Hello Greensburg and Stroll Laurel View readers! Welcome to the new gardening column featuring your neighbors with successful garden tips, insights and ‘how-tos’ on the best ways to love your landscape. I’m a master gardener and have been involved with dirt since my very early years weeding my father’s vegetable garden.    

This month, we feature Patti Schildkamp. She is a Greensburg resident and a fellow Penn State Certified Master Gardener, 2016 class, founding member of Westmoreland Pollinator Partners and a 2020 Certified Master Naturalist.  

When asked, ‘Why do you garden?’, Patti says she finds the endless learning and inspiration from nature very motivating. In addition, the realization that our home gardens can be a great benefit for native pollinators and migrating butterflies and birds is paramount. Native plants have evolved with these visitors and provide the food and nectar needed for their young. It truly is the ‘field of dreams.’ Plant native plants, and they will come.    

Patti’s garden design includes tall native plants such as Joe Pye weed and New England Aster for fall blooms. Common milkweed is a summer favorite for the endangered monarch butterfly and other insects. In Spring, blue false indigo shines. The thought of seasonal gardening, planting for spring, summer, and fall pervades her plant selection. While she still has peonies, sweet woodruff and some non-native plants, her focus is now native plants for the direct benefit to pollinators.  

“Sometimes I just stand among the beds and watch the bees, butterflies, and hoverflies feed on the blossoms,” Patti says.

Trees are an integral part of any landscape, and Patti wishes she had more. Even though she has planted native oaks, persimmons, redbuds and shagbark hickories, she will continue to add native trees.    

“My favorite trees are my two native Paw Paws. I have harvested fruit in most years. They were about four years old when I purchased them from Friendship Farms in Unity Township, and I enjoy introducing others to this almost tropical, yet still native, fruit. This year was the first sighting of the Zebra Swallowtail,” she says. “The PawPaw is the host plant for this butterfly and the visitor was a female. She laid many eggs, and I was fascinated by the unique caterpillars munching on the leaves. I’m hoping that next year I, and those in the area that have PawPaws, will see more Zebra Swallowtails, a rare occurrence in our area.”  

And so, the beauty and benefit in her garden is for human eyes and noses, as well as the companion insects and birds.  

When asked about advice for beginners or those just starting their landscape projects, Patti recommends to “start with small garden beds so you are not overwhelmed! If you start small and use the lasagna method (also known as the No Dig/No Till method), you can gradually enlarge the beds. For the last eight years, I've been slowly seeing my lawn reduced to pathways through my garden beds. That was my goal and I’m finally close to it!”   

Less lawn, less mulch, less weeds. A gardener’s dream, for sure.  

Her gardens are certified as a Monarch Waystation, an Audubon Society Certified Backyard Habitat, a PSU Pollinator Friendly Garden and a National Wildlife Federation certified habitat.  

Feel free to contact the Penn State Master Gardener Hotline with questions about your home garden at 724-858-4045 or westmorelandmg@psu.edu.

Until next time!