Story Ideas

We’ve Taken The Guesswork Out of Creating Sustainable Landscapes
Sustainable Gardening Institute founding Executive Director Lois J. de Vries discusses how the Institute’s online Library helps green industry professionals, educators, and homeowners zero-in on low-impact plant care methods that are most similar to their own growing regions by bringing together the forward-thinking knowledge and experience of public gardens, universities, and government agencies. “Our collaborators are the experts when it comes to their local growing conditions and best sustainable horticulture practices, with credibility ratings above 80% among members of GardenComm International, the association for garden communicators,” she says.

A Baker’s Dozen of Sustainable Gardening Tips
Sustainable Gardening Institute Executive Director, Lois J. de Vries tells us that to garden sustainably means using Nature’s resources without using them up. The United States boasts 26 plant hardiness zones and sub-zones and nearly 200 different ecoregions, so offering general gardening advice is challenging. What grows well in in the acid, rocky soils of the Appalachian forests will not be happy along the windswept brackish marshes of the Pacific Coast. But no matter where they live, homeowners can use these 13 basic sustainable gardening tips.

New Garden! Now What?
When you buy a new house, your first instinct is to make it your own by changing things up – tearing out old things putting in new things. But when you move into a new garden, the first thing you should do is – nothing. For an entire year. Sustainable Gardening Institute Executive Director, Lois J. de Vries tells us why.

Everything Old Is New Again
Today we think of the urban agriculture, slow-food, and farm-to-table movements as something new and hip. But for centuries before the industrial revolution, and up until the mid-20th century, Americans built communities near farms so they would be close to sources of fresh food. For example New Jersey is still known as The Garden State; Wisconsin, The Dairy State, etc. In much the same way, the term “sustainability” may be new, but the concept isn’t. Sustainable Gardening Institute Executive Director, Lois J. de Vries discusses how today’s farmers and food suppliers are re-discovering the value of traditional farming methods.