<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2TonL3_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2TonL3_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>Visitors meet other gardeners at the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum's Bloom Box Garden Walk in Lincoln. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure>The Bloom Box Garden Walk gave gardeners in Lincoln a chance to showcase their gardens on Sept. 10.The Garden Walk features eight homeowner gardens that include native plants and sustainable landscaping that are maintained by members of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. The gardens range from smaller to larger gardens. Each garden is named after the gardener’s last name.NSA’s Executive Director Hanna Pinneo said Bloom Box started as a subscription in 2016 and was designed to be a garden in a box where gardeners choose plants they want in their gardens from NSA’s plant database. NSA still offers their Bloom Box service online.“It’s really designed to help new gardeners learn how to garden with native plants, pollinator-friendly plants, and that is kind of our ethos when it comes to gardening,” Pinneo said.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1bEzrS_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1bEzrS_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>Hanna Pinneo, right, and other NSA staff visit the gardens during the Garden Walk. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure>Ticket sales from the garden walk go towards NSA’s environmental education outreach across the state. The garden walks are just one example of that outreach. Pinneo said that NSA focuses on both industry and public education.“We have webinars; we have inperson training. We work with certification groups like arborist certifications and landscape architect certifications,” Pinneo said. “And then we also try to do more general public type of things, whether it comes to videos, social media, publications that we can send out to folks based on their requests and working at different events.” Michelle DeRusha, NSA’s communications and events coordinator, said visitors at the walk see what it looks like to get involved in sustainable gardening and working with native plants. “It’s very communal, friendly, relaxed, not intimidating,” DeRusha said. “It’s just a really nice opportunity to kind of get together and talk to other folks that are doing gardening.” DeRusha said that the gardeners plant native plants as well as ones that are well adapted to Nebraska ecology such as wildflowers, pollinator plants, prairie plants and grasses, groundcover plants and perennials because they will be more resilient and able to thrive in the state’s environmental conditions. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1IoPy0_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1IoPy0_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>A bee lands on the blue pitcher sage at the Moss Garden.&nbsp;Michelle DeRusha, NSA’s communications and events coordinator, said plants that are native to Nebraska or well adapted plants are more beneficial to pollinators including bees, butterflies, birds and other wildlife. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure>Native plants and sustainable landscaping go hand in hand, DeRusha said. Sustainable landscaping requires fewer resources, making it easier on the environment. NSA chose Nebraska gardens that showcase this on the walk.“You’re not adding water into that garden, you’re not adding extra nutrients, you’re not having to fertilize those plants, because those plants are used to thriving on their own out in the prairie,” DeRusha said. Gardeners can transition their traditional turf lawn to become more sustainable overtime. DeRusha said the scale of transition can depend on factors such as time commitment and financial ability. Some Nebraskans start by placing tarps over their turf lawn to kill the grass and growing native grasses, wildflowers and perennials in its place.Cathy Sayre and Rachel Garver, both of Lincoln, are friends who visited the Lincoln Garden Walk this year. Sayre and Garver said they come to the garden walks to get ideas for their own gardens and to see what works for other gardeners.“I’m trying to convert my yard into native plants, native pollinators, so I planted a whole bunch of them this fall, this spring,” Sayre said. “I’m always looking to see how people do other things. I came to the walk last year and got ideas before I did it.” Sayre was asked to have her garden featured in the Garden Walk, but she said she feels like her garden is not ready. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=42BjY6_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=42BjY6_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>Cathy Sayre, left, and Rachel Garver visit the Gieseke Garden during the Garden Walk. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure>Garver has been working on her garden for more than 15 years. “I have plants around my tree, hostas and a couple others, and I want to see what other people have because some things work and some things don’t,” Garver said. John Moss, owner of the Moss Garden, said his garden started as a traditional turf grass lawn but has been transformed into a garden with hundreds of native perennials. Moss said that gardeners are eternal optimists.“It’s the promise of what you’re going to have when you go to the store, or you go to the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, and you buy a little plant that’s in a 2-inch by 2-inch pot, and you see a picture of what it’s going to be,” Moss said.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1jIlRc_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1jIlRc_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1176" ><figcaption>John Moss hands out lists of the plants he showcases in his garden. Gardeners are available to answer visitors’ questions during the Garden Walk. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure>Every garden is different, and every gardener on the Garden Walk does things a little bit differently. The Saniuk Garden has many native grasses, flowers and a variety of ground covers. The owners offer free plants in the back of the garden.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2lV0bP_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2lV0bP_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>The Saniuk Garden has multiple signs throughout the garden. One sign said that 70 percent of the garden's perennial plants are rescues. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure>The Pinneo Garden has a shady path that leads into the yard revealing a garden with a hand-built retention pond with fish, a gathering area for family events, and different kinds of flowers.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3YecQu_0vkwQatQ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3YecQu_0vkwQatQ00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>The Pinneo Garden features a garden full of colorful flowers. Emilianne Durr/Nebraska News Service</figcaption></figure></div></body>

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Lincoln Garden Walk showcases eight gardens with native plants

The Bloom Box Garden Walk gave gardeners in Lincoln a chance to showcase their gardens on Sept. 10. The Garden Walk features eight homeowner gardens that include native plants and sustainable landscaping that are maintained by members of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. The gardens range from smaller to larger gardens. Each garden is named after the gardener’s last name.