Kim Eierman

The Glastonbury Council of Garden Clubs is hosting Kim Eierman, (sounds like Fireman) at the South Glastonbury Congregational Church (949 Main Street, S. Glastonbury) on Monday, October 7 at 6:30 pm. Founder of EcoBeneficial LLC, Kim is an environmental horticulturist and ecological landscape designer specializing in native plants. Based in New York, Kim teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, The Native Plant Center, Rutgers Home Gardeners School and several other institutions.

Kim is an active speaker nationwide on many ecological landscape topics, presenting for industry conferences, sustainability events, corporate events, environmental organizations, and other groups interested in environmental improvements,

ECOBENEFICIAL LANDSCAPE STRATEGIES FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Climate change is here and it is impacting our landscapes – increased flooding, more frequent droughts, more extreme weather events, longer growing seasons and increasing temperatures. Ecological mismatches, record loses of native species and an increase of invasive species are now the norm. Want to help fight climate change in any landscape? Learn how the plants you choose and the landscape practices you use can help reduce the impacts of climate change and improve the environment around you.

• Instead of raking up or blowing all the leaves off your lawn, mow some of them. The tiny pieces resulting will be fertilizer to encourage a greener lawn next spring.

• Recycle your discarded pumpkins, compost them or cut them into smaller pieces and leave in a wooded spot for wild animal treats.

• Consider individual composting to help the climate. You can start composting your garden waste by having your own composter or subscribe to a company like Blue Earth who, for a monthly fee, will provide you with a container which they pick up weekly and repurpose it into fertilizer. They will give you back several bags of the fertilizer each year.

• Check with your town about whether they collect kitchen scraps. In Glastonbury there is a container at the New London Turnpike transfer station where residents can dump their scraps, at no fee, as long as they have the necessary town dump permit. The collection is sent to Southington where it is processed into bio-fuel.

• Glastonbury plans to add a Blue Earth Container for residents to dispose of kitchen waste. Current plans are to place the container behind Town Hall in April of 2023.