In what is now the state of Ohio, diverse native ecosystems once flourished, including prairies, Appalachian mountain species and plants associated with Canadian boreal forests and bogs. With increasing population and development, these diverse native plant species have experienced dramatic decline, mirroring similar native plant declines across the US and internationally. Today, over ⅓ of Ohio’s 1,800 native plant species are imperiled.

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Native plants are a vital part of healthy ecosystems, and growing plants to increase the native plant supply is one way of reversing native plant losses. In the Linden neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, one community member has created inspiring projects that are helping bring awareness of native plants to the city, and increase the number of native plants in urban spaces. 

Dianne Kadonaga started Sunny Glen Garden, an organization to turn urban lawns into edible forest gardens and wildlife habitat using Indigenous practices of permaculture or regenerative agriculture. Forest food projects reduce health issues and utility costs created by the city’s heat island effect and provide some food security while increasing diversity and resilience to climate change. The Sunny Glen Garden has a native plant nursery to support community projects and programs have expanded abundantly, with new workshops, exhibits, presentations, native plantings, community festivals, and more to form the Connecting Community Corridor for People Pollinators and the Planet, or CCC for PPP,  in Linden.

One event created by Sunny Glen Garden is the Art Mural for Linden and Pollinator Party, which spotlights the 2023 Endangered Species Act at 50 mural, created by artist Kenia Lamarr. This mural features native Ohio plants and the rusty patched bumblebee, a native bee species listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act. 

To better understand the connections between native bees, native plants, and local community, Jeanne Dodds, Endangered Species Coalition Creative Engagement Director, talks with Dianne Kadonaga about her journey growing native plants and creating urban wildlife habitat.

Jeanne Dodds: Can you share a bit about how you started growing native plants, and what motivated you to start Sunny Glen Garden?

Dianne Kadonaga: I never had intentions of doing so initially, nor did I know how, but it all started when I was addressing some of my own health issues – diabetic indicators, high cholesterol and blood pressure, precancerous polyps. I was eating more fresh, organic food, but it was expensive and often beyond my budget. It seemed like it would be cheaper to grow and eliminate the unrecyclable plastic packaging it came in too if I grew it instead. With the huge 175 year old pin oak in the backyard and silver maple shading the front, there was not enough sunlight to grow an annual vegetable garden, so added in bare root perennial edible plants that would create a forest edge from the pin oak as the highest canopy,  chestnut, hazelnuts, elderberry and apple as the subcanopy, red and black raspberry, gooseberries and currants as the shrub layers, down to strawberries as ground cover, as well as perennial asparagus, sea kale, and artichoke and herbs. With increasing rain, I added in subtropical annual plants like ginger, turmeric, for my health, and taro and sweet potato fit well into the dappled  shade of the forest garden. Not having a lot of money to spend, my methods had to be little or no cost and with minimal input as I put in swales to reduce the flooding in my yard and direct it along the garden beds. Leaves from my trees and kitchen compost provided free fertilizer and ground cover, all reducing the need to water the garden all year round. Rain off the tool shed kept the shiitake and blue oyster mushrooms growing. I didn’t realize until many years later, that I was using permaculture / regenerative agricultural methods.

When I saw the difficulties of some folks in our community with health issues and not being able to afford healthy, fresh, food, I decided to throw in a few extra vegetable seeds that I would start for my own garden. I grew 4,000 of them in my basement for a plant sale FUNdraiser in the spring and the proceeds paid for the trays, pots, soil, and organic seeds. The remaining 2,000 vegetable plants I donated to seven local community gardens in an effort to make the plants or the vegetables from them available to those in our community who might otherwise not be able to afford it. This became an annual event and as I learned more about the plight of our pollinators and birds, and that some native plants were good at eliminating the toxins that would drain from my neighbors lawn care into my yard, I tried my hand at growing native plants from seed. Gale Martin from Natives in Harmony has been my mentor and has been so generous of her time and her knowledge is invaluable as many native plants have their own special needs to propagate.

I don’t think I realized the importance of having my edible forest garden until the pandemic hit, as many people in our community lost their jobs like me, but at least I had food from my garden – I only had to go grocery shopping 4 times that first year as most of the food came from what I was growing in my yard, but it was much harder for some of my neighbors. 

With the native plantings in the Sunny Glen Garden, leaving leaves from our trees to cover the ground, it is kept cool in the summer and keeps moisture in the ground, so I don’t have to water my garden, nor do I have to buy fertilizer as the leaves break down to provide this. I leave old stems up for cavity nesting bees and other insects, line the native plant gardens with logs which provides habitat, so we are teaming with a diversity of fascinating insects now. Lightning bugs create a spectacular show at night in summer. 

