is affecting the planting.
And then you were gonna bring in something about poke weed.
I like the color pokey weed, but it's poke weed.

Speaker 7 (28:52):
Well I'll start with poke weed since so it's important
to spend a minute with.

Speaker 6 (28:58):
You knowl weed, different kind of weeds.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
We're not talking about that weedy, different kind of folks,
but it's but it's lea legal now, all right, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (29:14):
So it's important to kind of think for a minute
about what Mother nature is giving to us, right, I mean,
we often think about like what plants can I buy
and put in my yard? What plants can I buy?
What seeds can I put in? And that's great, and
planting native plants, putting in native seeds is wonderful. That said,
if you rewind for a minute, nature is actually giving

(29:38):
us plants without us putting them in the ground. Right, So,
a lot of native plants naturally grow where you are,
whatever part of the country, whatever part of the world
you're in. For decades, hundreds of years, thousands of years,
the soil has been propagating seeds. You know, there's we
call the seed bed layers and layers of soil that

(30:00):
have all the seeds that every season when the plant
evolves from flower to seed drops the seed. You have
all those seeds. And so if you let what is
in your yard grow, and I encourage everyone to do this,
maybe like this season, maybe next season in the spring,
we can talk about it in the spring as well,

(30:21):
start coming up in your yard. The instinct for many
people is they're looking for the plants they planted, right,
So they know, Okay, I planted some cone flour, you know,
I put some petunias over here, you know, whatever they're
looking for they're waiting for it to pop up, and
then suddenly other things pop up in other parts of
the yard or maybe in the grass and whateverever it

(30:41):
may be, and they're like, that's not something I planted.
It looks like a weed, and I'm just gonna pull it,
and they don't investigate, right, they don't take any of
these wonderful apps. I just want to do a quick
quick plug here for someone which.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Which app Which are the good apps that you can use?

Speaker 7 (30:57):
So again, I don't get any kickback for this, just
so you know, it's just from my own personal and
professional and you know, naturalist juice. There's an app called
picture this, and you do have to pay for it.
It's not astronomically expensive, but you do have to pay
for it. It's I would say like ninety I haven't
done all the quantitative analysis of this, but probably like
ninety five to ninety six percent accurate. So it's mostly

(31:20):
accurate as opposed to some of the other ones that aren't.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
They aren't You put take a photograph and they goes
it's a die coot. It could be like fifty you know,
it's just it doesn't give me very specific information about
what it is exactly. They did get poison ivy, right,
so that's.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
Oh, that's good. But yeah, so this one picture picture,
this is pretty much usually accurate. You can always double
check it and see but look at the leaves coming
up at the beginning of the season. Once you see
a leaf or a flower, check out what it is
and check out the range. You know. They a lot
of these maps, a lot of these apps have a

(31:59):
map that tells you where the plant grows in its
native you know, when it's native versus a cultivated or
exotic plant. So if it's native to your area, nine
out of ten times, sometimes ten out of times, just
leave it, leave it, or maybe you might want to
move it. If it's a plant that you know is
going to really naturalize and fill in the space and

(32:19):
you don't want it there. Take it when it's a baby,
you know, pull it up by the root, you know,
dig it out, put it in a spot where we'll
find out if it's sun or shade or wet or
dry or whatever. You're going to put it and relocate
it because you basically have a plant there. Sometimes you
can't even find these plants that are native in in
the trade in the industry, own your business.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
We have eyes for plants. Plants, they come into your
yarn and take all the plants that aren't supposed to
be there.

Speaker 7 (32:51):
So far, we do want to take some of those
invasive plants away because they are there, they're having a
negative impact on the ecosystem because they don't have any
natural predators here. So that's why something like burning bush uanimous.
It looks beautiful, it has beautiful fall leaves, gorgeous crimson color,

(33:12):
but nothing eats it. So because you know, native plants
grow up with the native insects and native birds that
have known each other since the ice age and have
a symbiotic, interdependent relationship. That burning bush in New York
it doesn't have a symbiotic relationship with anything. So nothing
eats the leaves, nothing keeps it under control, and it spreads.

(33:33):
That's why they call it invasive because it spreads and
spreads and spreads, takes over the floor of the forest
and takes away all the other sources. And again to
the diversity point, it becomes a monoculture. Creates a monoculture.
So in your yard, you want to be able to
be an informed consumer, an informed naturalists and informed person
on this earth to know the difference between when an
invasive plant is coming up that you want to remove

(33:55):
and learn how to remove it effectively. Sometimes it has
to be pulls and has to be cut or dug,
diferent strategy for different plants, or if it's a native plant,
you want to leave it or transplant it somewhere in
your yard. So one example that we are so much
missing out on is poke weed. So poke weed actually
doesn't come up that early. It can't be. It comes
up kind of later in the season. And I encourage

(34:17):
everyone to google this. Just please google poke weed pea
as in paula oh as an orange k as in
kangaroo e as an allen weed. Poke weed one.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Word like the you like you poke somebody like you
poke someone right, like the old poke. Don't don't poke
the poke weed though, leave it alone.

