Karla A. Dalley

Our speaker this month was Karla A. Dalley, Karla is the garden columnist for the West Hartford Magazine and the Book Reviewer for the Connecticut Horticultural Society.  She is also the sole author of an organic gardening blog, “Gardendaze.”

We learned about organic gardening and how to start working with nature in our gardening.  We shouldn’t strive to have everything perfect, we should try to go organic, try to be garden friendly to wildlife, let the birds eat the bugs instead of using pesticides.

Remember that ants are pollinators, spiders consume many bugs in our gardens and native plants require less work.

Karla spoke about making a “Lazy Garden” by choosing our plantings carefully.  Plant perennials close together and plant ground covers between them so that you can forgo mulch.  Perennials will come back each year and many are long bloomers.

Planting more shrubs takes up more space and they require less maintenance, needing pruning only every 2 to 3 years with some never needing pruning.

Encourage the growth of ferns and mosses to give a woodsy look that needs little or no maintenance.

Ideal plants to grow as ground covers are “Stepables” and “Jeepers Creepers,” creeping thyme, sedums, creeping phlox, ajuga, and Irish moss.  For sunny areas try native asters, boneset and goldenrod which all bloom late in the season.