I use no pesticides or other chemicals in my yard and I’ve seen 5 different species of bumblebees (out of 11 in Ohio) which indicates a healthy ecosystem, and a very rare Assassin Robber Fly was found here – at the time there were only 11 sightings in all of North America! I have plenty of caterpillars and insects for families of birds that make their home here and they now play a huge role in my integrated pest management, so I’ve had very few pests in my garden. A red-tailed hawk keeps my squirrel population down, and this is in the city so we know what’s possible! There are so many people who know so much more, but I just shared from my own research and experience, and that is how Sunny Glen Garden got started.

JD: Can you please share your thoughts about why it is important for people to grow and create connected habitat for native plant species?

DK: Creating connected native plant habitat in our neighborhood is important for creating opportunities, not just for pollinators and wildlife, but for people to connect too. Gatherings at workshops or plantings  can facilitate sharing of personal stories and understanding, while gaining skills for increased  self-sufficiency. Participants can share this knowledge with their friends, family, and neighbors, to grow and connect our community. This can make a difference in helping reduce the crime rates here as we look out for each other. We have a very diverse community of African-Americans, Hispanic, and Immigrant populations so with the different languages and cultures, it can be challenging at times. Bringing people together to turn lawns into gardens can be an enriching experience when all are included.

We have some folks in our neighborhood who are struggling to put food on the table or pay their rent, or don’t own properties (rent), may not have the time to garden, or don’t have familiar foods from their home countries. Native plants, once established, require very little care – less resources like watering and have adapted to our location so they are well-suited. Many native plants can provide food for pollinators and birds, but for people too, or have medicinal benefits. Everyone and everything benefits from native plantings which can also beautify our neighborhood.

JD: Dianne, you have a lot of knowledge of native bee species. Can you please tell us about a native bee that people may not know about, and explain a bit about why native bees are so important to ecosystems?

DK:  Many people may recognize the very large carpenter bee with the ‘shiny-hiney,’ or bumblebees which are fuzzy and large, but they may not realize that we have native bees that are very tiny too, like our sweat bees that are only .01 – .04 inches long and fly so quickly they are hard to see! We have cuckoos, tigers, fuzzy-bellied, metallic green native bees and more – over 450 species in Ohio! Many people may be surprised to know that the more familiar honeybees are actually not native to North America and that almost all of our native bees do not produce honey, but are 90% more effective at pollination than the honeybees. Only female bees have the ability to sting but rarely do unless their homes or lives are directly threatened, so being stung by a native bee is highly unlikely. I love it when the sweat bees land on me as they tickle and likely take up minerals from my sweat. Most of our native bees are solitary, (do not live in hives), and seventy percent live in the ground, which is why we like to have open ground or leaf cover (not heavily mulched). Thirty percent live in tiny cavities, like empty beetle holes in wood, or the stems of native plants which is why we leave our stems up over the winter. The next generation of native bees transition from egg, to larvae, pupa, and come out the next spring or summer as adults, with life spans only 4 – 6 weeks or shorter. About 25% of our native bees are specialists which means they can only feed their young the pollen from one type or group of plants. The timing of the flowering of plants and when the corresponding native bee comes out has been coordinated for hundreds of years and is crucial for the survival of one or both. Climate change is threatening these delicately balanced relationships. Without these native plants, the native bees are not only without pollen and nectar sources, but maybe without homes to raise their young in. Native bees are essential food sources for many other insects, wasps and hornets, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and other mammals – an essential link in the chain of biodiversity so are an integral part of a healthy ecosystem. 

JD:  Your projects with Sunny Glen Garden center the local Linden (neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio) community. Can you share some context about Linden, and why you have prioritized the importance of working locally?

DK: In my experience, many people in our neighborhood were not accessing our community gardens. Twenty percent do not own cars, or work two jobs, or are single parent families with children, making it challenging to get to the gardens or other opportunities as the bus system is inadequate or takes too long. So we kept the CCC for PPP hyperlocal and walkable – within a one to two mile radius – to make it easier to share garden equipment, seeds, plants, and produce. We bring our hands-on educational programs, equipment, and materials to their locations, and they in turn, share and teach their neighbors, or help out at a new location as we create more garden beds or tree plantings. Our events create opportunities to get to know each better, so we can check in with each other as we build a safer and caring community. We also found that being out and about in the neighborhood, we were able to include people who don’t have access to the internet, computers, or communicate online, or who culturally prefer one-on-one communication methods. We are also working with various local church organizations as many of our international communities gather there. Personally, I love the convenience of walking or cycling to all the CCC for PPP gardens so I don’t have to use a car, which saves money, and I don’t have to contribute to polluting the environment. Having a local project can facilitate a more eco-friendly and inclusive program.