Speaker 7 (34:36):
So poke weed is actually a perennial. It keeps coming
back and it is a beautiful plant. I call it
the Garden of Eden plant. It comes up beautiful flowers, and.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
It's a stalk.

Speaker 7 (34:49):
It's a stalk that comes up and it's tall. It
gets to be like four or five feet and it
has beautiful leaf structure, gorgeous kind of red again almost
like a purple stem stalk, so very pretty. And then
then it has gorgeous, gorgeous flower buds, like a spire
of gorgeous kind of white and green flower buds that

(35:12):
open up and then you know, they flower, and then
it turns into beautiful, beautiful, dark purple berries. And they
used to use it a Native American, you know, historically,
and even now Native Americans use that for ink, you know,
for a different color to dye and clothes. It's really
really beautiful color. And so this plant, poke weed is

(35:33):
designed by nature to flower for the pollinators towards the
end of the season, but then also most importantly, to
bury while the birds are migrating. So right now I could,
if you're in my come to my yard, I can
show you all the poke weed that has already turned
to berry, and half of the berries are eaten because

(35:54):
the birds are migrating and stopping talked about the billions
of birds going overhead. They decide instinctively, Malcolm, when to
come down. Sometimes they come down to eat because it's
a storm and it's too windy. They can't fly. Sometimes
they just need a break. They're flying, flying, flying for
miles and miles. They need to rest. So when they
come down to rest, Mother Nature has said, have some

(36:17):
poke weed. I'm going to give you some poke weed.
You don't have to rely on mister Johnson or missus
Smith planting, because I'm going to give you naturally poke weed.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
It's the bird.

Speaker 6 (36:28):
Rest stop right next to a bird sanctuary. Beautiful and
it's sort of liked what I heard. It's the midway
points from the birds who are flying south to north
or north to south.

Speaker 7 (36:43):
Fantastic.

Speaker 6 (36:44):
And then so in certain times of the year it's
so beautiful because you see them flying in flocks.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, they do fly auto mission and.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Then you can go down to the that area in
Balboa Park and see them there in the.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
I know Balbo Park. I might have been there, even.

Speaker 6 (37:02):
You probably been there, but you didn't go downstairs to
see them.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
No I didn't, but I was. I know, I know Park.

Speaker 6 (37:10):
I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Okay, go during migration season, Okay, go figure it out.

Speaker 7 (37:16):
But anyway, Yeah, they're coming down. And what's happening now
is we humans pull everything that we don't know.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
And so we're pulling all this pokeweed.

Speaker 7 (37:25):
And you know, oh is it a weed?

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Is it a weed?

Speaker 7 (37:27):
Is it weed?

Speaker 1 (37:28):
You know?

Speaker 7 (37:28):
Look, I mean popeweed has the word weed in it. It
doesn't mean it's bad, you know, it's just the name
of the plant.

Speaker 6 (37:33):
So actually I like weeds. You know that they're the
natural to the the area. I love daffodils, and everybody's
put them out.

Speaker 7 (37:42):
Well, daffodils are actually not native.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Not daffodils. He means the dandelions.

Speaker 7 (37:49):
Well, those also are not native. Just so you know.
They serve something the yellow, the yellow they serve some
function early season for the polyators. But there are other
native plants that are even more better, official the spring
ofphemerals that come up really early, which we will talk
about another time. But yes, so definitely learn to identify.
You can see, you can tell the difference between a

(38:09):
bittersweet vine versus a mug work, and those are both invasives.
You want to take those out, but you want to
leave poke, You want to leave asters. Right now, the
fall season is aster season and golden rod season. Right
they are critically important late season pollinator plants. The bees
are all over them and there's nothing else for them

(38:30):
to eat. Because nature has said Okay, pollinators at the
end of the season, when all the other plants are dying,
I'm going to give you fresh pollen that you can
have to survive. But humans are pulling those asters and
the golden rod because they think it's a quote unquote weed.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
So please be.

Speaker 7 (38:47):
Educated, use picture to use whatever app you want and
leave the ones that are good alone. Please, yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yes, very livlog and prosper. Who are pollinators? That was
the yes side I was getting from Malcolm. Somehow help
live long and prosper.

