PLANT NATIVE NEBRASKA Stephanie Barelman

The Very Real Importance of Pollinators
Episode Introduction
In today’s episode, The Very Real Importance of Pollinators, we chat with Jennifer Hopwood and Rae Powers from the Xerces Society about the importance of pollinators in what foods make it to our plate, why European honeybees can't do all of the work, and some ways you can help pollinators at home.
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Guest Jennifer Hopwood
Jennifer Hopwood is Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and is based in Omaha, Nebraska. She has a master's in entomology from the University of Kansas. She provides resources and training for pollinator and beneficial insect habitat management and restoration in a variety of landscapes. Jennifer is co-author of several books, including Farming with Native Beneficial Insects, Farming with Soil Life, 100 Plants to Feed the Bees, and a roadside revegetation manual.
Guest Rae Powers
Rae Powers is a Pollinator Conservation Specialist with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Rae works with farmers, ranchers, and others to identify wildlife conservation opportunities and promote pollinator and beneficial insect habitat across landscapes through the Natural Resources Conservation Services. She has a master's in plant ecology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has worked in grassland restoration and management and native plant production. 
Episode Sponsors
Today's episode sponsored by Midwest Natives Nursery:
https://www.midwestnativesnursery.com/
https://www.facebook.com/midwestnatives
https://www.instagram.com/midwest_natives_nursery/
Today's episode is also sponsored by Lauritzen Gardens:
laurtizengardens.org
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
Episode Content
Pollination 101
Male and...

The Modern Botanist
Episode Introduction
In today’s episode, The Modern Botanist, we examine what modern gardening can look like within the native plants framework, different tools you can use to get “spec’d out” in your gardening abilities, and why it matters more than ever to bring back gardening as part of a healthy lifestyle. 
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Episode Sponsors
Today's episode sponsored by Midwest Natives Nursery:
https://www.midwestnativesnursery.com/
https://www.facebook.com/midwestnatives
https://www.instagram.com/midwest_natives_nursery/
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
Episode Content
Growing 
Get nerdy and grow your own plants!
Start with a good potting soil. This could be Pro-Mix or a Berger mix or another recommended potting soil. You can even google how to make your own potting soil and mix the components up in a wheelbarrow. It’s fun to experiment!
Pre-moisten your soil in a tubtrug or wheelbarrow or 5 gal bucket.
Get seed trays: one drain tray (example: 1020 seed starting tray), one cell tray(example 72 cell seed tray,) and humidity domes. Bootstrap Farmer has really good ones:
https://www.bootstrapfarmer.com/collections/plug-trays/products/extra-strength-72-cell-seedling-starter-trays
https://www.bootstrapfarmer.com/collections/1020-trays-and-flats/products/1020-trays-multi-color
Bottom water when your soil starts to get dry so your seedlings don't get washed out.
Pack the cell trays with soil. Knead those puppies down.
Plant seeds at right depth (per instructions on packet.) Plant two to three seeds in the middle of each cell for best germination. You can cull or up-pot extra seedlings.
What I’ve been doing for labels is using my Brother label maker and taking one popsicle stick, place one label at the top for each row and...

Native Edible Plants Part 4: Nuts, Blossoms, and Even More Fruits
Episode Introduction
In today's episode, Native Edible Plants Part 4, we chat with Bob Henrickson about survival foods, how to make native Shirley Temples, and which native plant has been used as a spice for centuries. If you don't like rabbit holes, this episode will be a dangerous romp through Gardenland.
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Guest Bob Henrickson
Bob attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and graduated with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology in the School of Natural Resources. Currently, Bob is the Horticulture Program Coordinator with the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, Inc., a private, non-profit organization and program of the Nebraska Forest Service. His responsibilities include assisting affiliated arboretum sites with plant collection development and to acquire, propagate and produce native and other resilient landscape plants for plant sales to our members and the public. Bob has hosted a live, call-in gardening talk show called How’s it Growin’ on a community radio station in Lincoln since 2000. He is passionate about native plants, herbs, dried flowers, vegetable gardening, wild mushrooms and wild edible plants. 
Episode Sponsors
Today's episode sponsored by Midwest Natives Nursery:
https://www.midwestnativesnursery.com/
https://www.facebook.com/midwestnatives
https://www.instagram.com/midwest_natives_nursery/
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
Episode Content
Wild strawberry- Fragaria virginiana
Wild strawberry is so very pretty, and I hear from people all the time they have this in their yard. But they are mistaking false strawberry for our native one. The leaves are larger than false strawberry and the small flowers are white and not yellow.
Makes a great edible ground cover. Plant with violets for more fun!
Early bloomer.
Maybe make a sedge meadow with strawberries.
Hackberry- one of the earliest plants eaten by humans
An understory tree, you see this everywhere at Lauritzen Gardens, Heron...