There are currently 45 individuals, families, churches, preschools, and businesses that have been donated native plant or vegetable gardens in the Linden area, maintained by master gardener volunteers, although many more participate locally and worldwide through social media on their own properties or container gardens on porches and balconies. We are grateful for the many partnerships we have locally, and our collaboration with the Endangered Species Coalition, as their support with funding through their Pollinator Protectors campaign has made much of this possible. 

JD: What are your hopes and visions for how Columbus, Ohio, and specifically the Linden neighborhood, will create more native habitat for pollinators and plants?

DK: Wouldn’t it be amazing to have an entire neighborhood of people who are healthy and happy, creating and working together as we convert more lawns to edible native forest gardens and wildlife that are all connected? The CCC for PPP projects fit in with the city’s urban tree plan to reduce the city’s heat island effect, while lowering utility costs of air conditioning. Trees reduce pollution and prevent flooding. Native plants improve the health and beautification of the neighborhood, and can be done to increase access to food and biodiversity that is more resilient to climate change. It is happening in a larger way in  Columbus as organizations with similar projects and goals around the city are now meeting regularly to share best practices and resources, and coordinate events as we connect our pollinator pathways with native plantings. It’s a very exciting time to be a part of this!

JD: You worked very closely with artist Kenia Lamarr to support the creation of the Endangered Species Act at 50 Mural, featuring the rusty patched bumblebee, in the Linden neighborhood. What do you see as the benefit of a mural featuring native plants and this endangered native bee, within this community?

DK: Kenia is wonderful to work with as she is a beautiful and considerate person and it was important for us to have an artist who lives and works in our community. It was wonderful the way she included some of our youth in the painting of the project. So often, organizations/donors come with wonderful intentions, but they have their own missions and goals that do not match the needs and wishes of our community so there’s no acceptance – here we have not had that problem. The art mural is colorful and has been commented on how it brings something beautiful to our community. 

Kenia’s amazing artwork also provides wonderful educational opportunities – the multicolored hand represents the diversity of people in our neighborhood, the green thumb for gardening, the hand holding the native plant flowers to show it is up to us to support the endangered rusty-patched bumblebee and how we can do this by planting more native plants, and the honeypots are arranged like a map, indicating the range of where it used to exist in North America. We’ve been able to bring groups that traditionally have not come to our neighborhood – OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers, Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, Pollinator Specialization Advocates, and Native Plant people, as they get to know us and hear how their programs can be more inclusive for us too.

When I approached our area commissioners about the art mural project, it seemed inappropriate to bring up how we can help support the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee and prevent it from extinction, especially after the police and fire department just reported on the 200 fentanyl overdoses and changing the stop signs at certain intersections so they can get through them quicker. But the CCC for PPP projects have been one of the few positive things happening in our community, so we had their support.

With our native plant garden at the bus stop, we noticed people are now putting their garbage in the garbage can and not throwing litter on the ground there anymore. Other businesses have commented on how colorful the garden is and asked how they might be able to have one too, so we are expanding our connecting corridor right here in Linden! 

We like to work with young children at the preschools or children’s church groups as they have so much fun at the experiential workshops learning how to turn lawns into gardens with the lasagne mulching, and seeing what comes. They’ve become less afraid and more fascinated by nature and the creatures that come to the garden they’ve created, named, and helped care for, and they get their parents interested and learning about it too!

JD: Is there anything else you’d like to share about native plants and pollinators, Sunny Glen Gardens, or the ESA at 50 National Mural Project featured in the Art Mural for Linden and Pollinator Party event? 

DK: In many ways, I think our partnerships and networking with each other on this art mural, the pollinator party, and native plant gardens, have shown us how, even with all of our differences, we can all come together in fun ways to create something that impacts much more than ourselves.

ESA at 50 National Mural Project

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, Endangered Species Coalition Member Organizations and community partners collaborated to create a series of murals throughout the US. The murals spotlight regional ecological and cultural diversity within the US and internationally, highlighting plants and animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. Species currently listed and in danger of extinction are featured, along with species recovered thanks to this landmark legislation.

Many of our ESA at 50 National Mural Project sites were created with leadership by ESC Pollinator Protectors planting partners. These projects increase the visibility of local native plants and pollinators , and engage local artists and communities to recognize the 2023 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. Many thanks to Artist Kenia Lamarr, Sunny Glen Garden/Dianne Kadonaga and Center for Biological Diversity/Roger Peet for supporting the planning and implementation of the Linden mural, and huge thanks to ESC Member Organizations, for contributing project funding.