Speaker 7 (39:04):
Allow the creatures outdoors to live long and prospers because
the birds need they're needing fuel to continue migrating. You know,
if they get stuck, they can't tolerate. Whether they're they're
programs for certain environments, you know, right, So please look
at poke we look at astors, golden rod. Please do
not pull these. Okay, very important Remember poke weed berries

(39:24):
are for birds and other wildlife, but they're poisonous for people.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Get get You need to get a plan to app
because you know everyone looks at that phones for everything.
Do something more useful, you know, be one with nature
a bit and know what's in nature. And if you
don't know you can just use the little device for something,
you know, more positive, to find out what what the

(39:51):
uh what you're looking at, because a lot of times
you don't know what you're looking at, and you think
it's something other than you know that it's an invasive thing,
and it's not so right.

Speaker 7 (40:01):
And it's really it's interesting too because those apps often
will tell you which birds eat that type of berry,
which butterflies need that type of plant to survive to
lay their eggs as a host plant. So it's kind
of cool you start realizing which plant connects to which
butterfly connects to which bird, and that's where you're creating habitat.

(40:21):
And you know, speaking of habitat, it's a good time
we talked about water sources. It's a really good time
to think about getting your yard certified as a wildlife
certified wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation. They have
a certification. It requires planting native plants, not using pesticides,
a lot of the themes we talk about to keep

(40:42):
your yard and your family and your pets healthy. And
it also requires a water source, whether you want to
create a little pond in your yard, whether you're going
to have a bird bath, and it requires that you
keep that clean. Right, if you're gonna put out water,
you have to do it responsible. You have to clean
it on a regular basis so it doesn't get backcteria
and harm the birds and wildlife that drink.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
A couple of things before we we're gonna have to
wrap it a little bit. Uh, just trees, please, just quickly, trees.
And also about you know, keeping lights off at night
during this migration and uh when we get towards Halloween,
not putting you know, those decorations on the shrubs because

(41:24):
the especially the ones that are the spider webs, because
that's very confusing and can harm wildlife. I just wanted
to throw that in quickly, but very likely about trees,
just let's kind of have to wrap on the trees.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
Yeah, good, and thanks for mentioning. You know, no webs,
no fake spider webs. Let's enjoy the real spider webs
and the and keep your lights either off or on
a emotion sensor because the birds when they're flying, they
are relying on the stars and the light of the sky.
If they see lights on the ground, very disorienting and

(42:01):
they lose the track of where they are, and they
it's very damaging. So if you're going to have lights
in your backyard, make the motion sensor for safety. You know,
you don't want people coming over this, will, you know,
make sure that light happens when you need it to happen,
but doesn't interfere with the birds. And try to use
other colors. Yellow lights are less distracting for birds. Kind
of a red hue is also less distracting. So think

(42:21):
about those alternatives and the trees. You know, I've had
the experience recently of driving around parts of the area
where I live, not right here, I live in a
very woodsy area, but other parts of my county that
are have lost so many trees that it feels like
you're in a desert. You know. You see houses, you know,
rows of houses, lovely houses that have somehow they don't

(42:45):
have any trees nearby. They'll have one tree, and they're
losing the opportunity not only to create habitat for birds
and wildlife who need trees to nest, to kind of
lay their eggs as host plants, but also for shade.
I mean, in this time where we're having as we
talked about extreme you know, sun and then we know
the sun is really strong. All the skin cancer concerns, right,

(43:07):
so how do why don't we take advantage? Just like
leaving those weeds, Let's let the trees propagate. And if
if we have an area that has no trees, think
about what tree can fit there. There are trees that
are so diverse in every way, Trees for sunny areas,
for shady areas, for dry areas, for wet areas, trees
like red maple that do well with wet or dry.

(43:27):
So please plant more trees. And I don't know how
to say this.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
A lot of.

Speaker 7 (43:31):
Cities are doing this. They have like plenty of a
million trees. But people are forgetting on their own property,
on their own land to plant trees. Remember, most of
the land in our country is privately owned. We can't,
as Doug Tealomy would say, we can't rely on the
national parks, that the state parks. Our yards are our
own homegrown national park. As Doug Talamy would say.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Is right another one of his books.

Speaker 7 (43:56):
Yes, Yes, very important organization to join online. You can
put your property on their map for homego National Park.
Great group, but please add trees. So many people either
the tree came down in a storm in their yard
and they never replaced it, or maybe they had to
take it down because it was dangerous a hazard, or
it had you know, some disease. Plant a new tree.

(44:19):
We need our trees for all the reasons you mentioned earlier, Mexine.
They're cleaning the air. And look, our air is increasingly
toxic in so many ways, people using leaf blowers, you know,
all the chemicals.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
So the regulations being rolled back, but that's a whole
other show.

