Scott Woodbury
Supervisor, Horticulture – Shaw Nature Reserve
After greater than 30 years at Shaw Nature Reserve in Grey Summit, Missouri, Scott Woodbury retired this summer time from a protracted profession in public horticulture to begin Cacalia Backyard Design and Wilding, a consulting and design enterprise in St. Louis. Over the length of his profession, Woodbury has seen native gardening develop from a distinct segment nook of the horticultural business to a well-liked house gardening fashion that’s now attracting widespread, steadily rising public curiosity—and with good purpose. Native gardening gives many advantages to individuals, pollinators, and the ecosystem as a complete. Woodbury has been an enthusiastic advocate from the start, spending the previous a number of many years working in native gardens and educating others the way to plant their very own.
The Bascom Home overlooks the Whitmire Wildflower Backyard at Shaw Nature Reserve. Photograph by Tilda Adams.
A Love of Gardening at First Sight
Within the fall of his seventh grade faculty 12 months, Woodbury obtained a job raking fallen autumn leaves for a girl in his group. He beloved the work, so she invited him again to work in her backyard the next spring. It was then that one thing clicked: this was what he wished to do together with his life. “Should you take into account center faculty to be ‘all the time,’ then I’ve all the time identified what I wished to do,” Woodbury mentioned. “Not everybody will get to determine it out that early.”
There have been a whole lot of stops alongside the way in which between that first yard and winding up at Shaw Nature Reserve. As a younger man, Woodbury labored at gardens and arboretums in Wisconsin, Italy, Pennsylvania, Lengthy Island, and Washington, D.C. It was in his position at Tudor Place in Washington, D.C. that he actually started to dig in to his work with native vegetation. There, he labored in a woodland backyard space the place Tudor Place had began to experiment with native gardening. “Utilizing native vegetation in gardening was a brand new idea then,” Woodbury mentioned. “There have been solely a handful of books, with Harry Phillips and Sarah Stein on the forefront. I learn all the pieces I might get my fingers on.”
The Present of Whitmire Wildflower Backyard
Whilst he was ravenously studying about this thrilling new idea, Woodbury longed to maneuver again to the Midwest. In the meantime, again in Missouri, native businessman Blanton Whitmire was planning a particular present for his spouse, Peg. Shaw Nature Reserve was a really particular place for the Whitmires, who had been longtime common guests. On Peg’s seventieth birthday in 1987, the Whitmires got here to Shaw Nature Reserve as they’d finished many occasions earlier than. This time, Blanton had a shock for Peg: the promise of a backyard in her honor. In what was then an unmanaged woodland overgrown with invasive honeysuckle, the Whitmire Wildflower Backyard would develop. Woodbury was employed in 1991 to carry it to life.
Blanton and Peg Whitmire with horticulturist Scott Woodbury within the 90s.
Over the subsequent two years, Scott and former Shaw Nature Reserve Horticulturist Joyce Davit led a small group of volunteers within the restoration of the world and building of the backyard. The Whitmire Wildflower Backyard was formally devoted in 1993. As we speak, it gives accessible paths by way of 5 plant group areas (woodland, wetland, glade, savannah, and prairie) and a house gardening space that features a native perennial backyard, rock backyard, prairie backyard, water backyard, woodland backyard, and rain backyard. Over 500 Missouri native plant species are on show.
The Whitmire Wildflower Backyard contains 5 totally different plant group areas, together with the wetland areas pictured right here. Images by Tilda Adams.
Native vegetation are sometimes destroyed en masse when their habitats are eradicated in favor of human infrastructure or non-native plantings. The animals that depend upon these vegetation disappear with them. With out vegetation, native pollinators undergo; with out these bugs, native birds undergo; with out native birds, small predators undergo; and so forth.
“To backyard with native vegetation is to backyard with a objective that’s perhaps a little bit deeper.”
Scott Woodbury
Reintroducing native vegetation to the panorama by yourself property is a strong technique to create a little bit oasis for these vegetation and the life that returns together with them. And, as many gardeners are studying, native vegetation will reciprocate the love that you’re exhibiting them by making it straightforward on you: as soon as they’re established, they’re straightforward to develop. In any case, they’re completely tailored to develop right here. “Native gardening is not only a job,” Woodbury mentioned. “It feeds the soul.”