The Prairie Herbalist
Episode Introduction
In today's episode, The Prairie Herbalist , we chat with Rachel Liester about food as medicine, the best herbal salve ever, and how you can grow a pharmacy in your garden.
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Guest Rachel Liester
Rachel Liester is an ethnobotanist, bioregional herbalist, educator, naturalist, writer and photographer. She specializes in prairie plants and has a five-acre herb farm and learning center in northeast Nebraska where she's been teaching about traditional uses of herbs as food and medicine for 30 years. Red Road Herbs Retreat & Learning Center LLC is part of United Plants Saver's Botanical Sanctuary Network, a Certified Wildlife Habitat, a Monarch Waystation and a haven of peace and tranquility where Rachel hosts events, retreats, classes and wild herb walks and encourages visitors to experience Nature's healing touch.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
Episode Content
Red Road Retreat and Learning Center
on the web: http://www.redroadherbs.com/ on Facebook: Red Road Herbs Retreat & Learning Center LLCFacebook 
Prairie Herbalist Conference- classes and intensives designed to give you the expertise to be an herbalist- in Nebraska, by golly! Let's make it a glamping extravaganza this year. Dates in July. Check the site above!
Home Herbalist Program- Growing, Harvesting, and Creating 101
Rugel's plantain AKA Plantago rugelii : good for bug bites, eczema., inflammation, trapped thorns
Stinging nettle AKA Urtica dioica-full of vitamins, minerals, and antihistamines. Consider it a worthy weed and know it's stings are very effective for arthritis pain. Also know it's stinging sensation dissipates once cooked. Sick of hearing about Kay Young's Wild Seasons? If so, you're listening to the wrong podcast.
Wild bergamot AKA Monarda fistulosa AKA aswego tea
member of mint family mosquito repellant, digestive aid, diaphoretic, and...

In Rebellion Against the Neat and Tidy
Episode Introduction
In today's episode, In Rebellion Against the Neat and Tidy, we go over why seemingly perfect gardens are not sustainable and address common garden myths that may prevent you and others from growing native gardenscapes.
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
Episode Content
Over-curated, over-groomed, over-mulched gardens are not sustainable
We need to transition from over-consumption to being sustainable producers for our local ecosystems. Let’s make less chemical and plastic waste and save ourselves time and moolah!Mulching is unnatural and so tedious!!! Why do it every year? That’s the definition of insanity! Mulch once- you heard me- just once, and let nature do its thing by injecting in ground covers, sedges, and native grasses to inhibit weeds and create a full landscape.Don’t deadhead, just don’t do it. 
For a low maitenence garden, know your plants.
Don’t overtend them. Wait to cut back perennials until spring. And please for the love of all things Mother Earth, let wild plants go a little wild. 
“The Green Thumb” isn’t real! And neither is half the other crap we believe.
You do not need to be Michael Jordan to play basketball, you don’t have to be some sort of crazy garden-savant to garden. It’s (actual) fake news!!!
No, native gardens DON’T require a lot of time and money.
Imagine how much time Karen next door expends mowing, mulching, weeding, trimming hedges, fertilizing, watering, and spraying chemicals on a monthly basis. You see where I’m going with this?Also, boxwoods and hydrangeas aren’t cheap. Start small and work from there. Repeat after me: START SMALL. You can always go full-metal-maximalist in a few year’s time. 
No, native gardens DON’T increase allergy symptoms 
But that monoculture of allergy-causing turf grass? Public enemy #1
No, bees and wasps will NOT sting everyone .
They may sting your daughter if she tries to pet their fuzzy little bodies. But mostly they are out to… you guessed it… find other insect prey, nectar, pollen, sleeping places, mating places, among other things that bees and wasps do.
No, a native garden...

Softer landings
Episode Introduction
In today's episode, Softer Landings, we chat with Heather Holm, pollinator conservationist and author, about leaf litter, the mighty oak, and what we can do to make more “habitable” habitats in often underutilized understory. Thanks for listening! 
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a freelance garden designer, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Guest Heather Holm
Heather Holm is a pollinator conservationist and award-winning author of four books: Pollinators of Native Plants (2014), Bees (2017), Wasps (2021), and Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States (2022). Both Bees and Wasps have won multiple book awards including the American Horticultural Society Book Award. Heather’s expertise includes the interactions between native pollinators and native plants, and the natural history and biology of native bees and predatory wasps. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and many local publications. Heather is a National Honorary Director of Wild Ones and also serves on the boards of several non-profits: Friends of Cullen Nature Preserve and Bird Sanctuary and Friends of Minnetonka Parks.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
Episode Content
Visit Heather’s site and get pollinator educated!
Heather’s site: www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com you will find lots of amazing stuff and lose about 3 hours of your day! You’re welcome!Soft landings: https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html 
Keystone plants: what does that even mean?
Heather’s free handout on keystone plants! https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/uploads/1/3/9/1/13913231/softlandingskeystonehandout.pdfSome native plants have significant interactions with the food web. In...