Speaker 7 (44:35):
So we have to we have to mitigate all the
damage of all the policies that are being done.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Right. Yeah, it's really it's heartbreaking.

Speaker 7 (44:44):
It's heartbreaking. And for erosion control, trees are wonderful. You know,
you put a perennial on the ground, it's important. It
does have the native plants have a deep root system.
They're much more tolerant of climate issues, right, so they
can because their root systems deep, they can access water
deeper in the ground, so they're more tolerant during drought times.
Some top some native plants are really good with wet

(45:05):
So find to find your plants, fine plants that are
good with all the different conditions. Because we don't know
if it's going to go wet or dry in different
seasons now, so plant for dry, plant for wet, plant
for combination, and the same thing with trees. But put
the trees in the ground. Some trees grow very quickly,
like red maples grow really quickly. Tulip trees go really quickly,

(45:27):
you know. And there's some of these trees that are
going to get to be one hundred feet, there are
some that are going to get to be fifteen to
twenty feet. Please do some research and plant native trees.
It's going to help us on every level in terms
of climate change.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Yes, we love trees and just planting them near you
home is a good way to help the environment. And
it's beautiful to look at. So yes, you get a
double feeling from it, you so. But anyway, so let's
quickly get info. Where to get info you and also
just mentioned Doug tell me again and then we're going

(45:59):
to have to peace out. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (46:03):
So you can go to Newcastle Healthy Yards on Facebook,
great resource for information. You can ask questions there. The
Nature of Westchester another group with some great info and
to share as well. Look for a Pollinator Pathways group
in your area. Wild Ones is a great group. We
just have a new chapter here in Northern Westchester. They're
all over the country. Go to Homegrown National Park. Put

(46:24):
your land on the proper on the map to show
that you don't use pesticides and you're adding native plants.
Be part of that movement. The National Wildlife Federation that
we talked about, please check out their Wildlife Habitat certification.
It's a really important thing to do. And you know,
look at the Zerxes Society about bees and butterflies and
there's a lot of great resources. Encourage your town to

(46:45):
be a tree city. Take the Monarch pledge. There are
all kinds of things that your municipality can do and
that you can do.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
That's fantastic. Also, there's something called plant pla and it
separate word wild and that's leave. You know, plant things
on your guard and leave leave leaves too during this
time of year because they are also beneficial to or insects.

Speaker 7 (47:10):
Very good point, leave the leaves alone started by someone here.
Give a shout out to Fiona Mitchell in Bedford Hills
started that group a number of years ago. And yeah,
leaving the leaves is really critical, so don't take them
all away. Don't take them away in bags. The server purpose,
We've talked about it here. Their habitat. The squirrels need
the leaves to nest, the opossums need the leaves to nest.

(47:32):
They propagate butterflies and butterfly butterflies and moths and other
creatures who live in there over the weekend and provide
shelter and warmth and habitat. So great point maccine leave
the leaves everybody and.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Let less lawn more life. That's the other one I
want to do. Yes, Okay, So there's so much to
check out again. Doug Tellomy will be in Newcastle November two,
Chepiquaw Performing Arts Center.

Speaker 7 (47:56):
What time two pm in the afternoon, and you can register.
We're about to post it on Chappaqua Library. They're going
to be doing the registration. And there's so many groups.
Give a shout. I'm giving a shout out. More than
twenty groups are co sponsoring with us all over the region.
Some statewide organizations. Get on board. It's going to be great.
It's a five hundred person ven. You are going to
fill it up, and he's going to be signing his

(48:18):
books that day. Seeing him in person is a life
changing experience.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
I want to be life changed anyway. So again, thank
you Victoria, because you're always amazing and appreciate your just
a wealth of knowledge and all this stuff. So I
just appreciate everything that you do to keep things going
and make the air and mortar and land better and greener.

(48:43):
So thanks for joining us for the Many Shades of Green.
For more info and shows, go to Hudson River Radio
dot com, Malcolm Presents dot com and the Many Shades
Ofgreen dot com. You can check us out on Facebook
and Instagram at Team Shades of Green. Subscribe to our
podcast on all major apps. It's Apple, Amazon, Spotify, Speaker
and more. A big shout out to niel back there

(49:04):
let it not do any of this without and also
to Brian and Malcolm for their help. So please remember
to Picochete of green and raise your eco and your
social consciousness now we need that as well and take
action because we need people to to fight on right now.
So I'm Maxie Margart Rubin and we'll see you again

(49:27):
next time.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Hudson River Radio dot com