Spreading the Native Plant Gospel
Past hands-on gardening, Woodbury has spent a lot of his profession cultivating the general public’s affection for and consciousness of native vegetation. He’s a frequent featured speaker at seminars and gardening curiosity teams, and he has lengthy been concerned in all types of native native gardening efforts past his work at Shaw Nature Reserve.
In 1998, Woodbury began the primary chapter of Wild Ones, a group of gardeners that educates and helps house and enterprise house owners as they study to develop their very own native landscapes. At first, there have been solely a pair dozen members. By 2006, the group had grown to over 100. As we speak, Wild Ones has greater than 350 members, making it the most important chapter within the nation.
Scott Woodbury stands within the Whitmire Wildflower Backyard on his final day at Shaw Nature Reserve. Photograph by Kristina DeYong.
“To have the ability to join with individuals is crucial a part of my job,” Woodbury mentioned. He considers himself an introvert and remembers being terribly nervous for the primary cellphone name of his skilled profession. “It was so laborious. Nevertheless it’s vital,” he mentioned. “I believe I’ve been in a position to affect individuals. That’s what I love to do—to make an impression on somebody and to get them to vary their gardening methods.”
Lately, Woodbury spends extra time on group work and schooling than he does within the backyard. Shaw Nature Reserve now has a number of full-time horticulturists who work within the Whitmire Wildflower Backyard, together with a large crew of volunteers. “I don’t have filth below my fingernails anymore,” Woodbury says, “and I miss that a part of the job. I can’t do all the pieces, however I do miss it.”
Beginning Your Personal Native Backyard
For many who are able to get some filth below their very own fingernails and dig in to native gardening, Woodbury had 4 key items of recommendation.
- Be taught from native assets which might be accessible to you. Develop Native is a good place to begin, and Shaw Nature Reserve’s Native Landscaping Handbook takes a deep dive into native gardening necessities. The William T. Kemper Middle for Residence Gardening has quite a lot of assets as effectively, together with a information to naturescaping and visible guides to native and pollinator-friendly alternate options to frequent backyard vegetation.
- Embody a spot to sit down in your backyard. Native landscaping remains to be a comparatively new idea, and never all people is on board simply but. It’s pretty frequent for house gardeners to face resistance from outdated zoning legal guidelines or unsure neighbors. To the untrained eye, decorative grasses and tall wildflowers may appear to be unkempt weeds. Including a spot to sit down sends a message that your landscaping is intentional and cared for. Plus, it provides you someplace to calm down and luxuriate in your handiwork.
- Depart at the least a little bit mowed turf grass in your panorama. Turf grass isn’t inherently detrimental to the surroundings; what makes it so harmful to ecosystems is its pervasive omnipresence. Nevertheless it does have its objective—it gives a spot to play or lay within the solar. Even whether it is simply included as a border or a path, protecting some turf grass in your yard is a gesture of excellent religion to neighbors who wish to see that you simply aren’t simply “letting it go.”
- Realistically take into account your time and skills. Don’t attempt to leap in all of sudden. As an alternative, begin small. Be taught what you might be able to, and construct out of your successes.
The Whitmire Wildflower Backyard is visited by a monarch butterfly in August. Photograph by Tilda Adams.
Recommendation for Aspiring Horticulturists
As for individuals who wish to dig even deeper into the sector and make a profession in horticulture, Woodbury recommends St. Louis Group School’s horticulture program. “They provide night time class choices and actually immerse their college students within the expertise,” Woodbury says. “It’s the finest program of its type.”
However he doesn’t underestimate the facility of self-teaching, both. He recommends attending Shaw Nature Reserve’s Native Plant College and protecting an eye fixed out for webinars, conferences, and volunteer alternatives placed on by locations just like the Missouri Division of Conservation. And, the most effective place to begin, he says, is to “go for a stroll in a backyard.”
After spending many years within the subject himself, Woodbury wouldn’t change a factor. “I’ve been in love with horticulture since center faculty,” Woodbury mentioned. “By no means have I assumed to myself that this wasn’t the best factor on the planet.”
Kristina DeYong
Public Info Coordinator