After years of studying and working with plants native to the Fort Wayne, Indiana area Judith has compiled quite the list of educational resources. In the spirit of supporting nature and natives we wanted to put together a list of places you can go to learn about plants and how to take care of them. Enjoy!
Doug Tallamy started the the Homegrown National Park project which encourages regenerative biodiversity and creates new ecological networks.
INPS – indiananativeplants.org – The Indiana Native Plant Society is a wonderful organization for Indiana residents to connect and share information related to native plants in the Midwest. They have several local chapters across the state that host events and seminars for members. Residents of Fort Wayne and the surrounding areas can check out the Northeast Chapter here.
Midwest Native Plant Society – www.midwestnativeplants.org – The Midwest Native Plant Society hosts the annual Native Plant Conference. Judith has attended the conference many times bringing crew members along when they’re available. Their website features a ‘Native Plant Resources and Local Vendors’ page with links to more good information. They are based in Ohio but the majority of information will be applicable to Indiana natives as well.
From EcoBeneifcial.com “Kim Eierman created EcoBeneficial LLC to show how simple changes in our landscapes can make huge environmental improvements. Through horticultural consulting, ecological design with native plants, teaching, speaking and writing, Kim and EcoBeneficial want to change our world.”
Kim Eierman is one of Judith’s favorite native plant advocates. She wrote The Pollinator Victory Garden and the webpage for the book has lots of extra links to great plant info. Check out her EcoBeneficial YouTube page here where there is a wealth of video based information for native gardeners and plant lovers.
The Xerces Society is named after a species of blue butterfly that went extinct in the San Francisco sand dunes due to human led development of the area. They work to study invertebrate species and protect the habitats in which those species reside. For the last 50 years The Xerces Society has been a leader in protecting insect pollinators in North America.
Their Resources page is a great place to go for well researched information also.
Their bi-annual magazine publication ‘Wings’ can be downloaded online for free as a pdf and is sent out in physical form to members of the society. Each edition features several articles with great photography and up-to-date news on the Xerces Society’s activities and projects.
Landscaping and Design 